Wednesday 12 December 2012

Gossiping Goddess Free Bead Challenge

One of the best things about becoming a part of  the on line art bead scene is the generosity and kindness of my fellow jewellery and bead makers. I'm always delighted and amazed at how willing everyone is to share their design ideas, post free tutorials and generally give advice and tips. One such star is Lesley Watt, customer, on line buddy and now real life friend (we spent a lovely afternoon together recently where Lesley kindly shared some precious metal clay knowledge with me). Lucky Lesley was given a fantastic stash of lamp work beads by a friend Kaz Baildon recently and rather than hoard the lot she decided to share the love and give away some of the little beauties to, well to basically anyone who asked by leaving her a comment. Well I was one of the lucky commenter's and for my very small trouble of penning a few lines and the real hardship of pledging to make something with it when it arrived, I received this stunner of a bead.....


I have to say I'd fallen in love with this bead when I saw it on Lesley's blog post and had my fingers well and truly crossed that I would be the luck recipient..... well you know what they say... be careful what you wish for! I have admit to shear avarice with no thought for what I might do with this lovely treasure once I had it. I did however have one determined thought I wanted follow through the cherry tree theme into the necklace with some 3mm garnet coloured glass rounds but that was it.....And so the hunt began for the perfect beads to compliment my little cherry tree. I started of with these.....


It's a little difficult to tell but the fire polished beads were actually the perfect colour match for the green of the tree and the pinky base colour but every which way I tried them the completely overpowered the focal. So these were ditched and the the hunt began again, I eventually decided on these.....


As well as representing the cherries I also wanted to pop some blossom in there somewhere but just an impression rather than using flower beads. This is how I began....



....and this is how I finished.




Thank you Lesley, I hope you like what I've done with your lovely gift.

Here's the link to Lesley's original post - Free Beads Anyone

If you would like to see what everyone else has made then here's the hop.....

Lesley Watt - www.thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com
Cory Tompkins - http://tealwaterdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/
Rebecca Anderson - http://songbeads.blogspot.co.uk/
Marie Cramp -  http://skyejewels.blogspot.co.uk/
Claire Braunbarth - http://smittenbeads.blogspot.co.uk/
Heidi Post - http://expostfactojewelry.blogspot.co.uk/
Tiffany Smith - http://southerngalsdesign.blogspot.co.uk/
Sharyl Macmillan-Nelson - http://sharylsjewelry.blogspot.co.uk/
Ailsa Cordner - http://www.bramalfiebeadsetc.co.uk/
Linda Landig -  http://lindalandig.wordpress.com/
Caroline Dewison - http://blueberribeads.co.uk/
Renetha - http://www.lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com
Kari Asbury - http://hippiechickdesign.blogspot.co.uk/
Niky Sayers - http://silverniknats.blogspot.com
Purple Cobwebs - http://www.purplecobwebs.blogspot.co.uk/
Cilla Watkins - http://www.tellyourgirlfriends.com/