Diane Hawkey

I'll describe the weekend bead show (and flash my stash again) a little later, but I wanted to show you these beautiful beads and buttons that were a wonderful and unexpected treat from ceramic artist Diane Hawkey. (You can click on the photo for a bigger image.) Are these not to die for? Diane is also a knitter, and I had been previously rabbiting on to her about how I was always on the lookout for unusual buttons for my cardigans, and lo and behold, I found these absolutely gorgeous buttons in the cute parcel she gave me.

I reallly, really love these focals - they make such a strong statement. The minute I saw them, I knew pretty much what I was going to do with them, which is unusual for me. My favorite is the grinning fox (which I think Diane meant to be more of an animal spirit mask, but it looks like a grinning fox to me) which reminds me strongly of Aesop's fables. I also think the Horned God bead (which reminds me of Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke" - I'm sure this is not what Diane had in mind, but there you go) is really unique and beautiful. I'll be reading up a little on mythology before I use this one. Diane also makes really lovely rough-faceted accent beads - a bunch of which are now part of my stash. I'll show them to you tomorrow. In the meantime, if you would like to see more of Diane's work, please go here. Thank you, Diane!

Oh, by the way, voting closes today for the Stringing Magazine Designers Challenge. If you have already voted, thank you so much. If you are thinking of voting, today is the day! Please go here. Okay, that's it for my shameless promotion. Thanks for bearing with me.

And thanks for stopping by!