But as much as I love the Christmas season I hate WINTER. I live in the West in the USA among the Rocky Mountains, and I don't ski. Or snowboard. I like inner-tubing though. (Sledding but with a giant inner tube of a wheel.) I just don't like the cold.
Which is why it is frustrating to see green grass, beautiful blossoms, and SNOW.
But it may be why I've been inspired lately to work on my new series of mini-ornaments. And when I say mini, I mean the ball is only an inch tall.
You'll have to forgive the bad photos I put up of my work, I'm not wealthy enough to own a fancy camera, so I use my phone.
The ornament by itself and then the ornament with my thumb as a reference for size. (Wow, I'm reflected in them! Freaky! ^_^)
Techniques used - Ladder Stitch, Right Angle Weave (or RAW), and Fringe.
The ornament I just bought from a craft store (JoAnn) and it came in a box of 27 (bonus!). I used 3mm yellow cat-eyes, silver-lined yellow AB (size 11) beads, galactic blue gold mix (size 11), and 4mm blue iris bugle beads. Basically it's a 2 seed bead, 2 specialty bead pattern.
For inspiration I looked at a lot of ornaments, and the ones that I were drawn to were the Victorian Era beaded ornaments. Not that they stopped there. There were ornaments made of everything! The Victorians were bigger users of every day materials than we are today - we just have a lot more materials available.
There were paper ornaments, metal ornaments, fabric scraps were sewn into hearts and stars and Father Christmas, and what was not able to be used in clothing or decor were used for the multiple trees that they had. Any scrap of trimming, any ANYTHING that had sparkle or charm or interest was salvaged.
I will be making more of these, so there will be a tutorial later (if you want one).
it's lovely Faewren!!! I'd love a tutorial on how to make these!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, although beading isn't my line of work. And they're so tiny! Je-bus!
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