Seaside Sally: A Work in Progress

Happy thanksgiving :)

My semester is almost done, and I can pay a little more attention to the blog again. The schedule I have been keeping in terms of assignments and tests and dates has been eating up almost any beading time I would normally have, and I include blogging time with my beading time. Because of Thanksgiving, I have had a more normal week, as the deadlines have been pushed back a little.

I am sitting here right now with my keyboard balanced on my beading tray, with this on the mat beneath it:

It is part of a necklace I am working on called Seaside Sally. You know the tongue twister that goes; "She sells sea shells down by the sea shore"?  Yeah, that. There are curly shells, pearls, sea glass an a bunch of seed beads going into this one. 

I hate that I do not have a better camera yet. The colors in the first photo are more true to life, but it really does not capture the colors well enough. My toggle clasps are getting so much better. The ones I made for this project are spot on. I am very happy with how they turned out. they are nice and tight and feel very secure.

As always, projects in this stage excite me greatly. The color palette on this necklace is so far outside my normal range of colors it is almost startling, but I am not designing this one for me at all. This time around I find myself reveling in designing for the sake of it, not to make myself happy, but honestly, it really does. I love this piece so far and am almost lamenting that it does not really fit my larger than average neck. I really cannot wait to see it finished. 

I said a while ago that I wanted to get away from statement necklaces for a while because they were time consuming. I am rethinking that idea because I always seem to find myself contemplating the next big project while I work on the current one. What I am planning on pulling out of my hat next is a big endeavor, probably larger than any project I have concocted to date. 

I hope everyone has enjoyed their Thanksgiving day. Please pause for a minute, and just love those around you. Family is one thing that makes a person truly rich. 

Until next time, Happy beading!!

Pluto tutorial

 This tutorial is free for personal use. I do not mind if you use this pattern to create and sell items made from this pattern as long as you are not producing over 20 a year, and credit me with the design.
~Jennifer Sluszinskis

Beading needle (size 12 was used, I like the big eye type)

Beading line

Size 15 seed beads

Size 11 seed beads

Size 8 seed beads

5X16mm dagger beads

10mm beads

The amount of beads may vary depending on what you are making. I used 22 units for a slightly longer then 16 inch necklace.  

1) Start with between 2 and three arm spans of thread, and string a stop bead. Pick up one 11, 4 15's, one 10mm. Follow that with the 1 11, 415 and 1 11 again.

2) Next, pick up 4 size 8 beads and slide them down to the last 11 bead strung.

AT this point, you are going to do one unit of Right Angle Weave. Lay the strung beads over your index finger with the size 8's at the top. Run your needle up through three of the size 8s and pull the remainder of the thread through the RAW cluster. 

 3) repeat steps one and two until you have strung your size 10mm beads. The string will be pretty long at this point.

4) Now it is time to get your needle in position to capture those 10mm beads.

Slip the needle through the 2 beads adjacent to the one your thread is coming out of. This should position your needle so it is coming out of the first bead in the raw cluster. Add one 11, 4 more size 15's, and one 11. Pass the needle through the top of the 10mm bead in the same direction the thread is traveling, and pull tight. The resulting bead should look as it does in the pictures below.

5) Pick up one 11, four 15's, and one 11. Pass the needles through the 3rd bead in the RAW unit in the next segment of chain. This will enclose the 10mm bead.

6) Now you want to pass your needle through the 2nd, and 1rst bead in that raw unit. That will bring your needle back into position to enclose the next bead. Repeat steps 4-6 until all the 10mm beads are captured and you have a rope of 10mm beads separated by a RAW unit.

When you reach the end, create one more Raw unit, and do one more 11, four 15's and one 11 sequence again, pass the needle through the 10mm bead, and run the needle through the outer strand of 11's and 15's until you reach the bottom hole of the 10mm bead.

7) Pick up one superduo, one 11, and one more superduo. Pass through the 11 on the other side of the 10mm's hole, and pull the thread until the superduos and extra 11 bead is snug in the gap beneath the hole of the 10mm.

8) Pick up a 15, a superduo and another 15, and pass the needle rough the bottom hole of the left superduo.

9) Pick up a 15, a dagger, and another 15. Pass the needle through the bottom hole of the right superduo. Pull the dagger and 15 snug in the gap.

10) pick up a 15, a superduo and another 15. pass the needle in the opposite direction through the 11 to the right of the superduo, through the top hole of the right hand superduo, through the 11 in between the 2 superduos, then through the top hole of the left hand superduo, and then through the 11, four 15s, 11 and 1rst bead of the RAW unit. Repeat steps 7-10 until all the 10mm have dagger drops attached. The thread may be gappy and sit weirdly at this point but the final steps will pull everything together.

11) Pass the needle through the raw unit by going through the 1rst, 4th then 3rd bead of the RAW unit, then run the needle back through the 11, four 15s, and one 11. this puts your needle in position to repeat the dagger portion of the stitch.

12)When you reach the other end of the rope, run your needle through the outer ring of beads until your needle is positioned so the thread is coming out of the 11 to the left of the 10mm hole. pick up one 11, and one 15.

13) Run the beads up the thread until they are sitting close to the gap. Pass the needle through the size 11 bead, skipping over the 15. Pull the thread through until there is a small loop left. Catch the loop with your middle finger to snug the beads into the gap. This may take a little tugging and pulling. once the bead is seated right, run the needle through the 11, four 15 , 11 sequence and through the first bead in the raw unit. Make sure the topper bead is sitting in the gap.

 

14) Run the needle around the RAW unit again and up through the 11 four 15 11 leg to get your needle back into position. Repeat steps 12-14 until all the 10mm beads have been capped off.

Finish the piece off with the findings of your choosing. I did not add any thread into this rope until I was at the ends. I don't know if you can add in thread other than at the ends at this point. I will update this if it changes.

A few small thoughts:

Please forgive the photo quality. I am working on getting a good camera for this express purpose. Please keep in mind that this is my first tutorial, and I am learning. If you see mistakes or have suggestions for improvement, I would welcome the feedback. After going through the pictures I noticed that my pointer finger had a cut on it. I commonly slice the pads of my fingers on the fire line because I tend to wrap and pull to get my tension. I had also stabbed that finger earlier that day with a needle, and that is why my finger looks like it is horribly red. No, it has not fallen off yet.

If you make anything out of this pattern, I would love to see it! Come show it off! Feel free to link pictures in the comments area.

As always, happy beading

Sneakin' a peak

Ever since I put the finishing touches on the red necklace (pics are coming soon!) I have not jumped into my next big project like I thought I wanted to. I had planned something larger and more showy with what turned out to be my Pluto necklace (tutorial to make this is in the works, and it will be free) which for all the planning for and pinning over I did while wrapped up in the red necklace turned out to be so much... smaller then I had imagined. It had no turtle. I was kinda bummed over that, but on the plus side, I still have a turtle, I guess.

I have wanted to join some kind of beading competition for a while. Nothing big, but something to kind of steer me in new directions. I get bored beading something that only I am excited over. Whenever I would find a small competition or contest, a lot of the time the theme called for materials that I did not have on hand or that I could not make work with what I do have. My stash is so very limited right now.

I am happy to report that I have found one with a loose enough theme that I can  actually play along! Joining the group that is hosting it on the other hand, is going to be a bit of work.

This is currently what is on my beading mat:

Just a quick teaser of the materials. I do not have a specific picture of what I want this to look like, so I am just playing with combinations of this and that.

Anyone else working on something pretty? I would love to hear about it!

Until next time, happy beading . :)

Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear.

There is magic in sitting down with someone to work on beading. When the both of you are working on 2 wildly different projects, it is nice to watch what is developing across the table. Sometimes you get to see something with a fresh set of eyes. That bead soup that you have been dumping crap into for the past year and a half suddenly looks exciting and new in someone else's hands. Sometimes that person can show you something you never saw in styles you would never go for even in your wildest dreams. That person can get you thinking "What if..."

Weekends around here are lazy crafting days. Oftentimes, my best friend stays the weekend and we work on the beading thing together. The last few weekends I have watched her interests in beading grow tenfold, and it is incredible to watch. I have a very set style. I love my symmetry, I love my bold colors, my pops and flashes of sparkle. I exist in this realm for right now because being new to beading, I want to concentrate more on technique then on making fantastical experiments. Not saying I will be here forever, but for now it is where I am comfortable.

What really kicked my brain into overdrive is her styles. Right off the starting line she delved into the chaos of free form peyote. This is not a bad thing. I want to clearly state now that I do not dislike free form peyote. I have seen some free form peyote that just struck me dumb on first sight. I see it as kind of painting with beads, if that makes any sense. I can tell you honestly, I do not think I am capable of free form yet. I doubt I will ever be. I had no interest in even trying it until I watched her sit down with bead soup and made this wonderful, textural strip of so very random free form. Every few rows I had to see it, to touch it. Bury it in the bead soup and marvel at how it just disappears into the soup like it isn't even there. I would have never done anything like that on my own. I would not have thought to. Now I look at that bead soup and I wonder what else could come out of it. This all came from watching someone else's design process.

The same thing happened last weekend when she started working on another bracelet. she described to me what she was going to do and I did not fully grasp what she was getting at until she put it in front of my face. Now my brain is going a mile a minute with all the things that could be done in that style. I have ideas that fit into my style that all came from watching her work. I have drawn out 5 different ideas in my notebook, and I can't wait to finish up the project that I could not wait to start last weekend, because there is a shiny new idea on the horizon that I would not have had if not for her. 

As always, Thank you Dee. Thanks for everything. <3

Please, please forgive the cat hair. It is ingrained into every facet of my life, including my bead mats. Sometimes I worry it is working it's way into my DNA

Norwegian rocket boots.

Sometimes I feel like I exist in this yawning chasm solidly on the outside of the beading community. I have yet to make any beading friends, swap techniques, or make any connections with people that know the business of selling hand beaded jewelry. I struggle to even find online beading communities because I have been spoiled by the mother of all crafting sites, and not a single beading site that I have checked out thus far holds a candle to the intuitive usability of Ravelry. I adore that site. It is devoted to fiber arts, but it is a mecca of crafting. I really would love to see a site like Ravelry for beading. It is just so coherent, and finding your niche there is so very simple. Just an hour or two poking at that site you will be butt cheek deep in projects, ideas, pictures, resources, and most importantly; community.

This blog is about beading. I know I have mentioned knitting a few posts, but just so we understand each other, I am not about to post a guide to Kitchener stitching or how to work cables without a cable needle, but there are a few things that I miss about knitting. Ravelry is one of the things i miss dearly. Bear with me while I rant a bit. Or not.

I know there are forums for beading. Ravelry's are better. The way the forums are set up allows for people to create specialized groups, created around themes that interest you. Want to talk to a bunch of knitters and crocheters that like a certain TV show? Create a group. Only interested in talking about knitting curtains out of cobweb weight? Create a group. People will either join because they share in the interest, or they won't, but while you are talking about how to make that swag hang just so, there is not a bunch of white noise about knitting dog sweaters to plow through. I miss that kind of approach to the community because the setup is what you make out of it.

And it is not just the forums that immerse you so deeply in that site. The projects page is just wonderful. It is they type of thing you would expect to pay a monthly fee just to have access to it, but it is completely free. There is no limit to how many pictures you upload, you do not pay for them (never have had to as far as I am aware) and the whole page is arrange-able so you can showcase your projects the way you choose to. The whole site is this carefully constructed spider web of databases filled to the brim with project photos, patterns, suppliers. you want an idea of what this pattern looks like in a bunch of different colors with or without modifications? Anyone on the site that has done that pattern and tagged it as that pattern are added into an easily browesable gallery with just that project. Need ideas of what to do with a certain yarn? You can search for that yarn, in your colorway, and any project with that yarn and colorway tagged gets put into a gallery that you can go through. This kind of site would be such an incredible tool. I could write a tiny novel on all the facets and features of this site, and still not be able to convey just how helpful it is.

Not only is it friendly to the fiber artist using it, but it is also a great way to help promote responsible uses of copyrights. If you design something, release the pattern and 10 people make it, the project page that the user makes for the item makes it so easy for them to enter the name of the project, select the right design form a list, and bang! The project points to the pattern used, the pattern gives all the pertinent details. It is painless on the user's end to link up to that database full of that project.

If there were a way to apply this sort of format to beading, I think it would provide a great environment for beaders. I would love a Ravelry type site for beading. It is such a giant world out there, some organization would be such a haven. If I am over looking a site, please let me know. I would love to see it. And yes, I am aware that this post has nothing to do with the title.

It's Finished! -And now for something completely different...

The red necklace is done. Once I get the finished photos done, I will post the reveal. The name has changed. The entire time I was working on it I was insistent that the name be "Apples" or some reference to apples. I really want to make an apple necklace, for...reasons, but this necklace is not it. A friend of mine had posted a picture of the work in progress to his face book page, and someone had replies with "Melisandre's new necklace." I could not get that out of my head. I have now renamed the necklace, and on the reveal I will delve into that. But it is finished. This beautiful albatross is no longer hanging 'round my neck. Well it is, I have been wearing the necklace all day,  but you know what I mean. It is done.

Now I have this little guy sitting on my beading mat. 

And he has some very complimentary friends.

Isn't he cute??

So anyways, down to work.

This was the first thing I ended up with. I really liked it right off the bat, but thought it needed a little something else:

So I added a lot. Toying with how to frame the bead, left out the dagger so I could play around with thread paths.

After stringing another it started to look pretty clunky. After this pic I went back to try and add the daggers at the bottom points in between the geode beads, and it just looked bad. I settled on a modified version of the first incarnation with the dagger drops. 

Please forgive the change in lighting. The image below is the finished rope. I like it. I took a bunch of photos of the assembly, and plan to make the photo tutorial available when I post the finished pictures. Thinking about naming it the Pluto stitch.

And that damn turtle, well, he never did make it into this necklace.

Oh well, Another time.

Until next time, I wish you happy beading.

:)

Apples: A Work in Progress.

This necklace is my first actual attempt at a salable piece. It has been kicking around in my head for about a year. When I started conceptualizing this one, it was more about the theme of the piece rather then the actual components or the shapes. I will delve into the reasons I named this necklace "Apple" on the reveal post, this post is just for the design process as I worked through it.

I have always been a fan of collages. I like choosing the pictures, cutting them out and composing them in a single spot. When I start working out an idea the first thing I do is browse Etsy.  and I browse for hours at a time looking for what I want to use in whatever it is that I am focusing on at the moment. My favorites folder was packed for the longest time full of things I liked for many different projects, and things I just liked and things I wanted to buy. Then Etsy did that wonderful update where you can now sort items into folders. Ever since then, I have been making collages of sorts using these folders. I have folders for people, for colors and for specific projects, and as I browse,  if I see something in the results that has to go into a folder, they made it really simple to do this from the item listing. Once I get a massive collection of items that I would want to use, I go into the folder and start eliminating the things that I think no longer fit. Then I eliminate the things I am not rich enough to afford ( I favorite anything I like, no questions asked and often experience sticker shock when I check prices),  then I really start to try to compose the piece mentally, and find the items I really need. I buy the unique items that I cannot find just anywhere, and compose a list of things like seed beads and incidentals I will need and head to the bead store. What I end up with looks like this:

Obviously, this screen grab is not from this necklace's folder, it is for another piece I am planning, but you get the idea.

I wanted the cabs on this piece to really shine. I wanted them to be uncontested by anything around them, so when I selected the seed beads, I went for a matte finish. I had bought the cabs over a year prior to finding my bead store, so they were on the back burner just waiting for the embellishment beads, and the seed beads. I still only had colors in mind when I went to work capturing the cabs in bezels. Again, just as with   Equinox, as I finished one cab, I would play with configurations, and boy did they change wildly as I added each cab. When I was finished bezeling, I still had no idea where this necklace was going.

I love to browse through blog posts about beading. Every morning I check to see if anything new had been posted by any of the blogs I follow. Marcia DeCoster of MadDesigns has a lot of visually interesting pieces that involve cubic right angle weave. Some of the shapes she achieves in her designs were surprising to me. Until I saw her work, I had never thought about CRAW at all, much less curved CRAW. I try to incorporate techniques I have never used before into each piece I do, and this piece is no different. Since I had hit a stalling point in my necklace, I ended up trying to figure out how to make CRAW curve. I did a short swatch of  8 units, 2 rows deep, and used size 15 beads on what would be the inside of the curves, and it worked. Once I had this swatch, of course I had to see if it would play nice with my other components. Once I laid the swatch next to the 6mm Swarovski xilion rounds, I started seeing curved X's with cabs suspended from them, with the xilions set between the tops of the X's. I had to draw it out at this point, and after the bib of the necklace was drawn out, I knew this would be the path I would be taking, but the design still felt like it was lacking something. A few more doodles later I came up with the pointed leaves suspended from the cabs. 

At this point the shapes were all there, and I was happy with them, 'sbut I had three colors of seed bead, a bright red, a deep red, and a black. I toyed with the idea of making the outer X's and leaves black, with the blood red in the next stage, with the center being the bright red, but that idea did not work out because there would not be enough seed bead exposed to work through the color changes, and might make the piece look choppy. At this point I was really looking for the design to flow. after reflecting on the theme of the piece for a little while, I wanted that black to appear to be dripping off the red, and decided to omber the piece from top down with the color progression going from bright to dark.

So I got to work making all my CRAW components. When I started out I was sure that I was a week away from finishing the necklace. It was at this point I realized I must secretly hate myself, because a week later I had just finished up making all the little X's. There were so many ends coming out of the piece that it was difficult to work with. Each little X took a total of 8 yards of thread broken into 2 yard lengths. 8 ends per X, and there were 6 Xs total, plus all the ends of thread from all the cabs. the leaves each took about 10 yards and added in their own ends to weave in. I spent an entire 2 evenings just weaving in ends. 

This is a shot of the necklace under natural light. 

This is under store lighting against a neutral background

This necklace is proving difficult to photograph. Its colors shift under different lights, as can be seen in the photos. The top photo washes out some of the omber, while the bottom photo is way over saturated, but captures the cabs perfectly. If it is in a dark room with nothing but monitor light shining on it, the cabs go black, and the seed beads look like they are glowing. Since this picture was taken, I have moved on to the neck straps. Coming up with a way to suspend this necklace has been quite the challenge. I am kind of winging it, I think I like it so far but it is hard to tell. I am guessing this necklace should be done in the next two weeks. I am going to take it to someone who knows photography to get the final pictures of it, then I will be listing this one. I am still not sure where to sell something like this, so for now, I will set up an Etsy shop. I have had a lot of fun with this one, and I am excited to be sharing it.