What Else Can You Do With a Beaded Rope

For some time now I've been fascinated with Heather Collins' designs using Cubic Right Angle Weave. She even has a Youtube video showing how to work single needle CRAW, which made it very easy to learn.  I already knew how to work two needle CRAW, but it was a time consuming process frought with tangles and it severely tried my patience. I started makeing some CRAW ropes, intending to see What Else Can You Do With a Beaded Rope? but I discovered that without some kind of embellishment the CRAW showed a LOT of thread which, for me was not acceptable.

Then I remembered a Youtube video that I'd seen showing how to work Chenille Stitch by Sara Spoltore.  It looked like it would work up as fast as CRAW, so I reviewed it then set out to create a Chenille Stitch rope. It is very supple.  Flexible enough to do some inventive things with, but there's one problem.  It starts with a ladder stitch in the first color.  This might be OK if you're going to make it into a necklace or bracelet.  Just finish off with a similar stitch and add a clasp and all will be well, but it was too rigid to work with  my What Else Can You Do With A Beaded Rope project.  

Time to rethink. The start of the Chenille stitch is similar to Herringbone or Ndebele start and I remembered Jennifer VanBenschoten had written an article for Beading Daily about the Traditional start for flat Herringbone .  I went back and reviewed that, made a few adjustments and came up with a borderless start for my Chenille Stitch!  Now it's time to get busy and see What Else. . .  Yellow and purple are going to be very "warming" to work with.  It's cold here and I'm sooo ready for spring.

Hurray for Fall Sale

Hurray for Fall Sale

Just because Fall is my favorite time of year and I appreciate my customers
so much, I'm having a "Hurray for Fall" Sale.

Randomly selected patterns will be on sale from now, September 22 until the full moon, September 30.

These items may stay the same for the full sale period or other items may
take their place at any given time.  I'm nothing if not inconsistant! LOL
Have fun shopping.

http://www.beadpatternsboutique.com/index.php?cat=40&shop=25

Oh, by the way, the new bracelet I posted about yesterday is one of the sale items and it will definitely remain on sale the full period.

Windmill Bracelet

I love fall. The air is crisp and fresh in the morning and it's not too hot or too cold to be outside any time during the day. Even though it's the ending of the growing season it seems to be the beginning of my creative season.

This bracelet is the result of my creativity from last year. Yeah, I got sidetracked. Sometimes a design just won't come together in peyote/brick stitch and I have to go to loom/square. The problem with loom/square stitch is 1)I don't have a loom. I've thought about buying one for several years and I've found one or two that I think I'd like but always have other things to do with the $50 to $75. And then of course there's the learning time. I don't know how long it would take me to get the tension even on every row and get over that feeling that I need a third hand.
2)Square stitch is tedious and fiddly any way you approach it. I have instructions from several different sources that use a couple of different methods but I find the thread build up in the beads with all the back stitching makes it hard to run a stabilizing thread through the 2 last rows like the instructions all say.

Finally on the last half of the last repeat I decided to try something I hadn't tried before and hadn't seen any instructions for. Pick up 1 bead, pass back through the corresponding bead in the previous row pass forward in the bead just added. The row you're working looks a little wobbly at this point. When you get to the end, pass back through all the beads in the previous row and forward through all the beads in the row you just worked.

I find that even with Delicas, the beads are various thicknesses depending on the finish. To help keep my rows even, I put a needle through the last row, (make sure the needle is not bent)then ran my thumbnail between the last two rows while pulling the slack out of the thread. Still fiddly, but it went much faster and I didn't have as much problem keeping the edges even.

The pattern for this bracelet is finished and is available in my Craftsy Shop.

Think COOL Make a Snowflake

Folks, it's HOT here on the high plains of Texas and I've been doing whatever I can to stay cool, including using the power of suggestion.

My last post I showed you an initial trial at my first beaded Christmas ornament of the year. Well it's been tweaked and refined and worked in a number of bead types. It's finished and the pattern is available, so get your bead stash out and keep cool making a snow flurry!
Twin Snowflake

BeadPatternsBoutique Big Summer Sale

I'm passing along BeadPatternsBoutique newsletter.

It's that time again! From today through Tuesday, save 15% off at BeadPatternsBoutique. Enter bpb15 at checkout.

What's better than savings? How about 2% virtual beady cash back on every purchase. No gimmicks, no waiting periods, no expiration! All you have to do is become a registered member of the Boutique.

As a Registered member, you will have complete access to your purchase history, profile, wish list AND immediate download! No more waiting for that receipt to arrive, just sign in before you shop and you will be immediately re-directed to the download page as soon as checkout is completed.

We only send out 1-2 newsletters each month and that's normally to announce a sale. If you do not want to receive the letter, just opt out during sign up. Not receiving the letter will have no affect on your ability to shop or receive your receipts. You can change your preferance at any time by signing in and visiting your profile.

Please note that you do not have to be a registered member to use the code to receive your 15% discount. If you prefer not to register, just enter the code when you check out. You'll receive an e mail with a password to download your pattern.

First Snowflake of the Year

Well it seems my near reclusive life has become a whirl of activity the last little while. I find myself saying I'll get to the bead table for most of the day today, and then finding myself spending the day on things totally non bead related, but it's good to shake things up some. Hopefully things are going to slow down by next week and I can go back to being a hermit and only communicating with people via computer.

2012 First Snowflake

I love working on Christmas ornaments this time of year. It's 100 degrees before noon and I'm suffocating. Working on snowflakes helps me cool off. Yes, I AM very susceptible to suggestion.

Here are a couple of pictures of my first prototype this year. Still needs some tweaking, but I've got a good start on it. The first picture is backlit only so the white beads look dark, but you can see how the twins and 6mm catch the light.

I started the pattern this morning and am stumped at the beginning of round three. I'll have to work the first two rounds again so I can see where to go from there. I know I've taken the third and fourth rounds out numerous times to get the effect I have now and I'm still not 100% satisfied with it.

Well now it's back to beading and drawing. Hope to have the pattern finished by Wednesday or Thursday.

Double Cross Ring

A few weeks ago I started out trying to devise a design for an oval ring. It never happened. What did happen was a single pattern that can be executed in various ways with just a minor adjustment here and there.

I call it Double Cross because, depending on how you look at it there is a cross running both horizontally and vertically.

After completing three different rings I was still not happy with the band that looked like it had been added as an afterthought (which it was) instead of being part of the design.

On the fourth ring, I did some experimenting in two different areas. I'd worked the first three with Toho seed beads, but knowing relatively few of my customers use them, I thought I'd better see if Czech seed beads would work just as well. I also wanted to rework the band to be a little more aesthetically pleasing. Black ring with purple and green super duos is the result. As you can see it is a slight bit smaller, but the Czechs work up beautifully with the super duos.

I also combined super duos and carefully selected twins in one of the rings. Can you tell which? If I didn't know I wouldn't be able to tell. I just wanted to be sure they could be used together. My finding. . .as long as you cull the twins well, they can be used in the same piece as the super duos.  Ahhh, now if I only had some pretty hands to model them on.

The pattern for Double Cross can be found on BeadPatternsBoutique, The Bead Coop and in my Zibbet Shop.