Pushing Yourself Creatively

I think most beadweavers start out the same way; you like jewelry, you like beads, and you see pretty woven jewelry somewhere, and you want to make some. You may go to your local bead shop and take a class, or you may tackle a pattern in a magazine or online, or you may check out YouTube videos - but most start by following patterns; some pattern, somewhere.

I find that the first step in getting creative with beadweaving is often just trying different colors from those shown in the pattern. For some folks, that's a huge step, as lots of people have trouble visualizing colors; for others, that's no big deal.

My take on "Quadrille", with lots of substituting and some pattern-tweaking

A bigger step is substituting beads. Lots of people just won't go there - the pattern calls for a certain bead? Many beaders see that as LAW, and won't deviate.

For me, substituting started out of desperation. I own a bead shop, for crying out loud, but no bead shop can have every dang bead, all the time! And I even had the correct bead, technically - I can't remember the specifics, but I think the pattern called for a 3mm Swarovski crystal, and I just did NOT have enough in a color that went with all the other beads in the materials list, so I finally decided: well, if a 3mm bicone will work, why can't a 3mm firepolish? Sure, the shape is a little different, but how bad could it screw up the pattern? The answer: not at all.

And I was off on a journey of substitution....never looking back.

At first, I stayed pretty close to the original bead: substituting 3mm firepolish with 3mm bicones, 4mm firepolish with 4mm bicones, etc. But then a pattern called for 8mm Swarovski pearls, and I didn't have any, so I went with some irregularly shaped 7 to 8mm freshwater pearls. And then I just went crazy - if the size I needed to substitute wasn't available, I supplemented by adding seed beads or other beads to either side to make up the difference, and sometimes I just went with a completely different shape: changing a round bead to a triangle, for example.

And that's when I decided to do something I NEVER thought I could do: design my own pattern. This again arose out of necessity, as I wanted to use SuperDuos to do something, but every pattern I found everywhere I looked was acting like this particular "thing" I wanted to do couldn't be done with the Duos (I am not going to go into the specifics here), but I was determined to show that it could be done.

I sat down with beads of all different shapes and sizes, and my SuperDuos, and started to play. I don't know any pattern designers personally, so I didn't have any mentors or guidance ... I just kept stitching little samplers, all day long; I kept getting closer to my goal, but kept getting thwarted. I'd set each failure aside, so I could remember not to repeat it! I wasn't taking notes ... just keeping my little samplers.

After many, many mis-stitches; and many, many hours, I hit upon the correct pattern, and my "Well-Traveled" design was born. It wasn't a tutorial yet - I taught it several times, stitched it up countless times, and finally sat down to hammer out the written instructions with diagrams. All in all, it probably took 6 months from idea to publishing of the pattern.

And it was many months before I decided to see if I had any creativity left! But I did, and I have published several tutorials since then, and am actually working on 2 simultaneously right now.

This past week, I wanted to take a mental break from working on tutorials, and just do some good old fashioned stitching, for stitching's sake. Plus, I needed a few more samples to display in the shop.

I went through old beading magazines, and found 2 that interested me (and would use lots of different bead shapes I could then hopefully sell in the shop, based on the stitched up examples I wanted to make). I let a couple of my most frequent customers decide which I would tackle first, and (much to my chagrin), they chose the one that was going to require LOTS of substitutions, which I knew was going to mean lots of extra work and brainpower on my part...so not as much of a stitching vacation/mental break as I had hoped for! But that's OK ... beads are always fun!!

So I thought I'd walk you through the paths I took as I was making bead substitutions in this particular pattern.

The pattern they picked was from the April/May 2014 issue of BeadWork, and is called "Quadrille Bracelet" (by Sandie Bachand).

The day I received my copy of this issue, I marked this pattern to make up because it called for 2-hole lentils, and I had 2-hole lentils in the shop that I needed to sell! Making up samples always helps people visualize the project better than just seeing the pics in the magazine. You can see my little pink sticky flag at the top right of the pic. Unfortunately, the mag with its flagged patterns went on top of my To-do pile, and was soon buried by other projects ... you know how it goes .... and here it is, well over a year later, but I'm finally getting to it!

In addition to the 2-hole lentils, the pattern called for 6.5mm Rose Montees.

I do not carry Rose Montees. I do not have any Rose Montees. I do not like Rose Montees. And I had NO intention of purchasing Rose Montees for the shop just so I could make this one pattern, because I knew they would not be a popular seller. One of the 2 customers that picked this particular pattern for me to tackle first even told me she had some Rose Montees at home that she'd give me so I could make this bracelet, but ... did I mention? I don't like them! Too blingy and gimmicky (to me). Plus, if I made the bracelet with Rose Montees, my customers would then expect to be able to BUY rose montees in my shop, and, as I said....not going there! So, it's Substitution Time!

My thought was 6mm is close to 6.5mm, and the pattern shows multiple thread passes through the Montee, so I need a 6mm bead with a large enough hole for multiple thread passes, so probably not a pearl. I decided to go with a 6mm firepolish, but could just have easily chosen a 6mm gemstone, or 6mm round Swarovski, or probably even a 6mm Swarovski bicone.

My next stumbling block? The pattern called for 2mm glass pearls. I didn't have any. I had some 2mm gemstone rounds, but they didn't go with any of my 2-hole lentils, so I decided that a size 8/0 seed bead was close enough to 2mm, and I had a huge color selection in 8/0s, so yeah, I'm gonna use 8/0s.

Scanning the rest of the materials list, I had everything, so I set about to put together my colorway.

The bead on the material list that I had the fewest colors to choose from was the 2-hole lentil, so I decided to start there. This is where I start whenever I am choosing colorways, and harks back to a term from my chemistry days: Rate Limiting Step. Briefly, the rate limiting step in chemistry is the step which determines how fast a chemical reaction will occur, and is determined by the amount of reactants (or "ingredients") present in the reaction - the one you have the least of is the one that controls how fast things progress, because when you run out of that particular one, the reaction stops. Period. So my choice of 2-hole lentils would determine how many different colorways I could possibly put together.

The bead ("ingredient") I had the next fewest choices of was a 3x4mm rondelle, and when I compared my choice of lentils with my choice of rondelles, I really only had one choice to continue forward: the matte copper 2-hole lentil and a blue and copper rondelle. I chose the rest of my beads, and sat down to stitch.

And soon ran into my first substitution-induced stitching road block.

When it was time to add the rondelles, the 8/0s in the previous step had pushed the 2-hole lentils further apart than a 2mm pearl would have, and the 3x4 rondelle no longer fit well.

Solution? A 4x7 rondelle. Fortunately, I had one that went nicely with the rest of my chosen beads, or I would have had to start all over at the beginning, choosing a new colorway. Been there, done that ... but didn't have to do that this time!

And almost immediately, stitching road block number 2. I completed the first unit, and was getting ready to move onto the next one, but noticed that by using this larger rondelle, a tiny bit of thread showed on either side of each rondelle. How much is "a tiny bit"?

Well: 1) enough to drive me insane
        2) therefore, enough to need fixing
        3) enough to be covered by a 15/0.

So I took apart the unit, and restitched it with a 15/0 on either side of the rondelle. Perfect!!

Next, it was time for the step which called for the montee. As I said earlier, I had decided to use a 6mm firepolish instead, and stitched the unit exactly as called for in the pattern (except for substituting the firepolish for the montee). The pattern explained that the 15/0s on either side of the rose montee would roll to the back of the montee and not be seen, but mine stayed on either side of the firepolish, which didn't bother me at all.

Then it was time to stitch/add the second unit.

Keep in mind, by changing the rondelle from 3x4 to 4x7, I had significantly increased the length/width of each (by 3mm on each end, for a total of 6mm total increase per unit). As I looked at constructing the unit, this would really impact the number of units in the finished bracelet, so I made a creative decision to make each unit SHARE the end rondelle from the previous unit (whereas the pattern calls for each unit having 4 rondelles, and the end ones are connected to each other by other beads).

From there, I proceeded to just follow my stitching pattern from unit one, and when it was time to add my 6mm firepolish to the center of the unit, I discovered stitching road block number 3: when I added the 6mm firepolish to the center of the first unit, the pattern had only said to center the "montee" between 2 particular lentils on each side of the unit, so I did ....not thinking ahead that because the montee is round, the placement in regards to the rondelles isn't important .... round is round! But the firepolish bead has 2 obvious ends, and the way I had placed it (even though that was the placement called for in the pattern) left the 2 ends pointing diagonally across the unit (I wish I had taken a photo - but instead of my firepolish spanning the unit from side-to-side, or end-to-end [as they do in my finished bracelet], it was in between those 2 positions, so it would never line up with the one I added in each subsequent unit). My symmetrical left brainedness would NOT allow this (and probably wouldn't have been happy if the firepolish beads had lain horizontally, either), so I had to rip apart my beadwork ONE. MORE. TIME. Oh, well.

Same bracelet, slightly different lighting. Also: note how my firepolish centers line up!

 this pic shows details of the bracelet units

But from there, it was smooth sailing, and I really like the finished bracelet. Plus, the units just lent themselves to earrings, so I made a those, too.

 earrings

And my point when I started this post was ... don't be afraid to push yourself creatively when beading. If you really like a pattern, but don't have/can't find all the beads the pattern calls for, make a substitution. Or ask your local bead shop to help you with substitutions - if they are like me, they LOVE doing this! And just be aware of the butterfly effect: as happened to me, in this particular pattern, one seemingly innocuous substitution led to a cascade of unintended consequences, causing me to make another substitution, and some more minor changes to the design, but I ultimately ended up with a pretty bracelet, and you can, too!!

PS: Speaking of substitutions, SpellCheck would like me to know that "bicone" is not a word, and it strongly suggests "bacon" as a substitution. Which sounds pretty right about now.....

Chevron Bracelet with Picasso-Finish Seed Beads

I just finished the wide chevron bracelet that I was working on in my last post.

Blue, Green, and Brown Picasso Chevron Bracelet by Sweet Freedom Designs

I'm crazy about how this one turned out!

If you remember the first chevron bracelet I made, it was very narrow, with a 3-bead base:

 Skinny chevron bracelet, top

Skinny chevron bracelet, bottom

The skinny chevron stitched up incredibly fast, largely because the 3 beads in each row of the square stitch base are added all at once, row by row, so each row is stitched to the row below it.

For the wider version, I made the base 11 beads wide, and each bead had to be added individually to make the base strong enough to support the embellishment I would add later. One bead at a time, square stitch, = hours of stitching to create the base. Boring, too.

Once the base was done, I started adding the alternating rows of gorgeous brown, green, and blue Miyuki Picasso seed beads. These beads are SO pretty! The resulting bracelet has a wonderful weight, feeling nice and substantial on the wrist. It also has the most delightful texture and movement; not only visually, but literal texture and movement, as you run your fingers through the layers and rows of embellishing seed beads.

Chevron bracelet with Picasso seed beads, detail

Chevron bracelet with base visible

Chevron bracelet with antique bronze toggle

And, this beauty is now available in my Etsy shop!

Lots of Bracelets were woven last week!

As I said in my last post, in addition to the double spiral bracelet I stitched with peanut beads, I also made quite a few other bracelets last week:

Last week was a productive week for beadweaving! (absent from photo: the peanut double spiral)

From top to bottom, in no particular order (more details below!):
1) Chevron Stitch bracelet, from BeadandButton.com, 2010  (Link to this pattern is no longer available - sorry!)
2) Flutter Bracelet, from AroundtheBeadingTable.com
3) Octopus Bracelet, which I found here as a free downloadable .pdf (it's in French, but all you need are the pics - I swear!)
4) Superduo and Peanut Bracelet ("Button Bridges") from Bead and Button Online.
5) Brick and Peanut Bracelet (Cherry Blossom Lattice) from FusionBeads.com.
6) Peanut Bracelet (Seurat") from Beadwork, June/July, 2014, pp. 74-75.
7) Pinch Bead and Freshwater Pearl bracelet from BeadandButton.com, 2006.
8) Superduo and Cube Bracelet (Skinny Twin Cube Band) from AroundTheBeadingTable.com (Abort! Abort!)

Double spiral with pink and purple peanut beads

I already talked about the double spiral in my last post, so let's look at some of the other bracelets - and be prepared; as usual, I'm gonna tell it like it is - at least, for me. Your mileage may vary....

1) The chevron stitch bracelet - this was a brand new stitch for me, and the pattern was super simple and fast ..... however:

1) This bracelet makes up much, much narrower than I expected it to be from looking at the picture on the pattern, partially because:
2) The materials list (in a box, at the top of the pattern, on page 53) calls for 5g of size 8/0 seed beads. So, I grabbed some 8/0s in my color scheme, and stitched away. The base makes up in a flash! Then, I proceeded through the rest of the pattern, and when I was completely done, clasp and all, I read the caption that accompanies the picture of the finished bracelet, at the very bottom of the page, where it says "The base of this bracelet is made with 8/0 Japanese cylinder [emphasis is MINE] beads." Um....seems like THAT piece of information should have been included in the materials list, because there's a difference between 8/0 seed beads and 8/0 cylinder beads. Jus' sayin'.

 Chevron Stitch bracelet, top

 Chevron stitch bracelet, underside

Nonetheless, it was a fun bracelet, and I am currently working on a much wider version. 'Cause that's the way I roll...

2) The Flutter Bracelet (top bracelet in picture below)- I am always looking for fun superduo patterns, and this one certainly was fun, and I think it's very pretty:

 3 superduo bracelets: Flutter, Octopus, and Skinny Twin

 I chose neon blue Superduos, capri blue 3mm Firepolish, Vitrail 4mm Firepolish, and galvanized silver 11/0s. The bracelet works up very quickly.

3) The Octopus (the middle bracelet in the pic above):
This pattern is free, and in French. I went to the trouble to run all the written instructions through Google Translate, but I urge you not to bother: half the important words get lost in translation anyway, and you honestly don't need them, because the illustrations are fantastic. Just know that this is a 2-needle pattern (my first! Ta-da!)

This one also works up very quickly. I love the gentle ruffling! I chose bright yellow superduos for the center motifs, because they look like flowers to me, so I made the surrounding 11/0s green (for the leaves!), and the outer and middle 11/0s purple, to look like more blooms.

8) The Skinny Twin Cube Band (the bottom bracelet in the pic above) (Yeah, I'm going out of order ... sue me!):

OK - the pattern calls for Twins, and I substituted Superduos. No problem.
The pattern calls for 2 colors of Twins, and I just used one color. No big deal.
The pattern calls for 3mm cubes. Check.
The pattern calls for 11/0 seed beads. Check.

I knew there was a problem when I finished stitching the second unit of Superduos, but I went ahead and added two more (thinking it would get better as it got longer...maybe?) before I finally bailed on this pattern. The bracelet's too narrow, but that's not the problem. The problem? It is so stiff it is almost inflexible. Part of this could be my tension, because I'm kinda known for my ultratight tension. But I lay the blame on the cubes. Round beads will all roll beside each other when you try to wrap the stitching around your wrist. Cube beads? Not big on rolling! You can actually hear the cube beads rubbing on each other as you try to bend the bracelet! I could see that this was going to be an uncomfortable bracelet to wear, so I quit, leaving just a sample for any interested customers to play with/inspect.

4) The Button Bridges Bracelet (superduo and peanuts):

In addition to always looking for fun Superduo patterns, I'm also on the lookout for fun peanut and/or brick patterns!

This pattern almost didn't get made ... it calls for something called "Crystaletts," and: I don't have any, and besides that, I think they look cheap and gaudy (there, I said it) in the pictures featured with the pattern. But it uses Peanuts and Superduos ... so I tried to look past the Crystalletts. It called for 3mm Crystaletts, and I am a big substituter, so I worked up the bracelet with 3mm Firepolish, which worked perfectly.

 Superduo and Peanut Bracelet, top

Superduo and Peanut bracelet, underside

The base of the bracelet is stitched first, with Superduos in herringbone. This takes awhile, and you have to really pull your tension tight after every stitch in order to get the beads to line up without your Fireline showing.

I really like this pattern, but again, it's a little too narrow for me. I love the netted and picot peanut embellishing on the sides, though! Peanuts are fun!

5) The Cherry Blossom Lattice (brick and peanut bracelet):

First, the pattern calls for a double row of RAW,

Cherry Blossom Lattice, picture courtesy FusionBeads.com

and that was a little too much for me, so I stopped with a single row.(I know, hard to believe, right? After all my talk about liking wider bracelets? But my issue here wasn't the width, it was the busy-ness of the pattern. Too many colors and shapes, and it just looked to fussy for ME. Again, YMMV.

Second, the pattern called for 3mm Swarovski pearls, so naturally, I substituted 3mm Firepolish. Worked great!

Brick and Peanut Right Angle Weave

Another fast project!

6) The all peanut bracelet (Seurat): Easily my favorite of all of these!

Nothin' but Peanuts ... Netted Peanuts

I fell in love with this bracelet the minute I saw it in Beadwork - I love the colors, and I love matte beads, so I knew I was going to try to duplicate the colors in the magazine as closely as I could.

The pattern calls for 11 different matte colors of peanut beads; I didn't have that many, so that was a minor speed bump. I ended up using 7 different colors (2 for the 1st row, 2 for the second row, and 3 for the 3rd row, although 2 of these are so close in hue that they might as well be the same color!). I unfortunately didn't have a matte purple (or matte anything else that would work) for the 2nd row, and had to substitute a shiny one - I can live with it, but just barely....

One word of caution about this pattern: I strongly urge you to at least use (at least) 2 colors for each row, and to alternate them in your pick-ups, as I did. Otherwise, you will lose your dang mind trying to count peanuts when you go to add the next row, trying to find the middle peanut of each net! If you are alternating colors, you can train your eye to aim for the color that the middle peanut is, and not have to worry that your count is off, because it won't be (unless you screwed up your bead order).

This is a really fun pattern (if you like netting), and very fast.

7) The pinch bead and FWP bracelet:

pinch bead and FWP bracelet, top

Pinch bead and FWP bracelet, underside

I had to really dig into the archives for this one, but I love the result - those irregular freshwater pearls (in my favorite color: Peacock!) look fantastic in this bracelet.

I had a good reason for digging this one up: In my zeal to add peanuts, bricks, 2-hole lentils, and 2-hole tiles to the bead shop's inventory, something had to go .... and that something was pinch beads. Pinch beads have been a regular item in my shop forever, and I frequently use them in spirals, Russian spirals, and more - but their popularity has fallen off among my customers, so they were the obvious choice to discontinue. My whole stock of pinch beads is now in the sale bin, and I wanted to work up a sample of something quick, easy, and pretty that used the pinch beads. Hence, this particular bracelet: Perfect!

So, that covers last week. Almost. I also started on some soldered bangle bracelets on Saturday, and will be working on them more today once I get this post finished. I'm also putting the finishing touches on the wider chevron stitch bracelet I mentioned above.... more details later!

Peanuts! Get Your Peanut (Beads) Here!

I've been playing around with Peanut Beads, and just finished this double spiral bracelet:

Purple and Pink Double Spiral Bracelet by Sweet Freedom Designs

Purple and Pink Double Spiral Bracelet by Sweet Freedom Designs

 detail, Purple and Pink Double Spiral Bracelet by Sweet Freedom Designs

I capped the rope with some of my own enameled beads, in matching purple, then added a sterling silver toggle.

This is actually the 3rd bracelet I've made using Peanuts this week (and the 7th bracelet I've woven this week - very productive week!), but the other bracelets I made were patterns from bead mags, so this is the first one I've made without following someone else's directions. [In addition to Peanut beads, I have a LOT of new shaped beads in the shop, and have been madly working up various patterns to show customers how to use these fun beads. If you guys want to see what I've been stitching, let me know in the comments, and I'll take some photos and get a post up!]

I'm really loving this double spiral bracelet, for a couple of reasons.
1) It's gorgeous! I love the colors, and I love the textures the peanuts impart. Lots of fun!
2) This marks my first successful double spiral! Way back in 2012, I made a quite a few stabs at getting the double spiral into my repertoire - and 2 blog posts: Here, and here. Now that I have dared to try it again, I realize that all my problems and anguish 2 years ago were NOT the fault of the directions I was trying to follow -- the problem was that I was trying to work too many sizes and colors of beads into my double spiral.

I have made hundred of single spirals, and always use different sizes, shapes, and colors in the pattern. I love to mix up the colors and textures, and often end up with very chunky spiral ropes, which I love. Here are just a few (I swear!):

So, enough about my sordid past with spirals - back to the double spiral. Obviously (at least, NOW it is obvious to me), the secret to a successful double spiral is to limit your colors to TWO, and keep your bead sizes fairly similar. Too much business in either color or texture makes the double-ness and the spiral pattern disappear.

Can't wait to explore more variations, different bead types, etc.! I may even try a triple spiral!

And the purple and pink double spiral bracelet is available in my Etsy shop!

New Necklace and Earrings

As the owner of a bead shop, I make a lot of projects featured in various beading magazines, so that customers can see the designs worked up (they often look so different than they do in the mags!) and get ideas about colors, etc. My latest necklace and earring set all started when I was working on one of these bracelets...

This particular bracelet, a right angle weave (RAW) design, was featured in the October - November, 2013 issue of Beadwork (yes, I'm a little behind on my to-do list!):

RAW bracelet featured in Oct-Nov 2013 Beadwork

 RAW bracelet featured in Oct-Nov 2013 Beadwork

I chose some very luxe-looking, opaque, turquoise and bronze 8mm Czech firepolish beads, and paired them with metallic bronze 3mm Czech firepolish beads, and just love the result. It's so rich-looking, and everyone who sees it just drools over it!

As I was working it up, I was intrigued by the zigzagging shape, and once I completed the 3rd RAW unit, I had a little V-shaped beaded unit in my hand that started my brain thinking about other design possibilities. By the time I had added the 4th and 5th units, I knew that I would be making a necklace from these units.

After completing the bracelet, I started stitching up 3-unit segments with this pattern, using the same beads. I finished by stitching one 5-unit segment.

I tried many different ways to connect these RAW units before hitting upon the one I finally went with: lustrous 12mm bronzite rounds. I then placed genuine turquoise rondelles at the back to complete the design, and chose a Vintaj Natural Brass S-hook and chain for the closure:

Turquoise and brown handwoven necklace by Sweet Freedom Designs

 

detail, Turquoise and brown handwoven necklace by Sweet Freedom Designs

closure, Turquoise and brown handwoven necklace by Sweet Freedom Designs

Then I stitched up a couple of one-unit segments for the earrings, adding the netting embellishment to both sides, so there's no "back" as the earrings sway and move:

Turquoise and bronze handwoven earrings by Sweet Freedom Designs

The necklace and earrings are available separately in my Etsy shop!

Well Traveled: A Beadweaving Tutorial for Superduos and Czech 2-hole Tiles

Drumroll, please.....

While I was without a camera for 3 months, I busied myself with my Superduos, and managed to create an original design using the Superduos and Czech 2-hole tiles. After stitching a number of the bracelets, then teaching it to a couple of willing students, I holed myself up with my computer, and set about to create a .pdf tutorial ... which I am quite pleased with!

Well Traveled, a tutorial by Sweet Freedom Designs

In addition to the 10-page, full color tutorial, full of diagrams, photos, and step-by-step instructions, I also have put together kits for 8 different colorways. The kits contain BEADS ONLY - no needles, Fireline, or clasp, although if you contact me through my Etsy shop (where the kits are available) I will be happy to choose a clasp for you for a small additional charge.

The tutorial is available in my Etsy shop, as are the kits. I hope you'll take a look!

Leather Wrap Bracelet

Good morning, bloggy friends! I'm back!

I can't believe it has been 5 weeks since my last post - it's certainly not because I haven't been doing anything ... but various forces and factors have just collided to prevent blogging. Sorry!

This is my newest - I just finished it yesterday, after about 5 days of decidedly non-continuous stitching:

Leather wrap bracelet with size 5 and 6 faceted seed beads

These leather wrap bracelets are nothing new; they've been around for years, and it seems like everybody has their own version of tutorials for them - I've seen at least 3 different ones on Pinterest, and I know Fusion beads has one, and seems like at least 5 customers a week come into the bead shop with various tutorials, wanting to purchase materials to make one (or more).

But these bracelets have never really floated my (jewelry) boat - They just aren't really my style. I don't really like leather!

But a customer came into the shop about 3 weeks ago, wearing one very similar to the one in this picture - she had made it with faceted size 5 and 6 seed beads that I sell, and I really liked it - probably because seed beads were involved! She came back in one day last week and showed me how to do it (much faster than having to sit down with a tutorial and suss it out myself) - but then I started stitching, and grew tired of it, fast. The Nymo thread gets wrapped around itself, around the free leather ends, and just generally the whole thing was a pain! I would stitch for 30 minutes or so, and get so frustrated I'd take a loooooooong break before stitching in a few more beads - but I ultimately finished, and I DO like it, but won't be making any more!

We've had some snow days this year, and then the big debacle that was the ice storm, which I'll be back to blog about later in the week ... and otherwise, I have just been doing some "obligation stitching" - I try to stitch a least one project from each beading magazine as the mags hit the shelves, to show my customers how to use the beads I sell. These projects are usually not anything I would have chosen for myself, and they often end up looking very different from those in the magazines (probably because of a combination of factors, including the fact that I usually choose very different color combos than the magazine, plus jewelry photography is just plain hard!)

So I thought, why not show a few of those projects here, even though they are certainly not my designs, and maybe give little mini-reviews of the projects while I'm at it?

In no particular order:

Hogarth Crystal Curve

This project is featured as a necklace in the April 2012 Bead & Button, and had been on my list of projects to make for the shop for awhile, obviously, but I finally got around to it. It is netting, and in addition to making a bracelet instead of the necklace, I substituted Czech Firepolish beads for the Swarovski crystals to make the project more affordable. It is a quick and easy bracelet, and a well-written pattern.

Hogarth Crystal Curve, detail

Tilt-a-Whirl Bracelet

This netted bracelet is featured in the October/November 2013 Beadwork. I substituted Tilas for the Czechmate tiles used in the magazine, so my critique is offered with a grain of salt, but this pattern is a little bit difficult, in my opinion, because the Tilas have to be held in position very tightly, requiring a fair bit of coordination with your non-dominant hand, in order to stitch the outer round which secures them and makes them all stay lying in one direction. But the resulting design is interesting - full of texture, and fun to play with.

Tilt-a-Whirl Bracelet, detail

Meandering Garden Path Bracelet

This bracelet was featured in a fairly recent Bead & Button - I wish I could tell you which issue, but I've torn the pattern out of the magazine, and the date/issue information is not on any of the 3 pages: Sorry!

This pattern (another netting pattern) also called for Czechmate tiles, and, again, I substituted Tilas. I also added a few beads to one of the final rounds, because the bracelet, if stitched as called for in the pattern, had a 3-dimensional effect very similar to the Tilt-a-Whirl bracelet above, with the tiles sitting up a bit and layering over each other, and I decided I didn't want to make 2 such similar designs. Another well written, easy pattern.

Meandering Garden Path Bracelet, detail

All 3 of these (the Hogarth Crystal Curve, Tilt-a-Whirl, and Meandering Garden Path) are constructed as individual netted units, which, upon completion of all of them, are then stitched together to create the bracelet. This is not how I prefer to stitch, personally - it reminds me of my days crocheting afghans - I preferred the patterns that added row upon row until the final length was achieved, rather than "Granny Square" type patterns, where you stitch a whole bunch of squares, then sew them all together. I know this is a personal thing - some people love making all those units and stitching them together!

Learning Curve

This is an older pattern( Bead & Button August, 2010) that I had torn out and put in my wish book years ago, and when I was looking for something to do back around Christmas Holidays, I pulled it AND the beads to take home and play with during my long stretch of days away from the bead shop.

This is a really fun pattern,  but represents hours and hours of stitching. The base is peyote, using 3mm cubes, which you then go back and embellish in several passes. It is supposed to curve a LOT more than it does, according to the pictures in Bead & Button, but mine just has a barely perceptible curve, and all I can speculate is that my tension is too tight. Otherwise, I have no clue.

Learning Curve, detail

Super Spiral (Superduo bangle)

These Superduo bangles are featured in the February 2014 Bead and Button, and have been my latest obsession - I just keep making them! I love Superduos, and my customers love them, and this pattern has been a huge hit. I have put together more 3-color combos of superduos than I can remember, and every time I do, I want to stitch up the new combination. It's a really fun pattern, and takes me about 2 days to finish.

I know I said these were in no particular order, but I actually saved my problem child for last:

Breezeway Bangle

This is the Breezeway Bangle, from the October/November 2013 Beadwork. This pattern really caught my eye when the magazine came out, and I don't carry ALL the bead types called for in the pattern at my Bead Shop, so I decided to just order the kit, which the pattern explained was available through Interweave (the publisher of Beadwork). I placed my order the same day I received the magazine, and counted the days, waiting for my kit - I was really excited about this pattern.

The pattern arrived, and I was a little surprised to see that it didn't include tubes of beads, or strands of beads, but rather had the 4 bead types counted out into individual Ziploc bags. That hasn't been my experience with kits, but I hadn't ordered kits in awhile, so I figured, "times have changed," and I started stitching.

Except that, in my personal opinion, the size 11/0 rounds that were used in the kit colorway did not really complement the other beads, so I substituted some purple iris 11/0s from my shop.

The pattern is a bit difficult to work with, and I struggled with stitch 3 of Step 1 - I know I stitched this stitch at least 20 times; following the pattern word for word, stitching it, realizing what I had stitched was just plain wrong, and taking it out, before I gave up and decided to see if I could figure it out on my own. I finally did, and when I went back to see what the issue was, I discovered that the pattern uses the terms "following" and "next" to mean 2 different things, whereas to me, they are interchangeable when teaching beading: as in "pass through the right hole of the following bead" vs. "pass through the right hole of the next bead" - To me, these mean the same thing, but I figured out that in this particular pattern, "next" means next, but "following" means the bead after the next bead. OK - I can deal with language differences - just wish I had known that when I started out!

So I stitched, and stitched, and then I ran out of beads. All at the same time - except for the 11/0s, which were from my own personal supply. Literally, the beads had been counted out so precisely that there were exactly enough to complete X number of units (good thing I didn't drop one on the floor!). I held the un-joined bangle up to my wrist, and could easily see it would never fit me, but I stitched it together anyway. 

It was small. Very small. Size 7, according to my "EZ bracelet sizer", but it is not a size 7. As a bangle, it has to fit over the widest part of the hand, and over the next few weeks I had every customer that entered the shop try it on, and so far, only 3 have been able to get it on AT ALL, and 2 of them had to work it over their hands. The one who slipped it on with ease wears a size 6 bracelet!

I contacted Interweave customer service, but was ignored, until I pulled a string to get my foot in the door. When I finally spoke with Interweave's customer service, they told me that the kit wasn't their kit, but was available through an arrangement with a 3rd party vendor, whom they would try to contact on my behalf. (This was after they offered me my money back if I returned the kit - but I explained that that wasn't what I wanted, I just wanted enough beads to finish my bracelet and have it fit!)

The 3rd party vendor (Starman, Inc) sent me some additional beads a few weeks later. However, the pattern called for Czechmate Tiles, rulla beads, and 2-hole lentils, and they only sent me Tiles and lentils. No rullas - so I still can't add any additional units to the bangle. I tried to contact the Interweave customer service rep who had helped me get this far, but he has not answered any of the multiple e-mails I have sent. 

I realize I could take the bangle apart and add a toggle, and it would fit - but that's not the issue: the kit was for a bangle; I want a bangle.

I realize I could have returned the whole thing for a full refund, but again, this was not the issue.

So, I am 100% unsatisfied with the pattern, with Interweave, and with Starman - I needed a handful of beads, people. I'll never order from Interweave again.

The Cart Got Before the Horse Yesterday

I listed a new bracelet on Zibbet Thursday evening:

Faceted Citrine, Wire-wrapped with Vintaj Natural Brass Wire

Large faceted citrine, ranging from light golden to deeply gold, wrapped in Vintaj Natural Brass wire. The bronzy brown of the wire looks so good with the golden yellow citrine!

Now when I say "new", I mean new to my online shops; I actually MADE this bracelet about 5-6 months ago, and it' been available in my bead shop for sale, but I never got around to photographing it and listing it online, or even to blogging about it. I don't know why. But Thursday, it caught my eye, and I found myself with the time and inclination to go through the photo and listing process, so the listing went live sometime Thursday night. And I think I tweeted it.

Friday morning (yesterday), I decided to blog about the bracelet, and opened up Blogger to the "new post" page. Then I opened Facebook, and was going to post the bracelet on FB before I blogged, and as I was composing the FB status, a customer came into the shop.

And bought the bracelet. (And a bunch of beads.)

Now I find myself wondering if this trick will work for anything else I have lying around the shop, waiting to be sold? Especially since as I was writing THIS post, a lady came in looking for custom-made Buddhist prayer beads, so we picked out gorgeous beads, and now I have a custom order to make! I'll post the pics when I'm done.

Have a great weekend!