Annual Holiday Wreath, 2020 Edition

Every year I decorate a large wreath with a collection of beaded beads and pendants. I like to start by putting them in a big pile.

Sometimes I like to organize them by design or style. This year I loosely organized them by color.

Seeing all of these pieces together is a nice reminder of what I've done over the past few years. A couple of seed beads in a small piece doesn't always feel like a big accomplishment, but when you do that over and over again over a long period of time, the results really add up!

If you'd like to decorate your own wreath, make sure to exclude any piece that contains sterling-silver plated seed beads, as the silver will tarnish more quickly if it sits on a fresh wreath. Or do as I do, and decorate your wreath, take a picture, and then remove those pieces immediately afterward.

I hope that you and your loved ones have a peaceful and safe holiday season. 

Thanks for looking!

Thanks for visiting my blog! Please subscribe to my mailing list for updates on the latest and greatest Bead Origami news!

New(ish) Pattern and Kits: Yukiwariso Necklace

I released a few new patterns in this past year. This one is the Yukiwariso Necklace.

This light and delicate necklace gets its name from hepatica japonica, a rare woodland plant native to Japan which produces a beautiful variety of early-blooming flowers. Designed for the Japanese publication Bead Art & Embroidery, this necklace features a light, airy style that embodies Japanese beaded jewelry.

The full pattern is 16 pages long and contains 47 full color illustrations and photographs. It's an advanced beginner project, so if you're just getting into beading, this is a great third or fourth project to try. 

Kits for this project are available in five colorways, and contain all the beads and findings needed to stitch the complete necklace. 

Thanks for looking!

Thanks for visiting my blog! Please subscribe to my mailing list for updates on the latest and greatest Bead Origami news!

Snowflakes and Hearts with CRAW and PRAW

Over the past couple of months I released a couple of patterns using CRAW and PRAW. Lately, my designs seem to use either shaped beads and two-hole beads, or just seed beads. These designs are firmly in the seed bead camp.

Snowflake Pendant

You need only a handful of seed beads and a needle and thread to stitch the Snowflake Pendant. This pendant features several units of CRAW and PRAW stitched side-by-side to create the finished snowflake. The concept behind this pendant actually goes back to my original experiments with PRAW, though I only recently managed to show how to stitch these units side-by-side.

Large and Small Snowflakes

The pattern shows how to stitch the finished snowflake pendant as well as smaller and larger variations. You can also use just one color of seed beads for a sleeker look. The full pattern is 19 pages long and contains 66 full color illustrations and photographs.

Peace and Double Hearts

My next creation with these stitches is two-in-one design. The Peace and Double Hearts Pendants use the same CRAW and PRAW stitches to create two types of beaded hearts. One is a heart within a heart, and the other is a combination of a heart with a peace sign.

The Peace Heart came about after I combined Gwen's Sweetheart Pendant with Marcia's Peace Sign pendant. It was actually the last piece of beadwork I created before Sophie was born, but it took me a while to carve out the time to write its pattern.

The full pattern is 30 pages long and contains 128 full color illustrations and photographs. I classify both patterns as advanced as I don't cover the basic CRAW stitch in detail. However, if you are experienced with CRAW and you're up for the challenge of stitching these shapes, these patterns are for you!

Thanks for looking!

Thanks for visiting my blog! Please subscribe to my mailing list for updates on the latest and greatest Bead Origami news!