Tuesday, July 23, 2013

A Spiral Rope and Beaded Swatches

I finished something new; a beaded rope!

A Spiral Rope Necklace


This beaded spiral rope is a matching necklace for an unfinished pendant. I'm still waiting on an order to come in so that I can finish the pendant, but fortunately I had all the materials to complete the rope.


I don't often weave beaded ropes for my designs, but the pendant is pretty substantial, and a simple silver chain just won't do it justice. Plus, if you haven't already noticed from my experiments with beaded DNA, I have a special place in my heart for helical beadwork.

Spiral Rope Swatches


It took me several attempts to settle on the exact type of spiral rope that I wanted to weave. Specifically, it took me ten tries, as you can see from all my failed attempts:


I like to think of these false-starts as the beader's version of a knitting swatch; a small sample of the design used to gauge how the finished version will look. When I'm creating a new beading project, I save these beaded swatches to keep track of the design ideas that I've tried, and I keep them to revisit those ideas in the future.

I came up with some interesting variations. In this swatch, I tried including a SuperDuo bead every six or seven stitches:


Unfortunately, the SuperDuo beads stick out a little too much for my liking in this variation, and making the spiral stitches longer to fit them resulted in a thicker rope. I put this idea aside because a thicker rope would not complement the pendant, but I might revisit this idea in the future.

Another idea that I might revisit is combining the spiral rope stitch with right angle weave, which I tried in this swatch:


It makes the spiral tighter and less likely to twist, which has always been a pet peeve of mine. But it adds a little too much engineering for the scope of this project, so I set the idea aside for now.

The Finished Rope


The design I finally settled on was one originally suggested by Marcia DeCoster. It uses 3 mm round petrol pearls every other stitch, which gives it both movement and texture, and makes the rope the perfect thickness for the pendant.


I used the same beaded toggle clasp design that I used in my Cosmic Windows bracelet. I also doubled its loop to give the rope two slightly different lengths. It's nice to know that this toggle is adaptable to necklaces as well as bracelets.


It's quite a nice beaded rope... I think I may even wear it without the pendant!

Do you ever weave swatches for your beading designs? Do you save them? Do you revisit them in the future?

11 comments:

  1. Love the texture created by the superduos!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jo-Ann! They do make a neat texture and I'll certainly be trying them in spiral ropes again!

      Delete
  2. I always feel somewhat conflicted about the swatches or samples I end up making. Part of me feels like I should take them apart to get the beads, especially when they are rare, limited in quantity, etc. Yet I find that keeping swatches and happening upon them again can spark new ideas and also serve as a reminder of what didn't work so I don't try to reinvent the wheel next time around.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know exactly how you feel... I've reinvented the wheel before, and it's frustrating to do that and then realize that you've already tried that idea. For expensive swatches, perhaps you could take a picture of them if you need to salvage the expensive components?

      Delete
    2. Keeping photos instead of the originals is a great idea... I photograph some of my samples anyways, but I never thought of using them for that purpose. Thanks Cindy!

      Delete
  3. I love the spiral you settled on! Very pretty! Can't wait to see the pendant on it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Linda! I'm waiting patiently for a crystal order to come in so that I can finish the pendant. Any day now!

      Delete
  4. Wow that rope necklace is gorgeous. The 3mm rounds are just perfect and your choice of colors is DELICIOUS!!! It's almost a shame to stick a pendant on it. When I try ropes I usually have at least a few aborted attempts and inevitably seem to underestimate the number of beads I need. I don't always save my pieces because my pile of "samples" somehow turns into a box of chaos. Organization comes naturally to some, and it's a struggle for others (like me). I hope you make more rope necklaces as this one turned out so darn well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Liz! I'm almost embarrassed to admit that my box of samples took over a giant jug, which is now overflowing! So glad that you like the spiral rope!

      Delete
  5. I love that I'm reading along, thinking hey that's really pretty I wonder how she did that.......

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Marcia! I must admit that this one isn't as sparkly as yours though. If only they made 2 mms in the same color as petrol pearl!

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...