Playing with little beads - what I made this week.

Sitting down all day with leg propped up is giving me a good opporyunity to do some things I wouldnt normally do.

For example finishing off some of those UFO's that seem to lurk in every crafters workspace.

This was a little piece of freeform peyote that had been gathering dust, and I extended it into a bracelet.


Bracelets are a great way to experiment and learn new techniques, they dont take too long or too many beads.

I'm a big fan of Beth Stone's two books - Seed Bead Stitching and More Seed Bead Stitching. (As I may have mentioned before!)

This is a tubular peyote stich bracelet from one of the books


and a diagonal weave necklace with pearls from another,


and a frosted glass and pearl bracelet.


I dug out some of my beading magazines and inspected the bookmarked pages.
This is my simplified version of a bracelet by Elizabeth Nance from Bead and Button magazine Issue 93.


Hers is wider and uses more crystals, so mine is more economical.
But I didnt get the increasing for the crystal inclusion quite right, (not that you can probably tell!) so I made another one.



I am currently making another version of the ruffle bracelet I made last week.

Added to that I have been knitting as well, but havent managed to take photos yet!
That involves moving!

Not much beading and even less blogging!

Where does the time go to?
I'm sure I havent been very productive in any sphere this week, but I am still having fun playing with ideas from Beth Stone's book.

Things I have tried include ndebele rope -


and then with different types and sizes of beads -



Also a skinny 4 bead ndebele rope, with the ends connected.
Beth has a great description of how to do this!
It's magic!


Not forgetting another triangle pendant -

When you're on to a good thing.....

Sometimes inspiration comes when you least expect it.

Other times you pay a lot of money for it!

I subscribe to four beading magazines - Bead and Button, Beadstyle, Beadwork and Stringing.
Sometimes I buy an Australian beading mag, or dear hub buys me one.

I also have quite a few beading books and I subscribe to Beading Daily, an email newsletter.
As well as buying many kits and patterns over the years.

That's a whole lot of inspiration!

I love this ndebele bracelet pattern by Stephanie Eddy.


So I was in the mood for ndebele stich when I saw ndebele using cube beads in an advertisement in a beading magazine.

I love cube beads!



It worked up so quickly and I love the end result.
It feels great and drapes beautifully around your wrist.

Before I knew it I had made four!


All finished with buttons from my button stash.

Plus a variation on Stephanie Eddy's wave bracelet.

Where do you find inspiration?

Solving a Problem

I'm in love with cube beads!
So when Natalia of realisationcreations was having a destash and wanted to offload some cubes I jumped at the opportunity.
I made a couple of bracelets with just cubes,

or cubes and seed beads,


but I remembered seeing a lovely bracelet on the BeadingDaily website.
It is called 'Cubed Herringbone' and was designed by Lorraine C. Menard.
It couldnt be better - I love herringbone (ndebele) stitch and it uses size 8 beads, so it wont take forever to make!

I even had a strand of mixed green colour 3mm czech glass beads.
Perfect!

So off I went with my needle and thread.
The pattern is easy to follow, the instuctions are clear with good illustrations.
My bracelet grew quickly - but then


- I ran out of the 3mm fire-polished crystals, and the bracelet was nowhere near long enough!
Arghhh!

What to do?
I could buy some more 3mm crystals - but I can't get them locally and I was too impatient to send for some.
I could undo it and put 6 or 7 rows of ndebele between the crystals - Who in their right mind ever undoes something and then redoes it??? Not me!
I could make a very long button and loop clasp - that would look silly.
I could just carry on in ndebele without another row of crystals - spoils the pattern.

Or I could use the threads coming out of the cubes as a base for decreasing brick stitch, which would also make a nice base for the loop and button closure.

- so that is what I did -


I only needed to add 5 rows each end and it was long enough.



I added a square green 'pegasus' bead from my bead collection, and it's DONE!



If you are a beader and not familiar with Beading Daily - it's an on-line daily newsletter from the publishers of Beadwork magazine. Go and check it out - there are fabulous patterns (some are free), helpful tips, a shop, forums - you could get lost for hours in there!