Day 334 - Peyote Covered 14mm Bead

Monday, May 28, 2012
Happy Memorial Day!

14mm Peyote Covered Ball

I've covered a few beads now with peyote, sometimes with success sometimes not.  I've found some great patterns for covering 6 and 8 mm beads (they are on this blog somewhere), but I got a newsletter from Beads Perles Boutique, a Spanish website that sells patterns, beads, and other cool stuff. They sent out a free pattern for a Peyote Covered 14mm Bead.  You can click here to find it, but you will have to register on the site to get it (and the other free patterns!)  I was intrigued with the method used to cover the 14mm bead.  This pattern makes two end pieces and then zips them together at the middle seam.  This is in contrast to the other patterns I've used where you start on one end and increase and then decrease when you get to the other side.  Sounds easy enough, but 9 times out of 10 my tension would be to tight and I could never close the peyote on the opposite side, it was to far apart.  Ack! I hate that!

I thought this is great!  No more being to tight so that the end can't be properly closed!  Yeah!  So I got to work.  I will tell you before hand that the pattern is in Spanish, but the diagrams are fabulous so if you can follow those you should be OK.  So I made both pieces, incidentally this pattern called for the bead to be covered in 15/0 beads, not 11/0 beads like the others I have used, and started to zip them together.

I couldn't believe it!  The tension was to tight on both pieces AGAIN and I couldn't get them zipped all the way around.  I was sooooo careful with the pattern, marking every row, so the two pieces should have been perfect.  It has to be my tension.  I was so disappointed!  But I will be trying this until I get it, I'm determined!

That beautiful ball in the picture??  Well, the sides did zip perfectly together, there's just no bead in there. It's hollow.  LOL.  The tension is so tight it holds it's shape with no problem!

Peyote Covered 14mm Bead, conquered (mostly)!

Day 333 - Quick Start Peyote Card

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Quick Start Peyote Card

I've been wanting to try the much talked about Quick Start Peyote Card for quite sometime, and when Deb Moffett-Hall invited me to try it out I jumped at the chance!

I like doing flat peyote, but frankly I could never do more than about 20 starting beads without having my first two rows twisting and turning all over the place!  So I have avoided most projects starting with over 20 beads for a long time!

Enter the Quick Start Peyote Card.  This thing is so cool, I had heard raves from many of my beading friends since it came out and was anxious to get to it!  Without giving away the card's secrets, I can tell you that it is so easy to start any width flat peyote piece (using 11/0 seed beads or 11/0 delicas) with the card.  The picture shows a small piece of peyote I started up without using part of the card, or I could have used the whole card to make a larger piece.  The first row of beads are "magically" held solidly in place as you weave the next few rows, after that the beading is removed from the card and you are good to go!  So cool.  The card may also be used to start the first few rows of Right Angle Weave (RAW) as well if that is your problem spot.

The package comes with three Quick Start Peyote cards which are covered with a thin laminate allowing for bending, but not tearing.  I wondered about tearing in the beginning, but you would really have to try to rip the cards to damage them.  I also wondered why there were three cards in the pack, this is the cool part, there are three cards so you can make longer pieces of peyote (or RAW) than will fit on one card!  All you have to do is tape two, or three, cards together to get the length of the beading piece you want to start, brilliant!

If you have trouble starting your peyote (or RAW), this is a great product for you.  Even experienced beaders who want to start very long widths of these stitches will find the card makes the job 100% easier to handle and extremely neat.

Very cool product!  Peyote cuff here I come!

Quick Start Peyote Card, conquered!

Day 332 - Netted Lantern Beads

Friday, April 27, 2012

Today's lesson is from the 2012 summer special issue (issue 38) of Bead magazine.  The project this lesson comes from is called Moroccan Tea Party by Wendy Edwards.  The over all project is a charm bracelet made up of bronze charms and beaded lantern beads.  After the beaded beads are made they are used as additional charms on the bracelet and it looks really cute!.

The Netted Lantern Bead is made by creating a small amount of netting that overlays a 10mm bead.  Tiny bits of the inner bead shows through so using a translucent or faceted bead will provided more light and sparkle.  I however used a brown pearl.  The pattern calls for 8/0 beads and 10/0 beads.  Now 10/0 beads are something I don't have in my meager stash, so I decided to use Japanese 11/0s as a substitute.  Knowing that they are smaller than 10/0 beads, so the pattern would probably need a a small amount of adjustment due to the size differential.

The inner bead size in the pattern is a 10mm, but I found with my netting bead size change I had some trouble getting the netting to wrap neatly around the pearl (even after adding an additional pattern repeat).  So I upped the size of the inner bead to 12 mm and added two pattern repeats and it fit fairly nicely with a few bumps that aren't noticeable and couple be worked out by substituting 15/0s for the 11/0s on each end.

All in all a great fast way to make beaded bead!

Netted Lantern Beads, conquered!

Day 331 - Twisted Herringbone...with Twins

Friday, April 20, 2012

Twisted Herringbone w/ Twins

There's genius, and then there's genius.  And then, well then there is Nancy Dale of NEDbeads.  Once again Nancy has pulled a fabulous new technique out of thin air!  This one for using twin beads in a twisted herringbone.  I have been quite suspicious of any bead with two holes, it just doesn't seem NATURAL.  Not a fan of the newest two hole bead, the Twin Bead, I haven't seen many patterns using it that have wow'd me.

Until now.  Nancy has come up with a new technique using the standard twisted herringbone.  By adding twin beads smack dab in the middle of it all she has created a lovely twisted rope with a fabulously knobby look.

I'll let Nancy give you the details on this one (I was going to say straight from the horse's mouth, but Nancy's not a horse of course), since she is the master (watch out Lark!)!  Click here for her tiny tutorial with photos to help you along. You'll have a great time with this one, I promise!

Twisted Herringbone...with Twins, conquered!

Day 330 - Pattern for Bracelet/Necklace

Friday, April 13, 2012

Today's project is from the Beads Magic website and is called Pattern for Bracelet/Necklace designed by Marpin.  This really is the title of the piece because you could use almost anything to make it and come out with a different piece every time!

Pattern by Marpin

The stitch is a very easy netting stitch with bigger beads on the edges.  Just make sure the beads you choose are big enough or small enough to maintain the X's in the netting.  My choice of freshwater pearls and 8/0 seed beads was not particularly genius because it came out to crowded.  I had first tried the same pearls with 11/0 seed beads but they seemed to small and left to much thread showing.

I don't usually do this, but I copied the picture of Marpin's sample so you could see what the the stitch should really look like if the proper size beads are used.

Pattern for Bracelet/Necklace, conquered!

7000 Bracelets for Hope

Saturday, February 25, 2012

My submission this year

Today is reveal day for The Global Gene Project's 7000 Bracelets for Hope blog hop!  This is my second time making a bracelet for this project and I am so happy to participate again.  Last year I participated in Lori Anderson's hop for the same cause.  That was my very first hop ever and still amazing to me since I had only been beading for about a month when I participated!  With all the great folks I talked with last year both in the hop and the project, I'm beginning to think maybe we can change the world, one bead at a time.

Namasate.

Special thanks to Erin and Christine for taking the time to put this hop together!  Big hugs to both you gals!  Please take a moment to visit the blogs of all the participants to see all the lovely blue bracelets!  They are:

Elysian Studios  and  One Kiss Creations

  

The Studio Sublime

Crafty Hope

The Gossiping Goddess

SilverRose Designs

Firefly Visions

Pink Chapeau Vintage Jewelry

Michelle Mach

Pine Ridge Treasures

Backstory Beads

Adventures in Creativity with Lorillijean

Carefree Jewelry by Lisa

Sue Beads

MiShel Designs

Created Treasures

Taralinda Muses

My Life Under The Bus

Elizabeth Creates

SilverNikNats

Erin Siegel Jewelry

Carolyn’s Creations

My Life…one bead at a time

Fresh Baked Designs

Songbeads

Sunshine Bliss

Lori Anderson

Rainy Days Designs

Pat Barden Jewelry

Tell Your Girlfriends

Therese's Treasures

Windrock Studio

Bead Lola Bead

Spice Box Designs

Antiquity Travelers

Vitamin C...A Daily Dose of Creativity

Beads and Bread

Sharyl's Jewelry and Reflections

Ahtee's Blog

Thoughtful-Notions

Beads for Brains:365

Wild Sally Road

All The Pretty Things

Skye's Creative Chaos

My Addictions...Handcrafted Jewelry by Patti

Lindy's Designs

Falling Into The Sky

Star Hitched Wagon

Mama's Got to Doodle

10KDgroup

Beaded Raven's Cuff

Friday, January 13, 2012


Hi everyone!  Hope your year has started out with a bang!  Can't believe the Baltimore Ravens are in the football playoffs!  In anticipation that the Ravens would go all the way to the Super Bowl this year I made a really cool beaded cuff and decided to put it up for sale.  If you know any one that might be interested in it please forward to them and have them contact me at utoogigi@yahoo.com.  Woohoo!  Go Ravens!


SOLD! - Beaded Raven's Cuff