The Bead Spot

Round beaded earrings. My grandma called a few weeks ago to ask if I had any round earrings. She was asking on behalf of a woman who works in her doctor's office who likes Native American crafts. I told her I had some but no longer do. She told me her next appointment isn't for six months or so, so I've got plenty of time to make some for her to take to show the woman. I made round earrings once before, and they took a long, long time. On the day I started them, I invited a niece and nephew over to keep my daughter entertained. I foolishly thought I could knock out a pair or two over the two hours the kids played together. Instead, I got just one only half finished. I loved the way they turned out, though. So I plan to have some for my grandma to take the next time she goes to the doctor. My other project in the pipeline is an "N" for my daughter's bedroom door. On a recent trip through Target, my daughter got very excited when she saw wooden let...

At one of my nephew's football games a couple of weeks ago, a woman wearing beaded earrings made to look like feathers sat down in front of my mom and me.  "Mom, look at those!" I said. (My mom works with beads, too.) "I'm going to try to make some like that." Because I didn't know the woman wearing the earrings, I couldn't get as good of a look as I would've liked, so I have no idea what stitch was used or whether the beads were Delicas. I went home, fired up my Bead Canvas software and went to work trying to figure out how to make a feather out of beads. I initially tried a square stitch, because that's what I figured had been used on the earrings the woman was wearing. But no matter how I drew the beads, I couldn't come up with a feather I was satisfied with. So I switched to peyote stitch, then brick stitch, which is ultimately what I decided to use. They're not fancy, but I still like the way they turned out...

On Tuesday, I was digging through my beading supplies looking for jump rings when I came across this peyote weave bracelet I started years ago but never finished. After several hours of work on it, I recall, I decided I didn't like it, and rather than toss the whole thing, I had decided to deconstruct it to save the beads. But on Tuesday, I started thinking that I was too critical, so now it's back on my to-do list. I don't know what type of clasp to put on it yet, but I think it's next on my list. I just hope I can figure out where I put the beads I was using. ...

I spent the past month working on a freelance project, but now that it's behind me, I've turned my attention back to beadwork. It's been a while since I've made rings, but because I've been in the mood to do projects that I can complete in one sitting, lately I've been pulling out my thin wire and making rings. ( Instructions for making rings .) In addition to the fact that it's a short project (I can complete a ring in about 15 minutes), I like that the materials travel well. The wire is thick enough that it's not likely to get knotted in a craft bag, and each small row is secure, so it's easy to stop at practically any point without worrying about losing a stop bead and a whole hour's worth of work. Plus, unlike with loom projects, all the stuff I need can fit in a rather small package. Therefore, this week, during my lunch hour at my day job, I've been pulling out my wire and beads, strapping on my headphones and spending my free ti...

I made this bracelet on a loom a little over a year ago. Overall, I like the way it looks, but I think it needs something on the edges. I'm thinking a black fringe might be just the thing. Putting it on, though, is easier said than done. When I worked the warp threads back through it, I wound up passing through the edge beads several times on both ends. As a result, I cannot fit one more thread through the beads at the far ends. I've tried several times. This was my first loom project of this type in several years, so I had forgotten just how crowded the edges can become. Lesson learned. Next time, I'll try to better plan where I weave the warp threads to prevent this problem. The only questions I have are: Is this bracelet hopeless? Should I just break it down so I can save the beads? Or do I see if anyone one Etsy might be interested in buying it without the fringe? Any thoughts?

It's been a while since I've worked on the nameplate for my daughter's bedroom door. We don't have her room ready for her yet, so I've got some time to finish it, but I'm pretty far from doing so. It doesn't even look like a nameplate yet. I haven't gotten any farther than what you see above.

For any beaders, myself included, who love to look at bead books but can't afford to buy them, here is a little tip. Many public libraries participate in interlibrary loan, a program through which patrons have access to books that their local library might not carry. I'm not sure how many people are aware of that service; until I worked in libraries myself in my 20s, I had no idea the program existed. My husband didn't know it existed until he met me and I told him about it, and it's really come in handy for both of us because our local library is small, has a rather dated selection of craft books and doesn't get new books in very often. If there's a bead book (or a book on any other topic in which you have an interest) that your local library doesn't have, it's worth the time to ask the staff if you can get it through interlibrary loan. I've worked in three different libraries, all of which offered the service and none of them charged for it...

I'm thinking about attending another arts and crafts festival very soon, even though I still don't have a whole lot of stuff to show. The good news is that booths for this event are free, unlike the last one that cost $75. Getting there won't be cheap, and I'm sure to dine out at least once that day, so to even break even, I probably need to sell about $25 worth. So, I need to get some work done, and quickly. I'm still working on my rose-colored bracelet , even though I don't think I've had the chance to work on it even one time in the past week. In fact,  I'm still far enough away on finishing it that I figured it wouldn't be ready for the upcoming festival. Instead, I decided to see how much kids stuff I could whip out between now and then. When I headed off to work Tuesday, I packed my lunch and a bunch of beads. This is what I made on my lunch hour: Now, if only I could make another five or six of those before the festival.

I've started a new bracelet in a right-angle weave. This the first time I've worked with this stitch, and I was expected it to look more uniform than it does, but I think I like that it doesn't. I'm not working off of a pattern or anything I've sketched. I thought I'd see how it looks when the weave is complete, then add embellishments later. I'm usually not happy anything I make on the fly, so I wind up undoing it to save the beads. Hopefully this time will be different, though.

I mentioned in a previous post that a friend was planning to move, and I wanted to make her a going away gift. She didn’t know when she’d be packing up and heading off to Missouri; it was dependent on when her house sold. In this bad housing market, I figured I’d probably have through the summer. However, it turns out I don’t. She’ll be leaving sometime in May. I’ve been busy, though, trying to get ready for an upcoming festival, so even though I know what I’d like to make now, I haven’t even started. Unless I suddenly pick up a big burst of speed, it looks like I’ll be sending it via the Postal Service.

I made this back in about 1999. It was one of the first bracelets I ever made. Looking back now, I'd do a few things different, the biggest of which would be to use a different colored thread so that it blends into the work a little better. I really like the stitch used. It's called an arrowhead pattern. I haven't made anything with it in quite a few years, but I've been thinking about it some lately, trying to think of ways I could make it more dimensional. 

I've been looking up photos of Easter lilies online trying to decide how I want to do the wall hanging for my friend, and I've noticed that the leaves do not look like I thought they did, so whether I put them in a row or as if in a bouquet, it won't look exactly like it initially did in my head. I'll post images once I get the design more hammered out.

I've decided that rather than make an eyeglass chain for my friend who will be moving sometime this year, I will make a wall hanging, this one of four Easter lilies. I haven't decided yet whether to put them in a row or gathered. My friend lost a loved one on Easter a few years ago, and in the weeks afterward, she often awoke a 4:44 in the morning. Since then, fours have had a significance to her.

A friend of mine will move out of state this summer, and I'd like to make her a going-away present. She collects Santas, but I know she already has a beaded one. She also doesn't wear much jewelry, so that idea is out, too. One idea I have it to make an eyeglass holder. This will be a new one for me.

Random Tidbits • I got the door hanger for my daughter's room mapped out on graph paper a few days ago and had hoped to start stringing it the same day. My girl had other plans for me, though. She cooed and played for a while, then made it clear she wanted to be held. What can I say? I'm a sucker for the little cutie pie. But stringing seed beads with a newborn on my lap is just not doable. • Craft stores in our area have really cut back on their supply. My mom has been looking for some beads to finish the projects she's been working on and hasn't been able to find them locally anymore. The next time I'm at Mom's house, I'll go online to  Fire Mountain Gems ,  Thunderbird Supply or Fusion Beads  to see if any of them has what she needs. • Off and on, I've struggled with an idea for a stretchy bracelet for kids. I've completed a few with a ladder stitch, but getting the string through the beads more than once was tough, even with the thinnest ...

A few days ago, two of my nephews -- one 11 and the other 8 -- showed me the projects they had been working on. The 11-year-old had made three dream catchers, which would rival anything I've ever seen at an arts and crafts show, and his brother made an earring, which also looked pretty good. He hadn't put the hook on it yet, but I liked what I saw. My mom apparently had showed them how, and I was very happy to see that they had spent part of their summer doing something constructive rather than just goofing off, which is how I always spent my summers.  Side note: I suck at photography. I've tried to take photos of my projects, but I just can't get the bracelets to look sharp like a lot of the jewelry I've seen on Etsy. I know I need to use the macro setting on my camera, but I honestly can't tell the difference between when I use it and when I don't. Maybe I just need to keep trying playing with it. Or maybe I just need a better camera. (Or maybe a...

For the past several weeks, I've been working on a flat bracelet, using size 11 Delicas in a gourd stitch. I should've finished it within one week, however, I've had to undo my work three times now. Why? Because it's awfully difficult to see a mistake when both the dominant bead color and color of the string are black. In one instance, I had completed about 15 rows before I noticed that I didn't pull the thread tight enough, causing some looping. Really, even with all of the unraveling and redoing, I should've completed this bracelet a couple of weeks ago, but I have a tendency to put something down for a while if I start to get frustrated. I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of February, though, and maybe a couple more. I've seen some magnifiers at Fire Mountain that I'd like to get. I think they'd really cut down on the need to redo. I'm just having trouble deciding which would best suit me.