Herringbone Weave with Superduo Beads

Pattern now available on my etsy store! Here

Ever since I first came across superduo beads, I felt sure that they could be woven such that they made a herringbone pattern, just like brick pavements.
Looking on the net the closest that I could find was this, by the Potomac Bead Co (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzkgPVH5cyo) but this also incorporated seed beads, so it was not what I was looking for, though it is a lovely design.

I found a gold bracelet that was exactly what I was looking for, but made of actual gold!

So with this inspiration in mind, I set about many failed attempts, and lots of wasted thread, before I cracked it.

First Successful Herringbone Weave.

It comes out a bit like knitting, in that you do a cast on row, several "knit" rows, and then a cast off row.

The next thing was to make it more interesting, by making it stripy and tying a knot in it...

...or by adding a picot edge. (Also covers the side threads)

..or by capturing a rivoli

So lots of variations then, though the rivoli capture is a bit fiddly, and reminds me of a shortbread biscuit!

What I need to know is if anyone else has come up with the same thing? It seems an obvious thing to do with a superduo bead to me, so I'm sure that someone else would have found this too.

So, if you have found this elsewhere please let me know! I would love know if it was unique!!

Bonne Perler

Please note this blog has now moved to my website: TooTallToBead.co.uk

Playing With Paisley

I currently have two patterns, Windows and Arches, and The Princess's Daisies that I have been exploring to find what other shapes and designs I can bend them into. 

I really like paisley shapes, they are naturalistic, and not symmetrical. Here are my first two paisleys, one in each pattern:

Paisleys made with my two patterns, windows and arches above, princess's daisies below.

To go with the top paisley I have made lots of different shapes that I am going to join together to make a lacy cuff, maybe it will come out a bit like irish crochet

To go with the bottom paisley I have brought a large swarovski triangle to be the centrepiece of a very glitzy necklace, and I would love to surround it with more paisleys, and riviol  bezels. 
It was pretty tricky to capture the triangle, I needed about three extra fingers to hold it in place! 

Centre piece, and beginning paisley for a glitzy necklace

Here's my sketch.

Huge Triangle necklace, initial sketches. 

I'll keep you posted with the latest developments!

Bonne Perler!

This blog has now moved to: TooTallToBead.co.uk

Windows and Arches, The Next Step?

Windows and Arches, The Next Step?

I have spent a couple of weeks teaching 'Windows and Arches' to my class. But I have been thinking about where to go with it next. I made a statement necklace that just uses the bracelet pattern up either side, then has a corner centre front and a dangle. The dangle gave me the opportunity to put a rivoli bezel inside a loop. 

Windows and Arches Necklace

Having added the bezel, I designed a bracelet with Arches and Bezels called 'I've Got My Eyes On You". I like the way that using dark purple beads on the bezels enhance the rich colours of the chatons. In fact I lost the first version of this, so I had to make a replica immediately as I was so pleased with the result. Someone out shopping had a lucky find!

I've Got My Eyes On You! Bracelet

The next step seems to be to explore celtic knot variations. 
Using a simple triangle knot (thanks Gerri for the idea), I made some variations, but I'm not sure that I am happy with any of them!
The question is whether to allow the strands to physically cross each other, which adds a dimensional element to the design, or to use a single window (little square filled with four bicones or 11/0 seed beads), to create a junction. Here are my variations:

           Little Fat Triangles        - Long Slim Triangles            - Over and Under Triangle

The little fat triangles are definitely no good because they don't lie flat. I quite like the Long slim triangles, but they would make a very wide bracelet, so maybe for a necklace. 
My current favourite is the over and under triangle. The problem with this one is that you need to use a stiff tension, and secretly join the overlaps to prevent it from being too unstable. (Instability is the curse of beadweavers!!!). All of the abovehave lost the lovely flow that the original design has. 
I also made a huge triangle knot necklace, using the four pane windows, and weaving the strands. With this I'm not yet happy with the way the strands wiggle as they cross over and under each other.  I will wear it to get some reactions, then maybe change the way that the strands weave.

Large Celtic Triangle Necklace

Maybe I'm just being fussy?

Or is it the scissors for this one?

No Prizes For Me :-(

Quick update:

My entry to the Nottingham Bead Show last weekend, "Ripples and Splash" failed to place :-(   I would like to think that it might have come third, as only first and second prizes were awarded! Mandy (who attended for me) had a chat with Steph (from the Nottingham bead Shop http://www.mailorder-beads.co.uk).

Steph said that it was the first time that she had seen anything made with Pellet beads, and she was impressed with the interchangeable pendants. I suspect that these special features were not obvious to the voting public!

I'm looking forward to seeing what beat me when they post the winners on Facebook. I think that the winning piece may have taken many, many more hours then mine!

  

Evolution of a Design

Today I just wanted to tell you how a design evolves, one thing leads to another, and that leads to a whole new design!

In my last blog I spoke about the rivoli pendant captured with pellet beads (No 1.). I also found that peanut beads share a property with pellet beads, that of having a 'groove' that will hold onto the edge of a rivoli when joined correctly, and they come in two sizes.

The next thing that I made was a rivoli surrounded by large peanut beads (No 2.). The round ends of the peanut beads reflect the light in a very satisfactory way when placed in this orientation, with the round end up.

My third effort was to use pellet beads, but to add extra rounds of peanut beads, large, then smaller ones. This design, though pretty is a little unstable at the edges, so I'm not completely happy with it. This is probably because there are too many beads for the space, on the outer round.

My next two are the ones on the Nottingham bead show entry. One being a pellet bead rivoli, and the other being the 'splash' which is two rows of the smallest peanut beads.

I had a eureka moment when I realized that because the concentric circles get bigger moving out from the centre, it would make sense to use the smallest beads in the middle, and the largest beads on the outside. And so the 'Waterlily' pendant was created (No 4.). This is my new favourite!

A few weeks ago I had been looking at possibilities for 'Rulla' beads. I wanted to make some small elements for modular beadwork (i.e. where lots of elements are made, then joined into a final design later).

I came across these again, and realized that the design is much better suited to peanut beads, as this design makes no use of the second hole in the rulla bead. Also that these flowers can be made with various numbers of petals. Then if I make a seven petalled flower, will a 8mm rivoli fit in the middle?

Well there was some experimentation, and I could not make the rivoli stay, but when I used the previous method of securing the rivoli, and then built up the petals afterwards, I had a nice little shiny flower.

Lots of little flowers later, with two, three, four five and six petals,  and a couple of rivoli centred flowers, and there's a new design, 'Lacy Flowers'

A pair of lacy flowers will also make a lovely pair of earrings, and I hope to make a necklace with a network of flowers all joined into a big triangle.

Its nice when one thing leads to another, and the result is so pretty!

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.

Tetrahedron and Octahedron beaded beads.

Finally a nice presentation box and it's ready to go!

All finished! Wish me luck!

I'll let you know how it gets on sometime after November 24th!

Check out the 'Wave' Bracelet tutorial on my Etsy shop

Wave Bracelet Tutorial