voting for the October EBW Challenge

Voting for the October EBW Challenge Inspired By Picasso started yesterday!  You can vote on the blog by clicking here from today through the 15th.  The challenge entries are all in the clickable mosaic near the top of the page.  If you can't see it, click here.  Voting is on the right side of the page.  Please check out all of the entries and vote for your favorite.

Here is my entry again.  It's still available for sale here.

If any beaders are interested in making it or something similar for themselves, the pattern is available here.

As always, there are so many stunning entries for this challenge.  Some challenge themes result in a lot of entries with similar colors or styles, but this is a challenge where there are so many different pieces.  I love how many different pieces of art work people chose for their inspiration.  Here are just a few of my favorite entries.

Autumn / Fall Agate Pendant inspired by Picasso by WingSmith2010

Blue - Beadwoven Necklace Asymmetric OOAK Picasso Inspired Black Grey Bead Embroidered by BlissWorksStudio

Beadwoven Abstract Bracelet "Inspired by Picasso" by lostaloha

Asymmetric Beadwork Bracelet in Autumn Colors: "Picasso's Dance of the Veils" by AsteropeBC

Picasso challenge piece and PDF pattern

The October EBW Challenge theme is Inspired by Picasso.  You can read more about it here.  I am familiar with Picasso's more famous works but had really not studied any of his other work before.  There is a lot of it so it was fun familiarizing myself with lots of Picasso paintings and sketches.  I'm sure that it's not a surprise that the first thing that I gravitated toward was color.  I wanted to pick a piece with a lot of color, which is how I ended up choosing Mediterranean Landscape for my inspiration.

I posted a shot of it earlier but here it is again.  I got this picture from allposters.com.

You can read about how I selected and mixed my colors here.  Overall, I'm really pleased with how that process went, especially considering that I only used colors that I had in stock.  I didn't purchase anything new for this project.  There are a couple tiny things that I could have tweaked, but I still think that the general color palette and nature of the piece is fairly reflective of the original artwork.

I've now used the same right angle weave base and second layer for four EBW challenges in a row.  I'll briefly recap here so you can see how changing the final third layer, width, and color combinations can make such a big difference.

Strawberry Fields Forever is exactly the same design but wider.  I'll be honest: I was planning to make my Picasso piece the same width but decided I couldn't quite pull it off with some of the bead quantities I had.  Four columns instead of six is just fine and also results in a less expensive piece so hopefully that will be more appealing to some people.

After some deliberation, I did decide to add house and sail boat charms to the clasp.  They are easily removable if potential buyers aren't interested in them.  I do think that they add something for the challenge, though.

I thought that keeping the correct color balance with so many colors would be tricky, but I think that the selecting and mixing process got me oriented before I even started working.  I really didn't have any problems with this and didn't even have to refer back to my mixing chart like I thought I would.

This piece is available in my Etsy shop here.

As this was a design that I have worked with a lot over the last few months, the trickiest part of the challenge is that I decided to write the pattern for this.  I'd be contemplating this idea after the success of Strawberry Fields.  Once I knew that I was going to use the design for Picasso, I knew that I had to ahead with it.  I believe in embracing the "challenge" idea with as many pieces as possible.  The pattern was a perfect way to do this.

It was also way past time for me to get another pattern in my shop.  Most of my patterns have done pretty well, but it's been nearly six months since I released my last one.  I have not had great sales for September.  I hope that a new pattern will increase sales again.  It's available here.

The pattern does work for all four of the challenge designs.  The first and second layers are exactly the same for all four pieces.  I explain the differences for the third layer in the pattern.  With the exception of Yellow Brick Road, all of the pieces have a freeform third layer so you really have the freedom to do it exactly as you like.  I just provide some suggestions to guide you on your way.

in the works

I posted last month about how I was going to rework my Something Blue bracelet.  I got my beads and set to work on it last week.

Sometimes I have a specific idea of how I'm going to make a piece when I start it, but other times I have an idea for a base and then see where it goes.  This is one of those pieces.  I knew that I was going to start with a right angle weave base, but I wasn't sure how I was going to the embellishment.  It will come together though.

The theme for the October EBW Challenge is Picasso.  You can read more about it here.  I know Picasso's more famous paintings, but it's been fun discovering a lot of other ones while doing some research for this challenge.  I've never been a huge Picasso fan, but I'm determined to do as many challenges as possible this year, so I was game for this one.

I wanted a piece with a lot of color and settled on Mediterranean Landscape.  I got this picture of it from allposters.com.

While were in DC, I chose this painting and sketched out my idea for the color distribution of my piece.  I'm sure that some people think that this is old-fashioned, but I still do a lot of my brainstorming on paper.

I still haven't decided about the charms.  I have plenty of house charms.  I think that a simple sailboat charm would pair nicely with it.  Something like this.  Any thoughts?


I picked out the bead colors this week.  Yes, there are a lot!

I did my mix carefully so I would have an appropriate color distribution.  I started with the most frequently used colors.

I was so happy when I saw how this came together.  I love how it echoes the shades of the painting.

Then I added the medium level colors.

Finally, I added the outlier colors.  There will only be a few of each of these last shades in the piece.

I know that some of the more prominent shades are buried now, but they'll still be the ones that I use the most frequently.

I'm planning a design that is very similar to Strawberry Fields Forever.  The challenge will be that I'm going to attempt to write the pattern.  There are a lot of turns for all of the layers.  I think that I'll be able to make diagrams for them with Word, but it will be a tedious process.  The challenge entry is due October 5.  I'm not promising to have the pattern done by that date even though the piece should be.  I'm working on the Something Blue piece first while I prepare myself for this challenge haha.

Also, on the subject of patterns, Mortira from Inspirational Beading mentioned something recently about writing a clasp pattern.  She's not working on it yet, just contemplating the idea.  She also uses a lot of non-metal clasps for her beadwork.  I think that this is a great idea.  Even if she does write one, too, it would be very different from mine, as she uses a lot of herringbone and square stitch techniques while most of my clasps involve buttons and/or peyote stitch.

This would be fairly different from most of my patterns so the write up would be slow going, but I think that it could be an excellent addition to my shop.  Most of the patterns that I've written have done well, and I'd like to add more to my shop.  Designing the Picasso piece and writing the pattern for it will be a fairly time consuming process, as will getting ready for my November show (I haven't price tagged any pieces in MONTHS), so don't expect this any time soon.  But I'm starting to take pictures for it and will work on it here and there.

Finally, here's my newest crafty hub: Craft Blogs: How to Start and Maintain Successful Blogs for Craft Businesses.