Starry Eyed Pendant Tutorial

I've done my second free tutorial for the Bead Mavens and thought I would share it with all of you as well.  Enjoy!

If you would like a downloadable copy of the PDF click the link below:
Starry Eyed Pendant

Second Chance Drawing!

Hi Guys,
Well, sadly, I never heard from Bonnie Childers, to claim the prize she won  for the giveaway, so its time to do a second chance drawing!  Good luck to everyone!

And the new winner is:

KAREN NIEMI

Congratulations, Karen!!

Karen you have 48 hours to contact me at:

LadyAbeada@aol.com

and send me your mailing/contact information!

....And the WINNER IS??

Hi everyone! First I want to thank each and everyone of you for participating in this giveaway by following my blog and commenting on the post! As far as I am concerned each of you is a winner and I truly wish I had a book and a pair of scissors to give to each of you! OK... now to announcing the winner of the Kelly Wiese Book, A Beaded Romance and the Cabella braid scissors.

The winner is:

Bonnie Schilder !!

:)

 Congratulations Bonnie!! You have 48 hours to email your mailing address to me at:

LadyAbeada@aol.com

If after 48 hours I have not heard from you, I will pick another winner!

Again, Thank you to everyone for participating in this giveaway! I hope to do more in the future! Stay tuned!! 

A Few of My Favorite Things and a Special Giveaway~Twyla

Favorite Thing # 1:

As some of you who know me are aware, at times I like to dabble with a little mixed media in my  jewelry making. One of my favorite things to do is to combine bead work with filigree or metal stampings, so I thought I would share with you my #1 favorite  place on the internet to purchase filigree and stampings from. Whenever I am looking for a unique but affordable piece of filigree... this is my go to site!! Vintage Jewelry Supplies The site is owned by Susan Street and as I said, has one of the best selections of filigree and stampings to be found on the web.... AND the prices are incredibly affordable!! Not only do they carry filigree and stampings....you can also find beads, cabs, settings, findings and even chain. 

Susan has kindly agreed to give our maven readers a free gift with their first order. Immediately after you place your first order send an email to the attention of their shipping department (Susan@VintageJewelrySupplies.com) mention the Maven blog post and she will send you a free gift of a bead size guide along with your first order!!

 

Favorite # 2.... Drum roll please......

Cablella's Braid scissors!!

These little gems are the bomb! How many pairs of scissors have you ruined cutting fireline? I was on my third pair when these were made known to me by a good friend. They are about four inches long, very lightweight and are specifically made to cut fireline and the braided fishing lines! They are stainless steel and have tiny serrated blades and talk about affordable.... only $3.99 for these scissors at Cabella stores everywhere! It is so nice to cut the fireline and have it be a nice even smooth cut--no more mashing or fraying for me!  Find them online here: Cabella's Braid Scissors

 

 

Favorite thing # 3:

I am sure all of us would love to be able to afford a pair of the wonderful Craftoptic lenses, right? I know I would.... unfortunately, I am not at that place yet.... so for me the next best thing is my magnifying readers. I love them.... You can find them at Fred Meyers, Walgreens or Walmart for about $7-8 dollars, among other places  and they come in varying strengths. I like them because they give me the flexibility of being able to look over the top of them to see normally or to look through them and see things up close and personal. No more neck and back strain for me, thank you very much! :)

 

Favorite Thing #4:

Last but not least.....

I mentioned in my bio that Kelly Wiese is one of my favorite Bead work Designers so I thought it would be a fitting culmination to the "Few of my Favs blog post"  to do a Special Giveaway of her newest and latest book: A Beaded Romance, plus I am throwing in a pair of the Cabella Braid Scissors!! What do you have to do to have a chance at winning this prize? Simple.... Go to my personal blog: Lady Abeada, follow my  blog and leave a comment on my blog telling me why you would like to win the book and the scissors. If you are already a follower of Lady Abeada.... just leave a comment for me. The winner will be chosen by random draw and announced on my blog October 17th, 2013. Good Luck to All!!

Do you have some favorite things you would like to share with everyone??Please share them with us in the comment section  below! :) Til next time--Bead True to Yourself!

Tah Dah Duo Drop Earrings by Twyla~

Hi Everyone!
I am excited and happy to share my first free tutorial with all of you. With the holidays just around the corner I have to say, I am a huge fan of a project that will make a wonderful gift and can be completed in an afternoon or an evening. Those things guided me in my inspiration and creation of this tutorial.

If you wish to share this tutorial, please link people to this blog post rather than sharing my tutorial file or redistributing it in any form. Thank you for respecting my rights.

For a downloadable and printable copy please click "here"  I hope you like my tutorial and  enjoy creating this project.

If you wish to make the matching bracelet to these earrings,  you can find the Tah Dah Super Duo Bracelet  tutorial in my Etsy store, Lady Abeada.

Falling Forward....

The end of Summer is only days away and then it will be FALL.... one of my most favorite seasons! The harvest season is winding down and the fresh, mouth-watering apples of "Apple Cider " become prevalent at the fresh produce stands, along with the fall and winter squashes. The days are still nice and on the warm side, and one can go outside to do things without being HOT! Night temps are dropping and the breezes are brisk, but the best part of Fall for me is all of the COLORS!

What a rainbow of colors one sees as the leaves turn and begin to fall from the trees. The vivid greens, yellows, oranges, reds and browns are stunning! On that note I thought it would be fun to share a few fall inspired color pallets with you courtesy of  www.Design-Seeds.com. Right click on the image and select the  "Save Image As" option .  Enjoy!!

The Value of Listening to One's Beads when they Speak!!

 

A small snippet of the completed piece

Until recently, I never really understood what other people meant when they would talk about their beads speaking to them. It was always a mystery to me! Did these people have some kind of special ability to communicate with their beads that I did not? Hmmm.....I could imagine myself laying my beads out on my beading mat and commanding them to speak to me.... NOT! So what did that phrase really mean?

  I only discovered what I think is the true meaning of that phrase when I was trying to put a lacy edging onto a basic right angle weave piece that I have. Boy, did I ever discover it in a painstaking manner!
   
  My goal was to end up with a semi-scalloped, somewhat frilly piece of edging around the entire piece. I began by putting a row of 15's around the edge of the work and then worked a row of peyote off of the first row, again using the 15's.  

  The next row consisted of adding a row of peyote with Delica's. By the time I had completed the delica row around two of the scallops, I knew I wasn't liking how it looked.  But did I stop there? Oh heck, NO! I kept right on going until I had the entire row completed and went even further by beginning to add the last row of peyote with size 11/0 seed beads.

  By that time, I had several hours of work into the project, but what had I been thinking?? Several rows ago the beads spoke out to me... no begged, me to listen to them telling me that this didn't look good and it wasn't going to work design wise. Why I kept going forth and refusing to listen, I truly have no idea. 

  When I arrived at the point of it being glaringly obvious, I was rather perturbed at myself, because I knew I had at least an hour or more of ripping out bead work ahead of me. As much as I wasn't looking forward to that, it proved to be rather cathartic for me as it gave me plenty of time to reflect upon the lesson I just learned and the value of listening to one's beads when they speak. Hopefully, I will  never close my ears to the sing song of my beads ever again.

  Do your beads speak to you and do you listen? I would love to hear about your experiences along these lines.

Unitl next time--
Bead True to Yourself!