Amuse the Muse - Building Beads - with Rebecca of Songbead

Hello all! I haven't been around much lately so my first job today is to thank Claire for stepping into my shoes last week. We have had a very, very poorly fur baby and in the midst of caring for him and making almost daily round-trips to the animal hospital (out of town, of course), his much younger mate suddenly and unexpectedly died of something entirely unrelated. If you are a pet person, you'll know what a devastation this is, and amidst nursing our other very poorly bunny (who we weren't sure would make it through), it has hit us particularly hard. A very tough few weeks for my little family. Rufus is still healing, and has developed some post-op complications, so we're not out of the woods yet - but we're getting there. 

Anyway, we are gathering ourselves together, and I'm back to posting today. Hopefully I'll also find the time and mental energy to post over on my own blog this week too! It's sorely neglected. 

Claire started us off with a bumper post full of delicious building beads. Thank you Claire! I certainly enjoyed reading it, and meeting some new-to-me as well as familiar bead artists - always a treat. I thought it only right to start off this post by sharing (if you haven't seen already) some rather gorgeous beads that are currently on her bead table......

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited to see how these turn out! I don't know if they will all be identically glazed or a mix....knowing Claire, most likely the latter....but they will be delicious no doubt, whatever happens to them!

Next up, a very sweet polymer cottage from Hidden Ridge Studio (and toot toot! I spy #marsala!):

I kind of love that the wee windows are yellow - they look like the cottage is part of a night-time scene, and that light is pouring out of them. 

Speaking of dark, night-time cottages, here's another one - this time from Bo Hulley. I love the contrast of the raw black clay and the red glazed door:

...and check out the roof too!

We seem to be developing a ceramic cottage theme this week....here's another one I found from Oscar Crow:

I just love the windows here! 

And just in case you think I can only do ceramic building beads, here's a to-die-for polymer clay cottage from Ditsy Blue Beads:

Just.Too.Perfect.!

Back to the ceramics for this last one, but something a little different....

These bracelet bars are from Frog Wood Studio. Aren't they just a little bit awesome? I love the punchy colours too. 

Next week I will be sharing some of editor-in-chief Heather's beautiful house beads - some of my personal favourites. Here's what I did with one of them:

More of them next week!

I hope you've enjoyed this little run down. Remember to share any building bead finds in the comments below!

And now for the BeadBlogger Links. Onwards and upwards for the week.

Art Bead Scene

Check out what Dawn of La Touchables made in response to our monthly challenge - wow!

Organizing Embroidery Floss

Connie's craft room may look like a disaster zone, but her embroidery floss is neat and organized at least - find out all about the floss storage options she uses.

Shamrock Card Embellishments 

Here’s a versatile card technique to add to your card making toolbox. Use green paper to form lucky shamrocks or four leaf clovers. Use pastel to make pansies, violets or other simple leaf flowers. Use your imagination.

Craft Show Time!

See some simple craft projects to make that work great for craft shows in this new podcast episode.

Beading Arts

Cyndi shares a brand new tutorial for a bead embroidery pendant that lets the focal take front and center stage!

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer; currently living in Edinburgh, capital of her native land. You can read more about her and her work at her blog, songbeads.blogspot.com and see more of her jewellery at songbead.etsy.com. She also has a supplies shop at thecuriousbeadshop.etsy.com.