Totally Twisted

Totally twisted is not only the Etsy Beadweavers Team challenge theme this month, but is also the way I feel when I bead a Cellini spiral. As some of you may know, I am a type A personallity which means in beading terms that I have very tight tension!  This being said, my first Cellini spiral was a wonderful long work of art...by long I mean straight and stiff.  It needed to curve, so I bent it.  Yes, you guessed right...it broke into two sections with tiny beads popping through the air.  My heart broke!  Then to top it off, my husband told me it looked like plastic.  That's his comment when he doesn't like my beadwork.  Well, it does look somewhat like plastic...need to rethink my bead choices!!!  Notice the straight spiraling work...perfect, but not an ounce of give!

My second Cellini spiral turned out a bit better. My bead choices didn't look plastic so I wove about three inches.  The tension varied.  I was trying to figure out the correct tension so that when I started my third Cellini spiral it would bend! 

The third was a charm!  My tension allowed the spiral to flex and bend into a nice curve.  You see it here in this necklace that I made for the challenge.  I am so proud of this Cellini spiral because beading it does not come natural to me, I had to work hard for it!

After all this, one of my FB friends told me that my tension may not have been the culprit!  She had always used Nymo for her spirals and they were very flexible, but she decided to use Toho's One G thread on a new spiral.  She said that it broke on her and was not flexible.  One G is my thread of choice, but I will have to give Nymo another chance on the Cellini.

Wow look at that flexible curve!!!

When Beads Go Bad

I fully intended to enter the Etsy Beadweavers Challenge, Inspired by Picasso!  I researched Picasso's art including his different periods.  I was most struck by his analytic cubism period.  All the angles, shapes, and play with a confined colorway was something I understood.  Picasso's "Le guitariste" (1910)  is the perfect example of analytic cubism.

I organized my thoughts (as well as they can be organized).  I chose my colorway.  I drew a diagram of what I planned to do.  It was titled "The Swimmer".  If you look closely you can see a face and two swimming arms.

I even made the base for the bracelet. My plan was to embellish the angles and lines on the surface of a right angle woven base.  I chose a wonderful Czech finished seed bead that was sort of a variegated buttery tan color.

I started to add my embellishments...that's when things started to go bad!!!  Somehow, I had forgotten to tell the beads what I wanted to accomplish.  As many of you beaders know, beads do have a mind of their own!  The beads felt very strongly that stripes were in order.  Who was I to argue!  

Actually the "bad" beads were correct in their thinking,  stripes turned out great.  My only problem was how to close the bracelet.  Again the beads made that decision for me.  They had the idea of collapsible flowers with loops for the closure! 

They turned out even better than I thought they would.  Sometimes when beads go bad, we really need to listen!  The bracelet was wonderful...but had nothing to do with Picasso or analytic cubism!  Oh well, there's always next time!  Happy beading!!

Playing with my Pattern

 I have been playing around with my Bling Ring pattern.  I love the ring as it is, but wondered if I could dress it up more.  I took several 18 mm rivolis and using the pattern bezelled around them.  Then I  matched different  beads and embellished to make each rivoli  bezel different.  I wanted to show several options of how to adapt a simple pattern to make something more unique.

It is very easy to make the ring pattern into a pendant.  You just change the peyote ring strip to a smaller strip and attach on the same side as the start.  If you look below, you can see all the embellishments I added to make the pattern into unique designs.  I especially like it when students take my patterns and change them up to make something unique to themselves.

To make this pendant, I used peyote stitch and added Czech rondelles to make the sweet dangles.  I added a tiny bit of silver with 15/0 seed bead embellishment between the dangles and on the edge of the bail.

On this pendant adaptation, I used 15/0 seed beads, copper metal bugles in two sizes, and crystal rounds to make the triangle shaped dangles. 

This is a ring awaiting the new owner's finger size.  For this adaptation, I used 15/0 seed beads to make a wrapped around look.  It is very substantial and bold looking!! 

This pendant adaptation represents the Caribbean summer.  A golden warm sun shining down on the beautiful blue crystal waters.  I used two sizes and colors of crystal bicones to represent the cool water and golden seed beads to complement the warm sun. I used a picoted row of charlottes as my top row, followed by a row of 3mm crystal bicones, and lastly a row of 4mm crystal bicones with a 2AB coating for extra bling!!

This ring is a more formal adaptation.  I used golden 15/0 seed beads to picot around the bezel to add an elegant element to this emerald green ring.

I was going for a fun and funky look on this ring adaptation.  I used cube beads to achieve this look.

I made a very delicate looking flower by using 15/0 seed beads to picot around then adding a second row of picots behind this row.  In the second row, I used 15/0 seed beads and daggers.  The daggers look just enough petalishness (my new word) to make a flower.

This is another ring adaptation.  On this ring, I used gemstones strung between six 15/0 seed beads as dangles all around.  This ring will be fun to wear with all its movement!

Last, but not least is my favorite adaptation.  This ring embellishment takes the longest amount of time when compared with the others, but it is well worth the time.  You get a very bushy ring with oodles of shake and movement.  Everyone notices this ring immediately!!  To accomplish this look, I used coraling technique using seven initial delicas and then adding two branches.  The tips are 15/0 seed beads.

If you would like to try any of these embellishment techniques on my Bling Ring pattern, you can find the instructions for the basic Bling Ring on my Etsy site.  Enjoy!!!

Catching Up

I've been remiss in posting new info lately!  Part of the problem was the end of the school year with one son graduating from high school and the other son moving home from college and then up to Connecticut for the summer.  Then there's the whole summer problem...I love the outdoor life when it's hot!  Boy, has it been hot!  I have enjoyed the pool and the lake (My hubby is one of those boater people!).
And, of course, my last reason is the computer.  The computer is typically not my friend, but I have been using it more and more!  I have learned quite a bit about my new drawing program and have been using it to make new beadweaving instructions.  I use diagrams with fewer words than my original instructions.  I still have some of my original instructions to list on Etsy.

I currently have instructions of these items in my Etsy shop or they are being tested by friends  in the new format.  I can't wait to see how they do. 

Spring Green All Around

What's with all the green?  I'll bet that's the question you are asking if you saw my latest Etsy offerings. To make a long story even longer, let me start at the beginning!!!

This month's EBW Team's Challenge is "Spring around the Corner".  I was inspired!!!  Looking out of the window in front of my beading studio desk, I could see all the trees budding green.  The greens varied in hue and shade!  It was lovely!  I also had purchased a ceramic face from Marty Thurman (Laughing Dog Studio) that had a green tint to it.  The face actually looked like it was yawning!!  Spring Awakening!!!!  Oh what whimsy!

I used the face as a bead embroidery pendant!  I loved it, but what kind of neck strap to use.  First, I tried a lacy look that just didn't feel substantial enough for the focal.....so it became a bracelet!

Next, I had this elaborate idea of dual herringbone ropes of differing green colors with a string of beads between.  The herringbone ropes were easy!  How in the world was I going to put strung beads between them?  Not a clue!  After many trials and ERRORS (that, of course, had to be frog stitched out), I finally had an idea of how to progress.  Surprisingly, my idea worked; HOWEVER, when I went to hang the pendant, the dual ropes sagged and rippled in on themselves!!!!  Horror of horrors!!! 

Without the pendant the ropes hung wonderfully....so a new necklace was formed!!!

Still, I had a pendant without a neck strap. I made beaded beads and thought that would work, but I did not have enough of the lime 3mm beads...so I was stuck yet again!!! But I made these wonderful earrings!!

I asked friends for ideas....I was desperate!!!  A friend suggested a spiral rope.  I thought about that idea for a while and then decided to do a flat spiral.  I really liked the way my challenge piece turned out!!!  Plus, I had all these new pieces of jewelry to list!!!

How's that for an  answer to the question of all the green?  I sure hope someone out there likes green!!!!!

Learning New Tricks

In my former life I taught kindergarten!  I loved it, but dreaded the yearly computer proficiency test.  I could do lots of things on the computer.  I had a website that was updated weekly, I sent weekly emails to parents, I was responsible for the elementary school newsletter...you get the idea!  However, I did all these things through Publisher.  The proficiency test focused on Excel.  Excel was beyond me....I know because I took a class and still couldn't get it.  The problem was that Publisher was just too user friendly and Excell was not.

What does this have to do with beading?  That's the question I am sure you are asking if you bothered to get this far reading!  Well, I write instructions for many of my designs.  In the past I have taken hundreds of photos to show step by step views to go with written instructions.  I decided that this year, 2011, I was going to learn how to incorporate diagrams in my instructions.  Little did I know how difficult this would be for a 53 year old.  Mastering a new computer program!  Agggh!

I started simple!  My ex baby sitter (now grown into a professional young man) showed me how to use Word to make diagrams.  It took him meer seconds to work up an awesome diagram!  I thought, "Wow this will be easy!"  Yeah right!  It took me about two hours with many start overs to make a simple RAW diagram.  I was so proud of my work that I attempted to show my 17 year old son what wonderful new skill I had learned!  That did not work out like I had anticipated!!  He said that the diagram was easy to do and proceeded to tell me that if I used PhotoShop (way out of my price range and how does he know about it) I could do even more!  Bad teenager!!!!!!

I kept at it and have finally gotten to the point where I can make a simple diagram in about 10 minutes.  Recently, I was reading the Etsy Beadweavers thread and someone posted these inexpensive (free) drawing downloadable programs.   Well, I downloaded Creative Docs, thinking this will be fun!!  I spent ALL yesterday affternoon working with the program...nothing to show!  I looked everywhere for a tutorial...Ha, not one available!!  If nothing else, I am persisent and kept at it.  Finally, I was able to make a simple RAW diagram.  I just don't understand the lingo and what certain things mean!  But I will bulldoze through it!!!!

For all you wonderful instruction designers out there, you know who you are, how in the world do you do it so quickly?  Maybe, I should have majored in art, that way I would have been more open minded to work the programs!!!!  I am too afraid to make mistakes!  Or maybe, I'm too old....Nah!!!!! I will overcome!!!!!!!!   Norma Jean vs the computer!!!!

Del Signore Medallion

    

When trying to find an inspiration for this month's Etsy Beadweavers Challenge "A Touch of Royality",  I decided to look at my husand's family tree.  According to documented research done in the past, my husband is in direct line to become the Baron of Aquila.  Sounds great, but unfortunately that's about all there is.  The family lost everything during a serf uprising. 

In 1557, Luigi Del Signore (shortened to Dell when the family came to America) married Lorinda Di Medici (yes THAT Medici family) and he became the first Baron of Aquila, due in part to his gallantry in the defense of Firenze (Florence, Italy). My figure of inspiration is Lorinda Di Medici, the first Baroness of Aquila. I have used my imagination to depict what I would think to be the Del Signore Medallion.

In making this medallion, I used cubic right angle weave to bezel the rivoli.  Getting the curve just right was a problem.  Yes, I did take it apart many times. The shield shape was also made with cubic right angle weave.  I just played around with the shape until I arrived at the finished product.

Please visit the EBW blog http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/ between the 9th and 15th of February 2011 to vote for your favorite piece. I will warn you in advance, Voting will be difficult as there are so many beautiful entries!!