A Bead Muse Muses

Accidental Pairings are Amazing!

By Anne Marie November 23, 2022 November 22, 2022 0

Accidental pairings are amazing, especially when they’re just that, accidental! Perhaps not always accidental, but maybe accidental on purpose. Take this necklace for instance. I’ve always loved green, and blue stones, but never brown. Except in this case! A few weeks back, we added these unusually shaped, Chrysoprase flat nuggets to the site. I couldn’t get them out of my mind, so ended up purchasing a couple of strands. Inspiration struck, when I remembered that I had another strand of fatter nuggets in the stash. These were purchased years ago, and were mainly in a beautiful shade of green (with …

A Bead Muse Muses

Colour Play is where it’s at!

By Anne Marie November 16, 2022 November 15, 2022 0

Colour play is where it’s at, and I’m not just saying this!! It’s something I truly believe in. But, if it’s just not your thing, I’ll attempt to convince you with my photos. My creativity is making a slow return, thanks to the Making Zen Online Retreat. I’m making progress on this colourful needle book. I feel that it’s important to ramp up the colour, now that we’ve reached a darker time of the year. Colourful cotton batiks, with a touch of Sari silk, makes for a brighter day! Fibrella is the Queen of Fibreland, but she’s also a very …

A Bead Muse Muses

Creative Solutions to the Challenges of an Artistic Slump!

By Anne Marie November 9, 2022 November 8, 2022 0

Do you know any creative solutions to the challenges of an artistic slump? Would you be interested in sharing them? There’s nothing to be ashamed of, we all go through it! I’m just digging myself out of one now, so I have a few ideas to share with you. Don’t get tied all up in knots about it, as it’s something that will pass in time. Take advantage of the downtime, then rev up your engine with something that you want to do. It doesn’t matter what, just do it! After obsessing about it for a while, I frequently decide …

A Bead Muse Muses

Colour Me Curious – About all sorts of things!

By Anne Marie November 2, 2022 November 1, 2022 0

Colour me curious about the new colour trends for Fall/Winter 2022/2023. But I’m a rebel, so rarely pay much attention to the trends. I like what I like, yet seldom follow the masses. The Pantone colour trends for Interior Design, according to the Italian Bark blog, are as follows. Strong, not wimpy colours here, and certainly a huge inspiration. I would normally spew back some of their words, but instead I’ll let the colours speak for themselves. The link will give your more information. However, the London, and New York runway shows, are more likely to influence jewelry trends. Here’s …

A Bead Muse Muses

Jewelry Trends for Winter 2022 – and more!

By Anne Marie October 26, 2022 October 25, 2022 0

I’ve just been reading about Jewelry Trends for Winter 2022, and I admit that I find this time of year quite interesting. Changing seasons = changes in direction, but sometimes the changes are quite radical. Runway fashion is always extreme, but if you look hard enough, you will be able to spot realistic trends, then interpret them into your own jewelry. The Zoe Report indicates a trend to going big, or going home!! Some of those stacked bracelets, will be incredibly hard to wear comfortably, but what if you stacked just a couple? Silver is back (not that I ever stopped …

A Bead Muse Muses

Tales of the Past, and Present!

By Anne Marie October 19, 2022 October 18, 2022 0

Tales of the past, and present relates to the way my mind has been working lately. I just came back from a vacation up north. My creative energies were channeled into my colourful photographs, but other than that, the muse was remarkably quiet. I hate these mental roadblocks! What causes them? A simple change in location? I won’t let that worry me. I am back home, and I’m confident that the ideas will start percolating shortly. Remember my freeform peyote pandemic project? I’ve pretty much decided that it’s finished, and unless we get a big Covid wave this fall/winter, it …

A Bead Muse Muses

Reflections on Change!

By Anne Marie October 15, 2022 October 18, 2022 0

This blog post is all about reflections on change. Why? Because I’m working outside of my normal routine, it’s fall, and I’m writing this in Northern (Sault Ste Marie), instead of Southern Ontario (Toronto). The colours are spectacular (I had an amazing drive up!), and photography is having a huge influence on my state of mind. Strange, isn’t it? I can go months without pulling out my SLR camera, but give me fall colours, and I go crazy with all the shots! Of course, I won’t barrage you with the rest of them, but I will share a few, and …

A Bead Muse Muses

Working with Unusual Materials!

By Anne Marie October 5, 2022 October 4, 2022 0

Nothing gives me greater pleasure, than working with unusual materials! I love puzzles, and problem solving, so is it any wonder that I’m on a constant quest to challenge myself? To be honest, I haven’t done much of that lately, but it’s coming. My head is full of ideas, but my fingers still need to get into the act! How about the freeform peyote, that I added to this piece of quartz? I attending the Scarborough Gem and Mineral Club show, a couple of weeks ago, and was happy to find a couple larger pieces of quartz. Instead of perfect …

A Bead Muse Muses

Reaching Back: Far back!

By Anne Marie September 28, 2022 September 27, 2022 2

This is the time of year, that I find myself reaching back, far back, to some of my earlier days of arting. I’ve been creating for a very long time, and it’s a good thing that I’ve always been good at maintaining my photo files. Actually, that was until I had a fatal computer crash, but that was a long time ago, and most of my photos were also saved on another device. Let that be a lesson to us all, backup, backup, backup! Do you want to know how much creating I’ve been doing this week? Not a heck …

A Bead Muse Muses

Fibre First, but Beads Next!

By Anne Marie September 21, 2022 September 20, 2022 0

In my world, it was fibre first, but beads next! Does that mean that fibre trumps beads? Not really, because everything is equal in my world. It all depends on what I feel like working on at the time. After learning traditional quilting (by hand), I quickly morphed into making art quilts (by machine). Stitch was definitely first, but when I learned that embellishments raised my quilts to another level, I never looked back. For me, it’s always about the texture! A couple of my early art quilts! The pear was my first, and only, attempt at raised bead embroidery. …