Soutache Embroidery - Covering the back!

Whilst working with Soutache (my second love behind beadwork) I discovered a neat way of finishing the back area of your Soutache piece's. I like the back to look tidy and professional. I've called it the MI Method!

Step 1

Remove as much excess Soutache tails as possible, the less bulk the better.  Pin on a piece of tracing paper or baking paper, over the area to be concealed, ensure you press down and capture the folds of the Soutache.  Using a marker, draw the out the area to be concealed. See Step 1. 

 

Note: The surface area is increased by the folds of the Soutache tail bulk, this must be factored in when preparing the template.

Step 2

Remove the pins and cut the template out, not to the marker line, just roughly around the template. See Step 2.  

 

Step 3

Pin the template to your section of UltraSuede or Leather (or whatever it is that you prefer to work with).  I have pinned my template to UltraSuede (see Step 3).  Cut out the template.  Lay it carefully onto the area to be concealed.  I like to find a particular area on the Soutache piece to lay the UltraSuede onto first.  In this sample I have started at the top (see Step 4). 

 

Step 4

I use Loctite glue for my Soutache work as it adhere's immediately. Ensure that you glue and press the UltraSuede into the folds of the Soutache tails (this part is important!).

Step 5

Using a pair of small sharp scissors, carefully snip the excess away from the Soutache perimeters of the area to be concealed (see Step 5).  Do this slowly and carefully, adding dots of Loctite to the area to be glued, pressing down to ensure adhereance, then moving onto the next area.

Step 6

Using the MI Method I have been able to proudly finish the back area of my Soutache pieces to a professional standard (see Step 6). 

Battle of the Beadsmith Round 3 - The Creation of Arabesque Armour

An original pencil design from my design journal of how I envisaged my then unamed Battle of the Beadsmith entry.

How was I inspired to create Arabesque Armour? This question was asked of me and in all honesty I do not really know. I do not always understand this about any of the artisan jewellery pieces that I create. Sometimes I get just an image in my mind, then process this sometimes for weeks. Visualising thread paths and possiblitilies. I will make samples using Nymo (rather than expensive Fireline) to get a feel for what my mind sees. I can be inspired by many things cloud shapes, my very large bead stash, how food and colours are displayed on a plate, vintage couture jewellery, even words can inspire me such as my latest piece "Anna's Snowrose". "Anna's Snowrose" was inspired by my Facebook friend Anna Lindell whom I met as she too is a participant of the Battle of the Beadsmith contest. Anna commented one day that my design Arabesque Armour resemebled a "rose on a stem". Later I met Snowrose Feldman another Facebook friend and with that my muse got me busy creating Anna's Snowrose (I will blog about this design another day).

A second original pencil design from my design journal, still playing with concepts.

Where did the floral focal inspiration arrive from for Arabesque Armour I will never know. Perhaps it was when I sit and create samples and play with stitches, my drawings or it could have been when I saw a magazine cover earlier this year that had a floral shaped cuff bangle.  I looked at that cuff design and thought ..'I can bead that' .. with that I snapped a pic with my iPhone, then promptly forgot about it.  Why did I even choose a floral focal?.. again, I do not exactly know. 

Pic snapped with my iPhone

I fiddled with samples for the floral focal for some time and finally went with Cubic Right Angle Weave as the stitch to bring my floral idea to life.  As only a beader will know, you may have an idea of a design in your creative mind, but actually creating it using only beads can sometimes just not be possible as ultimately the beads are boss. Design limitations and time resulted in the floral focal that became central to my Arabesque Armour design.  I knew that because it was CRAW I could embellish it and create something wonderful. The next part of the design process was how best to display the floral focal.  I decided on a beadwork frame setting that would be embellished with Swarovski elements and seed beads.

Because this piece was being designed for the Battle of the Beadsmith contest I wanted to produce my best work as the audience would be large, very large.  I wanted to include something new and different. I included CRAW attachment points on my Rivolis within the beadwork frame so that I could join them seamlessly.  I wanted wonderful curls that I could embellish and most of all I wanted to produce something totally original.  I chose a colour way that I had not ventured into before. I wanted it to say nothing more than 'fun' and colour especially pinks, lemon, purples and yellows suggest fun (to me anyway).  The Battle is about friendship and uniting artists around the world so I wanted my colour way choice to reflected just that.

For a bit of Battle fun I decided that the tassel must be detachable for Battle purposes; my thoughts being detach prior to Battle so that a flaying tassel does not interfere with sword weilding, all tongue in cheek though.

Arabesque Armour is continuing on into Round 3, this time I am paired with USA Artist Christian Rodriguez and her wonderful design "Antigua".



Here I am deciding if the floral focal should sit above or below the CRAW beadwork.

 

This is the beginning of the curls that eventually sat either side of the beadwork frame. The curls sort of happened by accident whilst I was deciding how to hang the focal.

This is me wearing my completed design, Arabesque Armour

Gold Medal Winner - Presidents Award

The lovely Lauren Butler who is the Gold Medal First prize winner of the 2011 Swarovski Elements Fire Mountain Beads & Gems (FMG) Contest, enlightened me earlier this week that my design 'Lashed Lily' had in fact won the Gold Medal Prize Winner - Presidents Award for the 2011 Swarovski Elements Design Contest held annually by Fire Mountain Beads & Gems.

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It was a very nice surprise.  My Aussie beading buddy, Noel Wyres scored bronze with her design 'Bouquet' so collectively the Australian's did very well in this contest.

Comments taken from the Fire Mountain Beads & Gems website from the President of FMG "Stuart, a trained aeronautics engineer, gravitated toward the gorgeous geometrics and cleverly hidden side clasp in Melissa Ingram’s Lashed Lily necklace. Melissa used tubular peyote stitch to construct the necklace body, then assembled the cascading centerpiece with mathematical precision".

Lashed Lily is a right angle woven (unlike FMG who refer to the stitch as peyote) necklace strap (beads over armature), the magnetic clasp is hidden in the necklace strap. However the focal resembles a toggle clasp which was created using the Swarovski Square Ring Article 4439 and two Swarosvki 'Lily Focal's' Article 6904 that I simply 'lashed' together to form the toggle part of the clasp, albeit a faux toggle clasp. The design focal is embellished with Swarovski pearls and bicones. The colour way is largely green and purple with matt sterling plated Toho seed beads forming most of the beadwork.

Happy Beading

Mel

Battle of the Beadsmith 2012 - Arabesque Armour

July 10, 2012 was the deadline for submitting entries to the Battle of the Beadsmith.  On the 6th day (ie the 16th) Steven Weiss (Marketing Manager for Beadsmith and Creator of the Event) was still waiting for participants to submit their entries. I had to voice my concern which became 'an issue' but which resolved in time, decisions were made and the Battle proceeded. 

I felt that the participants who achieved the deadline had their effort's undervalued and not respected. A deadline is just that, an end point which must be adhered to plus the contest had 'alternatives' set aside for just this reason.  I totally 'get' that Steven was trying hard to accommodate and support each 'late' participant so that they could submit their respective entries but in doing so he was not supporting those who had submitted on time.  A difficult position to be in.

Battle Cuff

Battle Cuff

Arabesque Armour was submitted as my design entry for the contest, many of the participants began making celebration pieces as a sort of 'relax' piece following the mammoth effort to create and submit their respective entries on time.  I created the  'Battle Cuff' which matched Arabesque Armour.

Voting for Round 1 has well and truly commenced, the results should be released any day now.

Arabesque Armour is largely a cubic right angle woven neckpiece, 49 individually bezzeled vintage 47ss Chatons in Amethyst were carefully beaded, each bezzel takes approx. 30 minutes to complete.  The focal necklace and the choker are joined as one complete neckpiece through the use of a beadwoven clasp and 3 magnetic clasps.

I did want to create the piece so that the choker and necklace could be worn independantly, but this was not to be as I simply ran out of time.

The Chatons are teamed with Swarovski Rivolis & Oblong Stones (Article 4161) in Jonquil, Burgundy and Rose, Chessboard Rounds in Rose, bicones, drops and rounds in Fushia Brandy, Rose Brandy, Jonquil AB2x and Crystal Luminous Green.  The Swarovski Crystal pearls are 'Powdered Almond' a perfect accompaniment to the colour way as they have a soft pinkish hue.

The seed beads used are largely Miyuki 'Duracoat' Seed Beads and Rocailles.  Czech, size 15 seedies are also included in this design.  Stitches used CRAW, RAW, Peyote, Herringbone and Picots.

Happy Beading

Mel

Bead Dreams 2012 - Bead Artistry Contest

Tequila Sunrise

So the results are out .. in fact they have been out for weeks ... but I have been overwhelemed with so much that blogging has not been a regular event.  I am happy to report that my entries 'Tequila Sunrise' and 'Melbournian' were not only finalists but place holders .. both of the them in fact! 

When you submit entries to Bead Dreams you pay the submission fee of $US30 and for that you may submit two pieces ... so I submitted Melbournian, just because!  Some of you may already know of this particular piece "Melbournian".  Melbournian will be published in the book Showcase 500 Beaded Jewelry (Lark Publishing) (August 2012) she was selected along with my cuff design Magic Carpet Ride.  Thus Melbournian is not only an internationally published piece but also awarded as she is a Bead Dream finalist and Bead Dream 3rd Place winner in the Crystal Jewelry Category. 

 

 

What you might not know is that Melbournian was my 'grief' piece created when we moved from Melbourne, Victoria to Brisbane, Queensland.  My intention was to submit Melbournian to Bead Dreams 2011 but I just became overwhelmed from the move and did not complete her in time.  To date she is my most successful piece of beadwork.

Melbournian

Tequila Sunrise is the piece that I created and submitted for no other reason than Bead Dream's itself.  The bead woven fan design neckpiece took 5 months to design and bead and has won 3rd place in the Seed Bead Category.

 

 

As a first time entrant to this contest I am giddy with delight that I managed to achieve such a feat, twice!!

Tequila Sunrise and Melbournian returned home to Australia this week, complete with their respective ribbons, a box full of Swarovski Elements, the Swarovski magazine 'Sound', a congratulatory note from Kalambach Publishing and the Judges Notes.  I plan to talk about the Judges notes in particular as a separate blog as they are of considerable interest.

 

 

I intend submitting an entry/ies to the 2013 Bead Dreams Bead Artisty Contest.  Ideas have already formulated in my mind, however they need to stay there awhile longer as I am currently preparing beadwork for a new beading book about worldwide beading connections of which I will be a featured beading artist. 

Happy Beading
Mel

Connect Magazine - Member Spotlight - Melissa Ingram Issue 21, June 2012

This month I was featured in the Connect Magazine which is a quarterly publication produced by the Bead Society of Victoria, of which I am a member. I wrote the article at the invitation of Christine Mole who is the Secretary for the Society.  This is the article.

My beading journey began 20 years ago when I happened across a bead store in Fremantle, WA. I went inside and was immediately captivated by the possibilities of what lay inside those clear plastic jars & tubes!! I still have the gold bugle beads I bought that day but oddly I have not really explored bugle beads very much. In those days my capabilities extended only to stringing and creating bead embroidery appliqués but in 2004 whilst I was expecting my first child I began my beadweaving journey. I tried to teach myself peyote, but was even unsure how to pronounce the word peyote! With no YouTube videos available to watch or beading tutors it all just seemed futile. I persevered, and finally mastered this wonderful versatile stitch and have been teaching myself beadweaving stitches ever since. My favourite stitch is CRAW and I am experimenting with Albion Stitch. I attended Laura McCabe’s 2009 and Marcia DeCoster’s 2010 workshops and really enjoyed the experience and have been beadweaving full time more or less since 2008.

I have designed and authored beading and polymer clay projects, tutorials and articles for Australian Beading magazine since April 2008. My beadwork has appeared on the front cover five times, an achievement I am very proud of.

In 2010 I entered the “Create Your Style” Swarovski’ Australian Competition. 3 entries were finalists in the Open Division and 1 entry was a finalist in the Creative Division.

Late 2011 I enthusiastically submitted 3 pieces of beadwork to Lark Publishing as there was a call for submissions for their book ‘Showcase 500 Beaded Jewelry’. February 2012 I received amazing news that ‘Melbournian’ and ‘Magic Carpet Ride Cuff’ were included in the book. The book will be released on August 7th 2012, and is available to ‘pre-order’ through Amazon.com.

My beadwork necklace ‘Lashed Lily’ is currently in the US awaiting second round judging for the Fire Mountain Beads & Gems Swarovski Jewelry Competition. Lashed Lily is a sinister name I know but it refers purely to the Swarovski ‘Lily’ pendants used in the design. ‘Lashed’ refers to exactly that as I have lashed two ‘Lily’ pendants together.

During 2011 I was very disappointed having at not being able to complete my Bead Dream entry in time for the deadline. We had moved from Melbourne to Brisbane due to my husbands employment so life was hectic and it just proved too difficult to meet the deadline. The piece inended for submission was ‘Melbournian’ which evolved from my grief of having to move away from my beloved Melbourne. This piece was later selected for the ‘Showcase 500 Beaded Jewelry’ book so the journey of creating ‘Melbournian’ actually ended very happily.

After being dissapointed in 2012 I worked for 5 months with 6 weeks of 4 – 9 hours of daily beading to complete my beadwork entry for the Bead Dreams competition and as I write this article ‘Tequila Sunrise’ a beadwoven fan neckpiece is awaiting notification results due out in April.

My other love is Soutache embroidered jewellery and I have been sampling and learning as much as I can for the last year or so. My other interests include Crystal Clay, Precious Metal Clay, Polymer Clay and Resin

In September this year I will be teaching Soutache and Crystal Clay workshops at www.aussiebeadingretreats.com on the Sunshine Coast, QLD.

What’s next for me....? I intend on exploring and experimenting further to push the boundaries of my beadwork and Soutache Embroidery.

My website is www.aussiebeader.com

Vintage Porcelain Doll Face Cabochons

From left to right 'Lola', Missing #7, 'Nadine', 'Whitney', 'Veronica' and 'Edith' is centre (GI Jane is not shown).

Coco - Guardian Girl (Private Collection)

I purchased a large booty of vintage (1940's) minature, handpainted porcelain doll face cabochons from the US back in 2008.  The dealer knew very little about them; other than they were made in Taiwan and possibly from the 1940's.

I have 6 different  and beautiful face cabochons in 3 sizes listed in my Etsy store.  There is a 7th face cabochon, however I am having some difficulty locating her.  Each face is delicately handpainted and while each may look the same if you compare them they are in fact unique.  Some imperfections are present in some of the faces, but they are slight.  There are  no cracks or chips in any of the cabochons.

I got busy with them and created perhaps, twenty or so beaded girls.  I called the collection 'Guardian Girls', they all sold.

I lost interest in beading my girls, boxed and shelved them in my bead stash cupboards and moved on to beading other jewellery bits and pieces. 

I posted a pic of Coco (who now resides with my dear High School friend, Jane) an elaborately embellished Guardian Girl on Joanne Browne's (of JosJewels1) Facebook page as she was seeking inspiration for beading some face cabochons that she had been gifted. 

The interest in my girls was so great that I decided to list them in my Etsy store for others to share.  I listed them yesterday and overnight there was a flurry of activity.  I've got girls travelling to Mexico, Israel, the US and a few orders within Australia.

I charge only what Australia Post charge me ie there are no inflated postage rates or handing charges.  I will refund any postage over charge, guranteed.

I will reserve some girls to take with me to the Aussie Beading Retreats in September of this year to offer at the mini market (Friday night) along with other fabulous bits and bobs from my giant bead stash!!

Take heed though .. if you 'want em .. git em quick'.  The supply is not infinite and so when they are gone my friends, they are gone.  Happy Beading

Jenny (Private Collection)