Set “The Spring’s Nascency”

img_1126 img_1110 This set became a finalist in the most prestigious bead competition in the world – Bead Dreams 2010, and I feel proud for this my “baby”, though it wasn’t selected as a ribbon winner.   But I am happy with just beeing the part of the show, and this is certainly amazing thing: this year both of my entries (this set and the necklace ”The Stone flower”) were selected as finalists!

This set is consisting of 3 parts: the top for a pregnant lady (completely made from beads), necklace and bracelet. The idea of this set came to me while I was expecting a baby; and the experience of spring on the nature of my home city with hills, covered in thick snowdrifts, sparkling under the sun on the thin crust of ice over the snow with billions of snow “diamonds”, and a real miracle – butterflies flying among all the snow – showed me the exact image of this set. It has a deep sense of human’s closeness to Nature, combining the ideas of expectance by a mother for her child and Mother Nature for spring.  I wanted to accent the beauty of the expecting mother and the beauty of the snow-melting time with its clear thin delicate ice, sparkling snow and joyful spirit.

The butterflies on the necklace and bracelet are also symbolic. They are forerunners of Spring’s Nascency: in their bodies-”souls”- they show up different manifestations of coming Spring (melting snow, dew drops, thawed patches, etc).  These butterflies are very different, like snowflakes – you can never meet the same shape among others.

img_1068 About the technical aspects of this set: I used here my own technique (Tatiana’s MOTIF (“Microbeaded Openwork’s Tastiness In Fitzpatrick’s Fancywork”)) working with antique and vintage micro beads in embroidery, making the embroidery look delicate and lite like lace.  The top on the front has a little clasp, hidden by Swarovski crystals. On the back the top has buttons made from pearls on two sides of the central part of the back.

Тhe necklace has magnet clasp on the bottom of small butterfly.  The big butterfly from the necklace can be removed and used as a pendant separately or as a decorative part for a hair clasp.

Creation of this set took about 9 months – in unison with the idea.

Materials used in this set: Antique Italian glass seed beads sizes 18, 20, 22, 24; vintage Czech seed beads and cuts sizes 18, 20; Japanese glass seed beads sizes 15, 11 and cuts; Czech micro cuts; Swarovski crystals (2 mm round crystal beads, bicones 2.5 mm, 3,4,5 mm; 6 mm crystal rondelle beads; 11×6 mm crystal modular beads; crystal aquiline center hole beads; crystal sew-on stones); natural rock-crystal beads; natural pearls; leather; memory wire; Fireline, Silamide waxed thread; Lacy’s Stiff Stuff.



Anastasia at the Home Plus Play Area


Today we took Anastasia to the Home Plus play area for the first time.  Here are a couple videos of her response.  Watching her was so much fun I had to figure out how to record video on my cell phone!

Necklace “At Lukomorie”


at-lukomorie-5 at-lukomorie-9 This necklace is one from my “fairy-tail collection”, it is amusing, funny and light, though the work on this necklace was quite hard because of the micro-bead framing (I used beads size 18- 24 for the stone mounting decoration).

The name of the necklace speaks for itself; it was taken from the verses of A.S.Pushkin’s poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”:

“On seashore far a green oak towers,
And to it with a gold chain bound,
A learned cat whiles away the hours
By walking slowly round and round.
To right he walks, and sings a ditty;
To left he walks, and tells a tale….”

Materials, used in this piece of art: Jasper cabochon, antique Italian micro beads (# 18-24), Japanese glass beads size 11; acorns; metal golden chains.


Necklace “Autumn Ball”


img_0025-6 navy-ball-29 navy-ball-32 A gold nugget and glass beads – are you surprised with such a combination?  The nobility of antique micro beads and the luxury of gold go together perfectly, neither denying each other nor distracting from each other, but adding new nuances and new perceptions.

This necklace I created as a transformer: you could wear it differently, changing the pendant (I made additional pendant to this necklace in a shape of a leaf, using my own technique “Micro bead netting in embroidery”) or you could wear all parts separately – the necklace also looks great without any pendant, and pendant looks very attractive by itself.

Many people are wondering about the size of the beads which I’m using. This picture will give you exact image of differences in sizes between contemporary beads size 11 and antique little ones.

Materials, used in this necklace: glass ruby cabochons, antique Italian glass  micro beads (sizes 18-22), Czech glass micro cuts, black pearls, haematite beads, Swarovski crystals, gold-filled clasp.


Brooch – necklace “The pearly Rose”


pearl-broach-001 pearl-broach-004 pearl-broach-007 This brooch is a distillation of finesse, elegance and luxury. Very rare and astonishing materials and the finest workmanship make this piece of art absolutely unique and unbelievably beautiful. To create this brooch, I used the smallest natural pearls which you could imagine – less than 1 mm in diameter, larger pearls, antique glass beads sizes 18-24, very small silver beads and Czech glass micro cuts. The flower was netted on the silver base, which allows to turn this brooch into the pendant for a necklace by sliding the necklace through a special slot made from silver, a very easy and fast procedure.

Necklace “The Stone Flower”


img_0287 img_0326 Here it is – my finalist of Bead Dreams 2010 competition. To became a finalist in this prestigious bead event is a certain victory for me – though this necklace didn’t became a ribbon winner.

This necklace was made by motif of P.Bajov’s fairy-tale “The Stone Flower.” I wanted to express the attraction and intangibility of the mythical stone flower, whose living beauty was impossible for Danila, the rock-carving master, to make out of malachite. In my necklace you can see the Malachite flower, turning into the difficult to catch butterfly…

This necklace was created using my own technique “Tatiana’s MOTIF” (“Microbeaded Openwork’s Tastiness In Fitzpatrick’s Fancywork”). Work on this project of beading art took over 100 hours.

Materials, used in this necklace: malachite cabochons and beads, Japanese beads size 11, 15, antique Italian micro beads sizes 18, 20, 24; gold-plated charlottes, black-greenish pearls, Czech micro cuts, Swarovski crystal beads, Onyx beads, gold -filled findings.



Necklace-scarf “Claudia”

Claudia's Shawl-024 Claudia's Shawl-027 This necklace was made especially for a wonderful, kind and charming woman – Claudia; the smooth and soft lines and folds of this necklace were called to underline Claudia’s gentle beauty and the colour of it goes so well with her skin and hair. In my strong opinion, every piece of jewelry which any woman wears must be in a harmony with her inner beauty and outward appearance. It must underline all the best things in a person and shouldn’t be just a thing, catching anybody’s eye by itself, covering it’s owner.

Materials, used in this necklace: Japanese glass beads sizes 10 and 11, Swarovski glass pearls, Czech glass drop beads, Crystal beads, “cat’s eye” glass beads, sterling silver clasp.

Pendant “Ocean Symphony”

Ocean Symphony-011 Ocean Symphony-013 Do you know how to listen to the ocean?  It lives its own, special, life.  The deep water pose so surprising, but – alas! – We look unreachable. But the ocean is able to talk and loves those who know how to listen. Listen as the waves foam roll over pebbles, one year to the smoothing of irregularities, making them humble servants of the water element, listen to the inhabitants of the underwater kingdom and to imagine unimaginable variety of fish, shellfish, corals, jellyfish and other, other – all these sea creatures each of whom do not even suspect that you are trying to let the ocean to hear their stories, hear the whisper of the waves in the echoes of distant worlds, discoveries, victories and defeats, and the collapse of hopes … And coming home after a long retreat, to bring to your ear to the selected bank of shell and, referring to the abandoned thoughts of nature, listen to the ocean, buschuyuschy inside you …

Materials used in coulombs: kaplevidnye Czech glass beads, beads Shvarovski, glass cabochon, Japanese beads number 11, 15, an antique Italian mikrobiser № 18,20, as well as mikrorubka; leather, waxed thread silamid, leather cord.


Tanya’s News Story


Last year while visiting her home in Magadan, a local news station did a story about Tanya’s beadwork and her mother’s green thumb. I was going through some files and found this and now it’s posted for your viewing enjoyment.

Unfortunately, the video is Russian but I hope to be able to add in some subtitles soon.

Click here To Watch Video
Click to Watch!




Set (necklace and earrings) “Fancy Pansies”

Fancy Pansies-035 Fancy Pansies-041 I love flowers. There are lots of them in my house. Some of them are exquisite, graceful and elegant, like orchids or irises, some of them are amusing, bright and joyful, bringing a smile to my face every time I look at them.

The idea of this set sprang up in my mind when I was looking through the old issues of  ”Beadwork” magazine. my eye stopped at one of the brooches of Nome May, created in the shape of a flower (“Beadwork”, April/May 2002, p.14)

In this set I wanted to show the joy which suns warmth brings to nature and to our lives every year. With the vivid colors, combined in these pansies – bright yellows, reds and greens, this captures the spirit of summer; and in spite of classic noble materials, which I used in this necklace (pearls and coral), the feeling and whole impression of this set is quite opposite from the classic elegance – YES! SUMMER FUN!

Materials, used in the set: Japanese seed beads # 15,11; antique Italian microbeads # 18,20; pearls and coral; leather and Sylamid waxed thread; gold-filled clasp.