I absolutely must begin by sending a big thank you to everyone who has purchased a copy of Beaded Berry Collection since it’s release a few weeks ago. I hope you are all enjoying the tutorial.
There were a couple people who had some problems receiving the emailed receipt, and couldn’t download their copy. In all of these cases the emails couldn’t be delivered due to a typo in the email address at checkout. I have emailed new copies to each of you, though a couple did not respond so I’m not sure if you received them. If you are one of those people and did not get your copy, please let me know!

The past few weeks I’ve been working on a personal project, just to clear my head. I’ve been feeling the Christmas Spirit a little early this year. I’ll blame the baby hormones… so I decided to do something Christmas-y to help ease the slow passage of time until the actual holiday. So, here is my newest arrangement featuring one of my Poinettias, some pine cone branches, berries, and some leaves.

I potted the arrangement in a cute little wooden pedastal bowl I found at a local thirft shop.

When I started this piece I was going to make new pine needles using the Fringe technique, but it was painfully slow. I’d make a huge long string of fringes, then wrap it around a stem wire… over and over and over… and no matter how many times I did that it didn’t seem I was making any progress. So I switched back to my usual ones made from bugle beads. I guess I don’t have the patience for making thousands of fringes.

Most of the beads in this project are 2 or 3 cut seed beads in several different sizes. The Poinsettia is made from 2 cut satins, which are absolutely gorgeous. My camera can’t seem to catch it, but they shimmer like super sparkly silk. It’s amazing. Love those beads. But, I used the cut beads because they have extra facets that make them more sparkly, and Christmas is just sparkly so it felt like a good fit.

Up next I’m working on a Cymbidium Orchid (maybe 2). I’m using orange for one of them because I never get to work with orange, and I have these really pretty orange satin beads I want to use. While I’m working I’ll be taking pictures so I can publish the pattern.

After that I’m going to be working on christmas gifts and other pet projects that I’ve been dying to do, and some kind of free tutorial for you guys (haven’t decided what to do yet, though someone mentioned the daisy chain I posted about a while back).