Tackle that stash - Beaded Tudor Rose pendant

First of all let me say this. I know that this pendant is not an exact replica of the Tudor rose. It is, however,  inspired by it.
The other day I made a pair of flower earrings that reminded me of Kanzashi flowers (which are actually Japanese folded fabric flowers) when I had finished them, and this time I wanted to see how I could make a variation that was maybe a little larger and more three dimensional.

I beaded it from silver lined red and golden seed beads and experimented with how to sew the individual petals together for the best effect.
At first I wanted to leave it at that, but you know me, I love my dangles on earrings or pendants, and this pearl drop makes such a great one.
I was tempted to add something green to it, but then I found it would have been too much here, especially because the green beads in my stash are also silver lined. This is one shiny pendant!

Oldies but Goodies - Gold

Gold - a deep lustrous yellow or yellow-brown colour. Yeah, that totally explains why people are drawn towards gold. Who can keep his hands off some nice yellow-brown?

This week's Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge is about gold or gold tones. You could almost hear the chins hitting the floor. Gold is not as popular a color in our circle as silver and copper, it seems.
It took a few days, but then the pictures started trickling in and some mighty fine pictures, too.
Maybe it will motivate us to work in gold more often?

1 RioRita
2 Echoes of Ela
3 Jewelry Art by Dawn
4 Cat's Wire
5 MC Stoneworks
6 Violetmoon's Corner

The Golden Cat - A HeatherCat giveaway!

Last week I told you about my new loom. By now we have made our first piece together and just as I promised, I'll have a giveaway. One of you will own a very special HeatherCat pretty soon.
Meet the Golden Cat, a variation of the Black Cat.
Golden Cat comes as a bead loomed (obviously!) pendant.
She is from golden Duracoat Delicas with some matte dark golden shadows. Her eyes remind me of the sea, a transparent bluegreen. The background is a beautiful misty blue grey, one of my favorite colors. She comes with a golden ball chain of 23.5 inch or 60 cm length.

Now, what do you have to do to enter my giveaway? It's actually pretty easy. Hop over to my Zibbet shop where the HeatherCats are sold exclusively, pick your favorite among them and let me know in a comment to this post.
Don't forget to give me an e-mail address or some way I can contact you if you are the lucky one!
You have time until next week Saturday midnight my time (the time zone is called UTC +1 if you need look up the difference), well, actually until Sunday morning when I get up, but that depends on my cats, so you may be lucky or not. It's the 22nd of February.
Better do it right away if you want the Golden Cat, so you won't forget.
Once I am up on Sunday and have survived the feeding of the monsters, I will give each comment a number and then draw the winner with the help of Random.org.

Good luck!

Treasure

It had been like an adventure movie - the jungle, the snakes and the spiders, a competing team (even if they didn't carry poisoned arrows, but laptops and electronic devices), the heat, the excitement, and now they were here at the temple's gate.

They looked at each other. Who was to go first? There wouldn't be a trap, there wouldn't be a curse. This was the 21st century, none of them believed in curses and none of them carried a whip and wore a battered hat. They were scientists and still ... in these surroundings even hard-core scientists could suddenly feel doubtful about what to expect in this ancient temple.

Again they looked at each other and laughed in a slightly embarrassed way. Together they opened the heavy stone gate, and holding their torches up high they walked into the dark.

Suddenly one of the torches caught a sparkle, so they walked towards it and there it was - the face of the God.

When I had finished this piece, it reminded me so much of an ancient mask that I suddenly had this image in my mind. I myself would be much too chicken to fight my way through a jungle (the bugs would be my smallest problem, but the heat and the dampness and weird food), but we all probably have dreamed of a moment when we discover a treasure.

This treasure is in my Zibbet shop now where you can also see more pictures.