Friday, December 20, 2013

Update on Latest Beaded Rope

My last post "More on Beaded Ropes I showed you a CRAW (cubic right angle weave) rope I was working on. I tried to make a loop drop and then continue with a strap on each side for a necklace. In spite of Heather Collin's wonderful video tutorial I simply could not get the join right to join the two ends of the rope together. The video is very clear, and in my head I could see it perfectly. . .until I sat with beads and thread in hand, then I got lost.
 After taking it out at least half dozen times I went on with the straps, but it just wasn't right, so I started over. I used a different color scheme, keeping the cranberry lined drops and changing the yellow to white.  I also changed the green pearls for ruby red faceted fire polished beads, and the gold lined olivine were replaced with galvanized gold.  I thought the rope between the join needed to be a little longer because the yellow rope looked a little crimped.  This time I started with a 3 row rope of gold beads for the connector and worked the ropes off the side of it.  So far I'm very pleased with it.  It's not nearly as unique as Heather Collin's creations, but sometimes I just like to have fun with a stitch to see where it leads me.



Monday, December 16, 2013

More on Beaded Ropes

I had shared some thoughts on beaded ropes in my post What Else Can You Do With a Beaded Rope http://thebeaddoodler.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-else-can-you-do-with-beaded-rope.html some time ago. I've been mentally processing this for nearly a year now and have finally come up with some ideas that came together.
On the right is a 4 bead herringbone rope with twin bead inserts bangle.  It turned out mostly OK but still not too much to my liking.

I mentioned to Heather Collin that CRAW seemed to have a lot of thread showing.  She said yes it does, but it helps to use thread that is close to the same color of your beads.  It's so versatile and she makes such unique designs with it I decided to try again.  On the top left is a practice piece that I started with Delica beads, but I wasn't thrilled with the look.  I also wanted to change up the design a little, so I started over with round Tohos.  I like the look of the rope with these much better.

As for color I discovered that the change in the drop color also enhanced the project because the cranberry lined crystal drops give the piece a littl more bling, but don't overwhelm.  In looking over the colors I discovered that quite by coincedence I've used colors that closely resemble Pantone's colors for Spring 2014.  The green pearls are too dark to replace hemlock, but the beads BelloModo calls peach cobbler closely resembles Freesia, and the cranberry lined crystal drops are close to Radiant Orchid.  So far I'm very pleased with the progress and hope to have more of the design to show you soon. (or maybe next year the way my blogging has been going).

PS
Heather has created two more videos about working CRAW and they also gave me a lot of ideas about makeing designs with ropes.
How to Work an Extra Row off an Existing Rope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zskab0sFUa0

How to Work Shapes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9jE2dldiVo

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Authentic Pondo and Gingham Bracelet

I've been telling you about authentic pondo and even showing you some pictures of the start I made on this bracelet for some time now. The bracelet took very little time to make, but getting the tutorial illustrated took some doing. Finally it's finished!

I had fun making this bracelet.  I adore the ease of authentic pondo as opposed to the Pondo/African circle stitch that is so very popular now.  It doesn't look exactly the same, but it makes a beautiful, flexible fabric that is very comfortable to wear.

The tutorial for this design is now available in all three of my catalogs for your convenience.  I know the shopping carts are different and some have their favorites.

BeadPatternsBoutique
http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/jewelry/bracelet/gingham-bracelet/79331

The Bead Coop
http://www.thebeadcoop.com/index.php?product=19279

Craftsy
http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/jewelry/bracelet/gingham-bracelet/79331

Now back to seeing what I can do with ropes.  I'm not as inventive as Heather Collins, but I'm working on it.
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