Elemental Beaded Bead Pendants

Last week I was feeling a bit grouchy about a beading mishap, and I wanted to cast off the bad vibes and start something fresh. Without giving any thought to what I should be beading, I just dove into the stash and picked out a handful of favorite beads in favorite colors.

The beads that I selected included some lime green cubes, and these reminded me that I’ve been wanting to do some more graduated tubular herringbone work. Instead of making a bracelet, I did just one bobble and used it to make a pendant. It turned out so nicely, that I decided to make another.

Since I was on a roll with cube beads, and they happen to be part of the long line of beads that I want to use up, I selected another color and built a palette around it. I changed things up a bit and made a pendant with some new Autumn Tuscon seed beads, but gave the chains a different palette, and included some green buri nuts.

Just as we are sometimes stumped by beader’s block, sometimes the need to bead is stronger than usual. This extra motivation had me thinking that I wanted to make something big, but my St. Petersburg disaster changed things a little. Instead of making one big piece, I decided to make a lot of little ones, and so far it’s going swimmingly. I have a few more pieces underway, but I really want to return to these beaded bead pendants soon, and continue with an elemental theme. I’ve already got earth and light down. I’ll need to come up with palettes for air, fire, water, thunder…the possibilities are very exciting!

Copyright 2012 Inspirational Beading
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Book Spotlight: Beaded Bugs

Of all the sources beaders have for inspiration, nature is one of the most abundant. The colors, shapes, and patterns that Mother Nature creates provide an endless supply of ideas for beadwork, and few are quite so intriguing as the realm of insects. For hundreds of millions of years, these essential and enchanting creatures have evolved some of the most wonderful colors and patterns for camouflage, defense, and even courtship. In Beaded Bugs, renowned beader Jean Power teams up with professional model-maker Nicola Tedman to recreate these unique features with beads.

Like all great beading books, Beaded Bugsbegins with a quick primer on beads, tools, and essential materials needed to complete the projects. All 30 beaded bugs are constructed with a simple variation on ladder stitch, using a two-needle type weave with beading wire. The introduction to beading and reading the pattern charts is suitable for beginners and expert beaders alike.

Jean and Nicola have organized the projects from least to most difficult, to guide you through the process of constructing these 3-dimensional creatures with seed beads and wire. Beginning with butterflies and ending with beetles, there is a little something for every nature lover. Each insect featured is modeled after an actual species, including the black swallowtail, banded demoiselle, death’s head hawkmoth, three-banded ladybug, and fiddler beetle.

The instructions and diagrams are very easy to follow, and most of the projects are modeled after a basic structure. Once you’ve mastered the first dragonfly or caterpillar, you can easily try the next pattern, or even create your own. The only thing missing is blank color charts for making your own unique insect patterns.

I can’t decide which of the projects is my favorite - they all have such wonderful qualities. The butterflies are enchantingly beautiful, the caterpillars adorable, and the beetles are delightfully realistic. Imagine having a tiny beaded ladybug to watch over your workspace!

I would like to thank Andrews McMeel Publishing for giving me the chance to enjoy "Beaded Bugs: Make 30 Moths, Butterflies, Beetles and Other Cute Critters". Inspirational Beading has not received paid compensation for including the book in this blog post. I have shared my honest opinions about this book.

Copyright 2012 Inspirational Beading
Jean Power, Nicola Tedman, and Andrews McMeel Publishing
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Bead Color Ideas: Pink Pearls

For this month’s bead palette solutions, I wanted to tackle some beads that have me stumped. A gorgeous strand of dusty rose pearls is too pretty not to use, but what a difficult color to complement! Although the color isn’t so pale that it gets lost easily in a palette, it is very soft and delicate, and deserves gentle treatment.

Both the color and the shape of the pearls create a sense of feminine sophistication - they might not be your grandmother’s pearls, but they do invite design choices that would suit a classy lady. For each palette, I wanted to enhance the softness, as well as the hint of sweetness in the pearls.

I started with something easy. The most surefire way to enhance a subtle color is to back it with black. Although the pearls have a lustered finish, shiny black seed beads didn’t seem sophisticated enough, and a little too flashy for such a soft pink. Matte black has a more velvety look, which is perfect for these pearls. To make Vintage Vixen a trio I added matte vanilla, which gives us another neutral to play with, but is less stark and more interesting than white.

The true color of these pearls dances just out of reach, being tame and daring at the same time. I wanted to play up the strawberry-cream sweetness a bit, and added a little pistachio. White lined peridot makes the perfect contrast for the pearls - it’s not too green and not too garish. Dark beige plays the party of caramel or coffee cream in Dessert Cart.

Pink and green always make for a pleasing palette, and I wasn’t satisfied with just one example. To create Little Mermaid, I started with opaque turquoise blue. Then, to eliminate any traces of baby blanket vibes, I finished things off with some beautiful transparent teal. Although these colors are very bold, they don’t overpower the pearls at all - they seem right at home together.

What’s your favorite color to pair with pink?

Copyright 2012 Inspirational Beading
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World Beaders: Czech Republic

Imagine my excitement when I saw that the Czech Republic was on the list of top visitors to Inspirational Beading this month. It’s home to some of the world’s oldest and best glass bead makers, and Bohemian Paradise, not to mention gorgeous historical buildings, museums and more.

As one of the world’s youngest countries, the Czech Republic has officially been independent since 1993, and is currently one of the top three most peaceful countries in Europe. It is a popular tourist destination, with the capital city of Prague receiving over 4 million visitors every year.

Jablonec and other cities in the North Bohemian area have been producing glass beads since the 13th century. When costume jewelry and decorative beadwork gained popularity in the 1500’s, many of the bead styles and techniques the we love today were being developed to meet the demands of a new fashion era. Production continued to grow until the Great Depression, followed by the second world war and the loss of many bead makers, who relocated to Germany. In 1958, bead manufacturing in former Czechoslovakia changed from a cottage industry to factory based, and mass production of glass beads continues to dominate today in an effort to compete with manufacturers in Japan, India, and China.

Although Czech seed beads - which have been traded around the world for centuries - have lost some of their popularity compared to their Japanese counterparts, contemporary pressed and fire polished Czech glass beads are among the best and most desirable in the world. The quality, color, and attractive styles are unmatched, but still affordable for the average crafter.

Happy beading, Czech Republic!

Copyright 2012 Inspirational Beading and Friends
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Whoops in Progress

If you’ve been following along on Facebook, you may remember that last Wednesday I skipped the Weekly Bead Tray snapshot. I really wanted the piece I was working on to be a bit of a surprise - it’s not often that I pick up a project right after I say I might make it.

What I had hoped to show you was a new version of the peacock choker/lariat that we revisited in our last Time Capsule. I really thought that I was in the mood to make something ‘big’, something that would take a fair amount of work. I may have been wrong.

First, I went over all of my beads, looking for the perfect palette. I wanted to do something simple - not too many colors or changes in the pattern - so I needed colors that are in good supply. I also needed to find beads in three sizes that are similar in color for the middle rows of the St. Petersburg chain. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds, but I ended up with a pleasing combination of transparent sapphire 8/o rounds, sapphire lined sapphire triangles, and transparent aqua 11/o rounds.

For the main beadwork, I decided to go ahead and use up all of my silver-lined crystal seed beads. I’ve had several packets set aside from my regular stash, because for awhile I thought I was going to use them to make birthstone pendants with Swarovski crystals. I got tired of the idea ages ago, and now it’s time to move these metallic beads out of my stash for good.

You might also recall that I was thrilled to be rid of the last of my silver-lined topaz beads when I finished my latest multistrand necklace. But alas, I found about 12 grams of them in the secret stash right along with the crystals. So I added these to the palette for accents, and got to work.

Everything was going well. The colors and pattern looked fantastic together - ethereal and delicate. Unfortunately, when I started to connect the first two chains together, I somehow managed to get one upside down, and I didn’t even notice until it was to late to do anything about it. I blame the paleness of the beads, but I honestly don’t know how this could have happened.

The change in the stitch actually looks alright, and is totally salvageable, but I was so annoyed by the whole thing that I lost a lot of motivation. Then I realized that I was going to be about half a packet of silver-lined beads short, and I decided to put this necklace on the back-burner until I decide if I want to purchase any more metallic beads. I consulted my list of to-do projects and didn’t like the look of any of them. Instead, I’m going to make something just for fun! I’m on strike from obligatory beading - hurrah!

I’ll keep you posted on what comes of this little meltdown. In the meantime, what’s your most memorable beading mishap?

Copyright 2012 Inspirational Beading
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