Premio Meme Award

Wow! I got the Premio Meme Award from Mandi Beads! Thanks Mandi




Mandi makes these luscious bead covered pens and journals to match and sells them in her Etsy shop.




The rules are simple. List seven facts about yourself and pass the award to seven worthy bloggers, so here goes.

1. I'm retired
2. I have 5 children, 12 grand children and 9 (going on 10) great grand children.
3. I was 63 when I taught myself to bead.
4. I have an Etsy shop and am trying to get around to joining the Etsy Bead Weavers street team.
5. I've been very happily divorced for more years than I was married and still enjoying the single life.
6. I'm working on a beading book (bead stitches, tips and patterns)which I hope to self publish within the next year. . .hopefully sooner.
7. I'm a beadwork designer and sell my patterns at The Bead Coop.

Whew! That was hard. I'm so boring I found it hard to think of seven interesting things to say.

OK The award goes to:

Glitter Glow Beading
Artsy In The City
Creations by Robin
Inspirational Beading
Round Rabbit
Cathy Lampole
No Easy Beads

Bugle Snowflake Ornament

This year I've finally gotten my annual Christmas ornament pattern, Bugle Snowflake Ornament, completed in July. I always like to complete a seasonal pattern and have it available early so people can get all those items made up without rushing, but in spite of how hard I try, it's always been August or September before I could complete the Christmas ornament pattern.

I usually make an ornament for each of my grand children and great grand children every year and I have had to start in July to get them all made when I was working. Since I retired I still find if I don't get started in July, I'm rushing like mad to complete them before Christmas.

The pattern is completed and can be found at The BeadCoop. The pattern number is 19562.

On another note, I've had to have cataract and glaucoma surgery this past week, so I haven't been on the computer very much. My blogs have been languishing, but hopefully by next week I'll be back up and running full steam. I appreciate all my loyal readers sticking around during this time.

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.