December Theme Challenge - With BIG Prizes!!!

[Kaz]

FH has joined forces with our favourite suppliers to sponsor some lovely prizes for the December Challenge.
We have on offer:
A £100 voucher for Glassworks
A £50 voucher for Tuffnells
Two £25 vouchers for Off Mandrel
A beautiful pendant by Sarah of Flame Force Five
and I am offering up a bumpy bead and a goody bag that includes, among other things, 6 half rods of discontinued ASK glass, 20 mini frit packs, some handmade shards and various other bits and bobs.
In order to enter, you must have been a registered member of FH! on 5th December. The challenge is open to old lags and newbies alike.
The prizes will be awarded through a random draw which will be made by Sarah on 2nd January.
You can post as many times as you like but your name will only be entered into the draw once.
If you are not a beadmaker and you win a voucher, you can nominate a beadmaker to receive the prize and I will make you some beads as compensation
Feel free to post pictures of beads, jewellery or any other handcrafted item you have made that fits the theme.

The theme is (predictably) winter and here is a beautiful photo for inspiration taken by the lovely Kevan Aponte (you can see more of her fabulous photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancingstarbeads/) who has kindly agreed to us using the photo for the challenge.

I am not a religious person, but thought the words of this carol might accompany the picture well:

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Looking forward to seeing your entries.
Good luck - you have to be in to win!
Kazx

[Les]

I made these last week, I think ?
Hope it's OK to enter something I have already made.... ?

[Les]

Oh and these...

[julieHB]

I have made fused cuff links for years, and d/t recent interest I decided to make another batch. This time I wanted to try to make some lampworked cabs as well, and after a bit of trial and error I came up with this design, which I am quite chuffed with:



When I was little we used to pick up clear pieces of ice and look through it - the optical distortions through the various thicknesses of ice was similar to those in the glass blobs above, so I hope they qualify for the theme of winter  .

[jammie]

Not new but I thought it fitted well...

The focal artbead and the smaller lampwork beads are by Isabelle Anderson. I added silver droplets and wire nests along with rock crystal and amethyst dangles. The finished piece reminds me of winter solstice when the night is at its longest and its never quite light.

[Trudi]

Lovely beads Les - so soft looking!

lovely design Julie - very different!

And lovely necklace Jammie

Guess I can add my snowballs  ...

Shimmering ones:


and Glistening ones

[Veebee]

Les, Julie, Jeanie & Trudi... so pretty!
I can't torch at the moment, but I wanted to enter the challenge so I sat down and made a beaded bead this morning...




This is my first attempt at peyote stitch, and in true "run before you can walk" fashion I decided to do tubular peyote cellini spiral. I don't think it turned out too bad  

Edited to add: Well, the thing sat there, stared at me for a while, then demanded to be turned into an icicle. Sheesh 

[metaltedgrrl]

Hi, I'm a bit intimidated by the gorgeousness already shown...but here's my entry anyway!
I'm very much a newbie, but decided to have a go at creating some lampworked Christmas charms, and came up with this little (2cm tall) penguin sitting on his own wee iceberg!  If you look close you'll spot the flaws, but I rather like him!
Thanks for looking...

[turnedlight]

Hehe!
I made these a little while back, but they sprang to mind straight away..



Must make some more..

[Dee Dee]

What a fantastic challenge with amazing prizes.  And some fabulous entries so far!  I love this winter theme!  Thanks Kaz for organising!

Here's a couple of mine....







Keeping my fingers and toes crossed!! 

[princess pink]

some of you may have already seen these but they are my icicle beads...



and my shimmer marbles which i think are quite frosty wintery looking

[LesleyMac]

Some lovely beads already.  Here is mine, a Christmas flower

[Hels4444]

Wow what fabulous entries, I love the birdies and the icicles.

Here is my entry



Helen

[turnedlight]

I love the icicles too! I was asked if I was going to enter this bead, so here it is!

[Magpie]

Penguins and icicles and birds and snowballs and much loveliness, and ooooh I like the etched clear.

I thought I'd got the hang of this snow on the snowball beads, but looking at these, no, so I'm gonna say it's the melting snow that's on my beads. 

Off to etch them, I think.