Potpourri

A snazzy little something in all colors of the rainbow.  A potpourri of beads, when you just can’t decide.  Looking to jazz up that basic black?  This is the piece!  A bracelet not for the shy or faint of heart.   Zesty!  Zingy!

Two-up peyote stitched in size 8s.  Using the last of the antique glass buttons, the clasp becomes a focal.  A small strip of seed beads wraps around the shank, attaching to the underside of the band with a snap.  Secure.  Hidden.  Easily latched with one hand; the band appears seamless when worn.

Mermaid Scales

I’m not at all sure what type of mermaid lost this bracelet.  Or maybe not a mermaid at all, but some other aquatic amphibian.  In any event, I am ever so glad she did.  I love the combination of warm dove grey with the retro mint green.  Scales which feel smooth to the touch with the grain, and quite prickly against.  There’s also a subtle bow to the whole piece, which gives even more dimension.

Composition: dove grey size 6 seed beads combined with minty fresh petal beads.  The petals are quite directional, having a true front and back, which gives the scale dimensionality.  The whole bracelet stitched in peyote and finished with a slide lock clasp.

Peyote Demo

I’ve been asked to give a demo on peyote stitch beadwork to my local sewing guild.  Beads at a Sewing Guild?  Yes indeedy!  The group I belong to will take anyone who does anything with a needle and thread.  We’re equal opportunity stitchers!

The photo at left shows some of the bits and bobs I’ve been working on.  None of them are expected to become completed jewelry, at least not as they now stand.  They’re just samples of the different types of peyote stitch – tubes, even round, odd round and a beaded bead in the middle.  That one was fun to play with!

As part of the demo, I also did a write-up.  A little bit on the history of the stitch.  Did you know peyote stitched beadwork has been found in Ancient Egypt?  I didn’t!

I think I have a sample of most of the different types of peyote stitching.  It wasn’t until I sat down to write that I realized just how versatile this stitch is.  Going through back issues of Beadwork and Bead & Button magazine, I realized that peyote is everywhere!  A real bulwark in the beaders repertoire.

A few more samples to the right.  The purple is an even count band zipped into a tube, and the green  odd-count tubular.  The blue beads are to show the spiral you get with odd-count tubular peyote.

Triangular Architecture

I was very intrigued when I saw this design in the February issue of Bead & Button magazine.  It looked different, but still within my capabilities.  Rather than make it up using all one color, as was displayed in the magazine, I opted to switch it up, and have a multi-colored bracelet.

Alas, it took much longer than I expected to complete…but, isn’t that always the case.? Still, perseverance was the order of the day (week?  month?) and now it’s done!

The bracelet is modular, each triangle is made individually, then they’re stitched together.  You can vary the length by making the triangles larger, or adding more connecting rows between each triangle.  I have narrow wrists, so I scaled down.

Stitching is a combination of herringbone and peyote.   There were a couple of tricky parts, but after the third iteration, everything fell into place.  I like when that happens.

I didn’t have the correct type of slide clasp, so at some point I’ll have to rework that part.  Easy enough to do.  In the meantime, a new bit of bling in cool colors!

Deco Royale

Deco Royale

This is the same pattern as Deco Redux but in a different color way.  The colors, alas, did not photograph well at all.

What shows in the photo as silver square beads really have this lovely iridescence to them.  Not quite an AB finish, but not a plain silver or grey either.

The purple crystals are much more intensely purple as well.  The photo shows them with more of a blue cast than they have in real life.

I made this bracelet a couple of rows smaller than the original, causing it to fit more snugly.  This is a good thing.

I also went looking for large plastic snaps, thinking they would provide a thinner profile than the readily available metal ones.  No luck, so it was back to a metal snap as the closure.

The stitch is even-count peyote for the underlying band, and then the embellishments are stitched on top in what I think of as a tiled pattern, alternating rows on each pass across the width of the bracelet.

Commission

She liked it!  She really liked it!

A while back, a friend in the local Sewing Guild asked if I would, could, make her a bracelet.  I said it would depend on what she wanted.  Next ensued a flurry of emails and images, mostly of the “like this, but with different colors” variety, along with a few “Ohhh, I really like this too!”

The end result of this was I said I’d make one up, and if she liked it, she’d pay me.  If not, I had a learning experience.  Well, like the subject says, I now have my first jewelry commission!  Woohoo!

As I hoped, Sissie, over at Sew So Slow liked the top one.  She asked for a celery / chartreuse color way.  The dark green one, at the bottom was my first attempt, just to see if I could do it.  It took a little rearranging of my thought process, mostly on how I visualized the design (diagonal stripes vs. seed bead triangles).

Both bracelets use triangle beads; the dark green has regular seeds, and the bright green uses cylinder or Delica beads. The whole thing is 3-up peyote stitch, which worked up faster than I expected.

All the beading I’ve done, this is the first time I’ve made a beaded loop & toggle clasp.  Previous pieces have always used manufactured closures.  Go Figure!

Deco Redux

I fnished this Friday night, and must say, I am quite pleased with it.  The pattern is from the most recent issue of Beadwork or Bead & Button, I’m too lazy to look it up right now I don’t remember which.

It’s a peyote base made with 4mm matte cubes, then embellished with 10° hex cut seed beads and 3mm Czech crystals.

Since my cubes were larger than the crystals, I had to add in some small (size 13°) spacer beads to fill the gaps.  I think this enhances the color, and give the overall piece a bit more depth.

The edge is a standard picot, with crystals and regular seed beads.

Crystals and hex beads both have sharp edges, which are prone to cutting regular nylon beading thread.  I used 6# Fireline to do the stitching.  Yes, this is the very same Fireline that’s found in your local sporting goods store, in the fishing aisle.  It’s used with fly rods, but has migrated to the beading world with great ease.

Fireline is particularly suited to sharp-edged beads as it is a very fine cable, which doesn’t abrade easily.  Don’t cut this stuff with your good scissors! It will chew up the blades.

This bracelet closes with a big snap! Literally, and figuratively.

I didn’t extend the picot edging around the tab (front) of the bracelet, as I thought the extra beads might get caught on clothing.  I also liked the smooth tab better.  Just my tastes.

If you look closely at the top picture, the bracelet seems to have a wave effect, and it does indeed.  The sections that are embellished form gentle curves.  Like the various shiny and matte finishes, this adds to the overall interest.

Another keeper!

Not Much of a Muchness

This pattern was featured on the cover of the most recent Beadwork magazine issue.  I liked it so much, I thought I’d give it a try.  What the photo doesn’t show is that the diamonds are also bowed in the center, giving them a lovely three dimensional effect.

I used size 11° seed beads (the blue, purple and mauve) and size 11 delicas, rather than the size 15 beads the pattern called for.  Each design element is made with peyote stitch, starting in the middle, or widest part.  You then decrease along one side.  When that side is completed, you pick up the tail thread and repeat for the rest of the component.

I think I averaged one component a night, including the times I miscalculated and had to take everything apart.  I strung everything together, again following the directions and well: Meh! It is not much of a muchness, is it? For all the work involved, I expected something more.

While the individual pieces are nice, the whole bracelet is too soft.  It doesn’t feel like it has enough stability to wear on one’s wrist.  It’s very thin, delicate and, well  floppy!

So, I’ve set it aside until I can figure out what to do with it.  Right now I’m thinking it could be the center section of a necklace, and I could add something along one of the edges, to prevent the diamond components from twisting around every which way.

Sometimes things just don’t work out.