Seeing spots - A JAC challenge

What's your first thought when you hear "spots"? Mine were lampwork beads with dots, but when I checked out my stash, I found that I had used most of them, and I simply didn't have an idea for one lonely lampwork bead (yet).
My second thought for the Jewelry Artisans Community July/August challenge, however, were sequin spots on ladybugs. Now that was something I could do, even if a bead order was necessary to finish the project.

Ladybugs have turned up in my work several times, in bead loomed bracelets, earrings, even as the one polymer clay sculpture that I really like.
All of them have seven spots like the original Coccinella septempunctata, the European ladybug, a species which has also been introduced to the USA.
Have you ever seen clusters of ladybugs, in your house or on an outside wall for example? Those were probably Asian ladybugs or harlequins. They were introduced to the USA for controlling aphid populations and also came to Europe from there, but have proven to be a very invasive species. They come in different colors and can have any kind of number of spots on their elytras.
I remember seeing clusters like these twice, once on the bathroom window of a hotel room that had been left open. Luckily, the door to the hotel room itself had been closed! The other time was on a path just outside Cambridge. There were so many of them that we decided to take a different path because it would have been impossible not to step on them.

These ladybug earrings are the European kind as you can tell from the number of their spots, black sequins that sit on bead embroidered red wings.
They come on their own "leaves", an edging from matte green AB cube beads.

Challenge goal achieved! :-)

P.S. A little tip - don't spill black sequins on a black surface, especially not if it's already night. Actually, don't spill shiny black sequins at all. I spent more time than I liked with picking them off my hand with a needle because they kept clinging to it.
P.P.S. I have been thinking of making melon earrings in the same manner. What do you think, good idea or are there enough melons around already?

Tackle that stash - Peyote tube earrings

When going through the beads for my winged scarab, I found two tubes of Delica beads in my stash drawer. Both of them had been part of a surprise mix order. Whenever I put in a bead order, I can't resist putting one lot of these surprise mixes in my cart.
I may be getting some colors, shapes, or sizes of beads that leave me clueless for the moment, but it's always a nice challenge to use something I would never have thought of ordering, and some of those beads were just spot-on for projects of mine.

These particular tubes were size 10 and size 8 Delicas. I mostly use my Delicas for bead looming and it could have proved quite difficult to incorporate these bigger ones in an item, so I had to come up with something different and small.
What came to mind first were peyote tube earrings, but of course I would have to add something to the tubes, just plain - even if lustrous - white with a gold lining or red wouldn't be much fun.

So after making the tubes, I went through my stash one more time.
I love these tiny golden AB cubes, so much that I when I first discovered the tiny cubes, I got a whole bunch of them which I still haven't used up completely.
Their edges nestle up to the spaces between the Delicas perfectly.
Just two Swarovski crystals and some tiny seed beads and voilà, a beautiful pair of earrings!

As the red Delicas were smaller, they also needed smaller accents, but what?
That's when my eye fell on my little Steiff ladybug wool miniature (the yellow shine is from my daylight lamp, by the way, for real she is completely red). Perfect!
How do you like my ladybug earrings?

Saturday night ramblings

Ah ... a nice, quiet evening. With a drink and a quasi-almost-pseudo-healthy snack. Sounds good, doesn't it? That's what I thought.

The drink was easy. So was choosing the snack. To avoid the bell peppers in the fridge to go bad and start moaning like a zombie like the neglected cauliflower did, I decided to have them with a dip. The peppers are the healthy part, a sour cream dip the not quite so healthy one, but I was out of yogurt. Just a little of salt and pepper mixed into the cream and I'm a happy girl.

I opened the cabinet above the stove and got out the salt. Too bad that the bag with the peppercorns was leaning against it, and that "resealable" doesn't always work. You can guess it, down it came and there were peppercorns everywhere. Jumpy little buggers, the lot of them, they could have participated in the Olympics. They even had an audience in all of my cats who seemed to wonder what the old lady was doing this time. I bet they would have liked a snack to go with the show.

Finally I had found them all and was ready to go on with my simple dip. I put the salt back and grabbed the pepper mill. That's when the bag with the caraway went down. Can you say "resealable"? The bag couldn't. Someone remind me that I need to buy caraway the next time I go shopping. It was all over the place. I'm so glad there was no one to take a picture of me, I'm sure I looked like a big old idiot. So I started cleaning again. The audience had left, they seeemed to think it was getting a little embarrassing by now. That's why they missed when I put the pepper mill back and the bag with the loose tea came down. No worries, it was unopened .... but somehow it had managed to catch some of the caraway. That was the point where I started giggling uncontrollably. I mean, seriously, what are the odds?

You'll be pleased to hear that I'm enjoying my bell peppers and dip while I'm writing this post. To speak with a quote from one of my favorite movies "All is well". 

Now let's get to my latest in looming. Actually I have two things to tell.

Let me put on my white lab coat first and laugh in an incredibly evil way. Mwahahahaaaaaa!

The piece I finished today was inspired by my sister and two movies of my childhood (re-runs, I'm not that old). Who could resist giant ants making a cool sound and a giant tarantula? (Them! and Tarantula - and can anyone tell me why the DVD of "Them!" is still that incredibly expensive??)

I felt I needed to contribute to the myth, and what better to strike fear in people's hearts than a giant ladybug?? ;-) I had practised before on a large polymer clay ladybug and now it was time to put that into beads.

Are you afraid? Are you? Well, here it is, and hopefully it'll be in my shop soon as well.

For the second announcement I don't need my lab coat, just a second. There. Most of you might already know it, but I can't help it, I am just so happy to say that my "Carrot Thief" cuff has been chosen for display at the BEADERS BEST Bead Art Fair. I made this cuff last year and entered it after I had loomed for just a few months, so yes, I am excited about this!!

Ok, enough now. If you made it until the end of this post, thank you! ;-)

P.S. By the way, I just spilled sour cream dip on my t-shirt *multiple headdesks*

Bug alert!

No worries, I am not talking about a computer bug. I haven't had to deal with that since I got my new notebook - which by the way is called The Patrician, for those familiar with the Discworld, a name that I find fits very well. So why am I calling out bug alert? Well, the Polymer Clay Smooshers on ArtFire had a challenge called "Bugs" this month. It took me a while to have any ideas at all, but finally I came up with two entries. This is Ms. Ladybug. She stands out between her bug friends as compared to them she's a monster bug with her 1.75 inch length and her (still) shiny copper wire legs. She doesn't care much, though. All she needs is her leaf, a little sun and some love. My other entry is one of my mixed technique items that I like to make. It's a small black butterfly that has landed on a purple rose blossom. The blossom is lying in one of my wire crochet baskets on a bed of brown "soil". You can find both entries in my ArtFire studio. And don't forget to check out the Smooshers' blog to see all of the fabulous entries. Amazing work from amazing artists!!