A special commission

I don't talk about it much - here or anywhere else, but I believe in God and I practise my faith. With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starting tomorrow, it was apt that I spent some time today making 3 sets of prayer beads (called the tasbih) for someone who wants to gift them to friends. I used rose quartz and blue goldstone beads, and I hope the recipients like what I made.

Yes! It's another giveaway!

I don't know what it is about bead artists, but they sure are a generous bunch! Heather of Humblebeads is having a great big giveaway. All you have to do is to head to her blog and leave a comment about your favourite HB bead. A winner will be drawn on Tuesday. Good luck!

Weekends...and something new

I wish 3-day weekends were the norm. There just isn't enough time on the weekends for me to do what I need/want to. Once I've done the cooking, cleaning and whatever chores that were ignored during the week, there aren't very many hours left for fun. I didn't do too badly this week though. I squeezed in lunch with friends, waded through most of the book I'm currently reading, visited the library and borrowed more books (including 2 on chainmaille) and best of all, made some jewellery. Well....just one bracelet, to be accurate.

You might remember the focal from my earlier post. It's a ceramic link from White Clover Kiln. I knew from the start that whatever I made with it would be strictly for me. And since I have very simple tastes in jewellery, I kept the design quite spare. Just some chain - I love how the oval links mirror the shape of the focal bead - a couple of dangles and a pewter clasp.

What did you do over the weekend? Did you make jewellery too? Or read a book? Whatever it was, I hope you had fun!

What I've been up to

I'm not a girly-girl, never have been. I wear way too much black and usually run screaming from anything pastel. But I like pretty things - my fetish for beads attests to that - and lately, I've been leaning towards designs that are...well, sweet.

This features ceramic pink hearts from White Clover Kiln on Etsy. I was going to keep it simple and just add ear hooks but then I got sidetracked by some Swarovski crystal pearls. So what was a girl to do? I took them, added some lead-free pewter frames and voila.

I'm working on a matching necklace. The heart charms were part of a set that included a larger pendant. I'm sticking to the pearls and pink hearts theme and will probably add some silver beads or chain or something. Or I might decide on something else. I'll let you know.

And then, there's this:

Purple's one of my favourite colours so I finally made something with these pretty lavender lampwork rondelles from a glass artist I found on Ebay.

Other WIPs:

The blue ceramic link is from White Clover Kiln again and I'm planning on making it into a bracelet for myself. The red glass bead with the Bali silver (and I actually got it in Bali - how about that?) bead cap is going to be a charm that I plan to string on either a chain or leather cord. Something casual and everyday that's still pretty. Maybe I'll do a whole collection of these simple everyday charm/pendant necklaces. The last is a beautiful focal bead from Etsy artist SKHolt. I've been hoarding it and 3 of its siblings for longer than I'd like to admit. But i think it's time to start making it into a piece of jewelry. It deserves to be worn instead of being cooped up in my bead box.