Blog Spotlight: Beads for Brains 365

If you’ve been following along on Inspirational Beading over the past several months, you know that there’s nothing I enjoy more than a good challenge. Whether it’s entering a single piece into a competition, or creating a set of personal beading goals, I’m up for it. Not only are beading challenges great for creativity, but they can make for excellent blogging as well.

Enter Beads for Brains: 365, a beading challenge inspired by Noah Scalin, the mastermind behind the Skull a Day project, and author of 365: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life! I thought that making a project every day for a month, or once a week for a year, was a great challenge. Imagine beading every day and sharing your experiences, trials and triumphs with readers in a countdown blog for one full year!

The blogger and bead champ, Mandy, is determined to master the art of beading through this challenge, and is using a variety of on and offline resources to tackle new techniques like tubular square stitch, and projects like Sue Jackson’s Fleur du jour, and the Bead Journal Project.

What I love about Beads for Brains: 365, is that readers of any skill level can learn along with Mandy, discovering new techniques to try, and finding unique insights into bead and stitch styles from a trial-and-error point of view. If you’re just getting started with beadwork, or you just want to follow along as one beader blossoms, this blog is worth a visit!

A few other beading gems to add to your reader:

Linda's Bead Blog and Meanderings
The Beadings and Buttons of Randomcreative
My Bead Journey
Backstory Beads

And some of my favorite craft and style blogs of late:

Elegant Musings
Broke and Beautiful
Already Pretty
Honestly...WTF

What have you been reading? If you’ve got a favorite must-read creative blog, share a link in the comments!

Blog Spotlight is a special tribute to my wonderful readers. Featured blogs are chosen from the previous months comments.
Thank you so much for reading Inspirational Beading!

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
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Tribal Fringe Necklace

My mission to discover and try out new and interesting beads every month has sparked a new obsession. After falling in love with African Christmas beads, I find myself wanting to use them in everything, and I’m always on the lookout for other exotic trade beads to add to my repertoire.

I found March’s new beads somewhat by accident, and although they aren’t trade beads, I couldn’t resist using them in a tribal design. I came across them while searching for some metal-free shank buttons for an upcoming PDF tutorial. I was thrilled when I found these adorable carved boxwood buttons with animal designs from Unique Buttons on ArtFire.

I was pleased not only with the design, but the price as well, so I kept looking around, and found the most amazing lizard button, which I’m sure will make an appearance in an upcoming challenge bracelet. Then I stumbled across a pair of horn shaped vintage Cherry Brand beads. They are so gorgeous, with beautiful yellow, white and brown stripes. I just had to scoop them up!

It took awhile to decide exactly how I was going to use these beauties. The curved shape makes them tough to design with, especially without using beading wires. I decided that suspending them in a necklace would be best, so that movement would help them look at home. And because I wanted to use both beads, I had to find a way to achieve a nice balance.

Then I had to choose a palette, and a technique for the necklace base. After going through my bead stash, making sketches, and imagining different approaches, I finally decided to make an eclectic charm necklace on a herringbone base. I was tempted to go with an ice cream palette, since the beads have a sort of banana-and-butterscotch-ripple thing going on. But it would be tricky to make it look elegant, and allow the beads to blend in to the design. Luckily, my need to use trade beads everywhere took over, and I came up with a wild and fun African-inspired palette instead. I included a single bead just larger than the horns as a focal piece, as much to keep them from clinking together as for looks.

This was one of the most difficult necklaces I’ve ever made. The techniques are simple, but I ended up using a size 13 needle for the entire rope section, and after a few days of work, I was afraid I had ruined my stitching arm. And here’s a handy tip: straight needles cannot pass through curved beads. Luckily, I have a packet of twisted wire needles, and they worked perfectly.

I actually completed this piece weeks ago, but I’ve been keeping it under wraps, waiting to see if it was chosen as a finalist in this year’s Bead Star competition. This is the first year that the contest has had a category for beadweaving, and I was very excited to enter something.

The Bead Star contest is hosted by Interweave Press and Beading Daily, with prizes provided by some incredible companies like Artbeads.com and Beadalon. There are categories for seed beads, crystals, metals and other materials, as well as a fun heart inspired category. There are some absolutely gorgeous designs to see and vote on this year. Best of luck to everyone who entered!

Meanwhile, I’m still on the hunt for exciting new beads. So far I’ve discovered some amazing new styles and shops, and I’ve got months to go. I have a feeling that I’ll want to keep up with this little tradition beyond 2011.

What new discoveries or experiments in beading have you made this year?

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
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Inspired By Nefertiti and Cleopatra

Is it a coincidence that two of history’s most legendary beauties both came from Ancient Egypt? I think it’s fitting, since theirs was a culture that thrived on aesthetics, and considered even death to be a thing of beauty. The Ancient Egyptians were the first people to elevate writing, drawing and sculpture beyond essential trades to true art forms.

1. Nefertiti,
2. Cleopatra con el faraón, 3. Unfinished Head of Nefertiti, 4. Cleopatra, 5. Antigo Egito - Akhenaton e Nefertiti,
6. Cleopatra, 7. Queen Nefertiti, 8. Cleopatra, 9. Nefertiti Crown,
10. Nefertiti Model, 11. Cleopatra, 12. Nefertiti, 13. Cleopatra billboard

Nefertiti and Cleopatra have been the inspiration behind a great many works of art, films, books, fashions, and even jewelry. The use of color in Egyptian jewelry was not just for looks, but also for spiritual purposes. Gold was considered the flesh of the gods, and stones such as lapis and carnelian had their own special place in even the most mundane of objects. Here a just a few amazing handmade designs with the royal Egyptian flair:

Cleopatra Lampwork Bracelet, If Cleopatra Lived in Texas, La Cleopatra Choker

It’s interesting that these two women would be the most recognizable Egyptian queens. They lived and ruled 1300 years apart, and were quite different in many ways. It would make more sense to compare Nefertiti to Hatshepsut - the first and longest reigning female pharaoh.

Nefertiti by sun*flower featuring python sandals

Queen of the Nile by Carol's Historical Group featuring black gold jewelry

Cleopatra technically belongs among the likes of Helen of Troy, for she was actually of Greek descent. She was the last pharaoh of Egypt, ruling after the time of Alexander the Great. Though she came from Greece and associated with Romans, Cleopatra embraced the culture of Egypt, and was one of few royals to learn the language.

Nefertiti by ~LevinaTEG on deviantART

cleopatra by ~juliasan on deviantART


There were so many wonderful illustrations inspired by Nefertiti and Cleopatra, that I couldn’t possibly show them all here. You can see more favorites in a gallery of Nefertiti and Cleopatra deviations.

Which Egyptian queen is your favorite?

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading and Friends
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Bead Spotlight: Ceramic and Porcelain

Like classic saltwater pearls, ceramic and porcelain beads can add a special old-world charm to jewelry designs. They come in a beautiful variety of shapes and styles, from textured pendants to hand painted tubes. Some of the most amazing stoneware beads and focals are created by skilled artisans, and are treasured for their one of a kind nature.

Ceramic Rectangle Pendant, Greek Patinaed Bronze Ceramic Beads,
Earthenwood Studio Ceramic Toadstool Charm, Ancient Mosaic Tile Beads

Red Dragon Ceramic Bead, Vintage Ladybug Macrame Bead,
Speckled Oval Ceramic Beads, Chinese Painted Ceramic Beads

One of the most common materials used to make ceramics, pottery and porcelain is kaolin - a layered silicate mineral, also called white clay or china clay. The molded clay is hardened at extreme temperatures in a kiln, forming solid and beautiful pieces with delightfully earthy qualities. Glazes applied before the ceramic pieces are fired not only make them more durable, but add to their beauty as well.

Did you know? Kaolin comes from large mines all over the world, and is also a common ingredient for making glossy paper, toothpaste, incandescent light bulbs, paint and can be used as a pest deterrent in organic farming.

Ceramic Bead Bee Charm Bracelet, A Mix of Seasons Ceramic Necklace,
Ceramic Dragonfly Necklace, Red and White Sea Pottery Necklace

Straw Fields Pendant Necklace, Ceramic Bees with Gold Tone Earrings,
OOAK Ceramic Beaded Bracelet, Black and Red Ceramic Beaded Necklace

Do you like to use ceramics in your designs? What is your favorite style, shape or finish to work with?

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading and Friends
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A Bracelet a Week: Easter Eggs

Another week has come and gone, and I am enjoying this bracelet challenge more and more. I had no idea that I could relish making new bracelets so much. Having this motivation not only helps me to come up with new ideas, but adds to the excitement of trying them out.

This week, I wanted to experiment with a technique I haven’t used in ages - graduated tubular herringbone. The very first time I ever attempted it, I was limited to just three seed bead sizes, and it didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. Now that my bead stash is a little more sophisticated, I thought it was time to revive the stitch and see what happened.

In order to get a really broad range of bead sizes, I wanted my base to be smaller than an 11/o, but 15/o seed beads seemed much too flimsy for the job of holding up bigger herringbone bobbles. So I went to delicas to start my palette, and chose a tube of lovely matte transparent grays.

Since it was coming up on Easter weekend, I added different sizes and shapes of beads in cool pastels to go with the gray. Normally, I really love to photograph my bead picks in their little cups, but there are far too many to capture in this palette (I just didn‘t feel like spilling them all out at once). Instead, I thought I’d share a rare glimpse of my actual beading station, moments before I began working on this bracelet.

The palette includes: 11/o wisteria lined crystal, 11/o opaque lustered turquoise, sapphire lined light sapphire Miyuki triangles, 8/o dichroic lined cornflower blue, 8/o fuchsia lined aqua, 6/o Czech ceylon pearl, 6/o Miyuki purple lined crystal AB, 4mm opaque gray lined cubes, and 4mm light jonquil lined aqua cubes. I later added some 8/o raspberry lined crystal beads as well.

It was so fun to have all of these beads laid out on my tray at one time, especially because I almost never get a chance to use delicas or cubes, and they all looked so pretty in their little cups and coasters. The bead tray I use is actually the lid of a veggies and dip container, and at about four bucks, it’s one of the best beading investments I’ve ever made. The round shape is especially handy for projects like this one, because I can place the beads along the outer edge, and rotate the tray for easy transitions.

I was a little worried halfway through the first increase that the bobbles would be too boxy thanks to the cubes at the center, but they rounded out again as the beads decreased, and I love the shape. Sizing was a bit of a hassle, and it took a lot of pondering to decide where to stop to get just the right length. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish the pattern as smoothly as I would have liked, but I’m still happy with the bracelet overall. It actually turned out a lot more sophisticated than I had hoped it would.

Happy Easter!

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
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