February Moodboard Round Up and Prize Winner!

Wow, we had another amazing response to our Moodboard challenge! Just before I announce the winner of the February Moodboard, here's the Mosaic I posted at the beginning of the month...

Clockwise from top-left: Time Spiral, Bright Turquoise Flowers in Brown Rings, Back to the Days of innoncence, The keyhole...

And here's a round up of the amazing jewellery you guys have made...

Nicola






Helen




Lesley


Colleen




Debs...






Sam

Sarah




Donna




Lisa






Liz




Lissa

Sarah has generously donated this gorgeous Optica Necklace kit from The Spellbound Bead Company as this months prize...

Everyone's name (except for Sarah and myself) was entered into the draw and the name that was picked out by my lovely Mum was...



Congratulations Donna! We'll be in touch with you shortly :)

Thanks to everyone who joined in with us. Tomorrow there'll be a brand new challenge for March so don't forget to drop by!

February Moodboard

Here are a few more beautiful submissions to our February Moodboard!

Sarah created this striking bracelet using peyote, circular peyote & picot edging...


Donna made this gorgeous bead embroidered pendant with a spiral necklace, inspired by the flower pattern in the mosaic...


Lisa made this amazing reversible cuff using seed beads, crystals and wire...



I made a set of tiny beaded beads using both opaque and matt beads...


And Lissa also made some lovely beaded beads and assures me that the purple looking beads are actually brown!



Thank you so much to everyone who joined in! There are still a couple of days left to join in with our February Moodboard, please see the original post for details.

Free Pattern - Triple Diamond Brick Stitch Earrings

You have probably already noticed that I quite like very long earrings. It's an inherited taste from my grandma who always wore what she called Gypsy Rose Lee style earrings. This weeks pattern is inspired by the colours in our February moodboard challenge but feel free to use whatever combinations you like. I'd love to see them if you make a pair! Happy beading!

Sarahx

Book Review - Embellished Beadweaving by Laura McCabe

I am sure I am not the only one with a huge collection of beading books! I loved Laura McCabes first book and could not wait to get this one.

There are 6 chapters in the book which includes a brief history of beadwork, a guide to a basic beading kit and a chapter on basic stitches such as peyote & herringbone. Chapter 6 is where all the main action is with 18 original projects including earrings, rings, necklaces and bracelets. All the projects are stunning, my personal favourites are the rosebud ring and the april showers necklace, both of which I plan to make in the future. The only downside to the projects for me is that size 15 beads are used extensively and believe it or not I have very few colours in 15's, so I will need to buy some. Oh what a shame ;-)


For the purpose of this review, I concentrated on the instructions in Chapter 4: A Comprehensive Guide To Embellishments. I made the pointed peyote petal and the basic peyote leaf (no pics of these sorry, I have mislaid them!), I did find the instructions a little confusing at one point in each of them, but a quick glance at the excellent diagrams soon put me right, I guess I learn better visually! I then made a bracelet base in right angle weave and used the basic beaded leaf technique as a fringe to finish it off. I like the way it turned out!

I'm not sure whether this book is suitable for complete beginners to seed beading, but it would certainly make a lovely addition to your beading library! Not only is there a great choice of beautiful projects, I found the section on embellishments inspiring and think it will add an extra dimension to simple beadwork like the bracelet above. There are also lots of gorgeous creations in the gallery by artists such as Cynthia Rutledge and Carol Wilcox Wells.

Happy Beading!

Sarahx

February Moodboard

Here's another beautiful submission to our February Moodboard from Sam, who took inspiration from the spiral image as well as the yummy colours to make this lovely spiral necklace using Swarovski crystals and sterling silver...

Thanks for joining in with us again this month Sam! If you'd like to join in with our February Moodboard please see this post for details.

Free Pattern - Blue Waves Peyote Bracelet

This Valentines day the husbeast treated to me to a trip to Cardiff, which is always dangerous for my stash busting plans as the lovely bead shop Crystals and Ice is there. True to form I bought quite a lot of seed beads though I did restrain myself and stay away from the delica's! I bought some blue's, forgetting that I already had a plastic carton full of them)and wanted a simple pattern to use some of them up. I came up with this and thought that I would share it with our lovely OTTBS readers as I bet I'm not the only one with masses of seed beads in blue! I think it would look good in lots of other combinations too, I may try a black and red version at some point.

The dimensions using size 11 miyuki seed beads are width 1.31 inches, length 6.47 inches, just add or detract rows to resize. The bracelet uses the odd count peyote technique, if you aren't familiar with this or need a refresher, here is a link to a tutorial on about.com http://beadwork.about.com/od/beadingstitchtutorials/ss/Flat_odd_Count_Peyote.htm

Happy beading!

Sarahx

Hey Cupcakes! Free brick stitch cupcake pattern.

I may not be a romantic but I do have a sweet tooth! Here is a sweet cupcake pattern to help you use up your seed bead/delica stash up. It would make a lovely brooch as a gift for a keen baker or cake eater! Happy beading!

Sarahx

Beautiful Earrings!

Another submission from Nicola for our February Moodboard, this time a gorgeous pair of earrings made with fabric and buttons...



Thanks again for joining in with us Nicola! If you've been inspired by our colour scheme this month and would like to take part, see this post for details.

More February Moodboard Eye Candy

More submissions for the February Moodboard to show you today. First is this beautiful scarab brooch made by Lesley...



Colleen made this gorgeous bracelet...



And taking inspiration from one of the images in the mosaic, these amazing lampwork beads were made by Debs...





Thanks for joining in with us!

Valentine Heart Free Brick stitch Pattern.

With only 9 days to go to Valentines Day, I thought it would be a good time to share this brick stitch heart pattern that I designed a while ago. It would make a great pendant, brooch or you could bead a few and link them up into a necklace or a bracelet. I designed it using delica's but you could just as easily use size 11 japanese seed beads.

I hope you like it!

Sarahx

February Moodboard Eye Candy

I haven't even thought about what I'm going to make and we already have two pieces submitted to our Flickr group pool!

Nicola made this gorgeous bracelet using cat's eye beads and Swarovski crystals...

And Helen made a beautiful necklace using her own lampwork beads...


Please see this post if you want to join in with the fun!

February Moodboard

We had a huge response to last month's moodboard and saw some beautiful pieces made by our team and our lovely readers. I hope you will all love February's colour scheme and mosaic as much as the last one! This time I've chosen yummy chocolate brown and turquoise and there are many elements you can take from the images to inspire you...wood, metal, fabric, circles, spirals, stars, flowers, locks, time...to name just a few.

Clockwise from top-left: Time Spiral, Bright Turquoise Flowers in Brown Rings, Back to the Days of innoncence, The keyhole...

You can email your photographs to me at liz@thecrimsonmoon.co.uk or alternatively you can add them to our Flickr group pool. The deadline for entries is February 28th and a prize will be awarded randomly to one of our lucky entrants! We're looking forward to seeing what you create!

One more for the January Moodboard

This gorgeous ring was made by Donna who took her inspiration from the Purple Mitosis image in the mosaic, surrounding a rivoli with seed beads and amethyst drops. Thanks for joining in with us Donna!