Work in Progress Wednesday!

Hand-painted focal.  Maybe my most ambitious to date!!

Steps 1-3 (or so) are done!  Now for the hard parts!  Stay tuned! 

Painting Gone Haywire

So, a few months ago, a friend of mine, LaRita Jacobs, convinced me to go to a painting class she's been attending for a while.  I thought it would be fun, while never imaging it would lead to anything.  But, I packed up all my craft paints, my rather horrible brushes, and tagged along.  That's where I met the phenomenally awesome Susan Kubes, who has become a good friend and one of my artistic mentors.

So, after my first 3 hour painting lesson, I had completed a dolphin (I posted about her here.) I was just so plum tickled with myself! I had painted a thing that looked like what it was!  How cool was that!!!!!  Since then, I've gone to painting classes almost every week, and have been getting awesome tips on blending, etc.  Susan is a remarkably patient teacher, and really let's her students progress at their own pace.  It's been wonderful!

But here's the haywire bit.  While I imagine some people begin with smallish projects and progress to larger, I've gone smaller.  Like, 1 inch or so...  Since I also make jewelry, I wanted to see if I could paint a scene on a small focal piece.  Lo and behold, I can!!!  Who knew!!  (And really, tiny palm trees are easier....) But now it's just going insane... I'm painting round beads now, too...

I honestly never knew I had any sort of aptitude for painting.  I mean, I never even considered that I could draw!  Me? Yeah, I was crafty.  I wasn't an artist.  And now, I'm actually starting to think of myself as an artist!  I actually get a little teary saying that! (I'm even considering better quality paint and brushes!)

Here's some new focals waiting for beadwork:

Okay, so not so much waiting for beadwork, as totally done...  oops... I love this bracelet... 

I'm going for a whole beach series... and wait till you see what I'm gonna do with the pink!  HA! It's gonna rock!!!!!!

Ladybug garden!  That bead is less than an inch tall....

So there it is.  Painting gone haywire...

Thanks for reading!

I need your help!!!!!!

Awhile back, I was selected to participate in Blissful Garden Beads August Challenge.

I received these beads:

Pretty, yes?

and instructions to make an item using at least one of them.

So, me being me, I just had to weave something!

Here it is:

So, now for the part where I need your help:  GO VOTE!!  Go to Blissful Garden Beads and VOTE for my bracelet!  The Voting poll is at the bottom of the post, and my name (Rana Wilson) should be the last one there.

So please, GO VOTE!!!  Help a girl out!!!! And vote SOON!  Because voting ends this Tuesday, August 23rd, in the am!!!

And you should start saving your pennies, because soon, all these pieces will be featured in an auction!  You know you wanna bid on my bracelet!!! 

Thanks!!

Beading Stitches: Square Stitch

Another post on beading stitches!  This stitch, the square stitch, works really well for cuff-type bracelets, because you can pretty much make the piece as wide you want it to be.  Just keep adding seed beads until you have your desired width.  I've also just learned that you can do a tubular square stitch, which I really should've figured, since you just work in a circle, basically (for a fairly basic and straightforward tutorial on square stitch, go here.)

I also like the square stitch because, while it is very time intensive, it creates a very nice base on which you can add your embellishments.  Because with a square stitch you're really just creating a fabric (well, really it's more of a ribbon for me) to add pretty much anything you want to!

So, you can go relatively simple  and just add a focal in the center, like this:

Dolphin Dreams; hand-painted focal (by me!!!)

Or you can go a bit crazy like this:

Pretty in Pink

Or you can go REALLY crazy like the bracelet you can see here from Etsy seller StickLizardDesigns (FYI--this is gorgeous and I wants it!!)

Thanks!