Some great weekend reading for you in the world of beads and blogs:

Tapestry Beads - Jill Wiseman is gearing up for her last show of a very busy year.

Beadazzled of Oregon - Dini Alves shows off some incredible new beaded chevrons.

Beadedbear's Nonsense and Complete Waste of Time - Sig Wynne-Evans has a day off from her day job and gets ready for BABE.

Etsy Beadweaver's Team - the November challenge entries are in and are open for voting. Some beautiful work based on the theme "Beauty of the Flower".

Ramblings on Jewelry Making and Life - Jean Campbell talks about reinforcing your beadwork to make beautiful pieces that will stand the test of time.

Contemporary Beadwork by Kerrie Slade - Kerrie shows us some gorgeous new pieces that placed second in the British Bead Awards.

MAD Designs - Marcia DeCoster talks about her upcoming book signing and shares some of her current knitting projects.

Artisan Clay - Kristie Roeder has a fantastic giveaway going on to celebrate her 300th sale on Etsy and has just listed some very cool assorted packs of ceramic beads.

SandFibers - Carol Dean Sharpe shares some of the gorgeous treasuries on Etsy that include her work, as well as the work of some other very talented Etsy beadweavers.

A Word From Claudia - Claudia Chase of Mirrix Looms talks about using color in beadwork. This is a wonderful post that explores many aspects of using color, from the obvious to the subconscious and is a real treat to read.

I'll return next week with some more posts about my favorite fabulous focals and some thoughts on finding inspiration for your beadwork. Until then, happy reading and beading!

While I was at Bead Fest Philadelphia this past summer, I treated myself to a number of beautiful focal artist beads, something that I haven't done since I went to the first Bead Fest in 2003. For the next few days, I will be featuring each of the artists from whom I bought a focal bead with a little information about the artist and links to where you can buy your own miniature work of art.

Kristie Roeder of Artisan Clay creates beautiful, one of a kind hand-thrown ceramic beads, pendants and donuts. At Bead Fest, I bought two of her glass and stoneware cabochons and a smoke-fired donut.

Imagine my delight when I saw on the Artisan Clay Etsy shop that she had started creating ceramic donuts in one of my favorite colors - copper luster!

Kristie is now having a giveaway to help celebrate the 300th sale in her Etsy store. In addition to getting a free copper luster bead for every item you purchase from her store, she is also offering a chance to win a smoke, copper or sagger colored bead or donut from her current inventory. You can find all the details on the Artisan Clay blog.

In addition to the many, many other things that I have going on this week, I am finishing up my entry for Scarlet Lanson's Use the Muse III competition. Here is a sneak peek:

That's all I can show you right now! The space in the center between the two flowers is where the Muse component will be placed. If you like the flowers, you can try your hand at making your own Russian style netted flowers.

I'm very happy with the warm colors I chose to use in this project. All of the beads came from my shopping spree at the Beyond Beadery booth at Bead Fest Philadelphia this past August. (Can you even call it a booth? It's more like a portable seed bead and Swarovski crystal store!)

Scarlet was nice enough to extend the deadline so that the international participants in the competition would have enough time to complete their entries, and that worked well for me, since the extra time allowed me to meet my other deadlines and still have time to finish my design.

Since I'm not allowed to reveal the beautiful Muse component that is the focal point of the design, you'll just have to wait until The Big Reveal on Scarlet's website, The Beader's Muse, when she announces the winners of the competition.

I hope Scarlet has a fourth Use the Muse competition - check her website often for updates!

A new beadwork competition has been announced at the Land of Odds, the creative folks that bring us the annual Ugly Necklace Contest.

The Illustrative Beader: Beaded Tapestry Competition is now looking for entries. This will be a bi-annual competition and the final deadline for acceptance of entries is August 31, 2011.

The theme for this year's Beaded Tapestry competition is mystery book covers. Beaders and artists should create a beaded mystery book cover using fabrics, fibers, and of course, beads. The piece must be made of at least 70% beads, and will be judged on insight, technique, use of beads as an artistic medium, visual appeal, and the quality of the required written artist's statement.

Guidelines for the Beaded Tapestry competition can be found on the Land of Odds website. Two prizes awarded will be a $1,000.00 and $400.00 shopping spree on the Land of Odds website!

Don't forget that you can still enter the Ugly Necklace Contest sponsored by the Land of Odds until March 15, 2010.