Art Bead Scene Blog: tiny beads

Showing posts with label tiny beads. Show all posts

Monday, December 28, 2015

Amuse the Muse - Tiny Beads - with Rebecca of Songbead

Hello everyone! How have the last few days been for you? Wonderful, busy, tiring; full of good food and drink and loved ones, I hope. And of course, beads. Did anyone receive any art beads for Christmas? I didn't (sob!) - but I did treat myself to a new book which I'm excited to dive into! I also treated myself to a gorgeous pair of earrings. Handy being part of a group of super talented ladies here, isn't it?

Anyway, onto Amuse the Muse - and my last post of the year! Can you believe it?! Our last lot of tiny beads - or any beads - for 2015.

Here's to 2016 and a year full of creativity, fun - and beads!

And now for the BeadBlogger Links. Enjoy the end of the year everyone!

Art Bead Scene
Mary shares some super-fun holiday earrings!

Chalkboard Paint Wine Bottles
Save up your empty bottles and have fun creating arrangements of chalkboard paint wine bottles. This was such a fun project that Eileen plans to make lots more after the holidays.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean reviews a great book to start the New Year: Learn to Make Bead Jewelry, With 35 Fabulous Projects, by Lynn Davy. Happy 2016!

Join and Win, Maybe
Join the Crafty Princess Dairies Ravelry group and chat it up with fellow crafters. Plus enter to win the monthly FOs drawing.

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer; currently living in the capital city of Edinburgh. 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.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Amuse the Muse - Tiny Beads with Rebecca of Songbead

Can you believe it - Christmas, 'the big day' for many of us, whatever our faith, is only 4 days away. FOUR DAYS. If you've got time to have a leisurely reading of this post, then hats off to you - I'm impressed! I have all my presents now (or nearly all) - just the wrapping, and a big supermarket shop to go. And so without further ado, over to the tiny beads...

First, here's a great example of just how useful a simple pair of teeny tiny lampwork spacers can be - here, my earrings were created with simple acrylic rounds (nice and light as well as fun!) which were sandwiched between some of Lorelei Eurto's tin bead caps. They were sweet as they were, but needed a little something extra to elevate them - and so I looked out a pair of our very own Julie's tiny spacer beads - 'weenies' - the most useful beads ever - and decorated the earwires with them. Perfect finishing touch!

Here are some more of these addictive tiny beads - what could you turn all of these into?

Hyper Doggie

Glass Dreams Hawaii

Check out the absolutely ADORABLE tiny lampwork beads from The Glass Bunny...

...seriously....

...can you believe these guys?!!! Squeak!!!

These aren't art beads yet - but just imagine combining them with a little decoupage, paint, or even yarn - these could be turned into something really special. From Good Accessories 1.

I cannot resist a bird bead. Truly. Especially a tiny one! From Teal Water Designs.

And who can resist this delightful explosion of colour? Not me. From Desert Bug Designs.

And now for the BeadBlogger Links. Have a magical, wonderful, peaceful (if you can!) week everyone!

Stitch Gingy
So, you can't catch the Gingerbread man, but you sure can stitch him! The latest free chart from Connie Gee's Designs will make a great pillow or ornament depending on the count of the fabric used.

Alcohol Ink Ornaments
These gorgeous alcohol ink ornaments require nothing more than alcohol inks, compressed air, clear glass ball ornaments and a sense of humor.

Beading Arts
It's not too late to make a few more jewelry pieces for gift-giving!

Art Bead Scene
Check out Erin's adorable Hoots' Family Reunion! So cute!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Mastering Beadwork by Carol Huber Cypher is a must-have beadwork book for all avid beaders! See Jean's review of this classic, and consider it for a holiday gift.Everyone will love it!

Another Amigurumi Tip
When you put together all the parts of your crochet toy, it is time to commit!

Monday, December 14, 2015

Amuse the Muse and the 6th Day of Christmas - with Rebecca of Songbead

Hi folks! It's a bumper edition of Art Bead Scene today - you get your usual Monday 'Amuse the Muse' but also the 6th Day of Christmas' free project from me. I've vaguely stuck with my ATM theme for this project by using petite ceramic and polymer charms from Grubbi and Beady Eyed Bunny.

To be honest, these cute charms are such that you could simply pop a couple of jump rings/ear wires on and you'd have super-cute, dainty earrings all ready to go! The perfect holiday gift - earrings or ornaments. But I don't know about you - I almost feel like it's cheating myself out of half the fun to just add findings and then go. I like to add at least a little of myself into even the smallest of projects! And so I came up with this simple wirework project to add a touch of something extra to these small, rustic charms.

Ingredients:

* Pair of handmade charms (polymer, ceramic, metal - whatever material you like!) - see links above for similar charms to those which I have used.

* 60cm of 0.6mm (22g) antique copper wire

* Three 8 x 6mm pressed glass rondelles (totally crushing on these new faux mercury coated ones over in The Curious Bead Shop!)

* Handmade oxidised sterling silver earwires

1. Cut a 30cm piece of 0.6mm/22g antiqued copper wire. Turn a wrapped loop at one end, attaching it to one of your handmade charms. Don't make the wraps too bulky as you'll be going back over them later!

2. Slide on three 8x6mm glass rondelles onto the wire, and turn another wrapped loop, one mm or so above the top bead. Again, don't make your wraps too bulky.

3. Guide your wire around the top rondelle to the right, and wrap beneath twice, in the same coiling direction that you have been working in already.

4. Repeat this process with the 2nd rondelle...

5. ...and the third and lowest rondelle. Wrap your wire *over* the coils you made in step 1, and guide the wire up the left hand side of the lowest rondelle. Coil the wire above this rondelle and over the wraps you made previously.

6. Repeat this process with the second and first rondelle, so that each one has a snug little wire 'window' around it. Repeat in full for second earring, and attach handmade earwires to complete.

And - ta-dah! - you have a sweet, quick-to-make earrings that are perfect for that last minute gift for a friend - or just for yourself!

And now for your 'tiny bead' instalment of 'Amuse the Muse' for this week.

And now for the BeadBlogger Links. Have a restful week, if that's possible!

Recycled Greeting Cards
Ever wondered what to do with all those beautiful greeting card you get? Personally I hate throwing them away, so I upcycle them into cards I can give. Sometimes I even make my own envelopes. Hey! Maybe I should do a DIY video on that!

Snow Glittered Cone Trees
Snow glittered cone trees that don't snow glitter all over. Here's a way to create glittered white snow drifts that stay put with heat set embossing powder.

Felt Ornament
Whip up some super easy felt holiday ornaments with this quick how-to video.

Candy Cane Pattern
A sweet treat for the holiday season that will be perfect for a card, gift tag or ornament.

Beading Arts
Cyndi has a round-up of all her book reviews from 2015, and of her top picks in every media for holiday gift giving!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean reviews a super beading book concerning a brand new technique: Albion Stitch, 20 Jewelry Projects, by Heather Kingman-Smith. This is a wonderful, energizing book for all the beaders on your gift list!

Monday, December 7, 2015

Amuse the Muse - Tiny Beads! - with Rebecca of Songbead

Happy December everyone! Have you eaten all the chocolates from your advent calendar yet? Or are you celebrating the 2nd day of Chanukah today? Enjoying the build to the Winter Solstice? Or something else entirely? Perhaps you're just beading up a storm with lots of holiday fairs! I know that has been me for the past month...but I had my last fair yesterday and now I can (hopefully!) relax a little for the remainder of the month. Time to rest and dream a little, perhaps about what 2016 has in store for Songbead....

Whatever you're doing right now, it's a new month and it's time for a new theme. I did consider doing a whole month of headpins (you KNOW I'm going to be doing that one month in 2016!), or Pantone's new Colours of the Year (Rose Quartz and Serenity, in case you've missed them) but the headpins I'm saving for a rainy day, and Pantone's colour leave me a little cold, so I decided to share something I adore - tiny beads.

What is it about teeny, tiny beads? I'm not really sure. But I think it's connected to my love of beads themselves - one of the things I adore about beads in the first place is their size. (I'm not the only member of the Art Bead Scene Team who loves the small ones!) I'm one of those people who frequently forgets to look to closely at sizings when ordering beads - either that, or I just imagine things incorrectly. I've got to admit to being secretly thrilled 90% of the time when something is smaller than I initially imagined! There's something so wonderful about a piece of artwork that is absolutely tiny, I can't get enough of them. I've recently switched from making my handwoven beads mainly in size 11 seed beads (2mm) to size 15 seed beads (1mm). You can see examples of these here:

The Burgundy (or Marsala - have you forgotten her already?) bead is handwoven with size 11s, and the lavender bead in size 15s. Quite some difference!

Here are some of the teeny tiny art beads I found to share with you today. Leave links to your favourite tiny beads in the comments below!