New Tutorial - Tila Buckyball Bead Beaded with Bugle and Seed Beads

Here is a new tutorial that will show you how to weave beautifully spherical buckyballs with two-holed Tila beads (or half Tilas), bugles and seed beads.

The design is based upon the structure of a soccer ball. When made with shiny metallic beads, it has lots of facets that reflect light like a disco ball. The beaded bead is remarkably hollow with lots of large holes that let you see inside.

This tutorial is suitable for intermediate bead weavers who know have already beaded a dodecahedron of some sort. This beaded bead is a relatively quick project that will push your spatial reasoning thinking to new places.

Presented is a very efficient and intuitive method for beading the beaded beads and earrings, both in two sizes. Yes, that's right, you can make matching earrings in two sizes, and they weave up rather quickly!

 Thanks for looking!

Jersey Tunic Shirt Dress Reverse Appliqué

For the last several years, I have been working towards merging art and clothing. To that end, this tunic top is entirely hand stitched with love and care.

I used techniques I learned from books by Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin to transform fabric and thread into a delectable and comfortable work of wearable art. 

To start making this piece, I designed and cut my own stencil.

I used the stencil to paint the design on the front and back with fabric paint.

The bodice is two layers of delightfully soft bamboo rayon jersey that is hand stitched with soft, thick, green thread to hold the layers together. I carefully cut over 100 windows in the green fabric to let the black layer show through the green one, using a technique called reverse appliqué.

I left the cut edges as part of the design. The cut fabric edges are quite sturdy. They will curl with wear and washings, but shouldn't unravel if you treat it well. Dress it up with a skirt or dress it down with leggings or jeans. This is the complete front panel before assembly.

After I assembled all the pieces, I found it to be rather tight in the hips.  So, I busted apart the side seams and  added godets. Now, it is fuller around the hips and butt. Here is what one godet looked like before I finished the embroidery.

Here you can see more of the embroidery.  It is US size 8-10 and very soft and stretchy with a lovely drape. If you want details on the measurements, just ask.

This piece is so very soft and comfortable. The materials and craftsmanship are top quality, and it's the only one like it. If you like avocado green, it will quickly become your favorite top. In fact, I made it for myself, but I would be happy to sell it and make more. So I'm offering it for sale for a limited time.

Maybe you would like to have it? Get more info here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/244808736/

If it doesn't sell by winter time, I'm keeping it. Thanks for looking. 

Cats with Knots Quilt and Beaded Celtic Knot Earrings

I've been playing with fabric recently, and found a stack of unfinished quilt tops in a drawer. I used to quilt before I found beads. My quilt UFOs have been stashed away since I started beading in 2004. I decided to finish one into a quilt. It's called "Cats with Knots," although this section is more of a knot with some cats.  The quilt has more knots and more cats, all in fully saturated colors like you see here. 

I was inspired to make this quilt after I wrote a paper on the topology of Celtic knot designs with Blake Mellor. In this example, the knot is square with side length 3.  So, by Theorem 1 in the paper, it has 3 components.

The knot design in the quilt is the same knot that I beaded years later and wrote about in my first tutorial on beaded Celtic knots. 

I need to hang the quilt to get a good picture of the whole thing, but I will, eventually. Then you can see more cats and more knots!

Pentagonal tilings

Do you like pentagons?  How about tilings?  There is a new one on the scene.

Yes, Casey Mann, Jennifer McLoud, and David Von Derau, of the University of Washington–Bothell, found a new pentagonal tiling! 

I saw them speak about this work in April 2015 at the PNW MAA, and they explained how the were searching using all of the ways the angles could sum up. There are a lot of cases when you consider non-edge-to-edge tilings. They turned it into a big algebra problem. As of then, they hadn't found one yet. I'm so pleased to see their effort paid off with such a quirky new tiling.

Want more? http://www.jaapsch.net/tilings/#pentagon