Celebrate Spring

It's still wet here. The West Texas I'm used to has a day or two of clouds and possibly some precipitation, but a full week of same is not the norm and it has me all out of sorts.

I laid the CRAW/piggy wreath aside for now and did a few different experiment with piggy beads. The outcome was "Ostara", a celebration of spring.  I made the green and red one first, but when I finished the tutorial and made the second one to test it I wanted to further experiment with bead brands, sizes and styles. I used amber, green and brown which are more fall colors and don't necessarily go with the name, but it made a very pretty pendant

In the tutorial I included two ways to finish, earrings or pendant, plus a variation of bead sizes and brands and some tips and hints. Over-all I'm very pleased with the outcome and continue to celebrate spring even if it is miserable weather.

For your shopping convenience you can find the tutorial for Ostara in all three of my pattern stores.
Craftsy,  BeadPatternsBoutique and The Bead Coop .

Spring Beading

Quantity:

Looking for something unique to bead for your spring wardrobe? Serendipity is worked in Right Angle Weave using size 11 seed beads, super duos and 3mm pearls or druks in your choice of colors.  The result is well worth the small cost ($6.50) of the pattern.


I'm in the process of making a wreath shape with piggy beads and CRAW stitch.  The CRAW rope circle didn't present any problems, but gitting the piggy flowers to sit on it like I want them to is proving to be quite a challenge.

The combination of fluctuating pressure systems and sitting at the beading table is really doing a number on my muscles, but I perservere! 

More Uses for Beaded Ropes

In post in January 2013 I asked "What Else Can Your Do With a Beaded Rope" and I showed you some samples of chenille stitch and CRAW a pretty meager showing I must admit.  It's taken me two years to come up with other uses for beaded ropes.

I've told you about the tri-RAW rope I was making to encase an opal cab.  Well here it is. I've finally finished it.  I'm still working on the tutorial.  I thought it turned out rather well but was a little disappointed.  the picture on the right is blurred, but this is what it looked like before I closed it around the cab.  I liked that puffy little roll, but alas, when I was finished, it was no longer puffy.

I found this tree agate (or is it moss agate?) bead that I've had forever and decided I'd see if I could put a rope bezel around it.  As you can see both sides of the bead are very pretty, so I need it to be reversable.  In the picture to the right you can see that it isn't smooth, but has some dips and bumps in it..  The rope to the side of the bead is a chenille rope and I think I've come up with a way to close it around the bead without flattening the rope.  We'll see.  The fact that it is a bead means the bezel doesn't have to fit perfectly.  The rope can be attached through the hole in the bead, then bezeled (I think).  I'll keep you posted..

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.

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