Thank you Miriam of Cielo Designs

I greatly admire Miriam of Cielo Designs. She is a very talented bead artist, I mean that in the truest sense of the word "Artist". I am so grateful to her for sending me the directions for her "square Neck chain". I had admired it for sometime so I emailed her and she was so kind as to share it with me. Here is my rendition of it. The rosette I found in an old beadwork magazine and I wanted to use russian leaves but I also wanted to incorporate more peach flowers so I thought why not put them at the tips of the leaves. I am a "green" girl by nature and usually use alot of green in my designs. I loved the sage green that I used in this piece and was happy that I could find it in all bead types and sizes. "So A BIG THANK YOU to Miriam of Cielo Designs....check out her etsy store.

Autumn Harvest Free Form Necklace

I know it has been quite sometime since I posted anything new, please forgive me. I have been busy beading away but I have also been dealing with some medical issues. I have several leg problems one of which is Lympadema. It has been acting up like never before. It causes severe swelling, then I get blisters, they in turn rupture and me legs weep. The key to dealing with it is to keep the swelling down. For the past 4 or 5 months I can't seem to get it under control. Any way that is why I haven't been on here. I am still able to bead and I have still continued to teach classes occasionally but that is about all I am able to do. I have to try to keep my legs elevated as much as possible.

Any way here is a free form necklace I completed several weeks ago. I have never been very good with free form but I loved the carnelian leaf and wanted to try my hand once again at free form peyote. I am very pleased with the results. So much so that I am going to try my hand at teaching the way I made this piece.

Bead Challenge

The Bead Society of Central Florida which I am a proud member of had their 3rd bead challange on July 14th, 2009. There were 4 categories Bead Weaving, Bead Stringing, Wire Work and Non-Wearables. I am thrilled to let you all know that I placed 1st in the Bead Weaving Category and received BEST OF SHOW. Our inspiration for the challange was a picture (see previous post). The thing that caught my eye in the picture was the colors! Next was the bare trees. My fringe represents the branches of the trees with the buds at the tip of each branch. Flowers because of the several small plants, plus I just know that a meadow would certainly have "Wild Flowers." I used a beautiful polymer clay bead by "Klew" that my cousin (who is also a bead weaver) gave me for my birthday a few years back. I am very pleased with the way my "Serene Garden Bouquet" turned out. I started working on this back in April and was really going to town with it but then I had some health issues and didn't bead much on it until July. I was working away on it the day of the challange and I managed to finish it 4 hours before I had to leave for the judging.

Here in hot humid Florida it is just too hot to be outdoors so I have been getting alot of beading done the past week. Until next time Bead Happy!

Valley of Lily's

I just wanted to share the latest piece I've made. This is one of my most popular designs, I call it Valley of Lily's. I have made quite a few of these in all different colors. They usually have 5 gemstone leaves in them and approximately 49 little flowers. This particular one has only 3 leaves and 38 flowers. I have kits of this design and have sold many of them at Bead & Button and Bead Fest shows. If you would like to see other pictures of some of the different one's I have made or are interested in a kit please email me and I will be happy to send you pictures and information on the kits. This one was made for a friend who loves Turquoise so I chose Amazonite leaves and various shades of Turquoise beads.

I am still working on my challange piece and it is getting down to crunch time. Only 9 days left and I have so much yet to do on this piece of jewelry art, So I really need to get busy on it. Till next time Bead Happy!

My Latest

Here it is only the middle of June and here in Orlando the weather feels like it is August! It is just too hot to be outside much so I have been beading up a a storm here in the comfort of the Air conditioning. I have been working on several commissioned pieces and finally finished this one. I used Coral gemstone leaves and some 4 mm coral round beads to embellish it along with the flowers made with 11/0 and 15/0 seed beads. The second piece is almost finished so maybe today I will get it completed.

In between I have been working on a challange piece. I belong to the Bead Society of Central Florida and we are having our 3rd bead challange. This one has been a challange too. This picture called "Serene Purle Lake" was to be our inspiration. I have been working on it for the past 2 1/2 months with our deadline being July 14th and I am no where finishing it. I keep telling myself that I work best under pressure and I will get it done!

In the mean time I have numerous ideas in my head for new projects but I don't dare start anything new until I finish up some of the ones I have started.

7/5/09 Here is a better picture of the necklace..the color is better and show a little more detail.

Icicles in Florida

This is a piece that a friend commissioned me to make for her. She wanted an Icicles Necklace full with plenty of sparkle. This was really hard to photograph and the colors are not true. I used 60 grams of a lustery silver grey bead for the main color accented with metallic silver beads for the tips of each fringe. Plus on some of the fringes are 3 mm czech firepolish in a crystal/silver finish, a total of 300 of them. The picture picks up pink for some reason but there is no pink in it. She loves it and that makes me extremely happy!

Fruit Salad ...Yummy

A few weeks ago I was in bead shop in Tampa and saw a necklace simular to this made with all sorts of beads. It made me think of Fruit Salad and all those fruit beads I bought 4 or 5 years ago. I made a couple of bracelets using them but then what to do with all those left overs. So I made a mental note to try my hand at making a necklace using them. Of course I still have plenty of leftovers but I am pleased at all I was able to use.

Two of my Newest Creations

I have been on a yellow kick lately and made this piece using a 2 layered flower that I came up with. Each flower is a different color combination. The neck strap is a variation of Russian spiral. This other picture is my version of Dogwood Blossoms. My mom loves Dogwood's so several years ago I came up with this blossom and made her a necklace for Christmas. I ran across my scribbled directions several weeks ago and decided to try my hand at another necklace using them I am very pleased with how it turned out.

My First Blog Ever

A number of my friends have ask me why didn't I have a blog or a web site? Well I really am not too computer savy and I guess I was just afraid. Well I have taken the plunge at last...Thank you Svetlana for asking me..you were the one who made me realize that I really should have blog.
Let me introduce myself, my name is Darla Jean and I am a bead weaver! I have been beading for about 22 years but I didn't start bead weaving until 1998. I had always been drawn to seed beads but I really didn't know what to do with them. I bought them and played with them but never really made anything with them. I took my first class ever (I was a self taught beader) in the stitch called Peyote and I was hooked. Since then I have taken classes with some of the BEST. I do mostly Floral type work using nature as my inspiration. I have my favorite national instructors that I have taken classes with, Margo Field is probably number one and number two is Stephanie Eddy. I have leaned so much from these ladies about techniques, designing and the love of beads! Thank You.
I also love the Russian Beadwork as well. I am inspired by other bead weavers work and I spend hours sometimes searching for beautiful beadwork online. I have attended the Bead & Button show about 5 times and I have been a teachers assistant there for Elizabeth Townes. I teach beading on the local level here in Orlando, Florida and I am involved in several beading groups one being Bead Society of Central Florida. I have won a number of ribbons for my work in competitions and challanges.
Enough about me...Welcome to my blog and I hope you will fine something inspirational here from time to time.
Here are several pieces that I have completed in the past month.