DreamStruck Designs: Hajer Waheed

Happy BSBP Reveal Day everyone! Since there are 199 other blogs to visit, I'll do my best to be brief and not ramble as I'm prone to do. I'd hate for fatigue to set in so soon :-).

So to recap, these were the beads I received from my partner Hajer, who works primarily with seed beads. Hajer, btw, was busy with her university exams during much of February.

She sent some beaded rings she'd made, seed beads, glass and ceramic beads. I rarely work with seed beads and have never used bead-woven components in my designs, so I was initially stumped as to what to create. I was also worried about what to do with that egg-like ceramic bead, which was a little larger than what I'm used to.

Since I didn't have a clue as to what to make, I set Hajer's package aside and didn't touch it for a couple of weeks. But clearly, my subconscious must have been working overtime, because when I started making my pieces about 2 weeks ago, they came together pretty quickly. Which is rather rare for me. I'm a great one for agonising and over-thinking designs.

I made 4 pieces in total. Below are 3 of the pieces - a necklace, a stretch bracelet and a pair of hoop earrings.

Hajer sent me such a truckload of beads that I used very very little of my own stash - just some beading wire, crimp beads and covers, stretch cord, artistic wire and some gold seed beads with an iridescent finish. The pieces are all very simple. I think my brain registered the bright colours and decided "hmm, this calls for something summery and casual and non-fussy". I think the pieces are something you'd wear on a beach holiday - with a tank top and a long, white floaty skirt.

The 4th piece turned out quite, quite different. It involved this guy below:

He's all big and tough and kinda scary looking. Well, I don't know what came over me, but I turned him into this:

I know, I know. Christmas is over and Easter isn't here yet. I was really aiming for a Faberge egg feel but my execution wasn't as great as my idea :-). In making this ornament/decorative item/watchamacallit (which features Swarovski crystal flatbacks, and lucite leaves and moonglow beads), I learned that glue and tiny crystals are not my best friends and that I also need to have a better relationship with wire. That said, I think I like this piece best. It's the oddball out of all the items I made, and the most flawed.

Well, that's it from me! Thank you for reading all the way through - I'm sorry I wasn't as brief as I said I would try to be. I'd like to thank Hajer for being such a generous partner, and many many thanks also to Lori Anderson for putting this wonderful blog party together. It took an enormous amount of work and what with all the pain she's been in these past months, this BSBP was really a superhuman effort on her part. So, thank you Lori! I had such a fun time playing and can't wait for the next BSBP!

Now, let's go visit the others, shall we?

Hostess, Lori Anderson

Special Book Sneak Peeks, Cindy Wimmer

1. Adlinah Kamsir (Singapore) (<-- you are here) and Hajer Waheed (Kingdom of Bahrain)

2. Adrienn Lukacs (Hungary) and Agata Grygiel (Poland)

3. Agi Kiss (Hungary) and Carolien Muller-Genger (the Netherlands)

4. Agnes Asztalos (Hungary) and B.R. Kuhlman

5. Alesha Conklin and Becki Mendivil

6. Alice Peterson and Carol Dillman

7. Alicia Marinache (Canada) and Dita Basu

8. Amanda Dittloff and Brandy Thomason McNair

9. Amanda Tibbetts and Andrea Trank

10. Amy Freeland and Kay Mallery

11. Andra Weber and Christine Murrow