Ronit's beautiful version of the clown fish bracelet pattern

Once again Ronit Florence has taken a pattern and made it into more than just a basic bracelet.  She definitely knows how to tweak a design to get the most from it. Most readers will recognize the Clown Fish Bracelet I posted in July.

Bead work and photo by Ronit

 Here's what she had to share about the beautiful set she made:

    " As usual, your clown fish pattern wrecked havoc with my todo list - I just had to drop everything and bead it up :) I saw real clown fish in their "natural" habitat in a museum recently and learned about the symbiotic relationship they have with sea anemones, so I added the anemones to the pattern - that happened to have made beading a bit more interesting  because it meant that there wasn't a large area of solid color to bead up :)

     Of course, I had to make a set, so I rearranged the fish slightly so the pendant didn't turn out too wide and I made matching earrings. I used clear beads with AB finish (Delica #51) to do the bubbles and, while in retrospect I think it would have been better to use white, it allowed me to use the clear "water" drops or bubbles in the fringe and strap. For the strap I used this free pattern: http://storage.canalblog.com/26/09/392679/26506221.jpg from this site: http://centperles.canalblog.com/archives/schemas_a_a_d_/index.html

     Hope you like it and thanks again for all your wonderful and very inspiring patterns!!!

Hugs, Ronit"

Bead work and photo by Ronit

Truly gorgeous!! I am always amazed at how awesome (and fast! - she had this done early last week!) Ronit's work is.

Ronit's jewelry set, based on "Doodles" pattern

I few entries ago, I posted a note about taking time out to enjoy doodling and what it can do for your pattern design. I also posted three faces I had doodled and played around with, after being inspired by the online program Scribbler.

Ronit Florence went into a whirlwind of inspiration with the pattern and came up with an awesome set. She sent the pictures posted here.

I love the way the little face beads pick up the same colours in the pattern. I also LOVE the stitch used for the necklace portion - it adds lots of texture, movement, and a sense of fun to balance out the serious expression on the face. And as with all of her work, Ronit is great about taking the basic pattern and turning it into something more. Kudos!

In a Whisper: When I grow up, I want to be a beader like Ronit! (grin!)

More amazing work from Ronit

I love Ronit's work! I know everyone has heard before, but it always amazes me what she can do with the most basic of patterns. Here is an awesome set Ronit made up (at the speed of light I might add.) from the pattern I recently posted for Autism Awareness Month. Wow.

I decided to share Ronits description of the set in her own words, below. I also included the date, because I was blown away. She was able to create this set in under 9 days!

Don't forget that Ronit has a link to her own patterns:

http://www.readytobead.com/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=93

Date: Thursday, April 9, 2009, 12:01 PM

Hi Ginger, I really loved your design and since, in addition to you, I have one other friend with an autistic child, I decide to bead it up (and, of course, the rest of the set) and wear it to my monthly bead society meeting, which was yesterday. I finished it in the nick of time, with minutes to spare! I was able to tell a few people who complimented me on the set what it stood for, and was also surprised to find out that a few people who approached me immediately knew what this ribbon stood for.

Because I prefer my bracelets slightly narrower, I made it such that some of the edges of the ribbon "spill over the edges" of the bracelet. On the other hand, I wanted the pendant to be wider than the bracelet so I added the little truncated diamonds on the edges, and carried that over to the strap. I really liked the two tone background (I thought of the pink and blue as girls and boys :)) so I carried that over to the pendant but went for a chevron shape because I try to avoid the rectangular shape when I can. I don't often use peyote straps because they can't be make rounded, but this strap is narrow enough to curve nicely around the neck. The earrings and ring are based on Shala Kerrigan's awareness ribbon pattern - I just carried over the "pieces" and two-tone ideas over.

I've attached the photos for you - thanks again for your lovely and inspiring patterns!

Take care and sending you Big Hugs, Ronit

NOTE:

Ronit mention's Shala Kerrigan's earring pattern. Shala is one of my beading hero's. When I first started out beading, I went to the web for more info and patterns, and came across her website.

Since then, she has also become the editor for Beadwork with Bella.com. I love her stuff - It has the right sense of fun and balance I like in patterns. If you haven't checked out her stuff - go now!

Shala Kerrigan at Bella.com:

http://www.bellaonline.org/site.asp?name=Beadwork

More treasures from Ronit: Gorgeous Valentine Project.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Ronit, (Who has to be the best bead fairy ever!) can take the most simple of patterns and turn it into a real "WOW" of a treasure. I can't say often enough how her work illustrates thinking out side of the box - or the square basic pattern.

This pattern started with the basic heart square below, that is part of the Bead Quilt pattern collection to raise money for breast cancer research (It's not too late yet!!). From there, Ronit manipulated the pattern and shaped the free form heart with the open accent area. For the bracelet the motif was reversed and repeated.

Here's is an example of not just going beyond the basic pattern, but taking it an extra step. I feel that it has evolved to become a new pattern entirely and want to make sure Ronit gets load of credit here for the awesome work she does. I humbly feel that the heart motif is only a very small part of the final creation.

The necklace strap is an Apache leaf variation. I need to go look at my email to get the addy and paste it here, so it will be a little bit.

Please enjoy this eye candy for Valentine's day, courtesy of Ronit.

Ronit's version of updated ying yang

In an earlier post I updated the pattern of the Ying Yang, based on advise by Ronit. As most know - Ronit is one of my favorite bead fairies - She always makes my patterns look so much cooler and takes them an extra step beyond the basics (More on that in another post - wait till you see how awesome her final piece is!)

I wanted everyone to see her gorgeous necklace and bracelet (from the first version of the ying yang pattern). Ronit does such awesome work and when I got the pics from her showing the final piece I knew I had to share.

Just to remind everyone - Ronit has a site where she sells some of her patterns and stuff.

http://www.readytobead.com/index.php?searchStr=ronit+florence&_a=viewCat

It would be a great thing to go by there and check it out. The link is in the list of beady links over on the right.

Beaded face pin

I know! I know! I haven't been posting as much the last couple of weeks. Real life and all that. I have been working really hard to set up a studio, downstairs, in my basement. So far I have had two space heaters give out. The hubby says we will do some work on the house to make it warmer down there.

To make a bit more sense about it - the work shop was an extra garage, attached to the basement. The garage door leaks air rather badly, and so it's very drafty. It tends to be about the same temperature as the outside. This time of year that runs around the 20s-30s. BRRRR!

It's still exciting!! I set up three sets of shelves and started unpacking/moving all of my beads to the work shop. It had reached a point in my bedroom where all of the craftiness was piling up and preventing me from crafting. I could barely see my beads past the bags of fleece and the kids beads and felt. (My girls all keep their crafty stuff with my stuff.)

To celebrate getting most every thing set up over the last couple of weeks (I'm still organizing some of my beads to be able to find them) I sat down yesterday and made a beaded face. My main goal with this project was to recycle something I would normally throw away.

I choose a plastic bowl that a freezer entree came in. I cut out a circle about the same size of a quarter. I then used a 1/16th inch hole punch to make lots of holes. This became my foundation.

Originally I had planned to just cover it in beads for a fringy pin. However, as I worked, it just looked so much like a "hairdo," that I had to make this little felted face. I Still haven't gotten my tetnus shot, so I was probably risking death, but I tried to go slowly and be careful. I also promise everyone (especially my DH who is an emergency doc.) that I will get a booster for tetnus before do any more felting.

The only thing it needs at this point is a bit of felt for the back and a pin back. I plan on doing that in a few minutes.

It worked up very quickly and was just cute as could be. It's incentive to get that booster shot soon! Hope you all enjoy, and I wll try to post more. I will admit that during the end of the semester teaching, testing, and holidays to boot - that I am a bit bonkers and busy.

I also have a post to show more of Ronit's work that will go up either tonight or in the morning.

Lots of hugs and happy holidays!!! Hope they are all beadiful! Ginger

ying yang update

Last post I put up a pattern of a ying yang. Please use this version instead:

Thanks to a note from Ronit and her pics, I realized it was working out to be an oval rather than a round shape. Ronit suggested I reset the bead size for 5x7 (sure enough - when I checked, it was set for 6x7). This fixed the problem as far as designing a new version - but I still had to re-do the pattern. So, here is the new pattern - edited and re-sized. I also wanted to share the beautiful work Ronit did, using the first version.

Thank you Ronit!!

I'm definitely thankful to Ronit and all of my beadie Buddies out there!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

Ten bead quilt squares by Ronit !

I wanted to share with you a pic of ten bead quilt squares by worked up by Ronit.

She shared this pic with me, before sending them off in the mail. I hope this gets everyone excited about making one or two. I have to admit I've only worked a couple so far. I need to get working myself!!

Bright Petals, worked up by Ronit

Here is more beautiful work by Ronit. She is always so creative with the patterns I do. She really reworked the bracelet pattern to come up with a cool amulet/pendant for this necklace. I also love the circle motifs she used to make the necklace. It gives the necklace part the weight it needs to balance the frontispiece, and pulls in the palette of colours for continuity.

Of course, I don't think Ronit can do bad work, if she tried, but I always love how she takes a basic pattern and explores with it. Ronit always steps outside the basic square/rectangle.

Here is the original bracelet based on my pattern. Ronit sent this to me about three weeks ago, when I was in my posting slump (Camp and vacation really wore me out!! not just physically, but mentally!) I have been planning on posting this forever, and just hope she is okay that I have been so SLOW about it. I probably need to bead myself "a round toit!"

I was so inspired by her work, I went back to the original pattern and edited it and started working it myself. It took a couple of tries before I found the colours that gave the POP of colour that I was looking for. I finally grabbed every purple, turquise, orange, and yellow, as well as a bunch of greens and worked up a sample swatch to see which ones would "read" the way I wanted them to. More on the sample swatch later - It was really instructive!!

I'm almost finished with the bracelet and hope to share soon. Right now, I'm looking for just the right way to close the thing.

Ronit's work: update

I just recieved an update from Ronit yesterday. She finished the bracelet I designed to match her necklace and sent me a couple of pics. I thought I would share her work - especially since it co-ordinates with the neclace I posted earlier. I love the pearls used on the edging !

The pattern was bit more difficult, because the main features of Oreo were much smaller. I also had to go back in and recolour quite a bit -- The pattern maker wanted to make a lot of little speckles all over it.

To get this, I did a quick assimilate, erased all the back ground and recoloured it in tourquise. I then erased portions of the main image one section at a time and coloured them back in -- I tried to squint a bit and get the main features of fur colour and pattern.

The most important was the face and I find if I save the work I have done up til then, It lets me try a couple of different variations, make mistakes, and not have to worry about losing the rest of the work I have done so far, while I look for "just the right look."

Here's the graph I ended up with:

Some of Ronit's work

Close up of Ronit's necklace:

I have mentioned Ronit Florence's work in a couple of previous posts, and really wanted to share some of it here. The most recent has been a necklace in memory of Oreo. Oreo, as I mentioned earlier, has been her furry baby for many years, and recently passed away. I had designed some patterns for her, based on pics of both her furry babies.

Here's one of the patterns I did:

Here's the gorgeous necklace based on the pattern:

Most of the things I admire about Ronit's work can be seen in this piece. She really takes a basic pattern and adds lots of personal touches. Look at what the pattern looked like to begin with, and then see the things Ronit did to personalize the piece. This piece also has a lot of flexability in how it is worn.

The original pattern has a peach back ground, but the final work has a turquoise background. Also the number of colours in Oreo's fur was reduced a bit to give a stronger image. I try to keep numbers limited, but sometimes don't limit them them as much as is possible. Also the fringe coming from the bottom gives the simple square more shape and definition as a pendant.

The big lesson is how much artistic liscense can be taken with a simple square pattern. A lot of beginner (And not so beginner) beaders try to stick just to what is in front of them. If the pattern is a basic square then the final piece will be a simple square pendant or amulet.

It's really important to not be afraid to try something not in the pattern, to change colours, omit colours,. Try different styles of beaded necklaces to compliment the pendant. Don't be afraid of making a mistake -- That's really how you learn and stretch your abilities. Do things you like to add a bit of yourself to every piece.

I mentioned above the flexibility of this piece. One thing Ronit does in most of her work is to have the necklace attach to each side of the pendant. This lets her change out the necklace - or wear the necklace without the pendant. Also, notice the section of peyote on the left side of the necklace -- that too is removable and can be worn as a separate bracelet or part of the necklace as a whole. This gives a lot of flexability to the piece.

Oreo

A while back I did a series of patterns for a dear beady friend, of her two furry babies, Kettem and Oreo.

I learned today Oreo has passed away. My friend, Ronit Florence, has been a wonder-full inspiration to me, and her work is always amazing. She always takes my designs and makes them way more cool.

I'm rather ineloquently saying "I admire her talent." I just wanted to do this bracelet as well as several other "chocolate, cream-filled cookie" patterns as well.

I want to dedicate these patterns to all of our furry babies, who we love. Their sweetness is why we love them.

Surviving winter doldrums, Part II

I decided the doodle from my first (ever!) post was worth while enough to edit it a bit. First, The pattern was extended using some free form to let the elements extend beyond the sides.

Then another panel was added to continue the swirl part of the design. It will be attached with short fringe. Additional fringe will be next to the panel to balance the color and shape. Fringe will be used to continue the light blue arch running through the center of the design.

The small panel on the bottom has been finished and the larger panel is being worked on. I hope to have it finished in a week or two.

I have to say I was inspired by several works of Ronit Florence. Her work is "WOW!" I will try to find a way to create a link to share her awesome work. She is good at "thinking outside the box."