Too Tall To Bead: Ripples and Splash, Competition Entry for the Nottingham Bead Show

Now that I have ramped up my bead-weaving exploits by starting to teach a new class, I thought that I should enter a competition to see how my designs rate against other designers!

I have recently discovered Preciosa 'Pellet' beads (from www.robins-beads.co.uk), which I have found make a great way to capture a rivoli:

Rivoli captured using Preciosa 'Pellet' beads. A nice simple pendant.

Also I designed a 'Wave' bracelet:

Which of course included a beaded bead!

Now, my idea was to use the wave design, but also make it into a double helix, by having a secondary strand, using peanut beads, mirroring the first. Also to incorporate two captured rivoli's and several beaded beads.

The shape of the pellet beads is a cylinder with a narrow waist, which I immediately wanted to wrap beads around, (I do like to make an outline around things!), but it also is a good groove to hold onto the edge of the rivoli. The peanut beads share the same quality, and come in two sizes, so they go well with the pellet beads in a design.

In order to keep my options open, I left any spare thread on each element as I made it, so that it would be easy to join the sections later.

First section of the ripple, with two rivoli sections.

Since I had a very clear idea of what I wanted, I had the first wave section, and two rivoli's very quickly. Next I needed matching 'chain' to go round the back of the neck.

After some experimentation, I came up with something, and then realized that it is a version of 'Horace's Lakota Chain', which starts using the pellet beads, then gradually blends to the peanut beads in the 'eyes' of the chain. You can just see thin on the finished picture.

Next the 'Splash' element was expanded to be bigger, and more splashy.

I couldn't decide on the beaded bead, so I incorporated a loop on the back of the splash to clip the beaded bead onto, and made three beaded beads.

Each beaded bead has a lobster claw clasp, (Which I think are attractive enough to be seen). This is something that I often do with beaded beads so that they can be worn separately. You can wear the necklace with any or none of the beaded beads, and they can be stored on the end of the extension chain at the back!

The largest beaded bead I made is woven over a 12 mm rock crystal round bead. A cheat, I know, but I was trying to create a beaded bead that is easy to teach! Having something to model the bead-work over is a great help in this case. The other two beaded beads are an octahedron, and tetrahedron, though not exactly the same design, as I needed to add extra beads in places, to make space for the backs of the pellet beads which extend into the centre.