Glass Beads

Beads, beads

2011-05-23T14:13:00.009+05:30

Finally, I decided to make use of the beads in my collection. Here are some bracelets and earrings. I learned jewellry making from my good friend R. None of the above jewellry are with me. I have given away all of them as gifts.

Silk frock

2011-05-23T11:52:00.004+05:30

I am not going to tell that I am back. Today I am in a mood to update my blog after such a long long break. I will brief you what had been upto for all these days. I had been through a slightly rough period of time but always trying to overcome that by doing what I love to do (painting, sketching, stitching, took a break from my job :) ). I had been attending all kinds of classes to keep myself engaged. I learned to do ari work, jewelry making, and oil painting. I realized how useful hobbies can be to relieve stress and keep mind calm.

This is a little frock I made for my niece. She is 3 months old. Sorry about the picture. I was in a hurry and have only one snap of the frock. The green fabric flower on the frock is something I had made sometime back. You can see it here.

Little White Frock

2009-06-26T10:43:00.007+05:30

I am back. I am so sorry for not updating my blog for such a long time (if somebody is still coming to my blog).

This is a little frock which I made for my neighbor’s daughter. She is such a cutie pie that I feel she should look really cute in this. I was hunting for a cute frock for her for almost a month now and was not able to pick any. That was because if I liked the piece I will not like the price (I could not believe the price tags of the baby girl frocks -Rs 600-750) and if the price is fine, the dress is awful (loaded with all kind of embellishment, unmindful of the inconvenience caused to the little one who would wear it). And all this while, it did not occur to me that the highly priced ones are made so simple and with less decorations and so elegant looking, and I had the knowledge of sewing and I would easily do one.

Finally, yesterday I took all my courage to make one and turned out to be okay.

I used:
1. Half a meter of white hakoba material.
2. A cute white button.
3. An organdy ribbon for the bow.
4. A 14 inches of white cotton lace.

Another photo of the frock.

Dont miss the label at the back :)

Simple Kurta

2009-03-20T09:37:00.008+05:30

Usually, during summer I purchase some cotton kurtas for the season. This time I was particular I design my own. Here is the first one which I have designed. This is a simple bottle green colored cotton material but looks sea green on photo. I have used maroon Anchor thread for the work with some metallic fabric paint and red kundan beads.

Close up of the yoke.

I have used fly stitch variation which I learned from Deepa. I know it is not looking perfect. I am very lazy to try it on a sampler and practice. I tried it out straight on to the dress.

Close up of the sleeve where I have used herringbone stitch for which I got the idea from Sharon’s Pintangle. I am a total ‘L’ board with regards to embroidery. Whatever little

bit of embroidery I had to do in school during the art and craft class was done by my mother.

Denim Shoulder Bag

2009-01-22T11:45:00.006+05:30

This bag is made of an old denim shirt. I took almost a week to complete this. I have embellished both the sides of the bag so that I can carry it any side facing out. I did not mean inside out but this side or that side :). My poor sewing machine could not handle the load of the denim and the lining material, so I had to sew the seams with hand at some places

Now a days I have this very bad habit of holding back the good-looking old material and they eventually find their way back to my cupboard. All this started after I learned sewing and I don’t feel like kicking off this habit because I think it keeps my creative part of my mind active. This bag took a lot of time and planning but now I think it is too gaudy. Ok anyway, I use it or not, I thought I will at least blog it.

Here are some snaps which I took during the process.

On this side of the bag I have used bugle beads of red and blue and black seed beads.

I have used 1/4" maroon satin ribbon to decorate the handle.

The large buttons on this side is my son’s idea. He did not like it looking plain, so he suggested the buttons to be put the way I have fixed it, and he very happy that I agreed to do it.

I have used large wooden beads to embellish this side of the bag. I have fixed it with red cotton thread.

I have used the pockets of the shirt as the inner pockets of the bag.

Crochet Purse

2009-01-13T10:51:00.003+05:30

This was made by my mother during the last weekend. I was supposed to learn how to crochet. But that did not happen. She started off to teach me but she ended up with this cute little purse. I did what I love to. I embellished it with beads.

2009-01-02T12:32:00.002+05:30

A Very Happy and Prosperous New Year to All.

Hand Painted Cushion Cover

2008-12-18T10:30:00.003+05:30

These are silk cushion covers which I made but looked very plain, so I Just painted it with some metallic fabric colors to give it a different look.

Have a closer look. The photos did not come out so good.

Blue Embellished Bag

2008-09-30T10:03:00.004+05:30

This bag is made with left over old kurta material ( the kurta is not anymore with me). Making this was not at all complicated. I just cut out 2 equal pieces of 10 inch X 12 inch. I put a lining material inside and attached pockets to the lining material to hold coins and another small pocket to hold my mobile. Next I attached handles which is 2 strips of 4 inches (2 inches when folded) x 26 inches. Joined the 3 edges and turned it over. And lo! There is simple plain bag. The next part is very interesting, to embellish it. I took out my beads and doodled with sequins, beads, and thread to decorate it. I have not followed a particular pattern to embellish it. The bag is ready. I have still room to bejewel it. May be I will do it whenever I am in a mood to do that. It can hold my purse and camera quite comfortably. Thanks to my Singer sewing machine which is a year old now. I can execute my ideas as and when it is born in my mind. Because when I think of doing something, I should do it immediately. If I put it off, it is never done.

Here are close up of the beadwork.

Facelift for kurta

2008-09-16T13:15:00.008+05:30

Nowadays, I see to that I pick up a rather simple looking kurta so that I can try out some of the embroidery I learnt on the net, and I also will have the satisfaction of wearing something that has work which I have done.

This is how I have made my simple blue cotton kurta which I picked from “Nice Things” a bit grand. It had only the blue flower embroidery on the yoke. The long sleeve was rather simple only with a piping at the end with a navy blue fabric, but still it looked good.

I put lazy daisy stitch on the long sleeves with dark blue floss with blue sequin which matches the kurta fabric in the end. This is a design I always wanted to try out when I see my fellow bloggers do on their quilts.

The yoke is outlined alternating with dark blue long glass beads and light blue sequins.

Next I have tried the famous Chemanthy stitch which our dear Deepa have taught us. I teamed it up with some sequins and beads to match the theme of the kurta.

Now, this is how my kurta looks after the facelift.

Flowers in shell

2008-09-09T13:16:00.006+05:30

These flowers I had made a few years back and left in my mother’s showcase neglected. Recently my mother found it, and she had decorated it a bit with some glitter glue. She persuaded me to put this up on the blog. These are made of chalk powder, ceramic powder, and gum in equal amounts mixed to a dough-like consistency and shaped to flowers and leaves. These are arranged on a oyster shell.

Dancing Girl

2008-08-12T10:33:00.002+05:30

This is a metal embossing piece of work which I made years ago.
This is done by tracing the pattern on an aluminum sheet and embossing it with rounded tools. The tracing and embossing is done on the wrong side of the sheet. There are special tools available for embossing. But you can use any rounded object found at home to emboss. To add color to the work, anti-rust paint is used. This paint can be thinned to get different shades.

My hand at embroidery

2008-08-04T19:39:00.004+05:30

This is my first ever embroidery. I think most of us end up doing a basket of flowers as our first work. It is mostly of straight stitches, lazy daisies, and back stitch. I should mention that I learned the basic stitches from Sharon. B's awesome blog.

Hankies

2008-07-31T10:38:00.010+05:30

I made these hankies for my son. It is simple plain cotton material. I have used silk colors to do the pattern on the fabric. I cut 8 pieces of 10 x 10 inches and zigzagged the edges with matching colors. Sid wanted it with his name signed at the corner and the name of the day written on it. The patterns are also of his choice for each day. It is done and ready to use.

My bead collection

2008-07-30T11:48:00.006+05:30

You can have a look at my bead collection. I dont know why I am so crazy about beads. I do not do anything with it, but I want it to be mine as soon as I see beads. But when I am feeling low I can just take out my bead box and can simply look at them and feel better. My son too loves my bead box. Last month my son was going to visit my grandparents with my parents to my hometown, and I asked him what he would get me when he comes back, he promptly replied - beads.

Glass Painting

2008-07-25T11:43:00.004+05:30

Here are some of my glass painitings. The patterns are from Chantal's stain glass site . Do check out my other blog Dew drop, which I use to put up my son's work. She is butterfly fairy who dwells on my kitchen counter. I love this sweet fairy.

Silk cushion cover

2008-07-24T09:53:00.008+05:30

This is also a part of my sewing spree. I would not mind if the stitches are not straight but I just wanted to stitch another cushion cover, and I did it with silk mundu or sarong which I had for a long time now and was doing nothing with it. But it looked quite plain. I had a design hand copied from one of the websites sometime back, and I had it with my design collection but I could not recollect from where I had done it. It looked like a stain glass design, and I knew where to find it. Yes it is from Chantal’s stained glass site and the design I took down was this . I traced it out on the cushion and painted it with silk colors. This is first silk color painting I have done. So there is a lot of smudging of colors at the edges. I have used water based silk colors by Fevicryl.

I am on another project with silk paint. I will be posting the pictures very soon.

Fabric flowers

2008-07-23T11:25:00.004+05:30

I always loved to make flowers, especially silk flowers which almost look so natural. I have tried several times but in vain. I tried to find someone who could teach me flower making and then I turned to the blogs where there were flower making tutorials. I was happy with the duplex crepe paper flowers I made. It looked somewhat natural but maintenance is the problem with these flowers. These cannot be washed.

I enjoyed making this flower which found in pink paper peppermints from her series 31 crafty flowers in 31 days. I would like to try the other 30 crafty flowers too. It is a wonderful tutorial session.

Now there is a problem. I don’t know where to put these flowers. I am still deciding where it would look nice. On a nice tote, on my curtains, on a little cutie frock, umm……………let me think.

Just trying out....

2008-07-22T10:05:00.004+05:30

I recently took up a course in short-term fashion designing. Only then I realized that I had a hidden talent for sewing. I never once tried my mother's sewing machine which was sitting at home since the time I was born. For any small repair I used to depend on my mother to mend it for me. Now I am really crazy about sewing. I want to try out anything I see. My mother is the happiest person now. I am still not good at making a really straight stitch at the machine but I will make it, it is just matter of time. I give the credit to my tutor who brought out my talent in full swing. I am glad I got a person like her who is a selfless teacher. She used to teach all the tricks and techniques which she says she discovered out of her experience.

I am putting up a coushion cover which I tried out. It is one of three covers which I made, I did not want to put the others on because I have not finished the sequins work on it yet.

My photos are not very good. I will try to improve on that.

Shoulder Bag

2008-07-16T19:56:00.004+05:30

I have never imagined that I would be carrying a comfortable shoulder bag which I would have made myself. This bag is made out of a pillowcase whose color I did not like on my bed. So it was lying there unused. I was wondering what to be done about it and then one day I stumbled upon this beautiful blog (Lula Louise crafts and design) and was inspired. Though this bag is not exactly what is instructed, I got an idea of handmade bags from this blog. This shoulder bag I made is in the same way how we make paper bags, turning the bottom to a rectangle and stitching it up. And then I attached the handle with the remaining fabric and embellished it with sequins. And lo! I have a bag which I made myself to show off to my friends.

More flowers....

2008-07-14T20:06:00.004+05:30

Paper Flowers

2008-07-14T10:03:00.003+05:30

These are flower which I made out of Duplex Crepe paper. I made this maybe an year ago. I learnt to make these from a TV program presented by Shyla Prasad. I would say she is such a superb artist. I am sorry I cannot given any links to her because I could not find any on the net. I would be glad if I would be able to meet her one day.

Warm Welcome

2008-07-12T11:16:00.001+05:30

Hello,

Welcome to my blog. I am Anita. I am a medical transcriptionist. I finally decided to have a blog. I had been an avid lurker for a long time now. I choose the name Glass Beads for my blog because I am crazy about beads. I have a huge collection of beads but did not know what to do about it. So I started to look for ideas, and I accidentally hopped into the beautiful world of embroidery blogs out there. I am fascinated. I would like to share some of my creative ideas and thus my blog is born. Again, I welcome you to my blog.