Hexagons, Spirals, and Fringes

It’s been so long since I’ve made a lariat necklace, that I actually had to go looking through my blog archives to remember what the last design was. It’s actually one of my favorites, a violet and daisy piece with beaded beads, and I made it back in November of 2010, during the Necklace a Day challenge. That’s far too long a gap between lariats, and so when I starting planning a design to use up some of my hex cut seed beads, a super long necklace seemed like the perfect choice.

I’ve got lots and lots of hex cut seed beads, but I hardly ever use them. As fun as it would be to weave something flat with them - like a peyote cuff - I’m not all that fond of peyote cuffs to begin with, so I’ve been passing them over for months. I finally decided to use them in a spiral rope, where they would be able to show off their sparkle, while still being protected on either side by seed beads.

I chose a palette of ruby red, sapphire blue, and seafoam, then it was on to seed beads to complement them. At first I wanted to do an Egyptian theme, but something about the colors steered me in a slightly different direction. I paired up jet black and opalescent cream (aka alabaster) for a more art deco kind of palette.

At first I had a little trouble deciding on a pattern. I wanted a striped effect, but the black really overpowered both the alabaster and the hexagons. Luckily, I had just stocked up on opalescent cream, so I decided to dive right in and use it as the main color for the entire rope. The new pattern is much better, and has the art deco look that I wanted. The way that the black peeks through the slightly transparent cream has the same soft and misty quality as a vintage cigarette ad. I finished the ends of the lariat simply with a pair of druks and a bit of hex and seed bead fringe.

Unfortunately, I ran out of seed beads before hexes, so I still have a few grams left of each color. There’s always room for more lariats though!

Copyright 2012 Inspirational Beading
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Bead Spotlight: Hex Cut Seed Beads

If you were to take someone who had never experienced beading before, and show them the amazing variety of colors and sizes in the realm of round seed beads, they would probably be pretty overwhelmed. And just when they’re recovering from the awe, you could throw them for a loop with seed bead shapes.

Just when they though that beading couldn’t get any more fun, out come these amazing little building blocks of color and glass. There are plenty of different shapes to choose from, and new ones are being created all the time. I, for one, can’t wait to try out the new Tila seed beads.

One of the most interesting members of the shaped seed family is the hex-cut. These beauties would make any bee homesick, with their perfect hexagonal shape, and they can certainly bring out the magpie in any beader.

Hex-cuts are great for flat stitches, and can help make learning peyote stitch easy because of the way they lock together with perfect symmetry. Because they have six sides for light to play off, their sparkle is tough to beat.

For today’s necklace design, I played a bit with hex-cuts to see how they worked without the help of round seed beads. After a little brainstorming, I came up with a fun design that uses mostly hexes. The only reason I needed round seed beads at all was to top of the St. Petersburg stitches, and I wanted smooth edges for that.

I’m usually not a fan of amulet bags, although there are some amazing graphic patterns out there for them. I do like how this necklace resembles that style, but still has the delicate qualities of a simple pendant. The combination of blue, aqua and white, with the shapes of the beads reminds me of a spa, or Roman bath.

How do you like to use hex-cuts?

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading