One of the things that I most enjoy about being a beadwork artist, and being an artist in general, is the seemingly endless supply of inspiration that surrounds me. Once I was able to tap into that part of my mind that I refer to as my "artist brain", I found it easy to find inspiration for beadwork in pretty much anything that I see.

The bracelet and earring set in this photo is a recent creation of mine, inspired by one of my many sessions perusing the online catalogs for the big auction houses like Christie's and Sotheby's. Many of the jewelry collections include works by well-known jewelers as well as wonderful folk and antique jewelry. The challenge in using these pieces as inspiration for my own beaded creations comes when I see a piece of jewelry that makes me think, "How can I recreate that using just seed beads?"

My favorite source, which I don't get to tap into too often, are museums and art galleries. While I love living in the mountains, my distance from major art museums and collections means that a visit is something that happens only once or twice a year. But when I'm there, I've got my camera, sketchbook and colored pencils handy. I've found ideas for beadwork in the illuminated manuscripts of a 14th-century European family at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles as well as the baroque style furniture on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. An exhibit of ancient glass from Greece and Rome at the Getty Villa in Malibu, California still inspires me when I am at my lampwork torch as well as when I am looking for a new beading project.

Of course, one of the greatest inspirations for my work is the view out my studio window. There is nothing quite like a mountain range through the four seasons to provide me with ideas for color, shape and texture as I watch the sun rise and set, the trees turn green and then lose their leaves, and the snowstorms and spring rains that come over the ridge. These colors, shapes and textures weave their way into my little beads and result in some surprising and beautiful beaded art.

Where do you find inspiration? Is it in a particular style of jewelry? An era in history? Nature? A color? Share your ideas here!

Ever since I started learning the art of making glass beads, there are a few lampwork artists whose work has fascinated me. Ofilia Cinta is one of those lampwork artists, and this past summer, I got to meet her and purchase one of her incredible glass fish beads.

Ofilia's glasswork is inspired by her rich heritage and her memories of childhood trips to Mexico and Texas. When you look at her richly colored hollow glass fish, her signature creation, you find unexpected depth in the layers of glass and light. Sometimes she includes small patches of dichroic glass or copper mesh to give texture and sparkle. Each fish is one-of-a-kind, and in choosing one for myself, I had to look at them closely to figure out their unique personalities.

You can see more of Ofilia's work and read her complete bio on her website, Ofilia Art Glass.

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.

Some great new updates to my favorite beading blogs this week:

BeadedBear's Nonsense and Complete Waste of Time - Sig Wynn-Evans

Beadazzled of Oregon - Dini Alves

Beady Eyed Women - Jeanette Cook

Ramblings on Jewelry Making and Life - Jean Campbell

Contemporary Beadwork by Kerrie Slade - Kerrie Slade

MAD Designs - Marcia DeCoster

Tapestry Beads - Jill Wiseman

Artisan Clay - Kristie Roeder

Happy Halloween and Happy Beading!

Progress is being made on the freeform peyote necklace! I really love the colors in this one. The creams with the browns and other Earth tones are really the colors that have spoken to me since I started beading more than ten years ago. I always find myself drawn to these colors when designing and shopping for beads.

The piece looks a bit lopsided right now, but it's only because I was so anxious to attach the beadwork that I had done for the left side of the piece. I needed to get an idea for where the beadwork was going so I could judge how much more I needed to do on the right side.

I've been having great fun with this technique because it really lets me stretch my skills and my creativity as I figure out how to incorporate each element as I go. That's one of the many things I love about freeform peyote beadwork!

More pictures and updates will come next week after I return home, along with some great tutorials on how to do freeform peyote beadwork. Get your beads ready!

Some of you may share my obsession with beading kits. I can't explain why I love them so much, but I think some of it may be the idea of sitting down with a given set of materials and working my own brand of magic to transform them into a stunning piece of beaded jewelry. I am actually in the home stretch of finishing a set of kits by Rachel Nelson-Smith from her new book, "Seed Bead Fusion", and they are keeping me up at night way past my usual bedtime.

So this week, I was thrilled to discover that School of Beadwork, the collaborative effort of Carol Wilcox Wells and Melanie Potter, is having a fall clearance sale on some of their most beautiful beadwork kits. Some of the kits have been marked down more than 50%, and mixed in with the sale kits are some gorgeous new offerings.

Nikkia Angel's Buy the Kit also has some great new kits that have been just added to the website. The Venezia Cristal Pendant uses Swarovski crystals and a crystal hexagon centerpiece. The new Bellagio Cristal Pendant also uses a sparkling crystal hexagon centerpiece, includes instructions for making matching earrings, and comes in five different color palettes. Both kits are priced very reasonably at $33 for the Venezia and $27 for the Bellagio - perfect gifts for the upcoming holiday season.

It isn't too often that I get excited about the contents of my post office box two days in a row, but that's what happened this week with the arrival of the two special issue magazines by Beadwork Magazine and Bead & Button Magazine.

Bead & Button's "Jewelry Designs With Art Glass Beads" showcases twenty projects from the collaboration between the magazine's editors and the International Society of Glass Beadmakers (ISGB) and a special article about the collaborations of jewelry artist Maggie Roschyk and lampwork artist Kristen Frantzen Orr.

Beadwork Magazine has come out with what is their best special issue yet - "Beadwork Presents 41 Favorite Jewelry Designs". This is one collector's issue that you absolutely must get your hands on. In addition to the beautiful beaded jewelry projects, there are more than 50 tips from professional bead artists, editors' picks for cool new beading products, and a handy pull-out reference card that has basic instructions for all sorts of beading and jewelry making techniques.

These two issues will be more then enough to tide me over until the next regular issues of the magazines come out in a few weeks, and the projects are sure to keep me busy for much longer than that. Check your favorite book store or newsstand at the end of October for these issues, or order them directly from the publisher's websites.