Mother Love

Two days ago I saw a friend and colleague in the corridor. "How are you?" I ask. She shakes her head and then explains that her mom, who has been very sick for the past few months, died two days before. Knowing she was very close to her mom, I give her a hug. Reducing her to tears in a crowded corridor. As she is running out sobbing I feel so bad for setting her off. In a desire to cheer her up and apologise for upsetting her I proceed to design and make her a necklace. Who would have though guilt (or maybe its sympathy?) could be such a good inspiration! So I spent the whole rest of that day designing this necklace in my head and the entire evening and the next morning putting it together. Thus here it is my Mater Necklace.
Mater is Latin for mother.

The strap is made with ostrich egg-shell beads and amethyst rounds. Lucinda got the ostrich beads for me from the Bushmen of Botswana when she was there on field work. Whenever I use these beads I think of her.

I chose black for the base colour in the peyote tube with a star burst pattern in gold. I wanted the whole design to sort of symbolise mothers. So there is a dove, flowers, feathers and leaves, an owl for wisdom and a clock for time. The peyote strip says mom, I wanted to use the Latin, Mater (hence the name of the piece) but it would have been too long. From the beginning I wanted to use the amethyst heart bead (next to the dove) so that gave the colour palette, black, gold and amethyst.

Part of the inspiration for this necklace was Heidi Kummli's Peace necklace. I have been reading her book The spirit of bead embroidery and on reflection the thinking behind her beading gave a strong influence to this necklace. So thanks Heidi!

So this is for you Lucinda!

PS have a good Christmas break everybody I dont know when I will blog again, so happy new years if I dont get to it next week.

Crochet kick

Hi guys
Cant wait for the holidays to start. Not because I am going to relax and do nothing but because I have so many crafty tasks and stuff I have got to do at home ;)!

The latest Walkerville Market went reasonably well, I wasn't there I was hiking in the Drakensberg which was fun! So my poor mother had to hold the fort in my absence. On that note We will be at the Walkerville market on this Saturday 15 Dec, where the choir will be singing carols and on the  17 Dec (which is a local holiday) where there will be a beer making demo. The final Walkerville market for the year will be on the 22 Dec where Santa will be holding court of the kiddies. So make a draai out this way for something to do.

Recently I have gotten onto a crochet kick, which was a great way of making the long car journeys go further! I have been trying my hand at many of the blocks from Jan Eaton's book 200 Crochet blocks.I have been itching to get some wool and start trying my hand at a blanket but couldn't decide which patterns I wanted. Then I heard two days ago that a friend of mine just had her first baby. I am so excited for her! So now I am inspired I'm gonna make a blanket for her little girl. I still had no idea what I wanted to make so I hit the Internet looking for inspiration.



This is a blanket make from Jan Eaton's designs that will be my inspiration for my first crochet blanket
The details about this design can be found at The Purlbee

 This is where Pinterest really comes into its own. Yes its a great way to waste time and fun to look at all the pictures but what I really like is that you can pin loads of pictures from sites and go back to those sites later without having to remember web addresses or try and retrace your steps through the search engine, really Pinterest is a "social media" thing well worth using, and this is coming from someone that hates facebook!

I have found time in the last week or so to do some beading and I will get the pieces on the blog and website soon as I can, although I have already sold two of them!
See ya.

Sorted

I have spent many evening in the last few weeks sorting out my bead stash. It had gotten to the point where you couldn't open the cupboard without something falling on your head! All the beads were in shopping bags and shoved into any nook or cranny. In short, it was chaos! So I began to sort everything, all pearls together into one box, all gemstones into another. Having first spent a small fortune on plastic boxes ;) . All findings of a type (like earring findings) together in compartmentalised boxes. So now I have a perfectly (more-or-less) sorted bead stash, only one problem...I cant find where I put anything! and the cupboard is so full that to get out whatever box I need, I first have to take out another three! Sigh.

The show on Saturday wasn't great. I like the fact that it was a nice substantial show, but the weather turned unexpectedly bad and I didn't think to take a coat so I froze! I think perhaps the bad weather also scared off the crowds. So we didn't make many sales (one, in fact). But another stall holder, a silversmith, with some lovely pieces there, was impressed with my designs and asked if she brought me some pearls and gemstones, weather I would be interested in making some stuff for her, so I will be back there this Saturday to see what happens.

I sat down to make some new things one evening last week and had one of those sessions where nothing wants to work! I think the problem was that I had two different ideas in my head and no real plan about what I wanted to make. Sometimes sitting down without a plan can produce a great design but often all it produces is an unholy mess, that takes me several days to clean-up, in fact I still havnt done so!


Ok I have talked far too much again!
Keep well and stay sane while doing your Christmas shopping.Cheers




I dont know if I ever showed this to you. Its a bracelet I made for one of my best customers, she wanted something to give a friend for her 70th birthday.



Denim Rosette

Last week saw a terrific heat wave hit the Highveld and everybody wilting under the heat. The hot spell was then broken by pretty much continuous rain all weekend - which we sorely needed. Of course I had planned to visit the Bryanston Organic Market, which I have never been to on Saturday, since with the new show coming up it might be my last opportunity for a while. But that never happened. Saturday was however highly productive as I spent the whole day beading, giving me the opportunity to finish this fabulous bracelet!



This bracelet developed in an interesting way. I was using Jamie Cloud Eakin's book, Dimensional Bead Embroidery and I was trying out the different techniques she uses. I decided to try the lace ruffle edging technique. I figured it would make a nice and simple pair of earrings. So I pulled out the Sand coloured stone beads glued two of them down to little pieces of Lacy's Stiff Stuff and started to bezel the one. I then created the lace ruffle edging using Jamie's technique, which is a variation on netting. As you can see the ruffle came out very well, but my only small problem was that the bead with its ruffle was now almost 5cm wide. Too big to make earrings out of. So not I was a little stuck. I had this lovely piece of bead embroidery and did not know what to do with it.

A couple weeks went by when I picked this up again and decided to make a band for it and turn it into a bracelet. I used hex-cuts in a herringbone stitch for the band, I wanted something simple that would not detract from the focal but was not itself dull. I love the way the hexes catch the light at different angles. I chose this denim blue to compliment the bright colours in the focal. I also added a little bright blue on the edges to bring the two pieces together. 

So finally we have my Denim Rosette bracelet.  

This Saturday I will also be starting at a new show the Walkerville Farmer's Market in Walkerville, South Joburg. This will be the first of their Christmas Markets so for any locals out there reading this why not come out and try this market. 

Im looking forward to a productive market, but I will let you know how it goes.

Cheers 

Caribbean Net

Ok I know I am probably boring you with all this talk about the wedding, i think it has appeared on everyone of my blogs for this month but it is now finally over! I completed the last design on Tuesday evening and delivered it yesterday. The necklace is for one of the bride's sisters (not a bridesmaid) and she had a good idea in mind of what she wanted.

She wanted a beaded netting collar something like the picture above (sorry I dont know where she sourced this image). She picked out of my stash a gorgeous blue colour seed bead to match her dress and I started from there.
After a bit of playing around with designs I finally settled on the blue beads which were a 15 with silver contrast beads. I also used a similar pattern to this one, where two beads are used in the contrast, it really make the rows pop.
Of course you already know about the difficulties I had in making this necklace but I think the final design well worth all the effort, what do you think?



 I called it Caribbean Net. Cos the colour makes me think of the ocean.





Blue 15 and silver delicas with Preciosa crystals


There is no greater feeling after pouring blood, sweat and tears into a design to see the excitement on the client's face when they get their jewellery.

PS I have found another market for Saturday a week in South of Joburg - The Walkerville Farmers Market. more info on that next week.

Show troubles

What a weekend!
First there was the show on Saturday which was a complete disaster! There were a whole of FOUR stall holders there and about as many customers! I sold not a damn thing and wasted my whole morning talking to a bunch of ... . Lets just say it wasn't a fun day.
On the plus side on getting back to the farm and unpacking the Crafty Ladies Club was still going strong, so it was real nice to sit with then and unwind and chat with friends and crafters.

On Sunday I then went to a bead weaving class given by the Legend Manie Kriel and hosted by Petro v. Rensburg in Eldoraigne. I chose a lovely peyote stitch lariat in purple and gold. I seem to be gravitating to wards purple lately, I don't know what that says about me ;). I cant wait to get back to this project, although I have a box of Manie-kits that are all half started, something else always seems to come up! I have decided that rather than make a lariat I am going to turn the design into a kind of wrap-around bracelet. It will be nice to make something for myself. Lately all my creations land-up becoming stock - not that that stops me wearing them ;)
We are talking about hosting the next Manie class at the farm which will be really cool, it is such a peaceful setting.

I spent all of last week plus Saturday morning at the "show" working on the last piece for the wedding. A netting collar in blue. Only to realise on Saturday having spent a good four hours on the necklace and reached halfway that the design was not working and that I would have to restart! That was a little soul destroying. My problem was the bottom rows were not expanding enough so the collar was coming out as a straight strip of netting which was not going to fit around the neck.This is a BIG problem as the wedding is on Friday - I have to get this necklace finished before then. So I spent the later half of Sunday restarting. I even took yesterday afternoon off to work on it. This time I will take pictures of it, even if I have to stay up late in order to do so!

Okay its tea time and I definitely need a pick-up.
Cheers

Wedding Jewelles

I would like to start this blog with "here are pictures of the wedding jewellery as promised" BUT I cant.
And the reason I cant is a case of classical stupidity. I finished the wedding jewellery I have been working on a few days ago and have been telling myself for a few days that I need to take pictures of it to show you guys on this blog. So last night I finally get around to it. I get out the camera, and make space on my seriously overcrowded desk and then realise. I cant take pictures of the jewellery because I gave it to the customer on Tuesday! Really how stupid can one be? So it goes to show you dont have to be old (as I keep telling my mother) for these things to happen to you.  Any way here are the Bridesmaids and Flower girls bracelets which I took pictures of to show the bride before I made them.

Bridesmaids Bracelets. Pearls, Swarovski sliders and crystal

And here are the Flower girl bracelets. They come in three sizes, small, tiny and mosquito!

Flower girl Bracelets. Pearls, Swarovski rondelles and crystal.

The remainder of the jewellery I made for my sister-in-law so maybe I will persuade her to lend the stuff to me to take pictures of after the event. She has also promised pictures of them wearing their jewellery on the day.
I have one more piece to finish for this and that is a netting necklace in a gorgeous blue, which I am stressing about as the wedding is tomorrow a week so I need to step on it!

In other news there will be no more Fat Olive Markets this year which is a pity. But very fortunately just as I heard this I got good news. I have gotten a place in the REEA River Market in Craighall, Joburg! Starting this Saturday which is good. Hopefully there will be lots of people there and we will have a great market.
So if your looking for some new entertainment  on Saturday why not come along to the River Market on the corner of Richmond Rd and Marlborough Road, between 9am and 1pm. See the link for all the activities offered.

This Saturday is also the next meeting of the Crafty Ladies Club on the farm. Unfortunately I wont be there but we are expecting plenty of Ladies to bring their crafts and chill out and chat. See you there!

Breathing Space

Ok, finally last week I got  (another) draft of my chapter to my supervisor, which gave me some breathing room to do some non-thesis related work. I finished a bead weaving piece that I have been busy with for a while. This necklace is one of Manie Kriel's (Manique) designs called Symphony.

At the Centurion Craft Show a customer bought the kit, as she wanted the necklace for a function, to go with her outfit,  but she did not want to make it, so yours-truly got roped into making the piece for her. It was actually kinda fun to work on. A nice easy herringbone pattern and using the Swarovski rondelles in it gave me some ideas for the wedding jewellery, which is almost finished.

I spent then my day off organising my beads, cos its gotten to the stage I cant find anything and cant remember what I have got or where I have put it, and when you are beading for a few hours in the evenings it is seriously irritating to have to spend hours searching for mislaid beads and findings, but I still got a long way to go.
Today I spent trying to find other show opportunities, especially with the holidays coming up, when people want to spend and are looking for interesting presents.
Ok I have got to go and take pictures of the wedding stuff to show you but here is a taster.

Reconstruction

A friend, a few weeks ago, showed me a gorgeous necklace of large Jade rounds with matching earrings that she owned. "Jeannette.." I said to her "please put it away cos I am not going to give it back to you!". And seriously I wasn't! It was just sooo beautiful. Good Jade beads is not something I have seen much of in SA, which is a pity. In the end this friend gave me the earrings and asked me to remake them. They were made up of a 8mm, 10mm and 12 mm bead each and were therefore quite heavy so she found she couldn't wear them. I remade the earrings using just the 10mm, which left 4 beads over.



Earring redesigned

 I was going to just give the beads back to her but the more I looked at them, the more I  fell in love with them. I just had to make something out of them so "Reconstructed" them into a pair of bracelets.

 I did the first one in a silver finish, I always go to silver first and then remembered that the earrings and necklace were finished in gold so then I made the gold bracelet.

 I have been wearing the latter all day and just love the look and feel of it. A subtle but brilliant burst of colour. I cant wait to show Jeanette how it all cam out!

I am making some wedding jewellery and the bride has just given the designs the thumbs up so Ill be busy with those in the next couple of days, I will show you all soon.

PS for the South African crafters the publishers of Craftwise and Stitches magazines have created a cool crafters forum/creative online community for people to share ideas and get advice and inspiration check it out at in2crafts.

Cheers for now

End of year fever

Thats a good expression for that end of the year feeling isnt it? That feeling of lots of work and short deadlines. That feeling that life has grabbed the bit between its teeth and is running off with you and you no longer have any control over it. I dont know about any of you , but that is what the last few weeks have been like for me. My uni work has hotted up in a big way as I only have a few  months left to finish. On top of that I have several jewellery deadlines that I cant miss, like wedding jewellery ;).
The last two days have been a flat panic to get my application in for starting my PhD next year. On that note I will be upping sticks next year and moving down to Cape Town to start at the the uni down there (UCT). The reason I am moving is because there is an opportunity to work at the fossil site Langebaanweg, outside of Cape Town. It is a fantastic Miocene (5 million year old) site with lots of extinct mammal remains, that I have long wanted to work at. So I am very excited about the move.
Don't worry Jet's Creations and all my cool jewellery will still be available in the highveld. I will still be visiting often.

The Fat Olive Show on Saturday went well. It is such a peaceful setting in the gardens there with the fountain playing. it really is worth a visit. I think the new stall design is a big improvement that is really working much better, so I am very happy. All that hard work really paid off there.

As you can imagine all this hard work means that there hasnt been very much time for jewellery making  so I am afraid I dont have very much to show you. I have completed a lovely order for a customer and I will take pictures of it as soon as possible.
ok peeps keep well, and dont succumb to the fever!

If it seems too good to be true...

Then it probably is.
I had this experience recently. I woman came  to me and offered me her old beading stock at cost-less as she had no use for it. I went to look at the beads, where she again assured me of a good price. Under this understanding I took a lot of the beads. My mother (and business partner) and I then spent many hours inventorying and counting all these beads, as they were priced individually so as too work out the price of all this stuff. This we did and let me tell you the amount was not small.
Yesterday afternoon we went back there to discuss the final price and to look at the remainder of the beads which had just arrived. First I spend an hour picking what I want from her remaining beads, mostly some crystals and semi-precious stones. Then we sat down to discuss money.
Well, she announces, she will give us the cost price of 50% off but she needs to pay the taxman the VAT so she proceeds to add this to the price. So now she wants us to pay over the cost price when she offered us less! We were not amused, that had not been the deal.
Well a spate of very hard haggling followed. She wanted to charge us no less than cost and she was then going to make us pay full price on the stuff we had looked at that day. We insisted we wanted the cost less 15% that we had been offered originally. We had actually refused and were starting to arrange bringing her stuff back before she relented and gave us our price. She also let us have the remaining beads at cost. So in the end we did well but neither my mother nor I were impressed with her just changing her mind like that when she had offered something else!
I don't know if she had just gotten greedy or if she was feeling pressure from her own business partners but the experience was not cool. - Moral of the story NEVER believe what people say, especially over money dealings.

On a more positive note tomorrow is our next show to be held at the Fat Olive Market in Lammermoor. Please see my website for the address and directions from Johannesburg. This week has seen me frantically busy. After the last show I decided that our show stand really wasn't working, it was all flat and from a distance you really couldn't see what we are selling, so we have made a load of changes that I hope will make things a lot better, hopefully it will translate into sales. But it has resulted in me spending long hours this week over a sewing machine, making new table covers and overlays and throws . The sewing machine was so unused to this heavy workload that I managed to break a needle this morning, but its done, ill take a picture to show y'all next week.

Here is a picture of one of the many designs that will be on display at the market on Saturday

Cheers

A busy week coming in

Wow I am on top of the world
I recently finished a large bead embroidered collar that I have been working on (and off) for some months.



"Drakensberg Necklace"

 This necklace makes me think of the Drakensberg Mountains here in South Africa the lines and dark colours remind me of the spectacular silhouette of those mountains as you appraoch them. Drakensberg means Dragon Mountains. The necklace is made with dark brown agate pieces. I wanted to place the diamonds at odd angles to each other so that they would cradle the base of the neck. Swarovski and plain glass pearls are used in the bands, fringes and in the centre. Along with a lot of Miyuki seed beads . I wanted to keep the colour palette monochromatic so that the shape would do most of the talking. Sorry the agate faces are obscurred I kept getting odd reflections on the stones. But I will keep trying for that perfect shot.

 I was in facts working on this piece while at the Centurion Craft Show a few weeks ago, where several people saw it. Last week I finally got some good pictures of it (ok the pictures are good relative to my previous attempts). I then showed these pics to some people who might be interested and one customer has said that she wants it with matching earrings and bracelet. So I am really happy about that. Been going through a bit of a quiet period sales-wise, my own fault I havn't been working hard enough at it. So this is just the pick-me-up I needed. Especially as this week is shaping up to be quite hectic. I also got a couple new orders on Friday. My sister-in-law's youngest sister is getting married and I'm making some jewellery for the big day! That deadline, along with the fact I'm supposed to be handing in my dissertation sometime in the next few months, (which is nowhere near finished) explains my current stress. But I will manage even if I have to pull a few all nighters!
And in other news: The meeting of the Crafty Ladies Club on Saturday went excellently. The weather played ball and only misbehaved the following day. Everyone had a great time and lots of crafts were represented. A few people had bead weaving projects, there was knitting, crocheting, even quilting. One lady was covering a backing with cutoffs of upholstery material over which she plans to embroider. the final product will be a gorgeous bag. I definitely want to see that when its finished. Everyone enjoyed the quiet, country atmosphere and great progress was made by all in their respective projects. Some projects were even finished!
So here is looking forward to many more such meetings!

The ladies under the thatch roof of the Lapa, hard at work.

Can you smell the concentration?



Ok I need to get back to this dissertation now
Cheers


Later in the afternoon we gave the dogs a bath. This is Charlie, a cocker spaniel puppie. How cute is that face?



Almost three weekends ago I participated in the Centurion Craft Show organised and run by Petro v. Rensburg, a creative ribon embroiderer based in Eldoraigne, Centurion. The show was highly successful and fun, and it was great to network with other crafters in different disciplines. Manie Kriel (Manique) was there selling his bead weaving kits and tutorials. Megan from Tin Soldiers was selling her kits for making teddybears and dolls. She also ran small one hour workshops and tutorials and invited her students to come sew along at her table, ensuring that there was always lots of activity at her stall. The quilters displayed their spectacular wares. There was handmade creative candlecrafts, machine embroidery, mosaicing and pewter art, all fabulous. Johan of Glass and Fire was there showing off his skills by making lampwork glass beads. and lets face it there is nothing as facinating to watch as a glass bead taking form and coming to life in the hands of a craftsman. And of course there were many creative embroidery pictures from Petro and all her students (myself included). Great fun was had by all and Im already looking forward to the next one.


Students sewing at Megan's table

 Dates will be 4 - 6 October 2013 in Eldoraigne, Centurion, South Africa. So for all you local readers, book that date!


The Centurion Craft Show

 I have been busy taking pictures of some of my completed pieces so I can put them on my website and to show you here. Its really not as easy as it sounds to get good pictures! Here is a cameo brooch that a customer ordered at the show.

The cameo is acrilic, which I purchased online from an American company. Embroidered here on Lacy's Stiff stuff, with size 6 and 15 Miyuki seed beads. The backing is done with a patterned ultrasuede.

This saturday is the next meeting of our Crafty Ladies Club where crafty people get together with a project, be it beading, kniting, embroidery - just what ever they are working on, and have a chilled out day in the Magaliesburg making their craft without husbands and kids to distract them. If anyone reading this is interested in joining us please contact me at jetscreationssa@gmail.com or through my website.
Well thats it for now, more next week, hopefully by then I will have a good picture of my new bead embroidered collar to show you.
Cheers

Lotsa new beads!

What a week I have had! last monday afternoon saw me knee deep in boxes and dusty beads.   The beads originate from the lady in Irene I told you about in my last post who offered me a look at her old stock from the bead shop she closed down. Boy there were some real treasures in all those old boxes.There were some gorgeous findings in a variety of metals and finishes and well and ethiopian, indian and bali silver which is not only hard to find in South Africa but expensive too! So I was well chuffed to get some of that. Also some lovely lampwork and Venitian glass beads, even some focals in glass, wood and shell that will be super for bead embroidery. I have taken a tonne of stuff - literally three boxes of beads. Its been quite a job counting them all up! On top of that most of her crystals and gemstone beads will only be coming in a few more weeks so more shopping in the offfing! I am constantly touched but how kind and generous crafty people are. Not only have we bought all these beads at extreme discount but we even got all the boxes in which they were stored free of charge.
I have also spent several evenings trying to catalogue all the beads we got from the House of beads closing down sale. We got tonnes of Miyuki's and a gorgeous selection of Swarovski crystals less 70%!

Arnt they pretty? So I will have to start using these soon, to make something gorgeous!

It took me forever to get the blog site sorted, eventually I did the smart thing and read the help manual. It shows not asking for help is not just a male thing! But things are looking better now so I am happy. I have got some finished pieces that just need photographing then I will put them up here for you to see.
Cheers

The begining

This is my first ever attempt at blogging! I know if I was anymore backwards I would actually be a dinosaur!
So a little background. Im a student in Palaeontology (thats fossils to you and me) in Johannesburg due to be starting my PhD next year. In April I started a  jewellery business selling hand made beaded jewellery. Since starting my business Jet's Creations www.jetscreations.co.za huge new beading vistas have opended to me, so i felt it was time to start blogging some of these ideas to the rest of the world. As Im new to this thing the site may take a while to get set up properly but I will do my best.
In beading news then Im getting in a lot of new beads and stock today. The Original House of Beads shop in Villeria (Pretoria) is closing down  :( and we have made an offer on some of their stock so a load of beads coming my way today. On top of that at the Centurion Craft Show at the beginning of the month (more on that in another post) a women approached me with an offer. She runs a quilting shop in Irene. Some years ago she started a beading shop for her daughter who has since moved. She now has all the old stock from this shop in storage and offered it to me at basically cost price! How cool! So I am going there later today to do some shopping! It shows even if you dont do as well as you  like at a show sometimes the exposure and networking is much more important.

Bead Embroidered cuff called Woodlands

Okay thats a good start I will let you know how it goes.
Cheers