Give Away Winner :: Aotearoa

Our original Kalmbach giveaway took us a little longer than we expected. The necklace was set to go on display Oct 28th, yep that would be right as Hurricane Sandy was heading directly for us in CT. 

Thistle Beads needed to delay the giveaway until they were able to reopen the store in Niantic, CT.  Over the last week, quite a lot of people stopped by the store to sign up, and yesterday we did the drawing. Our winner is ... Carol Ann! 

We asked Carol Ann when she first started beading, and she joked saying "when I learned to talk!" Well alrighty then, we've got ourselves a beader here! She said it was probably closer to age 10, but she's never stopped. She currently teaches beading projects to her adult education students.

When we asked Carol Ann what keeps her beading? She said "to be a lifelong learner." What a great answer!. She said that loves the creativity she finds in the craft and that six people could get the exact same set of beads and each will create something different." Isn't that the truth! We've all see that through our bead soup projects and hops, and I agree that is what is so fun about these projects --- to see how everyone brings their own creativity to the bead table.

She also told us that her favorite stones are turquoise and amber, but she probably leans a bit more toward amber given her Lithuanian roots. Having been to the Baltics myself, I can tell you that the amber is stunning with such a range of colors from light greens and yellows to honey to burnt orange. I hope you enjoy the necklace Carol Ann, congratulations!

Give Away Winner :: Avalon

Thanks to all of you who followed my Kalmbach Bead Soup series with beads from Thistle Beads. I was in touch with Thistle Beads who are in Niantic CT. They are downtown, which is out on one of the coastal points of Connecticut. That means they were hit by the hurricane. They are safe, but still without power. 

We had planned an in-store giveaway with the Aotearoa piece from earlier this week, but sadly they were closed due to the storm and haven't been able to re-open yet. But as soon as they have power back, they'll be doing the give away! So if you are in the area please check in with them and drop by to see how they are doing and put your name into the hat to win.

For those of you who entered my website give away ... we have a winner!

.... Duni, come on down!   
         Duni's Studio

Bead Soup: Avalon :: Priestess of the Isle

This is my final reveal from Kalmbach's Bead Soup with beads from Thistle Beads. This piece is from a pattern that I saw in my favorite inspiration book: Bohemian Inspired Jewelry. I've been eyeing it for awhile and wanted to find just the right elements to pull into this lariat. 

This design is from a beautiful pattern called Flirtation Lariat by Lorelei Eurto. It isn't exactly what she had, but I never follow any pattern exactly as you all know. That is just me. But wow, do I love this pattern. 

The lariat somehow just said medieval to me, and I wanted to put a twist on it. This could be in the Mists of Avalon or perhaps from a Druid inspired outfit. I confess, the story of the Mists of Avalon just took me away to another world. And I could read it over, and over.

If you like fantasy and all the stories about court life, you might want to check this book out if you haven't already read it. It's one of my favorites. It is loosely written around King Arthur's Court, but from a completely different angle. 

For this lariat I used a similar deep rich color, which is similar to what Lorelei used in her pattern in the book. It's a dark wine velvet with wrie wrapped stones, brass findings (leaves, knot, end crimps) and briolettes of lemon quartz. The brass Celtic knot is a 4-sided version with meanings of various earthly elements:

The four directions: North South East West

The four seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall

The four elements: Earth Fire Water Air

The four Celtic festivals: Samhain, Beltane, Imbolc, Lughnasadh

The Celtic knots started appearing in history after about 450 AD, but their meaning is often hard to determine because there is little written history on their purpose. There are rumors that this design is a four-leaf clover design - a symbol of good luck, and legends that the four-cornered Celtic knot design was created as a symbol of protection. The Druids were said to believe it was for the four major energies, or Gods, for governing a specific quadrant of the world. These four-cornered emblem were used to invoke these powers for protection (in the home, during battle, etc)

I mentioned in my post last Sunday that I would have a second give away to my readers on Wednesday. If you are interested in throwing your name into the hat please just leave me a comment telling me you want to enter this one.

For those following my recent posts, I am happy to say I still have power and I'm online! While we have trees down in every direction from hurricane Sandy, and lost the fence, it really could have been so much worse. We are safe, dry and online. Thanks for all the many posts and concerns. I'm hoping all you out there across the East Coast and throughout the Northeast corridor made it through the storm without serious damage or much worry. Stay safe!

Bead Soup: Ashanti :: African Princess

I really love the beads that Thistle Beads sent me in my bead soup. We do still have a give away in progress from Sunday's post at Thistle Beads' store. Check out the post and the necklace for more details. Hopefully they are ok in the path of hurricane Sandy! And if you are not in the area, then come back tomorrow for a second give away for all my readers.

I really wanted to pull out the pottery beads from the soup and highlight them all on their own with a separate necklace. I used a combination of wood beads and root-beer colored seed beads to bring out the colors through the pottery beads, and I added a few jade diamond shaped beads to bring out the pale green in the beads.


Once I was done I realized that the pattern had a tribal feel to it. So I went in search of a name that I thought would reflect the feel of the piece. I went with Ashanti which is a Ghanaian name from Western African along the Ivory Coast. This name is used as a surname by the Akan people of Ghana and associated with the powerful African empire in place from the 17th to early 20th centuries. It denotes power and victory for the people of Ghana.

The fabric shown here is called the Kente Cloth, the traditional garment worn by Ashanti royalty. Currently prevalent throughout Akanland. I love the rich colors and the geometric pattern to it. I also think that the way the pottery beads are stacked horizontally in the center of this piece match the smaller rectangular pieces in the pattern. A coincidence after the fact, but kind cool to see it match up! I can just see this necklace worn with this fabric.

As I am writing this post the trees are bending sideways in my yard. We are on the coastline of CT and hurricane Sandy is approaching our shores. The expectation is to lose power later today, and so I will pre-schedule this post. If you do not hear from me for a week it isn't because I don't want to visit all of your blogs, it is simply because I can't! But I'll be back online as soon as I can. To all those in the storm's path - be safe!

Bead Soup: Aotearoa :: Native New Zealand

I love the depth of color in this piece. Green. My favorite color. Especially forest green. 

Thistle Beads sent me 2 different sizes of beautiful moss agate beads, and I wanted to give it just a little more earthiness by adding some large bloodstone rounds. The flecks in the bloodstone draw on the beautiful copper pieces throughout the necklace. This rich combination reminds me of the indigenous stone of new Zealand, Green Stone, with its own dark flecks in the stone. 

The one here is carved in what is called Koru (unfurling fern fond). It means new beginnings, peace and tranquility --- which is everywhere in the New Zealand landscape. 

There are 190 different native fern species in New Zealand. The most famous one is the silver fern. The symbol worn on the All Black Rugby Team's shirts. It takes its name from its appearance as the bottom of the fern turns silver in the sunlight. 

You'll noticed that the main focal of the necklace is a copper bead with a fern on it. I simply love the copper findings and beads that Thistle Beads sent me. They are gorgeous! And I had to find a way to put that fern bead front and center.

I decided to call this piece Aotearoa, which is the most widely used Maori name for New Zealand. The word breaks down: ao = cloud, tea = white and roa = long. It was called the land of the long white cloud by the Native New Zealanders.  My sister lives in New Zealand, and thus I have been there many times, and I love it more with each visit. It is lush, beautiful and unique with so many indigenous species both plants and animals.

THISTLE BEADS GIVE AWAY: I got my bead soup from a family-run bead store --- a mother daughter team, Melody and Shaylynn. And as we got to talking, we decided on a special treat, to joined up on a couple of give aways. This first piece is currently on display in their store (click here for location and store hours), and they will be taking names for the next week. So anyone living in the Connecticut-Rhode Island-Massachusetts area (or if you happen to be traveling through) all you need to do is stop in the store to put your name into the hat. For those readers that are not nearby, I will have another surprise giveaway on Wednesday. So swing back by for my website for a second giveaway!

Kalmbach: Bead Soup :: Thistle Beads

Way back in July when Lori Anderson was kicking off her latest Bead Soup Party, she asked people if they wanted to sign up for a separate bead soup party with their local bead store. I raised my hand, and then promptly forgot I signed up.

A few weeks ago I got a package in the mail from Kalmbach welcoming me to a Bead Soup Party to promote Lori's new book! Included was some gorgeous, rich, Fall-colored beads and components! They had been sent to me from Thistle Beads, a bead store not far from me.

The rules are pretty much the same. Make something from the soup along with additional items from your own bead table. The only twist ---they asked for only a necklace. I usually let the beads speak to me before I decide if it will be a necklace, bracelet or earrings. But ok. I'm game.

You can see (upper left) the beautiful pieces that Thistle Beads sent me. My package included: moss agate, pottery beads, stones, copper toggle, copper spacers and really pretty copper beads with an etched leaf on the front. I loved the beads so much that I actually split them up and made 3 separate pieces. So over the next few days I'll tell you a little bit more about each one. Stop back tomorrow to hear about the one I made with moss agate and bloodstone!