OTTBS October Challenge entry #Blogtoberfest day 24

Another quick post and run from me today, this is my entry for the Operation Tackle That Bead Stash October challenge. It my first entry for a seed beading competition as I am such a newbie all things seed beady.

The cab is one of my own, especially made for the challenge. I glued the cab on to interfacing and bead embroidered a line of size 11 beads around the cab as a border the built the bezel up with Peyote stitch then embellished it with size 11 and size 15 seed beads after the cab was secure. It was great fun :-D

have a lovely day, Jolene xx

Stunning jewellery by Lynn Davy

I first saw Lynn Davy's work on a lovely lampworking forum called Frit Happens! way back in 2007. To say I was blown away is putting it mildly. I love her style and use of colour and the complexity of her work. Over the years I have gotten to know Lynn well and she is amoung the loveliest people I know, talented, imaginative, caring and hugely supportive, hard working and an all round great gal.

I am delighted  to show off Lynn's stunning designs that incorporate some of my handmade beads, a real visual treat..

I hope you have enjoyed the eye-candy and Lynn's beautiful photography 
Have a great day, Jo x

Bead embroidery heart pin - #Blogtoberfest day 16

I decided to be brave and take up the "Operation tackle that bead stash" facebook group October Stashbuster Challenge and make a bead embroidered heart for my daughter. The theme this month is sow's ear to silk purse - taking something useless and ugly and making that into something to treasure. At first I thought about making a hair barrette but the heart became quite weighty with so much embellishment and I went for a sturdy kilt pin to finish it instead. The whole thing took something like 16 hours from start to finish and it was an utterly absorbing project. Here is a little photo montage of how the stitching went...



This big brooch started out as a sample swatch of PVC tablecloth with a sweet pattern. As we could only use things to make our challenge piece that we already had I used fun foam to give the beadwork some support and backed it with scraps of self adhesive dolls house carpet....

This whole project was great fun from start to finish and my little girl loves her pin.
Why not set yourself a challenge to try something new today?

Jolene xx

When the postman knocks twice... #blogtoberfest13 Day 4

Then I get super delicious post...twice! Happy me :-D

The first parcel was from Bavarian Beads and contained my new heart and medallion presses. It was an extravagant purchase but it has been a very long time since I bought new tools. In my defence I did ask around to see if there was anything similar going second hand first buy alas, there were none :-D Aren't they beautiful!

And the next delivery was from the very lovely Yvette Goodridge, a trade parcel of seed beads for lampy supplies. What a fabulous riot of colour, I love them, looking all delicious all lined up in their cute little tubes.

Both parcels arrived yesterday and so I spent the afternoon in the studio playing and the evening in front of the telly playing and here is what I made.......

My first hearts, I'm loving the shape. The red hearts fit the press shape exactly, the striped hearts were made to fit the press and then decorated and then shaped by hand. The lufly snowy heart in the center has been decorated with 00 crystal clear frit. I'm finding the press pretty easy to use, these are the largest size, 20mm, in the Bavarian Heart S real 3D.

I'm a total smitten kitten with this press, the Bavarian Medallion XXL, which is a whopping 36mm. Just one bead made with it yesterday and I love how slim the bead is in profile. The bead is substantial but light and I found it a lot more intuitive to use than I thought I would. really looking forward to getting back into the studio later for another play with it.

It is a little bit cheating to show you this picture as I made the burgundy and green pendants on Monday. The pinky lilac one was last nights make using some very pretty seedies from my Y-beads swap. My daughter has dibs on it for her treasure box already this morning. All of these pendants are variations on a lovely tutorial on how to bezel a cab by Carol Passaro who also has a lovely selection of rivoli's in her Esty Shop. They are super blingy and a little hard to resist.



Have a lovely day, Jolene x

Renovating a dolls house and a little bit of bead weaving

A couple of weekends ago I went to the GBUK AGM (Glass Beadmakers UK) and was lucky enough to have a class with Carol Passaro on how to make a beaded Bezel. It was really lovely sitting around with a group of gals and working on a project together, time just flew by with all of the cheeky chat and laughing, a refreshing change from making beads in the studio at home with the radio for company.

I finished my project at home a few days later and even though I had to unpick it and start over 3 times I learnt a lot and am pleased with it, especially as a first attempt. Needless to say this necklace featuring a lovely Cabochon by Debbie Dew was quickly smuggled away into my Daughters treasure box.

Last night I thought I would see if I could take the technique and use it on a bigger Cab and made this bezeled mirror for the dolls house out of a Haematite cab that's been kicking around here forever. It was thumbs up form the little ones when they saw it this morning.

Things are ticking along slowly with the dolls house renovations. I've sourced and bought some tile and brick paper for the outside of the house and my friend Sam has had a rummage and sent me a perfect front door and fancy yellow and white window frames too, exciting stuff. She also sent some very cute little bits and bobs for the inside including a tiny little loo roll holder including a roll of paper! These little details really make me smile.

 Learning how to bezel a cabochon also inspired me to have a go at making some glass cabs at the torch the next time I managed to get in to the studio. These are on a base of CiM Stoneground with powdered glass added for a shot of colour. These sweet cabs are currently available in my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KitzbitzArtBeads and they were such fun to make that I know that I'll be adding more of this sort of thing to my shop inventory very soon.







This morning the kids and I spent a productive hour stripping as much paper as we could off of the walls and roof. It would be fair to say we trashed our living room with all the little scraps of paper and sticky flooring but the worst of the job is now done. I also took out some very old and defunct lighting fittings and wiring. I'm not planning to put in a working lighting system into the house this time around because the kids are eager to get on and play with it! Maybe next time....

One thing I am worried about it the damage on the roof, it seems to be splitting at the corners so I need to have a good google and read up on what can be done to repair it or stop it form getting any worse.


Wishing you a lovely lazy Sunday Jolene x