New Beads: Long Magatamas

One of my favorite things about trying new beads, is that there is always an opportunity to learn something new. While this sometimes means trying a new technique, it can also help a beader learn more about the techniques they already love.

My bead budget for November was incredibly small, and once I had purchased some supplies I needed for a custom design, I had very little room left for new beads. I decided to make the most of it, and added a couple of magatama packets to the order, since I’ve been longing to try them all year. I grabbed some in blue, and I couldn’t resist the transparent lemon lime.

These leaf shaped seed beads have a lot of interesting qualities, particularly the angled holes, which make them ideal for organic inspired designs - they make excellent leaves and dragon scales. I wanted to put these beads to use in a design that would really show off their shape, instead of simply throwing them in with my usual work. Bangles have been done, and beautifully, so I had to come up with something else.

I decided it would be fun to replace the 8/o seed beads in a Dutch spiral with magatamas. They would look fantastic snuggled into the beadwork, and spiraling around the chain. After some debate, I settled on a palette of brown and gold to contrast the green and blue, and lend some more organic flair to the leafy shapes.

At first I was really excited about the idea, but after a few turns around the spiral, I started to get bored. The idea seemed to fizzle as I contemplated all the work ahead, even though the project was turning out as I had planned - perhaps better. It was then that I realized that I wasn’t interested in the project because I was forcing myself to do something that worked for the beads, instead of making the beads work for me. It was time to start over.

Instead of making a project that was ideal for the magatamas, I decided to take a chance and see how they would work in a design that was more my style. With the drop-like nature of the magatamas, I couldn’t resist trying a Chevron collar. I removed the topaz from the palette, and simply added some blue and green drops to the edge of dark brown netting.

Although taking the time to make sure that the long magatamas were facing the right direction with each stitch made the work go a little slower, it was much more fun that trying to please the beads, instead of the other way around. And now I have this fun little collar with blue and green leaves along the edge!

Have you worked with long magatamas? What’s your favorite technique to use them with?

Copyright 2012 Inspirational Beading
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