Organizing my beads

Since I've been making tapestries lately, which requires a lot of Delica Seed Beads, I've been collecting Delicas. I used my Christmas gift to buy a lot of Delicas needed for few projects, but I didn't have the containers to put them in.
So, around Chinese New Year in early February, I bought 200 bead containers from pandahall.com, which is based in China. After 2 long months waiting for the containers to be shipped via boat, the containers arrived yesterday. I spent 3.5 hours last night organizing my Delicas; put them into containers, labeled Delica numbers on each containers, rearranged my 8-drawers I designated just for Delicas.
So, that was my "Spring Organizing Beads" night.

I'm still making my big project tapestry (I removed it from the photos because I don't want to ruin the surprise). It'll be at least another month or so until I can finish it.

Flamingo

Happy Spring!!
Since most of my tapestries have brown or grey colors, I wanted to make animal that has bright colors. So here is the Flamingo. I had a busy of couple of weeks explaining why for such a small tapestry (3x4 inches or 7.6x10.2cm), it took me more than 2 weeks to do it. This Flamingo used 35 colors of Delica 11/0 beads, total of 3,600 beads.

I'll be making a very big project after this, as big as letter size paper, so it'll be at least more than a month or two until I can post another tapestry project on my blog.

Goose

This goose reminds me of a place that I used to go all the time. It was just a few miles away from my house. There was many geese and ducks that swim just as everything in their world is so peaceful. Watching them gave me peace. So this tapestry is my reminder of those time. It measures 6 x 4.3 inches (15.2 x 11 cm) and uses 29 colors of delica 11/0 beads. Total beads used: 7,800 pieces.

Dolphin

This dolphin tapestry is a new challenge for me to make. First, it uses Peyote stitch instead of Brick stitch, which I use for all other tapestries. Second, instead of using the beadscape, this pattern came with only word chart, and a tiny photo of what it'll look like at the end. So, it was kind of having a blind date with beads, not knowing if I beaded right or wrong.
But, the dolphin turned out to be perfect, to me anyways.
This tapestry is the biggest one I've ever made so far. It's 7 x 4.3 inches (18 x 11 cm) and used 28 colors. Actually the pattern says that it uses 9,100 size 11 delica beads.

Cat

While much of Asia celebrates the Year of the Rabbit, Vietnam is striking a note of independence from the dominance of Chinese culture and marking the beginning of the Year of the Cat. How did the cat replace the chinese rabbit? One of the reason was The Chinese word for rabbit is Mao which sounds like Meo in Vietnamese, which means cat.
Anyways, I happen to make cat as my project, and my Dad reminded me about the cat zodiac in Vietnam. Perfect coincidence.
This cat uses 26 colors, measuring 7.5cm x 9.5 cm (or 3 inches x 3.7 inches).

Rabbit

Happy Chinese New Year 2011!! It's Golden rabbit year and I made this to celebrate the new year. I rushed at making this because I wanted to finish before the new year started.
It took me around 10 days to complete. There are 36 different delica colors used.

Tiger

We are about 11 days away from a Chinese New year. Before the year of Tiger ended, I wanted to make something that reminds me of this year. Took me 3 weeks to make this, with 26 different delica colors. This Tiger measures 3.30 x 4.33 inches (8.4cm x 11cm).

Bow Necklace

I made this necklace while waiting for my order of delica seed beads for my next animal project. It's also a good break between big projects.
My order came yesterday, so I'll start making my next animal. It will be few weeks until I can post this in my blog.

Wolf

Happy New Year!!! Can't believe it's 2011 already.
I thought I just started to get used to write 2010 on my checks, now I have to remember to write 2011.
With busy Christmas holiday, I had little chance to bead. But after Christmas, I spent more hours beading this wolf and finally I finished it last night, January 2nd, 2011. It's my first done project this year. This wolf uses 18 colors, about 3.5 x 4.5 inches or 8.5 x 11.5 cm.

Baby Polar Bear

I found this baby polar bear pattern, which makes me want to pet and cuddle with it.
With a busy schedule of working full time and taking boys to their activities, I didn't have much of a chance to do this project. But this weekend I worked hours to finish this, which was the perfect escape activity for me. While people are out shopping for Christmas. I'd rather bead. I plan to make more of real-like portrait, now that I'm done making ornaments this year.

Purple Flower

This is just a small project, killing my time while the boys were playing with their video game; a cute purple flower. My purple pansies outside my house is dying and I need to remove it for the winter. At least I have this purple flower inside for this winter.

White Sweater

I made another sweater for this year's ornament. This time it's white and red. I planned to make white sweater after I finished the pink one, but I was getting short on white delica beads so I kept putting it off. But, two days ago, I received white delica beads as a gift, so the first thing I made was this white sweater.

Horse

I've been searching for a horse pattern that looks real and finally found this.
It uses 13 different colors and because some of the colors look so much alike, sometimes I got a little confused, but it was all worth the effort.

Basket of Roses

I LOVE ROSES!! This ornament only uses 5 colors. It is a simple but sweet ornament.
Maybe I'll plant yellow and orange roses next summer for my garden. This is one of the biggest ornaments I've made this year so far.

Gift Bow

I love BOWS. I don't like shopping and I don't shop much for clothes, but when I do and see shirts with bows or tie-in to make a bow, I can't help but grabbing it and take it home. This bow is so cute that I want to have it on my tree.

Motorcycle

I tried this pattern few months ago but I failed. This time, I succeeded.
I don't even know how to ride a motorcycle, but this pattern is just too cute.

Mario

I made this ornament for my son. He requested this ornament sometime ago, but I forgot it until recently. Finally I finished it yesterday. It uses 13 different colors of delica seed beads. Mario got lost inside my bag for a day, but I just found him hiding.

Chinese Lantern

I found this pattern about 9 months ago (designed by Sigrid Wynne-Evans) but kept putting it off making it. Finally I decided to make this Chinese lantern last night. This is my third try because I used wrong stitch the first time and the second time I miscalculated the beads so the character was wrong. But, third time is the charm.

Remember to Pray

This ornament is very meaningful to me, to remind me to pray.

I made the red praying hands for my parents.

High-heeled shoe

A lot of women think that there is is no such thing as having too many shoes. I'm not like that.
As long as I have 2 brown and 2 black shoes for the Summer and 2 brown and 2 black boots for the Winter, I'm happy. Kind of boring, but those colors work with every outfit. Here is the dress up high-heeled shoe for lots of women out there..

Pilgrim Jack and Jill

I found this pilgrim Jack and Jill pattern online and really enjoyed making the pair.
It looks like they are communicating. Jill is offering something to Jack and Jack is ready to receive it. I like the outfit that both of them are wearing.
I found the perfect bluish grey delica seed beads for their clothing at bead bazaar two days ago.

Pink Sweater

I really like the color combination of pink and grey ever since I was a little girl.
I remember that I had pink and grey polo shirts, which was my favorite.
So, I'm using pink and grey color for this sweater. I feel warm already by just looking at this sweater ornament.

Mouse on the Sled

This mouse on the sled ornament is so cute. It is using a leaf as a sled.
And he dresses up with Santa's hat, blue pants and matching blue scarf.
It makes me smile.

Robin Hood

I remember when I was a little girl I enjoyed reading the story of Robin Hood.
I also watched Robin Hood movies. Two nights ago, I watched the new Robin Hood movie played by Russell Crowe and I ended up finding the Robin Hood pattern and made it last night.
My son also just started taking archery class from last week, so it turns out to be a unique ornament.

Flying Eagle

An eagle's wings are long and broad, making them effective for soaring. He looks so graceful with wings spread apart. Where I work, by the river, sometimes I see eagles hunt fish from the river.This pattern reminds me of them.

Boy Scout of America

My brother is the den leader of his son's boy scout group.
He asked me to make the boy scout logo out of beads for him, as a key chain.
I didn't want to make it too big, but if I make it too small, I can't put details on it. So, I made it just big enough to put details on the logo.

Green Tractor

I love tractors! Since I can't have one of my own, I created this design on my own, based on John Deere tractors. Originally, I planned to make a smaller tractor ornament, but turned out to be the biggest creation yet out of my ornament collection, because I wanted to add much more details on the tractor. Even with that, I'm very happy with my design.

Little Chick

After I made rooster ornament couple of weeks back, I made chick to go with the rooster. This chick is eating.

Eskimo person

It's getting cold outside and I'm glad I don't have to wear thick clothes like the Eskimos have to wear. BRRRR...

Golfer Girl and Dove with Mistletoe

I don't play or like golf, but I can pretend that I can or like it. At least this ornament shows how fun it can be to golf for some girls.






"Dove with mistletoe" ornament reminds me of the story of Noah's Ark, where the dove brought back a branch of mistletoe to let people know that there was dry land with plants.