Ongoing Beading Frustrations

I've given up on the wreath I told you about in my post about Piggy Beads, at least for now.  I still think I can make it with piggy beads, just not how I'd originally planned.

I've gone back to playing with twins and super duos and have a pretty good start on a Celtic Cross pendant.  All I lack now is the bale in both the pendant and the tutorial.  Making the tutorial was a real challenge and when I finally got past what I knew was going to be a problem I was elated.  I was so excited over my accomplishment, my attention drifted.  I completely skipped one round on the tutorial and had to take out the prototype back to that point to see why my tutorial wasn't fitting together right.

I've made a little bit of change in my BeadPatternsBoutique shop. I added the category "Two-Hole Bead Patterns" directly under Patterns bead tested.  So far it contains 6 patterns with super duos and one with piggies.  I noticed two hole bead patterns was the key words taking people to my blog and thought I'd make it easier for them.

No pictures for today.  Hopefully, next time I'll have pictures of the cross I'm working on now.

Reminiscence

I've been reminiscing this past week over the different bead stitches I've learned and how I've managed to modify the stitches to suit my own designs.

Brick Stitch

After taking 2 years trying to make sense of peyote stitch, I finally got that down and learned to work it in flat and tubular, but I could never work a project with increases on the outer edges.  I finally decided to learn brick stitch, which looks like peyote but is worked in a different direction.  I found that with this stitch it was very easy to make neat increases on an outer edge.  This "Geometrics Bracelet" is one of my first designs I created after I learned the technique.

Two needle RAW (right angle weave) was one of the first stitches I learned and my ability to make my own designs with this stitch encouraged me to make and sell my own patterns. This "Figure Eight" bracelet is quite versatile and may look quite different depending on whether you use pearls, faceted rounds or bicones for the large beads.

While these are two of the major stitches being used at that time I was still hungry to learn new things.  I found a pattern for "Carmen" worked in Russian Lace stitch. This is a netting stitch that is unique in that the lower edge of the project is split allowing it to look equally flattering as a choker or neckace.  When I had made that necklace I sat down with graph paper and made a pattern for this "Celtic Cross Necklace"

I've learn many more stitches over the years and modified most of them to suit my own needs.  I'm still learning.

You can find more of my patterns on:
BeadPatternsBoutique 
The Bead Coop
Craftsy

Artfire Beadweaver's Guild: Celtic Challenge

This is the first ArtFire BeadWeavers Guild Challenge I've entered, and I'm really excited about it. We didn't have very many entries this time, but there are some very talented beadweavers represented.

Please cast your vote between now and March 21st.


Just go to ArtFire Beadweavers Guild and click on your favorite!