Monday, March 30, 2009

Roped In

After experimenting with seed bead chain maille, I wanted to take the idea a little further. This necklace was made by connecting rings of seed beads, created by zipping up strips of right angle weave. It was extremely fun to make, and opens up all kinds of design possibilities using chain maille techniques.

Before trying out more complex designs, I wanted to work more with the tubular RAW.

The Inspiration:

The small right angle weave tubes in the chain maille necklace had a rounded shape, but I wanted to see if I could create a square rope for a simple necklace. I hoped that working with larger beads would help the four sided tube take a more angular shape.

The Beads:

To help with my goal of a square rope, I started with 3mm Toho cubes. The smooth edges are ideal for stitching without fraying thread. I paired the green/blue cubes with the olive shade “Green Picasso” in 8/o Toho seed beads. The combination is somewhat reptilian, which fits nicely with a beaded rope.



The Beadwork:

Using larger beads made stitching up this necklace incredibly fast. By using cube beads in two rows opposite each other, I was able to get the angled shape I wanted for the rope.





I finished it off with a beaded loop and lime green lampwork bead for a clasp. At 16 inches it rests just over the collar bone. I can see it paired with just about any top or dress.



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7 comments:

  1. Thank you! It was a lot of fun to make.

    ReplyDelete
  2. WOW! What a cool idea, not to mention perfectly executed. NICE!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very pretty projects, not to mention inventive... I'm interested in your mention of "seed bead chain maille" but when I hit the link, I was sent to a post about re-creating a look of gold without using up the natural resources of the metalwork. Interesting stuff, but I'd really like to see the beady chain maille post!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The "No Fool's Gold" necklace used a variation of seed bead Byzantine chainmaille by Sheryl Yanagi. The pendant section is made up of individual seed bead rings linked together.

    The original project is much more complex. It was published in the February 2009 issue of Bead and Button, and is also available from the Kalmbach store here:

    http://www.kalmbachstore.com/bbpdf090268.html

    It's a lot of work, but really fun!

    ReplyDelete

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