Sadafulee...always in bloom!: 2012

Monday, December 31, 2012

Art Bead Scene December 2012 Reveal

I have finally started buying more art beads and am now wondering how I could do anything without them! (Errr...I still do use a lot of "non-art-beads", but just showing off my new found love a bit, bear with me a bit please, ok?)

Buying more art beads means I can make more entries to the ABS challenges.
December inspiration was this painting:

Sleeping Beauty by Erté, 1983

26 1/2" x 33" Serigraph

More about the art here...

I almost missed this month's challenge, but Miss Kaushambi invited me to pin to this pinterest board she created, and that made me want to create something with this painting in mind. I pinned a few things there, and then got to work.

My designing methodology is quite simple: look at the inspiration, look at the stash, design.

I knew I had these sweet red enameled leaves I had bought from Suebeads recently that were the exact red of her dress. They also have black streaks just like the dress. So, the art component was decided. Next, I loved the little white flowers hanging from the vines. And I knew I had silver flowers somewhere in my stash, and also black chain.

The silver flowers turned out too big, as did the black chain. BUT! I had something else which was even more appropriate than what I originally had in mind.

What I finally ended up with is this pair of earrings:

I listed them on etsy, and they were picked up the same day :) If you are interested in having a pair of your own, drop me a note, and we'll take it from there. Susan said she will be listing more of these leaves soon!

So...that was fun, looking forward to the first challenge of 2013 in a couple days!

Happy New Year, everyone :)

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Cheerful and light!

Cheerful and light! by kashmira-patel featuring flat heels

Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas and Echo Creative Club Reveal!

Time for the second reveal with Jeannie Dukic's Echo Creative Club!

Here's what she sent me for December. Click on the picture to see the post where I name this bead "The Blue Forest".

It took me the longest time to figure out what to do with this. I started on Dec 8th, and finished only yesterday, on Dec 23rd! The focal wanted to be many different things, first a necklace, then a bracelet. It wanted to be paired with many different colors, first white, then red. Then it flitted back and forth between pendant and bracelet. It eventually settled on bracelet. Then went back and forth on how it wanted to be finished. Its such a long story, that I myself do not remember most of it!

I will cut the epic short and show you the end result.

I started off with the beaded loop around the focal. Was planning it as a pendant at the time, with the loop at the bottom. But once it was done, I liked it sitting sideways.

The fancy clasp is something I found while perusing old copies of Step-By-Step Wire Jewelry to find some interesting connectors. I knew I wanted to do this one the minute I saw it. I read through the instructions, and turned to last page, when I saw who the contributor was. No wonder I loved it at first sight. It was my close friend, Cindy Wimmer! Bet she will be proud of me :-)

I had asked folks in the CBC group on Facebook to help me figure out how to make a cascade of beads. I did tell them I wanted it to look like a bunch of grapes, but in the end, I went with a more free-flowing dangle. Like this. They are not sitting properly in this picture though :((
And I made a slight variation of the clasp for the other end of the focal. When I added that little red seed bead, the color looked very much like that of the larger red ones. But take it out in the sunshine, and you see whole new thing :((

I finished it off with two different chains in the back. Simply because I know everyone types, and large beads brushing against your desk or keyboard is highly annoying!
Here's another picture of it...just because I clicked it, lol :-)

So there you have it :-) Played around with Polyvore this morning, and this is how I would style it!

Thank you, Jeannie! I love the focal and its brilliant color. And am still amazed I made a bracelet. I am no good at them!

Please do visit the other participants for more eye candy :-)

Cindy Cima Edwards http://www.cindycima.com/

Donna Martin Bradley http://strandedbeads.blogspot.com/

Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog

Jessica Klaaren http://www.cellardoorjewelry.blogspot.com/

Karen Williams http://baublicious.blogspot.com/

You are here => Kashmira Patel http://sadafulee.blogspot.com/

Kristen Stevens http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com/

Lisa Lodge http://pineridgetreasures.blogspot.com/

Lola Surwillo http://www.beadlolabead.blogspot.com/

Shannon Chomanczuk http://www.formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Go Western!

Go Western! by kashmira-patel featuring h&m

Friday, December 7, 2012

December Echo Creative Club Bead

Now that I am done with the November reveal and that December is actually here, I can show you all what Jeannie sent me to play with in December as part of the Echo Creative Club.

As a recap of what this club is:

What is this? This is from her website (http://www.jkdjewelry.com/):
"So what is Echo Creative Club? I’m looking for experienced jewelry designers to use my art beads and pendants for FREE.
What does the name, Echo Creative mean? Echo is something you put out there and it comes back. I put my beads out there and they come back in a creative design from you."

She sent me a brand new art bead, which she has not named yet and is not even available in her store yet. That certainly makes me feel part of an elite group!

Its got different designs on both sides. Its a gorgeous shade of blue, one which I have never actually worked with before.

Leaves on this side

Branches on this side?

Since Jeannie did not name it, I will. I christen it "The Blue Forest".

It is about 25mm in diameter, so leaves me with lots of designing options. Should I make it the main focal? Or pair it with a larger focal? Mix it up with crystals? White? Pink? Red? Necklace? Bracelet?

Lots of options! And two weeks to decide what to do with it :-) So come back on Christmas Day if you can tear yourself away from all the festivities and see what this gets transformed into. I promise I won't disappoint :-)

Thanks Jeannie, I love both the beads you sent me. The Happy Dove has already found a loving new home :-)

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Classy Boho Look!

I like bohemian, as well as classic looks. Trying to combine them into something flattering. And liking what I am seeing :)

Classy Boho Look! by kashmira-patel featuring prabal gurung

Coast silk blouse
$73 - coast-stores.com

Prabal gurung
$1,215 - matchesfashion.com

Miu Miu platform sandals
theoutnet.com

Gerard Darel leather handbag
$370 - monnierfreres.co.uk

Zad turquoise jewelry
swell.com

Red Turquoise and Silver Bohemian Necklace by Sadafulee on Etsy
etsy.com

Turquoise and Silver Bohemian Earrings by Sadafulee on Etsy
etsy.com

The beginning of a men's line???

A friend asked me to create a few gifts for the men in her life. It was quite a difficult task for me. I have never designed anything for me, heck, I have never even shopped for men, unless they tell me specifically what they want. But I took up the challenge, and made these two:

This first one is a bookmark. Its bigger than it looks here. This gift is for a professor who loves to read, so my friend thought it was perfect for him.

Next is this keychain. I got such a good response from my beading buddies about this one, that I decided to list it in my shop!

This just might be the beginning of a men's accessories and gifts line for Sadafulee! Who knows!!!
You can click on the picture to buy it if you like!

Here are a few more items I listed today! Including a first bracelet listing!

To browse more items in the store, please do visit: http://sadafulee.etsy.com

And in case you didn't know. Profits from all sales go to a children's charity in India called Project WHY. So you not only get beautiful jewelry, but also a lot of good Karma in the same package!

Friday, November 30, 2012

Artisan Whimsy Holiday Market Giveaway Winner!

CLICK HERE FOR THE CHALLENGE OF COLOR WITH ERIN AND BRANDI

Alrighty, so we come to the end of an exciting week for everyone over at Artisan Whimsy.
I got 3 sales from the event, which is more than I have had online in a week, so am happy :-)
Hope everyone else had a good run too!

Now onto the winner of this necklace:

I had 22 comments, and random.org picked

which happens to be Miss Sherri Stokey!Will be contacting you soon :-)

Thanks everyone for dropping by :-)

Challenge of Color - Earth As Art!

CLICK HERE FOR THE NOVEMBER GIVEAWAY CHALLENGE WITH BONNIE OFJASPER-MOON

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Colors...can't imagine life without them! In fact, I printed out something today at work, went to pick it up, and couldn't quite recognize my print-out...because it was in black and white. I was expecting some colorful pictures! And Erin and Brandi Hussey have given us just that! Lots of colorful, actually surprising, pictures of our beautiful home...Earth!

This is actually the third time Erin of Tesori Trovati is hosting this challenge. This time she teamed up with Color Girl, Brandi Hussey, to bring us a brilliant visual exploration of our planet. They gathered satellite pictures of Earth from the "Earth As Art" image gallery maintained by the USGS, and Brandi created color palettes from these pictures. Each of the participants were given two color palette choices to play with. There are 80 participants, and that is a TON of hard work from these ladies! So a big round of applause for them before we move on! Thank you SO much, both of you!

I was offered these two choices:

Both are beautiful, but I knew I would have time only for one. So I picked the Okavango Delta because of the wide range of colors in this palette! And I guess I always gravitate towards warmer colors like these.

So....a little about the Okavango Delta. I had never heard about it before, and am having a tough time saying its name ;-) It lies in the northwest of Botswana bordering Namibia. It is formed by the Okavango River, which rises in the heart of Angola to the north and west, then flows over 1200 kilometres south, then east away from the Atlantic Ocean through Namibia into Botswana. There it fans out into a huge delta approximately 15000 sq. kms in size and appears to disappear abruptly into the Kalahari Desert. And here is a map I found which looks EXACTLY like the photograph above, without the color! What a difference color makes! Wow!

Oh, right, you are here to see the jewelry I made using this as inspiration. To tell you the truth, I had a VERY hard time with this challenge. I had never used color palettes before, and this was like making me color inside the lines with a limited number of crayons ;-) Add to that the fact that while I love color, I usually do not mix them up, my designs are quite often monochrome, with a metal thrown in for contrast.

So I stared at the picture for a long long time, and decided to start with the greens. Rummaged through my beads, and found these headpins I bought from Humblebeads during a retreat I attended last month in Michigan.

They had pretty much all the shades of green that I needed! After that point, it was easy going, actually. I hit my pink and purple bead boxes, found the rest of my ingredients and made these:

I bought the purple swirly beads during that trip to Michigan as well. In fact, I met Erin there! And that's when she told us about this upcoming challenge and I signed up as soon as she announced it :)
Coming back to the purple bead...it has some lovely shades of pink, lavender, purple and blue, and a really wonderful shape.