2012 Frog or Finish A Long - February Goals

Welcome to the February Frog or Finish A long Goals, this month five of us from the Facebook Group have nominated projects to finish during the month.

Dee has carried over her Jean Power's kit from January,


Rebecca has also carried her rope over from last month,


Erika has chosen this bead embroidered cuff to work on in February, "I'm afraid I've got far too many UFOs. This one is a cuff bracelet that I started in Sept at a workshop with Laura McCabe. The picture isn't great as the leather it's on is actually a really pretty metallic plum colour. I've never attempted bead embroidery before and find it quite challenging. I really hope this will make me finish it!"


Gemma says, "I've had this bracelet on the go for what feels like forever. Its nearly done but I need some incentive to finish it as I'm bored with all the fringing. In fact I said I was going to finish it last year when we set beadbusting goals in May but I only managed a few extra rows. Bad Gemma! I'm calling it Anemone Cuff. Its based on the "Sea Urchin" project by Stephanie Burnham from the BWG journal 2006 and I probably started it that year so its high time I finished it! All I have to do is finish off the fringing in the 15s and find some sort of clasp."


I originally made these yellow tulips as earrings, but am just not that happy with them. They are quite small (and really tightly woven!)so I don't want to frog them but think they will be lovely on the ends of a lariat, so my project this month is to make the lariat rope and any other embellishments needed so that these will finally be part of a wearable finished object.


Check back later this month to see how we do.

Happy beading!

Sarahx

Wednesday's Wear It or Frog It.

I just made this necklace a few weeks ago, but it's just not my style so rather than leaving it to languish further in a box, I decided to bite the bullet and frogged it last week. I have wanted a ribbon necklace for quite a while, so I searched for a tutorial and found this one http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/04/diy-spring-statement-necklace.html from A Beautiful Mess. It was really quick and easy to make and I love it! It will go perfectly with a new tunic that I bought just before Christmas, so I am very happy!

Wednesday's Wear It Or Frog It

This is just a part of a very long necklace! I had the pack of different size grey pearls sitting there for some time before I got the idea to link them all together to make a necklace that I could wear double - one strand high around the neck with the second one long. I was really miffed to find that after all my hard work, the necklace just didn't sit right, the large pearls stand out from the smaller ones too much. I'm afraid it's off to the frog pond with this piece. At least I've got all the pearls to use in other projects and thankfully I used plated wire...

Wednesday's Wear It Or Frog It

I've made some dodgy pieces in my time but this ring I found really is the pits! I fancied having a go at making a ring but I didn't have a proper mandrel, only an aluminium ring sizer with flat sides. I was so chuffed with it - mainly because it actually fitted - that I wore it quite a bit after I made it. But I can see now that it's a right old mess and I think that lovely big bead deserves much better, don't you?! Off to the frog pond with you!





Feel free to giggle now girls...

Wednesdays Wear It or Frog it.

Earlier this year I went through a phase of beading big floral rings, I wore them for a few weeks, put them in a box and forgot about them! This week I wanted to wear some jewellery with a black and white outfit but didn't think a bracelet or necklace would work. I suddenly remembered my box of rings and found this one, so it's back on my finger and definitely a keeper!

Wednesday's Wear It Or Frog It

Delving into my jewellery box this morning I found this necklace I made some time ago. It hasn't had much of an outing since I made it, I have no idea why! I don't really do much with netting stitches but I remember that I enjoyed making this and it's much simpler to do than it looks. It's a Sandra Halpenny design which you can find for free here.


Definitely not one to frog, I'm wearing this when I go shopping this afternoon :)

Wednesday's Wear It Or Frog It

I made this necklace for a challenge in Bead magazine and was really pleased with it at the time! I made the pendant using black polymer clay, stamping into it using a Tutankhamun rubber stamp before rubbing some gold acrylic onto the surface and rubbing off the excess.

The reason it's disappeared into the depths of my jewellery box is that it's a bit uncomfortable to wear due the strung matt beads which seem to pinch my neck. Also the pendant is very lightweight and would often disappear towards my shoulder - don't you just hate that?! So off to the frog pond it goes. I'll re-pot the beads and maybe use the pendant on a bookmark or something as I still love it :)

Wednesdays Wear It or Frog It

I bought the kit for this bracelet from Spellbound Beads at the 2009 Welsh Bead Fair. The instructions were easy to follow, plenty of beads and it was fun to make. It came out beautifully too (it's much nicer in real life, but as the clocks have changed and we have had no sunlight to speak of here in Wales, I had to use the flash). So how come I haven't ever worn this beauty, I here you ask? Because, despite the care I took in following the pattern, I didn't check the size and it is 1/4 inch too small! I could frog it and make it again, but I would really prefer to make myself a new one from some stash beads and give this to somebody else to wear. I have a few younger teenagers in the family so I think this will find it's way into the Christmas Bran Tub!

Wednesday's Wear It Or Frog It

A little different from the usual WWIOFI post as I found this choker in my 'for sale' box rather than in my personal jewellery stash. I made it quite a while ago with the intention of selling it, but as the flower was made from a pattern in The Beader's Floral book I wasn't comfortable doing this without the designer's permission. Sadly I never received a reply to my email so it's been sat in the box ever since.

Well as black and red is my favourite colour combination, I've decided that rather than taking it apart, I'm going keep it all for me and will wear it when I go out shopping tomorrow :)

Wednesday's Wear It or Frog It.

I had originally planned to feature another piece for this weeks WWIOFI but this morning I was looking for something to wear with a grey/black outfit and came across this necklace that I had not worn for at least a year. This necklace is made using 2 netted tubes at the side with 3 strands of pearls at the front, I added some short fringes at the connection points. This necklace was perfect for my outfit today and I think I will probably wear it a lot from now on.

Wednesday's Wear It Or Frog It

Today I found this pretty peacock feather bracelet that I made several years ago. The design was in an early issue of Beads & Beyond magazine, I fell in love with it straight away and just had to make it!

The pattern used cylinder beads and tiny size 15 seeds and although I'd already started my obsession with beadweaving by then, I only had size 11 beads in my stash. So that was the one and only time that I bought all the beads in the exact colours needed.

The cost of the beads plus the fact that I'd used a sterling silver clasp for the first time meant that I never wore it because I was afraid I'd lose it!! Of course I'll happily spend all my money on beads now, how times change! Definitely not one to frog, I'm going to be wearing this piece from now on ;)

Wednesday's Wear It or Frog It

This weeks rummage through the jewellery stash unearthed this purple spiral bracelet which I have never worn. I love the colours and the the center drops that I used create a really lovely textural piece, but it is too big, like an inch and a half too big! I don't really know what I was thinking, I must have been so relaxed (spiral stitch is so meditative!) that I forgot to stop. I hate unpicking but it is too pretty to waste, so I will unpick and redo it a little bit smaller.

Wednesday's Wear It Or Frog It

This necklace has been in my 'hmm not sure' box for some time. Looking at it now I realise that's because it's really not my style. I'm also horrified at how I wasted these beautiful triangle beads by just stringing them when I could have woven them into something far more interesting! Even though I still think it's pretty I've decided to frog it and use the beads for something else.

Wednesdays Wear It or Frog it.

I rediscovered this necklace two weeks ago during the great wip cull of 2010! At the time it escaped the frog pond as I love the colours and anticipated that it would get more wear during the Autumn/Winter season and also because I remembered that it was a really fiddly job sewing those tubes together and didn't want the effort to be wasted. However, it's been back in my main jewellery box for two weeks now and I haven't worn it, so I have taken the plunge and frogged it.

Wednesday's Wear It Or Frog It

Well this is a blast from the past! I was digging around inside a box in my wardrobe the other day when I came across this necklace. I was so pleased to find it as it holds my very first peyote beaded bead!

I'd wanted to make one for ages but I couldn't find any instructions so decided to just wing it and see what happened. I was so proud of my first attempt and wore it all the time. Since then, my beads have improved a lot and I've made hundreds in different sizes, even making tutorials to teach other beaders how to make them.

It's gappy, it's lumpy and there's a lot of thread showing, but I can't bear to frog it. So now I've found it I'll wear it now and again, just to remind myself how far I've come :)

Wednesday's Wear It Or Frog It.

No before picture this week as this is an update from last weeks Wear It or Frog It piece. I loved the little acorn I made last week so much that I made another. I dug out some lovely olive seed beads and made a simple spiral rope necklace, looping one end so that the acorn drops through to close the necklace. This weekend I got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the number of wips I have hidden about the place, which resulted in what I am now calling the great wip cull of 2010. I ripped out loads of unfinished pieces and now have a huge bag of beads to reuse including over 450 Swarovski crystals! I will post pics later. We'd love to see pics of any pieces that you have reinvented. You can add photo's to our Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/1455268@N20/

Wednesdays Wear It or Frog it

This week's wear it or frog it piece was in deep, deep hiding in a box at the bottom of my wardrobe. I made it a while ago and have never worn it. It is easy to see why, I don't really know what I was thinking when I made this, it is very boring and more than a bit blah! I cut it up in quick time and the pile of 7 wooden beads sat on my beading mat as I wondered what to do with them, there aren't really enough to make a whole necklace or even a bracelet. One of them rolled next to a bead cap that I had just made and I realised that combined they would make a perfect acorn, so I whipped up a little pendant and attached it to a chain. I also have some other ideas and I'll show you those later.

Do you have any jewellery that is now languishing at the back of your wardrobe? Why not dig it out and decide whether to wear it or frog it? We would love to see what you come up with, you can add pictures to our Flickr Group http://www.flickr.com/groups/1455268@N20/.

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!

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.

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