Tequila Sunrise - A Beadwork Fan - Bead Dreams 2012

Tequila Sunrise - A Beadwork Fan Neckpiece

April last year I failed to complete my first ever Bead Dream beadwork entry due to many factors, primarily we had to move (ever so reluctantly) from Melbourne to Brisbane due to my husbands employment.  The submission date passed and I steadily toiled to complete 'Melbournian' which in fact was my 'grief' piece to settle my nerves at having to leave my beloved Melbourne.  All was not lost though as months later 'Melbournian' (along with one other design 'Magic Carpet Ride' Cuff) was selected for inclusion in the Showcase 500 Beaded Jewelry book that will be released August 7, 2012!!

Bead Dream 2012 I was absolutely determined to make the submission date so I began designing and planning my submission back in late August/September 2011.  It did not take me long to visulize a fan design and I began looking at lots and lots of images of fans through 'Images' on Google.

Looking at the images on Google I was able to understand the actual fan design and construction, the different styles and ways the fan was decorated or embellished.  I searched 'beaded fans' and surprisingly only two beadwork designers (well known and highly talented designers I might add!!) had designed some beadwork pieces that resembled the familiar and classic fan shape .. Smadar Grossman of Smaders Treasures and Marcia DeCoster of MADDesigns.

I wanted my piece to be large and of course that meant sculptural.  I had taught myself cubic right angle weave (CRAW) thanks to Heather Collins of Studio183 YouTube video demonstration (which I highly recommend).

The beadwork fan is largely cubic right angle weave, the curve of the fan was achieved by CRAW beadwork sections then joining them together. Embellishing the fan was just a natural progression of design 'play' and I purchased a lot of elements as I went along that I thought would work well with the design.  Consequently I have a huge box full of elements that did not work with this design .. I am sure they will work with another though.

Tequila Sunrise

More times than I like to remember I undid hours of beadwork and redid just to achieve a particular look or shape to the fan design.  About 200 yards of Fireline, Wildfire and Invisbraid beading threads are worked into this piece.  I have not used a single Delica in this design all the beadwork is either Toho or Miyuki seed beads in sizes ranging from size 15 up to size 6.  I have used Toho glass drops in Matt Gold which were really expensive and acquired from Laura McCabes website.  The colour way (color way for my American friends) is made up of many, many different bead colours and types.  I opted for the more expensive Duracoat seed beads as I definately did not want the colour rubbing off.  Some of the colours used included Dyed Smokey Light Rose Alabaster, Topaz Gold Lustre, Galvanized Champagne, Galvanised Dark Berry, various Bronz/Gold tones and Gold plated size 15 seed beads. 

I used a very rare and vintage Swarovski stone as my focal an Art. 4723 Topaz Cal which was a special edition, they are triangular.  I used Albion Stitch to bezel the stone then heavily embellished it with size 15 Toho seed beads and Swarovski Crystal pearls.

Art. 4723 unfoiled Topaz Cal Special (vintage)

I used vintage gold plate Maderia Topaz 2 hole montees which are sewn between the base of each of the blades of the fan design.  Swarovski Crystal 3mm bicones in 'Copper Crystal' adorn the blades along with vintage Swarovski Crystal 47ss Chatons in Maderia Topaz.  Each 47ss Chaton has been bezzeled using three beading stiches, each took about 40 minutes to bead.  It took me weeks to design a thread path method of beading a bezel for each of these small Chatons.

The collar is similar to that of my beadwork neckpiece 'Melbournian', although it is quite different in many ways.  I devised a way of being able to 'anchor' the pearl strand to the beadwork which makes it remarkably strong.  The collar is made up of various sized Swarovski pearls leading towards a structural piece which is tube armature, surrounded by right angle woven beads, then further embellished with netting stitch.  The toggle clasp has been constructed by using a Swarovski Cosmic Ring attached with a section of my 'winged bail' design.  The 'toggle' has been woven using embellished CRAW and the ends of the toggle have oval shaped Topaz Montees sewn into the void

Close up of the 'collar' and Toggle Clasp.

How did I visualize and bring Tequila Sunrise to life ... don't know .. just did.  I simply loved the idea of a beaded fan and felt immensly challenged as to how I could articulate the 'fan' design in my head into reality using only beads.  I hope you enjoy looking at 'Tequila Sunrise' as much as I did creating her.  She was a trial but also a joy and I miss that I can no longer work on her.  I will be investigating my beadwork fan designs further though .. I am in total love with the concept and embrace the challenge. The next one will not be quite as large though!

Tequila Sunrise as a name for this beadwork piece was born of the actual fan design and the colour way which lends itself to the classic cocktail 'Tequila Sunrise' as the Grenadine floats and diffuses through the Orange Juice.

I wish every entrant to this fantastic competition the very best of luck and may the best design in every category win!  Good luck!!

Happy Beading my friends.. Mel

PS ... So utterly intense was my ambition to complete this piece that I worked on it night and day solidly for about 6 weeks which equates to about 200+ hours of actual bead time. I wear prescription glasses and used my lit magnifyer every time I worked on the piece but despite this I am now awaiting my new prescription glasses .. so I in fact wore my eyes out!!

Lashed Lilly

Introducing 'Lashed Lily' a sinster name but not really .. the four slender shaped Swarovski Crystal Elements you see in this picture are referred to as Article 6904 - Lily Pendants. I have 'lashed' or rather tied two together to form this faux toggle clasp. An armature has been used to give the right angle woven neck strap shape, it is supple and light. Cyclamin Opal is the colour of the bicones and Silver Shade is the colour of the Swarovski Lily Pendants and the Cosmic Square (Article 4439). Crystal Powder Green is the colour of the Swarovski pearls, these are in various sizes. Seed beads, drops and cylinder beads used are Miyuki and Toho. The silver seed beads (size 11 & 15) that you see are quite expensive as they are sterling silver plated (matt silver). Time taken to create .. way too long in excess of 100 hours as I encountered design obstacle after design obstacle. What you see before you is nothing like I had visualised prior to commencing this piece. But it was the process of designing this piece that I had my 'That's it' Moment'. Watch this space for my new range ..

Latest News: This neckpiece is currently in the US awaiting second round judging in the Swarovski Jewelry category conducted by Fire Mountain Beads & Gems. 

SBJ has had a 'That's It' moment!

I have been beading like a machine these past few weeks and while this pace does not dilute my love or indeed my addiction to beading it does take its toll on my eyes and my family life. We all know that there is more to life than sitting and beading .. but at times I find it incredibly hard to switch beading off and be a wife for my husband and mother to our two little boys. Then there are the meals to cook, school lunches to prepare, keeping the house clean & tidy, battle the ever large clothes monster in the laundry, chauffer the kids around, help the kids with reading and homework, grocery shopping and as most of you know the list of domestic chores is infinite... sigh....

But .. from this beading frenzy the "Melbournian" neckpiece was created and the soon to be complete 'Lashed Lilly' neckpiece was born. But the most wonderful aspect of this frenzy was a 'that's it' moment when an idea so great (well you think anyhoo) that it gives you such an intense feeling of joy. A feeling that only you and the idea share as you sit quietly together and just beam as you nut out the fiddly bits of the idea.

As soon as the 'Lashed Lilly' neckpiece is complete I will start work on this project as the range will be large ie many pieces it will not happen overnight nor indeed this month! I do hope to share this new as yet to be named bead woven range sometime later in the year. Happy Beading .. Mel

Melbournian - A Beaded Tribute

As most of you know I recently (February 2011) had to leave my beloved city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia to head north to Brisbane, which is the capital city of Queensland, Australia due to my husbands employment. It was with a heavy heart that I left this city .. here was where I felt at 'home' for the first time in my adult life and a place that was so cosmoplitan and happening that it really had everything to offer. Melbourne has been ranked in the Top Three most liveable cities since 2002 and I cannot agree more.

What is a Melbournian you might ask ....?? A Melbournian is a local person who resides in Melbourne, it is what us Australians do it would seem .. for example if you live in Perth, Western Australia you are a Sand Groper .. if you live in Darwin, Northern Territory you are a Territorian and so on and so forth. I am now a Queenslander, who lives in Brisvegas' (local term). Melbournian is a beaded tribute to Melbourne, my favourite Australian City and to Autumn my favourite Season. I enjoyed 6 Autumn's in Melbourne.

Melbournian came about after I was unable to complete what was to be my first Bead Dreams entry, due to time constraints, exhaustion and just a general overwhelming work load I could just not complete it in time. I parked it .... then returned to it a week or so later, undid what I had already beaded and began again .. this time on a totally different 'thread path' if you like. I have beaded parts of this, over and over .. trying to get the tension correct so that the symmetry of the curve that is evident in the SC Stone component of the focal was perfect.

The necklace straps are peyote beaded armatures, ie plastic tubing that I beaded around. I needed elements of the neckpiece straps to be strong and bold to tie in with the bold focal component of the neckpiece. The armatures where further embellished with herringbone, right angle weave and picot stitches. The focal sections of this neckpiece are comprised of 5 separate sections. The large embellished Swarovski Crystal stone focal has been created using 8 (18x13mm) stones, 3 65SS stones, 3mm & 4mm bicones, Toho, Czech and Miyuki seed and cylinder beads in sizes ranging from micro (size 16) through to size 15 to size 11.

The second component is the large Swarovski Crystal Cosmic Ring, this is the bridging element that suspends the three large Swarovski Crystal Navette Pendants who swing handsomely from their 'winged bails'. Winged bails are a design I created using peyote and herringbone to form the 'wings'. Navette 1 is a 30mm Navette, the centre is a 40mm Navette .. the third being another SC 30mm Navette.

Colours and Swarovski Elements (Beads & Stones), Seed Beads and Cylinder beads used in the construction of this large statement piece are vast and varied: The Swarovski Crystal Element colours are Golden Shadow, Crystal Coppper, Khaki, Khaki AB, Olivine, Diorion and Topaz. The Swarovski pearls are Cream. Swarovski Crystal Elements used are Cosmic Rings, Column Pendants, Rondelles, Navette Pendants, Bicones, Foiled stones and Briolettes. The seed beads are dark red these are micro beads, size 16 very tiny .. the tiniest I have worked with. Other seed beads include Toho faceted seed beads, Miyuki cylinder beads, Czech charlottes in a range of colours including green, matt green, bronze, gold and cream. Beadweaving stitches used to build this neckpiece include Even Count Peyote, Tubular Peyote, Herringbone, Tubular Herringbone, Right Angle Weave, Netting, Picot and Freeform.

The clasp of this neckpiece is quite clever (in my humble opinion) as it is in fact a 'faux toggle clasp'. It does not open like you would expect but is released via a magnetic closure that I have hidden beneath a skirt of right angle weave woven bicones and hammered seed beads. The toggle was created by weaving together two Swarovski Crystal barrettes, then hiding the join beneath further embellishment. The ring part of the Swarovski Crystal Toggle Clasp is a Swarovski Crystal Cosmic Ring.

The future for Melbournian is that I plan to keep her... she is to lovely to part with. I will however be making another more elaborate neckpiece using this design as a foundation but using an entirely different colour scheme that is yet to be decided. I will then submit it to the Swarovski Cyrstal Fire Mountain Gems competiton which opens later this year. Happy Beading.

PS
All of these needles were harmed in the making of this neckpiece .. John James needles of whom I HAD (so past tense) a complete preference and bias to seriously let me down.

Note: the needle packets looked like this ! Top packet is what the back looks like with the statement "Packed and inspected in England using needles made in China to Entaco's quality and specification" Boo I say Entaco ... Boo ...

I purchased about 25 packets (about 625 needles!) of these needles in size 12 and 13 from Fusion.com only to discover that they were no longer made in England but were now only packaged in England and made in China ... nasty, cheap and downright frustrating needles to work with. They do not have any 'bend' ability, they cannot cope with tight thread passes and will break into more than one piece! I will reserve the use of these needles to simple beadwoven exercises were there is not any need for pressure or force. I am told by Carol Dean Sharpe of Sandfibres that Ponies and Tulip needles are the best ... I will investigate these needles and source them immediately!

PSS This is what my bead station number 2 looks like after Melbournian was completed .. I have two work stations within my 'Beading Lounge' aka Mad Womans Den. Better get busy and tidy up for the next beading session ...