Pendant Rose

Unfortunately dear friend of mine have to leave the country we live in for an unspecified period of time. I wanted to give her something personal, something what would remind her of me. She doesn't wear much of jewellery so I chose a very simple pattern of a rose. She doesn't wear too much colour, but black rose could be read as a symbol of death and farewell, which is not too positive of an emotion (and also you probably wouldn't be able to see it on her almost-always-black clothing). Blue rose symbolises the impossible. I wish her to face all of the impossible, and one day come back here.

Tip for today: The secret of making a good gift for someone is to consider all sides of it and its relation to a gifted person. I know it's not a secret, but I believe sometimes people forget how important the reasons are.

Pattern from www.juliatraverso.blogspot.co.uk

Bracelet Peles

This are another of the hurry-up bracelets I made for my friends. I call them the Mermaid and the Princess. For the Mermaid I followed the exact pattern with 7 large beads and 5 fringes on each. But for the Princess I had only 6 large beads which were much wider, so I add one fringe more per each bead. Also, I made those fringes couple beads longer than the pattern said, just to make them vary even more.

Today's tip: Don't be afraid to alternate the design depending to your needs.

Pattern from beadsmagic.com

Flat double spiral stitch bracelet

I was going for a holiday, back to my country, where I have arranged a catch up with some of my high school girlfriends. I thought it would be great to share with them my new growing skill and surprise them with little handmade gifts. I decided to make many bracelets and each of my friends could choose the one she likes the most. I needed patterns that wouldn't be time consuming, but still very effective. Flat double spiral stitch is exactly like this! Pearls and gold are my longtime favourite combination so I started from that one. It took me only around an hour to finish that bracelet and I was in love in how impressive it looks! That is why I decided to make one more, but in different colour scheme.

Today's tip: This stitch is very flexible and easily curves, you could make a necklace out of it as well. Also, you can always double it as showed in this video.

Pattern from pandahall.com

Necklace Dita

I've started this one right after the first delivery of beads and crystals. Lime green is recently my thing (together with the orange-pink, but can't really find any beads this colour!) but even then it took me a while to choose base colour. I've been worried that any kind of silver lining, or pearl effect, with a combination of this many crystals, might end up looking too glamour. I wanted to achieve more 'everyday' look so I went for this translucent green. Bicones are I believe grey, with this opalescent effect, thought next to the seed beads they appear quite greenish themselves! Magic.

Today's tip: It's good to think through the bead combination of a planned project. Not only based on colours, but also on a style which you're willing to achieve. As more experience you get as easier it will be to imagine the final effect.

Pattern from beadsmagic.com

Necklace Cranberry

While waiting for a large seed bead and crystal delivery from all over the Internet my bead choices were rather limited. For this simple necklace I ended up reusing some opalescent plastic beads from my old bracelet. I have combined them with medium blue Japanese seed beads size 11/0 and  few transparent Czech seed beads with neon yellow lining. I absolutely love the colour combination, it looks so vibrant and modern. I just regret that the crystals are plastic and don't have as much shine as I would like them to have. Well, I would just have to make another one.

Today's tip: Japanese seed beads are much more consistent in size than the Czech seed beads.

Pattern from: beadsmagic.com

Necklace Flame

As it's my first bead-weaving necklace ever I didn't really know what to expect. I'm rather good with crafts, I can work my way with needle and I've got an eye for a detail, so I wasn't worried at all. It probably took me around 6 hours across two days, but after I put the clasps I couldn't be happier! There it was, my first beaded necklace. I used entirely 11/0 Czech seed beads for it. Silver lined gold beads were the ones which I had the most at that time, that's why I chose them as my basic colour. I was very surprised how shiny it became on the thread, in the baggy it looked much more toned down, slightly brownish. Finished necklace reminds me of Indian jewellery.

Today's tip: Never underestimate your silver lined beads!

Pattern from beadsmagic.com