Sweet Bead Studio — Handcrafted jewelry by Cindy Wimmer

Wordless Wednesday….with one word you may like.

by Cindy on February 29, 2012

Okay, this post can’t be entirely wordless because I do have one word for you:

This is my way of saying thank you for all of the kind compliments on my last post. When you leave a comment here, you’ll be entered to win a set of the very same lampwork beads that I used in my February ABS bracelet. I’ll draw a winner one day next week…. see? Very few details. Practically wordless.

Update 3/7/12: The Winner has been announced! Congrats to Lynda of Fresh Baked Designs!! 🙂

– Cindy

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Art Bead Scene – February Challenge

by Cindy on February 26, 2012

As man of you know, every month Art Bead Scene features a piece of art for inspiration. The challenge is to use an art bead in your design, anything from jewelry to collage art. I was intrigued by the choice this month, a beautiful watercolor and ink painting – hundreds of years old.

The Conference of the Birds by Habiballah

Page from a manuscript of the Mantiq al-Tayr (The Language of the Birds) of Farid al-Din `Attar

ca. 1600; Safavid Iran (Isfahan)

Opaque watercolor, ink, silver, gold on paper

10 x 4 1/2 in. (25.4 x 11.4 cm)

Fletcher Fund, 1963

Perusing through my art beads, I set out to see what I might find that would evoke feelings or colors from this piece of art. I found a lampwork set that I have held on to for years…just waiting for the right project. It is a large set of tabs and coordinating spacer beads. Unfortunately I can no longer find the information for the artist (if you recognize the lampwork/artist, please let me know). Not only were the colors just right, but I can see a stream running through the beads, just as in the painting.

I added a touch of the gold in the painting by working with bronze wire. The wire knots were made by hand, one by one.

To see how others were inspired by the ABS challenge this month, visit the Flickr pool here.

Thank you for stopping by!

-Cindy

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Bead Shopping!

by Cindy on February 19, 2012

The International Gem and Jewelry Show is in town. It’s been so long since I went last…I haven’t needed any more beads with all of the beads I have stock piled here (sound familiar?). However…. one of my sons will be making his First Communion this Spring and I realized I had better start looking for the right beads now. The last time I was shopping for rosary beads, I had fun looking for them in person at Bead Fest Wire.

So on the way to school Friday morning, I handed my son a Fire Mountain Gems catalogue to look over bead types and colors. I especially recommend this catalogue to beginners who are just learning the names of bead shapes and types of stones, as FMG is happy to send out a free 400+ page print catalogue – what a great reference (you can order one here). I told my son that if he saw anything he might like for his rosary, to fold down the corner of the page and put a big X on the picture. Later before I headed out to the bead show, I opened the catalogue to see what my son had chosen.

Let’s see, shiny green coin pearls were circled…

Carved carnelian beads…he did tell me he liked carnelian in the past.

I wasn’t surprised to see this. A few weeks ago he told me he was thinking of “limestone” beads because he likes limes. 🙂

Oh, okay. Horses! His Aunt would approve of these beads…..

But wait. Shark teeth?? Okay, he is a 7 year old boy.

Needless to say I left for the bead show not really sure what color or type of stone to look for. There’s still time to get to the bottom of it. I did have a blast at the show, taking my time persusing the beads. Usually I’m in such a rush, or it used to be that I had a baby in the Baby Bjorn with me (and they sure get heavy after a few hours!). I enjoyed spending time chatting with Tracy Statler while there. It is really neat when I get to visit with people from our online community in person!

Would you like to see what I brought home? Oh, and for the first time in bead show shopping history, I didn’t buy a single piece of sterling silver – not a single bead.