Mandalas

Because I was in a little 'nyah' period last year, I bought myself the book 'Beading - the creative spirit' by Rev. Wendy Ellsworth. The first project she gives is making mandalas. So I set to. I made one with the seed beads I had using size 8 beads. It's actually really fun. Here it is.

Well the idea is to make several 'geometric' mandalas so you have time to get into the zone and play with colours etc etc. And I thought to myself, 'what will I do with all these mandalas?'

Well....

This little pot has been sitting on the coffee table in our house for as long as I have memory. No idea the story or where they come from. A little pot of coasters - wood with cork inside. I almost threw them out when I moved house because they were old and scrappy but at the last minute I kept them. A small thing that has always been in your life you know.

So I thought that I would make the mandalas to replace the corks. I used size 15 beads (for those who like to know these things ) and glued them down a couple of days ago. I'm quite pleased with them.

The set....

The individual coasters.....

The next project in the book is to make a personal mandala. This is going to be a challenge but I have some ideas floating around. Hopefully I'll have it started by the end of the year. I already have a place where I'd like to hang it in my house. Hopefully a story about that will come soon.

My Beautiful Sister

I drove my sister to Newcastle yesterday. She'll be staying there for a few weeks. We stopped off at one of the suburban shopping centres for lunch. As we made our way to the ladies, a cleaner saw my sister, recognised her and said hello.

I asked my sister how she knew the cleaner. She replied that it was probably because her clothing is distinctive and then told me this story.

She said that a while ago, while waiting in line for the toilets the cleaners had been working. (The above lady being one of them.) She said the cleaner walked into one of the cubicles and ..... 'argggh'. She called the other cleaner and ..... 'eeewwww'. 'How can people do that and leave that? Some people are so disgusting', they said.

Well, my sister, having overheard this conversation felt sorry for the cleaner. She said she bought a $1 card and wrote in it, 'Thank you for all the hard work you do in this centre. You do a wonderful job.' Then she left it on the cleaners cart. She doesn't know whether the cleaner saw her leave it there.

Such a small action that would have made such a big difference to the cleaner's day. Also, very much something that my sister would think of doing.

I am so lucky to have such a beautiful person as my sister. Just had to share.

Water

When I was in New Zealand I took most of my photos looking at the textures and colours. The fabulous scenery was purely the bonus. Here are some of my pictures of the water. It's amazing how many different textures and colours there are.

A crater lake:
Acid pools:
Huka Falls:
I love photos and Valerie from Everyday Inspired puts words and photos to inspire and help with creative ideas regularly on her blog. From clocks to raindrops and pebbles. The photos and sayings are great to read and look at.

I Won!!

One of our enterprising Australian beaders has begun a series of design challenges. These challenges are run through a Facebook page called Australian Beaders. The challenges are run very similar to the Design Quests that I enter except that a focal piece is included that must be used. This first challenge was named 'Bushranger's Bounty'. The focal was a Hummingbird. Here is what I came up with.

Beautiful beads as you can see. The focal began life as silver but I didn't like it at all and set about covering it up. I put a layer of Faux Dichro Liquid Glass and stuck copper/gold foil to it that I had left over from my card making days. I put around three layers of the foil on. It looked messy and bumpy and so I looked through my stash and found some gold coloured dry gouache. I sprinkled that on the top layer Liquid Glass and let it dry again. (The Faux Dichro takes a few hours to dry so I added a new layer every couple of days) When I came back to look the bird was no longer gold but blue! Not quite sure how that happened. Perhaps it reacted with the liquid or maybe somehow the dye in the cutting process had joined into the fun I don't know. Luckily the colour matched beautifully with the other beads. Don't you love it when complete accidents end up helping you out.

As for the design. That came about as my designs often do. I started playing and then decided if I'd keep it or not. I began with the green squares and black seed beads and worked out a simple weave. Underneath that diamond weave I added a frill so that I could use the pearls and swarovski beads. After that I needed a background for the bird and still had some beads left over so I added some fringing.

I like some aspects of the necklace and am not so fussed about others. How cool is it that I won.

Photo Inspirations

Also while away in NZ I took some photos of patterns and colours in nature - bark, flowers, leaves etc. I don't know if I ever will use them but I'd love to incorporate some of this beauty somehow in my jewellery. There's no rush. Here are some of the things I spotted.







Julie from JulieChats also uses photos for inspiration. Last year while stuck for ideas for her scrap booking, Julie photographed details from her garden. Here is one of them; a gorgeous mushroom straight out of a fairy story. The colours and textures are lovely. You can also look at some of the other pictures she took on her post.