Welcome to ChrisBeads!

A Blog about Bead addiction, crochet, knitting and life in general.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Made-It


Have just discovered a website for AUSTRALIAN crafters and have listed a couple of items to see how it goes. It does not accept items from makers outside of Australia and this seems simpler than listing on etsy where there is an international market.
Will see how it goes over the next few weeks.

I have so much stock on hand that I think I could list every day for a month and still have some to spare.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Viking Weave


Finally finished the Viking Weave earrings which I learned from Kay (Kay's Artycles) at the Bead Retreat. I really enjoyed Kay's class and the earrings were fun to make.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

BSV Bead Retreat 2010

Last weekend I spent three full days at the Bead Society of Victoria's annual Bead Retreat at Mt Eliza. This is the first time I have been able to stay for the whole weekend and what an action packed time was had by all. The Retreat is held at the Toorak College campus and some 60 odd women spent some, or all of the weekend in beading related pursuits. Whether it was teaching a class, or taking a class, buying beads or just spending time in beady chat with like minded people, the whole event was just fantastic.


On the Friday morning I taught a class how to make my frog design and by the end of the weekend there were quite a few frogs hopping by.

In the afternoon, I tackled a class in Viking Knit which was taught by Kay Lancashire of Kay's Articles. Her kit contained all the tools needed to complete the earrings and whilst I haven't quite finished them, they turned out better than I expected.

My next class was "Circle of Wonder" with Melita Gillett and whilst I almost completed the pendant in class, it was much more difficult to make it look good than I had hoped. Instead of being symmetrical it is a little lop sided. Better keep practising.

Polymer Clay beads with Dani Rapinett from Whimsical Bead was probably more up my alley. I hadn't made any sort of cane before and the snail cane resulted in some terrific beads.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Another froggy!


A while back I made a brooch in the shape of a frog on a lilypad. Recently, I needed a scarf ring and decided the frog would look good in that form. Here he is, and the ring also fits on my finger so he is getting some wear that way too.