The Secret to Perfect Thread Tension

Hint, the secret's in the tail! If you're a crocheter you're familiar with the "weave tail through fingers and wrap around the little finger" method of keeping crochet tension even. This works for beading too.

Read the whole article at Beading Daily and see some beautiful, beaded beads that are firm although they are hollow.

Bracelet Giveaway

Round Rabbit is having a bracelet giveaway! Get on over there and read all about it before it's too late.

"Here are the bracelet specifics: Leather band with hand hammered copper end caps. Sterling silver rivets. Porcelain oval component with a copper tag which was hand stamped with the word Time. This piece was wired to the tag and the tag is wired to the leather. Chunky turquoise nuggets accent the tag and the clasp chain."

New Swarovski Settings

It never ceases to amaze me the ingenuity of bead makers like Swarovski, and beaders like Cathy Lampole who use new beads and settings in ways other than how they were intended.

Cathy has used Swarovski connectors as focal points at the end of this beautiful blue bracelet.

If you're interested in making this bracelet, click on her name to go to her blog where she's so generously provided the pattern for the bracelet.

Cathy has a wonderful, informative blog and is featuring new Swarovski settings. She also has a bead store. More information about her store and where you can buy her products can be found on her blog.

I've been combing the net for days trying to find something interesting to share with you since I'm in the middle of a large project and haven't produced any interesting items to show you lately. I think everyone must be taking advantage of summer to get outside and away from the computer (or recovering from Independance Day). There's either a lack of interesting new beadwork, or my taste is just really "individualized" lately. Hopefully I'll bring you something more interesting soon.

Square Stitch

Square stitch has been called the off loom loom bead stitch. Looming can produce many beautiful designs from those strips used on belts and bag straps to tapestries to free form items like the Lily by Kathy Kostinsky shown above. The drawback to loom beading is you have to have a loom. And there's all those warp threads to weave back in or dispose of somehow.

Square stitch gives you the same look as looming, and you can use it to work those beautiful loomed patterns you've seen but never tried working.

Here's a tutorial on How to Work Square Stitch if it's something new to you and you'd like to try it.

About.com Beadwork Guide Update

Jennifer VanBenschoten is the new guide for the About.com Beadwork forum. She brings some fresh new ideas to the forum not to mention new approaches to old stitches and a lively interesting blog. Check out her 5 Tips For Learning a New Stitch and her Alternate Start For Brick Stitch. I really like this! Making the initial ladder for brick stitch is always a challenge for me.

Better yet, just click on the title of this post and go to the About.com Beadwork home page and see what is there. If you're not a member of the forum, feel free to join. You'll find a friendly helpful atmosphere and helpful beaders to answer you questions. If you're new to beading, and don't have the opportunity to take classes, this is an excellent place to learn beadwork.

If you're already a beader it's an excellent place to hone your skills, get new ideas, find resources for patterns and supplies and just about everything you might want to know concerning beadwork.

Dragon Scales

I finished the "Dragon Scales" necklace I mentioned in my Ramblin'post on the 25th of June. It's not very photogenic. Even with filtered light in my photo studio the Swarovski bicones caught the light and cast a glare. I finally took it outside to get the pictures.

The Van Dyke is made from seed beads, Swarovski crystal biones, and black iridescent daggers. The daggers are only iridescent on one side so the necklace is reversible. The whole collar is done in progressive netting, allowing it to flare a little to settle gently from the neck to the shoulders. The beads in the collar are black seed beads and black, transparent rainbow seed beads.

I'm contemplating whether or not to make a pattern for this. It seems so simple, but I know some beaders don't venture outside of patterns. Any feed back will be appreciated.

Diagonal Square Stitch

Here it is. I've finished the twisted diagonal square stitch I mentioned in a previous post. I don't have a suitable clasp for it yet.

The pattern for this bracelet is by the late Marji Brohammer and is a free pattern available at Beading Daily.

The pattern carries the "techi tip" that it's an advanced pattern and you should practice square stitch until you're ready to scream.

To that I say practicing square stitch will do you no good. You must practice diagonal square stitch. The tricky part is in the increase and decrease turns. Obviously I need to practice some more. This was my third start. I still didn't get the start 100% right, but I did figure out a few things that weren't given in the pattern.

If you want a different color border, where it says string 1 bead or string 2 beads, string accent color beads. Where it says string 3 beads, string 2 accent beads and a main color bead.

When you split the strap remember to square stitch an accent color for the last bead on the right side before you skip the next bead, and use an accent color for the first bead on the other side. If you look closely you can see I didn't do that.

Don't turn your work, work back and forth. The pattern consistently refers to the right and left hand side. If you keep your increases on the right and the decreases on the left you won't be as likely to get lost.

I found the diagram totally confusing because it had symbols that I'd never seen before, but I managed to figure out the design using the written instructions and comparing my work with the diagram.

I almost didn't post this because there are so many bobbles and boo-boo's in it, but then I thought maybe it would be encouragement to someone who was totally intimidated by the whole idea of diagonal square stitch.

This forms a very supple, slinky "fabric" feeling project that is really quite delicious feeling on your skin. I'd definitely encourage anyone who hasn't ever worked square stitch to try it.

To learn a new stitch on your own there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

1)Chances are really really good that you're not going to get it right the first time, so don't get discouraged. Be ready to do lots of frog stitch (rrrrip-it, rrrrip-it).

2)If you get frustrated, put it aside and do something you're familiar with to bolster your confidence. You're not a doofus or an idiot. It just takes time to process something new.

3)If you get to a certain point and then just get completely lost, put that piece aside and start over, but don't rip that one out yet, use it to refer to so you can figure out where you made your mistake. You can take it out later.

4)Don't be afraid to try something new. You may use up a lot of thread, but the beads are always reusable!

5)Join the About.com Beadwork Forum for lots and lots of help. There are a lot of caring beaders there willing to share their knowledge.

Happy Beading.