Focus on Life Week 30: Catch The Sun

I hope you all aren't tired of this scene - it's been featured in a couple different posts, but this is the first time for this particular shot. When Sally gave us our subject Catch the Sun, I though wow, sun is something we sure have in abundance in Arizona. But I think the best part of the sun is the waning time, just before dusk when the shadows and light become more pronounced like in the photo below.

 

This cuff also made me think of sun. This is a pattern I made long ago - designed by Merle Berlowitz from the April 2010 BeadAndButton. Her herringbone treatment for covering the cuff is one of my all-time favorites!

 

 



And for more sunny stories, please visit these contributors.



Focus On Life Week 29: Routine

 

 

'Nuff said!

 

 

And, on the week-end, nothing says routine like the beading project du jour, which happens to be the Cross Pendant pattern by Alice Coelho from the June-July Beadwork magazine. This is a super fast but very pretty pattern - perfect for week-end routines!

 



And for more ravishing routines, here are the amazing contributors:

Focus On Life Week 28: Pretty Patterns

You are probably wondering what the heck this is. Weeeeel, every time I see a pattern I like, I take a picture of it and save it to a folder on my computer called Projects to Complete. As of this writing, that folder holds 143 pictures most of them shown in the above collage. Now, the trick is remembering the location of the pattern connected to the picture!

Karen - your Fancy Fish tutorial is in there! (Middle of row 2.)

And for more pretty patterns that actually make sense, look at these lovely articles:

Black and White Challenge

My first beading challenge of the year! Thanks for hosting, Sally. As usual, I had trouble deciding what to do, so I made a couple different pieces. My favorite is this bead embroidery pendant with a right angle weave strap.

Here's a close-up of the bead embroidered piece - two cabochons with a silver charm.

This isn't the greatest photo but it gives a full view of the necklace with the beaded toggle closure.

My other piece is a chevron strap with a peyote bail, bead pendant and earrings to match.

Here are the links and additional details for the other fantastic Black and White Challenge entries.

Focus On Life Week 27: Texture

I haven't posted much about beading in our weekly challenges and the theme of texture took me there with a project I completed last week. This necklace is designed by Annette Mackrel from April 2010 BeadAndButton. It was one of the possibilities I had picked for my step-son's wedding earlier this year and while I selected another design, I was really happy with how this turned out.

I love the texture of the spiral design but even better is the embellished herringbone mid-section.

The spiral is super-versatile and can be used as a focal or as a bracelet component.

You can find more tales of sumptous textures on Sally's Studio Sublime.