A Ring a Day - Five

Ring #5 - Licorice Bubblegum Ripple

For today’s ring, I thought I would do something really basic: stylish but simple. The most obvious choice was to make an unembellished band of peyote stitch. But I couldn’t just stop there. Some part of me - the artist, the rebel, or the lunatic - had to take it just a little bit further.

So I decided to make a simple, but huge, peyote ring. The only question was, which colors to use? I thought about some easy combinations, with no luck. Then I turned the problem upside down, and started thinking about what beads I would like to get out of their packets.

The first thing that came to mind was hot pink. What was I thinking when I bought them? I suppose I wanted to have a wide range of colors available ‘just in case’. I know I’ve used my hot pink lined 11/o’s at some point, because the seal on the packet was open, I just can’t remember why or when. But now I have a great reason to use hot pink - how else can you add oodles of personality to something as plain as a peyote ring?

I love the look of pink on black, so that’s the combination I went with. Using the maximum number of rows possible, I made a stripe-y ring band, and finished the edges with square stitch. I think it looks almost good enough to eat!

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading and The Sage's Cupboard

Poster Sketch: Clown Fish Ring

Ring #4 - Clown Fish

Back in April, I had the opportunity to play the 6th Photo Blog Game. I rehashed not only an old bead photo, but the beads themselves. My 6th photo had been of a tray of multicolored transparent iris seed beads. Ever since then, they’ve been on my mind, calling out to be used.

I decided to use the mixture in today’s ring, but I couldn’t decide how to go about it. Well, when all else fails, I say “Put a starfish on it!”. I thought an orange starfish bead would work really well with the mixture, and draw all of the colors together. The cherry-orange really complements the reds and browns, and makes a nice contrast for the assorted blues.

I have named this ring “Clown Fish” because the colors really remind me of a clown. I think it’s the white mixed in with the other bright colors. I liked the concept so much, that it inspired this week’s Treasury East collection, Big Top Under the Sea.

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading and Etsy.com

A Ring a Day - Three

Sometimes when I start a circular brick stitch project, I get this crazy urge to just go wild with freeform beadwork. I’ve always admired the bravery of beaders like Beverly Ash Gilbert, who can create stunning freeform designs with what seems like ease. It’s sort of a scary task - beading without patterns or boundaries - like backpacking in Europe without a map.

A handful of stitches and techniques are really suitable for freeform. I like netting, because it still has a basic structure, even if you change up the bead quantities with every stitch. It’s the close stitches like peyote that are so much more intimidating.

It occurred to me that making a ring a day would provide the perfect opportunity to experiment. If I made something really awful, I would most certainly have time to start again from the beginning. So, I picked out some seed beads and a few matching accents and tried not to think about the rules.

Ring #3 - Wood Elf

What I ended up with is a very pretty, somewhat quirky ring! Although I eventually chickened out and went to basic peyote stitch for the ring band, the focal section has a lot of personality. I even changed my choice of fringe at the last minute, and went with a scalloped edge instead of picots. I like the effect, especially when combined with the other elements. Now I just have to resist the urge to do it exactly the same a second time!

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading and The Sage's Cupboard

Midsummer Pendants and Ring Two

Ring #2
Midsummer Night

Sometimes the simplest approach is the most beautiful, or so I learned when working with big, beautiful glass pendants. We can try and try to come up with a really outrageous, avant-garde design; but in the end, some materials just want to speak for themselves.

The Inspiration:

I had these two gorgeous millefiori pendants to work with, and they were so lovely that I wanted to go crazy with them. No matter how hard I tried, or how long I stared at my sketch pad, the only thing that really seemed to click was a simple strand of beads with a lark’s head knot. I even had to resist the urge to use them in different ways - both pendants wanted to be a pair.

The Beads:

I combined the two pendants with Czech fire polish beads. I mixed and shuffled different colors from packets of glass beads in earth tones, blues, greens and pure cobalt blue. For the yellow Murano diamond, I went with blues and greens for a tropical look. For the donut pendant, I created a mixture of woodsy tones like a country path in summer. Then I chose seed beads for each mixture I had created and got to work.

The Beadwork:

I thought of using daisy chain with the fire polish to make big, chunky flowers. I didn’t like the way it looked, and I was worried about the way the flowers would zig-zag along the chain. I wanted a necklace that would be simple and pretty, so I used a reverse daisy chain to wrap each fire polish with seed beads. It turned out exactly right!

Today’s ring was inspired by the “Poolside” yellow and blue pendant. I used a really basic crystal ring technique to make a blue and yellow flower focal, then added black seed bead ladder stitch. What’s interesting is that the beads make the ring look much more elaborate than it really is. I love the technique so much, that I had to resist making a dozen more in different colors right away!

I would like to thank Artbeads.com for providing the glass pendants and Czech fire polish beads used in this piece. Inspirational Beading has not received paid compensation for including Artbeads.com products or reviews in this blog post. I have shared my honest opinions about the products used in this design.

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading and The Sage's Cupboard

A Ring a Day - One

Summer is a great time to make changes. The days are longer, and sometimes it seems as if night will never come. Unless the heat is unbearable, it’s easy to be extra productive during the summer months. Although we’re still waiting for summer weather here on the West coast, I still felt like making some changes - hopefully for the better.

I spent much of May brainstorming ideas, trying to come up with some new segments and concepts for Inspirational Beading. I thought about some of the blogs I admire, like A Bead a Day and Wickwire Jewelry. I considered what some of my goals are, such as finally reaching 100 active listings in my Etsy shop, The Sage’s Cupboard.

And, suddenly, inspiration!

For the entire month of June, I have challenged myself to create a ring every single day. It’s crazy, but I think I can do it! The challenge will be to avoid repetition. I did cheat a little, and gave myself a head start. Ring #1 was started last night.

Electric Lime Ring

This is “Electric Lime”. I had the idea for this piece while making a checkered rope for a custom order. I love the look of bright colors against black and white. I just happened to have some lime green magatamas, which I love to use for extra texture. When the band was finished, I thought that the ring needed a little more green, so I also added a few drops to the finishing fringe. This is by far the tallest ring I’ve made, and I love the boldness of it.

I’m so very excited about A Ring a Day, and I hope you’ll join me in the coming weeks to see all 30 creations!