Beautiful Beads......

I just received beads I ordered from Manik Jawa, all are beautiful.....I love the colors very much, they are fabulous. It is a mixture of glass beads, precious stones and pearls. Lovely.....

My weekend projects

Early in the morning some ideas on hijab pins suddenly popped out of my head....... so as usual I grab my tools and my beads..... and these they are........

Love them........

Let's see what tomorrow will bring.........

And these are my late Sunday's  projects. I still have several projects to finish..... but they have to wait till the next weekend....... and also my bead soup, bead swap, and 1st challenge projects..... which are still in the design phase....

7th Bead Soup Blog Party - The Soup Ingredients

I've received my bead soup this afternoon......I was still in my office and I couldn't wait to open the envelope... I really was excited, After the envelope, there was a paper wrapping...... It wrapped beautifully with a lilac paper and a beautiful butterfly, silk color ribbon, and a picture of a dancing fairy. This is it

And then I opened the wrapping...... and there they were the beautiful ingredients of a bead soup.....the color is in the tone of golden brownish with silver toggle clasp and connectors (metal beads). And the focal... it is very special. I love it very much..... for me the shape of the focal is similar to Platypus. I should ask Liz, whether I am right.

This is my bead soup from Liz Jones, Australia..... after a long journey from Port Kembla to Jakarta,

Beautiful and cute isn't it? Love the color very much.... this is my favorite color after green, and I use this color on almost all of my clothes :). And look at the focal..... beautiful isn't it.

I have something in my mind, but I am still unsure. But yes, when I saw the beads I almost at that time thinking of grabbing my tools and started to work. And this is because I love them so much.....

Now about Platypus. According to wikipedia, it  is a semiaquatic mammal mostly live in eastern Australia, including Tasmania. This is a very special kind of mammal because it lays eggs instead of giving birth. And it has an unusual appearance which is the combination of a duck (it has a beak), a beaver (the tail) and an otter (the feet). This is the picture of a real Platypus:

Interesting isn't it.... This is so special from Australia.

Now about my bead soup that I sent to Liz, this is the picture. I put three main colors, brownish, greenish, and oranges to give more choices for Liz (and because I have a little paranoia of the missing beads in the journey). These bead soup are from Manik Jawa and Dnayra Sweet, while the toggle clasps are from Studio Manik.

And if you are wondering what everybody sent and received, please browse the pinterest http://pinterest.com/limamike/7th-bead-soup-blog-party-participants-only/and facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/BeadSoupCafe/559629324061912/?notif_t=group_activity. Lori uses both media to put all the pictures of the soups and later the end results.

Green green grass......

Remember the song (this is really a very old song...... maybe sang in 1950-1960) Green Green Grass of Home? I searched in the YouTube and found out that it sang by Tom Jones. I downloaded for you the video by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdink.... with the lyrics.

Yesterday I made a brooch and a hijab pin with the color resemble the grass in the picture. When I see the green color of the druzy used and the rose clay, they reminds  me of grass, even I can smell the sweetness of the grass.... it gives a feeling of fresh air, and also coolant for eyes....

The brooch made from 2 different sizes of druzy stones, a rose clay, metal beads (small) and silver wire from Scientific Wire Company for the 0.3 mm and Artistic Wire for the 1.02 mm (18 ga). The 0.3 mm wire is stiff and hard to bend. So, my netting is not in the same sizes for each wire drawn. I should practice more on using those wire, to make my hands used to it. One thing that also I should exercise more is on making symmetrical jewelry. It is difficult for me, my hands and my mind don't like to do something that is in order..... They like to move wherever they like to go..... So, the picture shows exactly what I mean.

This hijab pin is made from rose clay, green glass beads, green "shell like" glass bead with picture of pink flower, and 2 forms of metal leaves. This is not too difficult to make. I think I already overcome my difficulty to bend the "needle" pin.

7th Bead Soup Blog Party - is now in the Pinterest

7th Bead Soup Blog Party now is in the Pinterest. This is great, Pinterest is an application in the internet where you can posts, follows, pins, comments everything you like.  And the good thing about it is that you can always see the pictures again and again at anytime...... Just like a board where you can pin pictures. Love this Pinterest very much, because all the beautiful things, nature and handmade, are there...... and we can scroll it and look for inspirations.....

This is the address http://pinterest.com/limamike/7th-bead-soup-blog-party-participants-only/

This special board was designed by Lori special for the participants of the 7th Bead Soup Blog Party. In the Board all the participants can post the beads they received and the ending results. I can imagine what it would be like..... Pictures of wonderful handmade jewelries...... just to imagine that has make me hold my breath..... wowwwwwww.......

You've Got Mail

I've just seen an old (not that old though....) movie.... You've Got Mail starred by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (1998). I love this movie..... it contrasted everything new and old... that although eventually the new ones will deprive the old ones, but still for me everything old should be maintained. It depicts how internet has changed the world, changed human relation, how we can easily discuss our private feeling to someone we barely know.

Another thing that I love about this movie is the bookstore owned by Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan).... oh how I love if there is a bookstore like that here.... where we are treated like a human and not just a consumer, where the owner knows everything about the books, where there is a personal touch in every product sold. The bag for the books is from specially designed cloth, not some cold and boring, inartistic plastic bags. Where the owner knows you by name.....how warm the feeling must be....

I also love the small bookstore design, it is lovely.... and the market (traditional?) where you can buy so many varieties of beautiful flowers. And last but not least.... I love the song "Somewhere over the rainbow" sang by Harry Nilsson in the ending part of the movie. It is a song from Wizard of Oz...

I love Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in their romantic movie, Sleepless in Seattle and this You've Got Mail. According to Wikipedia there is one more Joe Versus Volcano, but I don't think I ever saw and heard about it.

And this is the lyric of the song:
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow.
Why then, oh why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?

And this is the real singer;

Hmmmm........ what is the connection between the movie, the song and handmade jewellery...... I am not sure, maybe the rainbow reminds me of the beautiful colors of beads.

Again..... A Challenge......

Just now Manik Jawa announced the participants of a new challenge called 1st Tantang Dirimoe which means Challenge yourself. And the challenge is to make the Raden Saleh famous painting In Letzter Not, which you can see in her article, as an inspiration of whatever art you make.

I love art, although I really am aware that I am not an artist at all and have not, even just a little, a taste, a feeling or an eye as an artist....But still I love all beautiful things, God creations and human made. And this painting is so beautiful and whenever I see it my adrenalin rise just to imagine the feeling of the man in the painting. This is the picture I copied from Manik Jawa.

In Letzter Not, 1842

Oil on canvas

154cm x 168.5cm

by

Raden Sarief Bastaman Saleh (1807 - 1880)

So, back to the challenge ...... we should make this painting as an inspiration,  from all possible perspectives  as long as it is not a reproduction of the painting. We can take only the color or the form or anything from this picture for our handmade product.

The names of the participant is listed here and I am one of them. Although.... yes you're right... I don't have any idea what to make by seeing the painting. But this is a challenge, and like any other challenge I have to let go my imagination to the unlimited possibilities. Today, while this is weekend and I have a whole day just to myself, I think I will think about it.....

Before close this blog for today, I like to give credit to and congratulate Manik Jawa who has made and initiate this challenge. You're awesome and have lots of amazing ideas.