Atlantis set

I worked on this netting set for many hours, but it was well worth it. It looks so regal both against the well tanned and the fair skin.
In creating this set, I used Japanese Toho beads, the most even beads to work with, which give this set a very delicate and classy look.

For interest in this set, or the single items, please send me an email at marika dot charalambous at gmail dot com.

Musings on how people affect us without realising

I was reading the other day a thread on a jewelry forum about 'how did you first get into making jewelry?'.
I started thinking back and then I realised that it all happened thanks to a particular somebody, quite by coincidence.

In my previous job I had a colleague living in South Africa and once when she came to the Cyprus office, she brought a couple of girls some 'native' gifts. She brought me a (loomed, later I figured out) bracelet that I quite liked and had it on for a while. The beading was so nice even on the bracelet, and I became quite curious as to how it was done. I started researching on Google, and the rest is history...

I'm sure she doesn't even know that I have to thank her the many hundreds of dollars that I spent on beads, threads, books, magazines, findings, and on the countless hours I spent making jewelry piece after piece... all thanks to her giving me that bracelet which she must have completely forgot about in the meantime...

Another example of one of those major synchronicities that change the course of our lives, while at the time it happened, it seemed ah so innocent :-)

Potawatomi weave

I started working with these ugly colored beads a few days ago and I kept ripping apart everything as I didn't like the colors at all. Finally this morning while browsing through an older Bead&Button magazine, I found the weave for a choker, called Potawatomi weave, and it just all clicked. I started it in the morning, then I went with hubby to the beach, and in the afternoon when I came home, I finished it. Now that it's done, I don't find the yellow-petrol color so ugy, it actually starts to grow on me, lol.
And with this, one more done for my challenge! I used the weave from Bead&Button Feb.03

Spring roll

I started this bracelet months ago and I eventually got bored of it. Spirals do tend to get boring after a while, as they progress so slowly...Today I decided I will finally finish it, so here is the result. Easy spring/summer colors, going nicely with a tan (which I hope to get tomorrow as it will be my first day at the beach this year!).

On synchronicity again

At the recommendation of a friend, I ordered a book called Life Lessons by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.
I started reading it this afternoon and I am already halfway through it. It is a wonderful book, full of insights about life, love, death, all there is. It is not something new for me, as I have read several other great books basically telling the same things, by Wayne Dyer, Dick Sutphen, Rosemary Altea, or the wonderful Conversations with God by Neil Donald Walsch, of which I actually finished the first in the series of three yesterday. If there is anyone who has not read yet Elisabeth Kubler-Ross or Neil Donald Walsch's books, I highly recommend that you pick them up. In there you will find the greatest truths about life that you already knew but you didn't know you knew them.

But why did I pick this subject for my blog entry?
Today something - I could say - funny happened at work. The secretary was away for two weeks on holiday, so all the external calls were transfered to my phone. Today she was back, but the IT guys forgot to transfer the main line back to her, so I got a phone call from a woman with a funny accent. She was sort of confused, and didn't even know whom she was calling. Had no idea how she got our company's number, but there she was. She apologized profoundly for the call and asked if I knew a Hungarian musician in Cyprus (pianist I think).
I was totally surprised of her inquiry because there she was, a Hungarian calling the last minute I was still able to pick up the main line - me a Hungarian as well.
I told her I don't know any Hungarian musician in Cyprus, but funny enough, I am Hungarian myself. Now in Cyprus Hungarians are quite rare, it's not like you walk on the street and every third person is Hungarian. Anyway we got into talking and at some point the line got cut. I thought that was it, but then after a few minutes she called again and we continued talking. Even after she understood I could not help her, she called me back to talk with me more in Hungarian. We really connected for a few minutes. This encounter make a rather dull morning at work become something special.
I was totally puzzled by this particular occurance and as I know there are no coincidences in this life, I was wondering what was its meaning. Then I shrugged it off and went about my business as usual.
This afternoon, at home, while I was reading the Life Lessons book, I came upon a particular paragraph which I will cite here below:

"There's no such thing as an insignificant or accidental relationship. Every meeting, encounter, or exchange, with everyone from a spouse to an anonymous telephone operator, no matter how brief or profound, how positive, neutral, or painful, is meaningful. And in the grand scheme of things every relationship is potentially important, for even the most trivial encounter with a passing stranger can teach us a great deal about ourselves. Every person we encounter holds the possibility of sending us to happiness, to a loving place in the mind[...]."

I'd like to hope that those few minutes on the phone brought the woman just as much joy and few careless and loving minutes as they brought me today.

When these kinds of synchronicities are happening to me or around me - and lately they have slowly but surely increased in number - I believe that I am on my right path, and God or the universe or whatever you want to call it, is telling me to go on, on this path, that I am exactly where I am supposed to be in my spiritual journey and in my life.

My first book review for June

Here is my review for June's Bookmooch TBR club. Just fnished the book and it was great!
To give you a glimpse of what the book is about...

Sherry Moore is blind, beautiful and has a gift. She can see the deceased's last 18 seconds by touching their hand. And she uses this gift to help police solve various crimes...

Read the rest in my review.

New blog layout

So, after months of the 'good old layout' I've decided to change it. This when I saw the new blog of my friend, Alex.
I quite like the result. Much more 'me' than the old page.
Which wouldn't have been possible without Alex's great help and cute heading picture, done just for me!!

Zebra stripes

I started it yesterday and finished it this evening. Although it's a very basic stitch, for me it's something quite new as I haven't worked that much in flat peyote before. The idea of the two drops peyote and the toggle come from Bead Patterns magazine #4 (Crystal 2-Drop Bracelet). The design and mistakes are mine entirely. And oh boy can one see the mistakes when watching the enlarged picture :)
So number 3 is completed as well. Now just another 500 more to go *sigh*.

Bracelet added

I was looking for a bracelet pattern to complement the necklace, and I found it in Horace Goodhue's Indian Beadweaving Patterns, a very easy and quick one to do. Now I can also safely say I did two projects already from books I own.
Athough I shouldn't be that smug just yet, as doing easy pieces will NOT get me stretching my boundaries and learning new things *grins*.
I've taken another picture with the set, hope this is better than the previous (?).
The muted colours of the beads in this second picture are much truer to the real colours than in the previous pic.

New jewelry resolution

I have tons of jewelry books and magazines, so I've decided to make one jewelry item from each. It will be a long project, but this way I can learn lots more than I know now about jewelry making, I can stretch a little bit beyond my comfort zone and hope to improve.

The first is a netted necklace from Bead Patterns Magazine #1. It's called Crystals'n Lace necklace by Sandra Halpenny.
I'm not very good at taking pictures, that's another lesson I still have to learn, but for now, this is it. I'll update the picture with another one when I manage to take a better pic. I might make a matching bracelet as well, we'll see.