Firstly, I was hugely honored to have been included in the Gallery Section of Marcia DeCoster's Beads In Motion book. This is one amazing book, let me tell you - the premise, that the beads can be used to construct pieces with movement and motion, makes every project a winner, and of course Marcia's design and color sense will just blow you away. If you don't have it in your beading library yet, you MUST go get yourself one! My favorite project from the book is the Victorian Slide Bracelet, with the fabulous Swing Dance Earrings (Lark has a free PDF download for these, too!) a close second. Both of these look not only fun to bead, but fun to wear!! (I'm a self-proclaimed fiddler when it comes to jewelry - I will constantly twiddle and play with whatever bead work I have on, so this book is heaven!)
Victorian Slide Bracelet
Swing Dance Earrings
Marcia included my Spring Buds Necklace on Page 123; Spring Buds features a lampworked bead made by Diane Woodall, which swivels within it's 'bower.' Thank you SO much, Marcia!! Sabine Lippert's Pendulum Necklace is above me on the page, which makes me grin ear to ear.
Spring Buds Necklace
And, speaking of Sabine, I want to encourage you to visit her blog and read THIS post, and to visit Marcia's blog and read THIS post; Sabine has been working on something important to the beady world, an alliance for a better, more honest and ethical beading community, something with a real positive slant rather than the usual negative view, and I think Marcia and Sabine have said everything perfectly, so I'm not going to try to word it any differently. :)
In August, I was honored again, to be included in Issue #5 of Digital Beading Magazine Australia with an interview and my first ever published project!! I didn't know who else was in the magazine until I received my copy of it - and was just knocked out to find that I was in there along with such beady superstars as Kerrie Slade, Lynn Davy, Kinga Nichols, Karolina Emingrova, Alla Maslennikova and many more. My project is Springtime Wrap Bracelet - a beaded bracelet inspired by the macrame wrap bracelets which have been so popular this year. I thought it would be fun to try to come up with the same kind of look in seed beads, and so wrote this project out earlier this year.
Springtime Wrap Bracelets
If you'd like to make the project, Digital Beading Mag can be found HERE, and you can buy the single issue if you aren't sure you want to subscribe. But I can almost guarantee you will want to get the subscription, because this magazine is PACKED with projects and fabulous things - just busting at the seams with beadiness. Kinga's cuff project is magical, Lynn's collar project is gorgeous and soooo versatile, and Kerrie's spiral rope with peanut beads has actually inspired me to get a few peanut beads and try them out; I honestly haven't picked up a single farfelle bead yet, but now I must! :) A huge thank you to DBM for including my project - it's been so much fun, and I have had so many people tag me in photos of wrap bracelets they've made. I love every single one of the ones I've seen, everyone can make something unique with it!
The website has been desperately needing a bit of updating, and Sherwood and I have spent the weekend working on it. I found that some of my photos didn't have credit listed for the designers, which made me completely miserable - HUGE apologies to any designer whose work wasn't credited - it is now!!! A lot of my newer pieces weren't in the gallery, we needed to add some links and update the publications list and I wanted to make a customer gallery. I really wanted to change fonts, as I was unhappy with the one I chose, so we did that too. I am happy to say that we managed to get almost all of it accomplished.
The Customer Gallery is up and running, and it's full of beautiful variations people have made from my tutorials. Please come and check it out! If you've made one of my projects and would like to have your piece in the Customer Gallery, just send it to me at nedale67@gmail.com or post it on FB and tag me in the post, or send it to me via FB messaging. This gallery is still in progress - if you've already sent me photos but they aren't up yet, they probably will be this time next week, so please check back!
My Tutorials Page has been updated as well, and there are now added links for the Mini Tutorials from here on my blog - Twisted Herringbone with Twins post and the Colorplay Ropes post. There are also TWO full PDF patterns available for free, immediate download! I have discontinued both my Lila Earrings Tutorial and my Perfect Evening Earrings Tutorial from my Etsy shop, and so both are now free for the taking if you visit my site. (I'd love to see photos, if you decide to take advantage of them!)
Perfect Evening Earrings
Lila Earrings
I have a sneakiness up my sleeve at the moment, and I had an idea for a necklace that I'm just itching to create as well, but I have to wait for my custom components to be made...