Eye of the storm giveaway!

Good Morning! Sorry for the lack of post yesterday, I was still (and still am) feeling crappy. But hay-ho life must go on. First the winner of the Audrey Hepburn print giveaway is Miss Kellie of Playing Dress-Up. So congratulations to her. Please message me with your address and I will pass it on to The Canvas House so they can forward the item on to you. I would also like to thank Elisabeth again, for the cute locket brooch she sent me as a Thank You for doing the giveaway.

Now onto this weeks giveaway.

This weeks giveaway comes from the lovely Liz at The Crimson Moon. She is the second of my Welsh designers I have decided to showcase this month. Liz is a very talented jewellery maker and beader. She also sells her tutorials on how to make her beautiful creations if you are feeling particularly crafty. Liz has also been featured a number of times in Bead Magazine.

So I suppose you all want to know what the prize for this giveaway is. Well... it is this rather stunning 'Eye of the Storm' necklace. Which I have in my hands and I must say it is even more striking in person than in this photo.

So here is my interview with Liz, hope you enjoy.

1. What's your name and where do you come from? My name is Liz Reed and I live in

Abergavenny, South Wales. It's a market town in the beautiful county of Monmouthshire with almost 1000 Years of history. It's a great place to live if you have a creative streak as there's always something to inspire you.

2. How long have you been making your designs? I've been making jewellery since about 2003 although I've been using beads for many years. I've been creative since I was a little girl, always drawing, painting, knitting, sewing etc. I used to do a lot of cross stitch and loved using beads to embellish the pictures. Eventually it progressed into using beads to make a simple pair of earrings and a new passion was born! I'm still learning all the time, and love trying out new techniques and styles.

3. Why did you name your store 'The Crimson Moon'? I've always been interesting in astronomy, in particular the Moon, so it had to be a part of my name! One of my favourite colours is that very deep crimson shade of red so I put the two together to come up with 'The Crimson Moon'. It's also the colour that the Moon turns during a lunar eclipse.

4. What's your favourite materials to work with? My favourite materials are seed beads. I'm still amazed that with a simple needle and thread you can make these tiny specks of glass into something wonderful. I also adore sparkly beads like Swarovski crystals and Czech firepolished.

5. Of your items which is your favourite? My favourite item is 'Learn to Fly', which is a vintage style necklace with a butterfly pendant. I think the colour of the beads work really well together with the antique gold finish. The camera hasn't quite picked up how sparkly the beads are.

6. Where do you get your inspiration for your designs and also their names? I get inspiration for my designs from everywhere. Sometimes I'll see a shape or colour combination that I'll just have to try. The inspiration for my 'Eye of the Storm' pendant came from the actual phrase. I imagined a circle of calm blue sky in the center of this raging grey storm. I love giving them names and a lot of them are named after myth and

legends, gods and goddesses and planets, moons and stars. I try to choose a name that connects with the piece I'm making and I think that's half the fun of doing what I do. Sometimes the name comes first as in 'Eye of the Storm' and I'll design something around that. Most times a name will come easily but other times it takes me longer to find the perfect name than it does making the piece!

7. Do you have any formal training or did this start as a hobby? I've had no formal training at all. I've taught myself eveything from scratch suing books, magazines, online forums and tutorials or from just experimenting.

8. Do you have any favourite Etsy shops which you buy from? I haven't had much time as I'd like to browse Etsy as I've been trying to get my shop up and running, but I love Julie Fountain's shop, Lush Lampwork. The work of Lynn Davy and Kerrie Slade

9. What's your dream for 2010? Apart from finding time to so much more beading, I really want to create more tutorials this year as that's something I enjoy doing. And I's like to get some more magazine projects accepted. I've had a few published in Bead magazine so dar and have another one coming up soon, which is always exciting. I'm also determined to learn how to crochet!

10. What's your favourite flower? It has to be the Daffodil, the national flower of Wales. I'm pretty fond of daisies too, even the ones that carpet the lawn - I think that looks so pretty.

The same rules apply as before.

• You must be a follower (please tell me how you are following so I can check)
• You must visit The Crimson Moon and comment on here as to what is your favourite item

Extra entries may be gained by

• Hearting your favourite item
• Adding The Crimson Moon to your favourite etsy sellers
• Blogging/Twittering/Facebooking this giveaway (1 entry each)
• Visiting The Crimson Moon Blog and becoming a follower

Please provide links to your blog/twitter/facebook. And supply your etsy username.

You must post a separate comment for each one you qualify for so I can assign numbers to each comment, or they will not be counted as separate entries.

This competition will end at midnight GBT on the 14th January!

Good luck

Daisymay XOXO