New for this week ...

Just some small things, but its beading nonetheless :) My resolution of doing some sort of beading every week has started off well :)

This one sold within a few hours of being put on Etsy, which I was so surprised with.

New Year tidings to you all

Well here we are at another New Year ... they seem to be going by faster and faster these days.

We leave behind a year that has been fraught with

~ many ups and downs ~

Stock crashes

~ A world in turmoil ~

Egyptian uprising

~ Natural disasters that made us cry ~

Tsunami hits Japan

Christchurch Quake

Cyclone Yasi (Category 5) hits Far North Queensland

 ~ and miracles that have blessed our hearts ~

2 week old baby rescued ~ Turkish Quake

 Personally 2011 was stressful to say the least,

an emotional roller-coaster.

It also wasn't a very productive year as far as jewellery making goes ...

its amazing how "life in general" just got in the way.

The last few months of the year, however, were great,

and have given me hope that everything has righted itself

and we can look ahead to a wonderful year.

I'm grateful for the love and support of my wonderful husband ~ my best friend,
and my gorgeous children, who even though they made life
interesting throughout the year, are the absolute light of my life.


I wish you all a happy and safe New Year,

may you be blessed with lots of love.

~ Maryanne ~

Sakura

Just finished this morning .... Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)

Made as part of a "Sakura" themed YOJ Challenge on the Beading Forum. I'm really happy with how this turned out, especially since it was my first try at making the tiny Cherry Blossoms. The gorgeous focal is, of course, a Peruzi creation. The softness of the colours in this focal worked perfectly with my little Cherry Blossoms.

The necklace is a matt black seedie peyote rope with soft pink drop embellishments, and finished off with Black Onyx, Swarovski Crystals and Sterling Silver.

 

Note: the tutorial I used for the Cherry Blossoms is this one ... really easy once you get into the swing of it :)

SOLD - "Burlesque Nights"

Well I guess it had to happen one day ... my most favourite piece in the world has finally sold. "Burlesque" started my love affair with using in lace in my designs, and one I'm still passionate about. It will be sad to see it go in the post tomorrow, but I know its going to a wonderful home and I think she will treasure it just like I have.

Crimson Willow

With just one kiss,
My crimson tears start falling down blissfully,
For crimson tears is what you need,
When underneath the willow tree.
And underneath the willow tree,
I shall stay with you all night.
For I am yours, eternally,
With only, just one bite.

This piece is a UFO that I've had sitting on my desk for AGES ... finally got the inspiration to finish it today. Each clay cab has been hand beaded with seed beads, with the focal embellished with around 60 Garnet Swarovski Crystals.
 

Brisbane Show results

As usual, I entered two pieces into the Beading category at the Brisbane Show ... more commonly known as the Ekka. I'm proud to say that both pieces placed and are pictured below.

1st Prize

"Snow Queen"

 3rd Prize
"Alice and the Queen of Hearts"

Soutache beading

I bought some Soutache braid during the week, as I've been wanting to try beading with it for such a long time. This weekend I took the plunge, sat myself down, and made a pendant.

Oh WOW, I love this style of beading ... the opportunities are endless!!! Anyway, I've started basic, but I do have plans for a grander piece - maybe a cuff.

Large Swarovski Cosmic flatback, with Swarovski rounds, Soutache braid and a satin rose.

The Big Bang

The Beading Forums' recent YOJ theme was "The Big Bang" ... and what better way to get the creative juices flowing again than with a YOJ Challenge.

The cab in this piece is by a lovely lampie girl call Bree. The first time I saw this cab I just had to have it ... and when I saw this theme, I knew I had the right cab for it. This beautiful black cab has an explosion of colour down the centre that just reminded me of those images you see in space. To create the impression of new stars forming and the explosion of colour that emanates from a "Big Bang", I used, of course, Swarovski Crystals in Jet, Jet AB and a gorgeous Sapphire ABx2.

I love this piece, not only for the colour, but for getting my mojo back into first gear. Hopefully many more will come, and my mojo will switch into second gear. :)

Bit quiet on the beading front

I've been very quiet on the Beading side of things for a little while now. It's amazing how work, kids before/after school activities, and life in general, can get in the way of creative time. Mix that with being sick a couple of times and you have absolutely no creations coming out of this house.

We're in school holidays here at the moment, but slowly my creativity is coming back ... and not just making jewellery. I've been sewing as well!!!! OMG sewing. I've always hated sewing, but the older I get the more I'm getting into things that I once hated. I'd also love to learn how to crochet and knit, but might leave them for a little while.

So what have I been sewing? Well, lots of kids stuff ... and not for my kids. Although they're still my babies, they are just a tad old for the stuff I've been sewing, and I'm pleased to say, selling. mmmm Didn't I just get through saying I have no time to make jewellery or create? LOL well I'm having a hard time finding time to sew as well. Perhaps I should just give up this arty farty thing and just concentrate on the home and kids. NAH, can't do it sorry!!! :)

Anyway, I apologise for not doing any regular posting in the last six months. I'm hoping that this second half of the year will be kinder to me and I'll start churning out some of the pieces I have swirling around in my head. Really must get my sketch book out so I can get some of this stuff out of my head!! So, until the next time I post - which hopefully will be soon - have fun, create and be happy. :)


Oh, before I forget .... this is the one and only piece I've made recently for a friend in Germany. I hope her mum loves it, coz I'm sure in love with it.

This lovely little one features a Peruzi made clay cabochon, surrounded by a bed of seed beads and those gorgeous metal rose sliders I've had in my collection for years.

Alice in Wonderland

Last week I took a ride down memory lane and entered a piece in the Beading Forums weekly YOJ Challenge. The theme? Alice in Wonderland of course!!

I drew inspiration for this piece from the most recent movie of this title - the one with hunky Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter :). A strange but totally fantastic version of the story, so the piece had to be "out there" as well.

Using the brass stamping as the base I glued a face (representing Alice) and a red(ish) heart (representing the totally horrible Queen of Hearts), surrounded it with roses and glittering Swarovski Red Magma flatbacks, and set it upon a base of beautiful red lace in the shape of a heart. Backed first with black LSS to show up the red lace more, then backed again with red ultrasuede (all of which you can't really see in the pics). The necklace is made up of some beautiful red Czech rondelles.

This piece is soooo not my style, but maybe it should be!!! I enjoyed every moment of the process and am really happy with the outcome. So without too much more waffle, here is "Alice and the Queen of Hearts".

Spring Garden series

This is the first part of my "Spring Garden" series that I have underway at the moment.

I've had these gorgeous lucite flowers in my collection for a while now, and when looking at them the other day got the inspiration I needed to use them. A bit of a different set for me - usually I'd do a necklace and earrings, but this time I've done earrings and a ring ... and I think they look great. Definately going to keep going and use the other colours that I have hidden away. :)

Remodel of an old piece

This piece was done a while back for one of the challenges on the Beading Forum. It's been looking a bit tired and boring so I decided to give it a bit of a spruce up :)

I've taken the side bits and the cord away, edged the centrepiece with gold seedies and done up a simple bail to hang off the greek leather. Not alot done in the great big scheme of things, but I think it looks heaps better.

Here's a before and after pic just to show you what I did

2010 Create Your Style Creative Beading Awards

Well, after what seems like an eternity, the results of the Open Division have been announced. Finalists are receiving their copy of "Creative Beading" this week and finding out where they came.

I'm very pleased to announce, and still getting my head around it, that my piece "Jardin des Fleurs Rouges" made it to 2nd place. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out. I'm also so very proud that there are so many of my Beading Forum buddies in the finalists - it's an honour to be included with you girls.

My only problem now ... where the hell am I going to store all those crystals that I get as part of my prize. Holy dooley I'm having storage problems now, let alone when they arrive!!!

Here's my piece - "Jardin des Fleurs Rouges" .... inspired by the garden paintings of Claude Monet. I love Monet's paintings, but especially his garden series. So I went about making my own little garden. For this piece I wanted to use a Swarovski element I'd never used before, and this is where the gorgeous Wing pendants came from. As I wanted to use a rustic sort of red, finding these Wing pendants in Red Magma was a sign :). Using my first love of wire, I made the frame from 14ga wire, wired my flowers together and "enhanced" them with Swarovski pearls and Red Magma rounds, then attached them to the frame. I had these gorgeous copper leaves in my collection for a while and they went so well with the Red Magma that I wired them on as well, just to give a bit of a break in the crystals. The simple bit was wiring smaller bicones and rounds in a multitude of autumn colours to the frame.

I was so stoked that this even made it through to the finalists, let alone that it made it to 2nd place. I'm so glad I took that plunge 5 years ago and did some beading classes ... this has been a fantastic journey and I'm still learning more every day ... and loving it!!!

and the winner is ....

Congratulations Tania from Pelima Designs. You have won the simple, but beautiul, bangle below. I'll be contacting you soon darl. :)

Giveaway

Just because I want to :)

Been playing a little bit lately with brass and stampings ... this is a bit of an experiment, so please excuse the simpleness of it. I've used an antique brass filigree bangle, glued a flower cabochon in the centre of it, painted over the scrolly bits just to highlight them a bit, and enhanced it with tiny little Siam Swarovski chatons. As I said, a bit of an experiment and one I'm hoping to get a bit more into and learn more about.

So, to the rules. You need to comment on this thread with your name and email addy - just so I can contact you if you're the lucky winner - by Monday 28 February, 9a.m. AEST (Aussie time & Qld time). The winner will be drawn by random.org, just to make it all fair. I'll let you all know the winner on Monday.

Let the fun begin :)

Ice Queen

This piece was made as part of the Ice Queen challenge on the Bead Mavens site. Once again, I left it to the last minute to get something done. In fact I only thought of what to do late last night. So away I beaded into the night - got three hours sleep - and beaded the day away, to make the deadline by 10 minutes. Why I do these things to myself I'll never know LOL. All up, there 13.5 hours of frantic work in there.

Anyway my explanation .....

The Ice Queen admires the tendrils of ice around her neck ... but wait!! In amongst all this coldness and despair ... beauty survives.

Made with a braid neckpiece/motif, lots of seedies and Crystal AB Swarovski's to represent the icyness. The winter white roses represent the beauty that survives.

 



SALE time !!!

Five beautiful new pieces have been loaded onto my FB store for my 15% OFF SALE ♥ . The sale goes until Sunday 21st November (Aussie time), and if not sold, they will be relisted onto my Etsy store and website at their regular retail price (RRP).

Just click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my FB Maryniky Designs page.

Holiday Treasures

The theme for the Etsybeadweavers November Challenge is "Holiday Treasures". When I think of Christmas I always think of the big family christmas' we used to have when we were kids. It was a time for the whole family to be together ... all the cousins catching up and having fun ... and of course there was the food. Oh my the christmas fare was to die for. My Aunties German cookies are always a fave, the Christmas Puddings that my mum cooks up, the Rum Balls, and I can't forget the Pav. Beautiful and crunchy on the outside, soft and gooey on the inside, and topped with cream and berries.

Hence my piece is a tribute to that Pavlova. Gorgeous handmade Lampwork cabs by Australian Lampwork Artist Anne Dundas, with her aptly named set "berries & cream". It also features are beautiful deep red dichroic cab as the centrepiece, surrounded by Swarovski Crystals and seedies. The colours remind me of that beautiful Pav and the berries. Yummo!!!!

It's been a while since I made a cuff, and I really must do another one soon ... I'd forgotten how much fun it is.

To see this, and all the other gorgeous entries for this Challenge, please visit the team blog, http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/  between the 9th and 15th and vote for your favorite entry.

Christmas Fare

Create Your Style Swarovski comp - 2010

Those of us that entered this year's comp have finally heard whether we've gotten through to the next stage - the final judging. I'm really stoked that my piece "Jardin des fleurs rouges" has made it through to the next round. Now we all have the mad rush to send our pieces in by the due date. I do want to say a hearty GOOD LUCK to all those that entered and have made it through to final judging ... let's hope they can't decide and award us all the trip to Fiji :)

Jardin des fleurs rouges