Monday Moodboard Reveal - Orange & Turquoise

Last week's Monday Moodboard colour scheme was zesty orange combined with cool turquoise. Need a recap? Here ya go...

Clockwise from top-left: Door, Turquoise...Nice orange...Turquoise! Fiestaware!...Orange Explosion.

Here's what the team made. Sarah has gone for a beautiful warm orange with lampwork discs and swarovksi crystals on a gold plated chain...


Maria chose a wonderful mixture of materials and textures for her very first necklace using tiger tail. Blue howlite, carnelian, wood, glass and plastic lead down to a very pretty enamel flower...


I've been meaning have a go at double St Petersburg chain for ages, I love the V shape you get from working up the one side and then down the other. I went for a turquoise mix for the main beads, transparent orange for the accents and used an artisan lampwork bead to make a simple closure. I followed instructions from issue 91 of Bead & Button so I've made use of one of my old magazines too...


Been inspired by this weeks colour scheme? Email your photos to me at liz@thecrimsonmoon.co.uk or add them to our Flickr group pool and I'll show them on the blog.

Wednesday's Wear It Or Frog It

This week's Wednesday Wear It Or Frog It is this Maia bracelet that I made several years ago. I used to wear it all the time but somehow it got consigned to bottom of the jewellery box, probably just by adding new pieces on top of it!


The pentacle is pewter and the semi-precious nuggets are rose quartz, new jade and clear quartz, all wire wrapped to a sterling silver bracelet. I was a bit concerned about using silver plated wire to add the beads but I'm really pleased to see how good it's looking, with just a few places where it's tarnished a little. Definitely not one for frogging, I'll be wearing this piece a lot more now that I've rediscovered it!

Monday Moodboard - Orange & Turquoise

This week's Monday Moodboard is a funky combination of orange and turquoise. Use subtle shades or go all out with the brightest beads you can find...the choice is yours! Don't forget the textures and materials too: stone, wood, ceramic, shiny and rough.

Clockwise from top-left: Door, Turquoise...Nice orange...Turquoise! Fiestaware!...Orange Explosion.

We'd love to see your creations here! As always you can email your photos to me at liz@thecrimsonmoon.co.uk or add them to our Flickr group pool (you'll need a Flickr account for this).

Wednesday's Wear It or Frog It.

I made this necklace a couple of years ago when I was going through a back to basics phase, I had gotten a bit sloppy with my tension and into the habit of quick fix beading, so these Cellini spiral beads were a real personal challenge at the time, Cellini is a slooooooow stitch and needs some fairly tight tension. I really liked, and still do, the simple but bold colour combination of black, white and red. My initial impulse when pulling this piece out was to bin it, the faux leather cord is a bit bedraggled and as you can see I have lost one of the beaded beads. On closer inspection, however, I realised that the spiral beads were still in good condition and the colours were still fresh and bold.

So I dug through the stash and found some 12mm grey glass pearls and 6mm black fire polish beads and restrung on beading wire, using a sterling silver magnetic clasp that I have had in my stash for 2 years, so I am glad to have used that too! I wear lots of black/white/grey, so this should get worn a lot more often & if not you may well see it in another Wear It or frog It Wednesday. I still have 1 beaded spiral bead left, so if you have any suggestions on how to use it, please comment on this post!

Do you have any hidden treasures that you have recently dug out of your jewellery box? We'd love to see them, you can e-mail photo's to ottbs@hotmail.co.uk.

Green and Purple Reveal {Monday Moodboard}

Last week's Monday Moodboard was a combination of green and purple with your pick of any shades. Here's a reminder...

Clockwise from top-left: Purple and Green...macro green eye with purple m.a.c. and ben nye eyeshadow...morris minor...Purple and Green.

Here's what the team made.

Sarah chose two beautiful bold shades for her fabulous hoop & dangle earrings...


And I couldn't pick one shade so I used them all in this freefrom peyote bracelet...


Have you been inspired by this week's moodboard? Send your photographs to liz@thecrimsonmoon.co.uk and I'll post them on the blog!

Wednesdays Wear It or Frog It

This weeks wear it or frog item from me is a dutch spiral necklace that I made last year and only wore once or twice. I remembered it this week when I was looking through some pictures of my son's birthday. We took him to Longleat Safari Park last year as a birthday treat and this necklace was inspired by a photo I took there of a tiger in the grass. It's a slightly odd colour combination for me! I had forgotten why I'd tucked it away but taking it out again I realised that the orangey size 15 seed beads that I used for the loops have gone patchy in colour, don't you just hate it when that happens? You spend hours making something to realise that the finish is not durable. I usually check and am very careful to not buy dyed beads but these were not marked as such, I will never wear it again, so it's off to the frog pond with it! Never mind, there are a lot of topaz crystals that I can reuse for Autumn.
Have you found any hidden treasures in your jewellery boxes lately? We'd love to hear about them if you have, you can e-mail us at ottbs@hotmail.co.uk

Green and Purple {Monday Moodboard}

I'm sad to say that the lovely Clair has had to leave us due to other commitments. I'll be taking over the Monday Moodboard from today and this weeks Moodboard is one of my very favourite colour combinations - green and purple.

But it's not simply green and purple, there are lots of different shades that you can use in your project...amethyst, lilac and violet for the purples...emerald, apple, lime, mint and olive for the greens. Don't forget the shapes...circles, curves and straight lines. And materials which include glass, metal, stone and rubber.

Clockwise from top-left: Purple and Green...macro green eye with purple m.a.c. and ben nye eyeshadow...morris minor...Purple and Green.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with! You can email your photos to me at liz@thecrimsonmoon.co.uk or add them to our Flickr group pool (you'll need a Flickr account for this).

Wednesday's Wear It Or Frog It

This week I rummaged around my largest jewellery box that seems to collect lots of seed bead work hiding in the corners. I chose this flat netted bracelet on black with a red poppy embellishment (Poppy design by Kerrie Slade in Bead Magazine). I loved this bracelet when I first made it and still do, but I rarely wear black anymore especially in the summer. My first thought was to give it to somebody who will love it (I can't bear the thought of frogging that Poppy!), but after further thought I have decided that I really want to keep it and will start wearing it with jeans and a white t-shirt so that I can get more use out of it.

Have you dug through your jewellery stash this week? We'd love to see what you have come up with, email your pics to OTTBS@hotmail.com

A Passion For Purple Reveal {Monday Moodboard}

Last week's Monday Moodboard was a sophisticated mix of colours and textures. Does your memory need a refresher?

1. ultra violet, 2. Concert flyer, 3. nina_brosh_nina07, 4. Purple

Inspired by the colour paletter and the fun, funky retro circles in the mosaic, Liz has been busy making this addition to her beautiful series of Fairground Attraction Pendants.

And, inspired by the netted gloves on the model in the top right corner (and the only purple beads I could find in my stash!) I've revisited one of my all time favourite necklaces and have made a new version especially for a friend who has been admiring it for quite some time.

But what about our lovely readers? Have any of you been inspired by the moodboards? We'd love to see what you've been creating, even if it isn't 'on time' for the fortnightly reveal, so do drop us an e-mail at ottbs@hotmail.co.uk or pop your photographs into our OTTBS Flickr Group.