New Kits: Teardrop Bubbles Beaded Beads

Kits are now available for the Teardrop Bubbles beaded bead design. First up is this kit in lavender glow, which was previously sold out:

The other Teardrop Bubbles kit is in a color palette I like to call Juicy Berry, as it uses lots of juicy, dark purple beads:

Both kits are available at beadorigami.com, and include a needle, plenty of thread, and all the beads needed to make a finished beaded bead. They make great solo pendants, or focal beads in more elaborate necklace.

Beaded Bead Sets in the Shop

In the time that I've been beading, I've woven several beaded beads that haven't made it out of my bead box and into jewelry. So I decided to list some of them my Etsy shop. Click on any of the photos below to learn more about each set.

First up is this Disco Ball and Double Bubble Jacks set in black and silver:

Next we have this solo bronze and green Teardrop Bubbles beaded bead:

And finally, a set of Squared Circles beaded beads using Swarovski crystal pendants, in crystal AB for some rainbow goodness. These would work great in a wedding necklace:

As always, more info about each design can be found on my website.

New Kits: Bubble Series Beaded Beads

Along with the launch of my new website, I've also put together kits for several of my designs. These kits include all the beads needed to create the design, a beading needle and the appropriate thread, and the pattern for the design delivered electronically in the PDF format. Kits for the Bubble Series are available in two color schemes, Ocean Sapphire and Lavender Glow. Here's the Double Bubble Jacks design in Ocean Sapphire:

And again in Lavender Glow:

A slightly larger beaded bead in the bubble series is the Bubble Box design. Here it is in Ocean Sapphire:

And Lavender Glow:

Finally, here's the third beaded bead in this series, the Teardrop Bubbles design, in Ocean Sapphire:

And again in Lavender Glow:

The Teardrop Bubbles and Bubble Box kits make one beaded bead each, while the Double Bubble Jacks kits include materials for three beaded beads. All of these kits are available for purchase exclusively at my website. Also, from now through Monday, January 23, enter the coupon code 20off at checkout to receive 20% off your entire order! 

My Handmade Wedding, Part 1

It's been a while since I've blogged huh? Well here's just a little of what I've been up to for the past few months :)

A little over a month ago I married my best friend and companion of over 9 years. This being a crafty blog, I thought I'd talk a bit about the crafty and handmade aspects of my wedding. After going through our wedding pictures, I realized that so much of my wedding was handmade that there was just too much to talk about for one blog post! So for now, I'm going to show the jewelry and attire.

Before I start, I'd like to give a shout-out to the highly talented Jason and Juvenia, who took all the photos you are about to see and own the copyright on said photos. Check out more of their fantastic photography at www.jasonandjuvenia.com.

For my and my bridesmaids' hair, I taught myself to make wire-wrapped hairpins using Swarovski crystals, freshwater pearls, and various shapes of silver-lined Japanese seed beads. They're surprisingly easy and fun to make!

I probably had 18 or so in my hair:

For my bridesmaids' hairpins, I used purple crystals and purple glass beads...

...To match their purple dresses. Anyone starting to see a color theme here? ;) Here's Alexa, a friend of many years to both me and my husband:

And my sister and maid-of-honor Peggy (left), and my buddy Lieza (right):

Since the bridesmaids' dresses came up high on the neck, I made all of them bracelets instead of necklaces, and I also made their matching earrings. The bracelets are in triangle weave, and use Czech drop beads, Japanese fringe drops, Japanese seed beads, Swarovski crystal, freshwater pearls, and the new peanut-shaped Japanese seed beads:

Did I mention how talented Jason and Juvenia are? Check out the resolution on the original size of the photo above; you can see the individual size 15° seed beads!

For my own bridal jewelry, I wanted to create something ambitious because I usually don't get the chance to wear extravagant jewelry, and what better excuse to do so than at my own wedding? I wanted a necklace with a bunch of beaded beads, in pearls and clear crystals to match my gown. I also wanted the beaded beads to hang like charms as opposed to being strung through, so I created a scaffold of three layers of loops of pearls and crystals, so that I could hang a beaded bead from each loop. I originally wanted to make over a dozen beaded beads alternating between pearls and crystals, but this many beaded beads wouldn't drape right, so I settled on seven beaded beads made out of freshwater pearls and Japanese seed beads:

The focal is a Teardrop Bubbles beaded bead (using the same pearls as this one), combined with two Bubble Box beaded beads and four Double Bubble Jacks beaded beads in two different sizes. The earrings are also Double Bubble Jacks beaded beads.

Here I am all dressed up :)

My mother sewed my gown out of smooth and quite comfortable silk. I know little about sewing, but I think she did a fantastic job:

We coordinated our efforts to balance the complexity of the jewelry with the simplicity of the dress:

Here I am with my Ma. Anyone recognize her necklace?

One final shout-out to Etsy sellers simplybeautyveils (my veil matched the dress perfectly!) and elegantgartershop (great for something blue!) for the rest of my bridal accessories. Next time: flowers and wedding favors!

What's Your Springtime Fancy?

Spring is in the air! Why not celebrate with a pair of very flowery earrings?

...Or perhaps spring makes you think of fields of green?

...Or a tropical paradise?

Maybe it's all about stargazing under the night sky...

...In a matching ensemble...

...Or is it time for something fancy?

...Or something fancier?

...Or is it all about a rustic walk through the woods?

...Or an artful Venetian vacation?

Whatever your fancy, I'll have something for everyone this weekend at the knit-one-one craft sale this Saturday! I'd love to see you there!

Accomplishment is...

A freshly-made pile of sterling silver earwires. I make them in big batches every so often, and it's not exactly my favorite jewelry-making task, so completing a batch always makes me feel so accomplished :)

Speaking of completing jewelry, here are a few more pieces that I've made for the upcoming Craft Sale this Saturday:

While I was digging through my stash over the past few weeks, I found the this piece, half-completed, so I decided to finally finish it. The greener beaded beads are made from Japanese seed beads and large aquamarine chips, in a style that's not too uncommon but it's not a beaded bead style that I usually dabble in. Unlike most gemstone-chip beaded beads, these ones are not constructed on a peyote tube core. The smaller purple beaded beads are simple drop cubes, and the larger ones are a precursor to my Bubble Box design. The piece is strung with additional aquamarine beads, Czech glass, and rose quartz.

Here's the flyer for the Craft Sale - click on the image for additional details. I'd love to see you there!

Crystal Bubble Experiments

Long before I tried using freshwater pearls in some of my teardrop beaded bead designs, I had always wanted to try these designs using Swarovski crystal pendants. So, when Artbeads asked me to sample their line of Swarovski crystals, I gravitated towards some clear crystal 7 mm briolette pendants (Swarovski article # 6007) to try in my Double Bubble Jacks and Teardrop Bubbles designs.

Here's the Double Bubble Jacks beaded bead with crystals, which I turned into a charm on a bracelet:

And here's the Teardrop Bubbles beaded bead with crystals, which I turned into a solo pendant:

The resulting pieces worked up very well; in terms of shape and structure, the Swarovski 7 mm briolette pendants are completely interchangeable with the 4 x 6 mm Czech teardrop beads called for in the tutorials. I did however use fireline (4 lb-test) instead of nymo thread when constructing these beaded beads, as the edges of the holes of crystals can cut nymo thread very easily. This even happened with the 4 lb-test fireline while I was constructing the Teardrop Bubbles crystal pendant, so next time I'll use the slightly thicker 6 lb-test fireline, or maybe even wildfire thread.

Next time I'll also try a color palette with more contrasting colors, since this clear crystal and light blue palette doesn't really show all the details in these beaded beads. Granted, I was going for a wintery snowball look which I think I achieved, but it's easy to lose sight of the seed bead pillars among the many facets of the crystals in these pieces. I also found these pieces very difficult to photograph, and the resulting photos still look a bit dark, but if I increased the exposure the beaded beads became overexposed very easily.

Anyway, in summary, I was happy to discover that these briolette crystals work very easily in these designs. I'm also looking forward to including Swarovski crystals as alternative materials for my upcoming beaded bead tutorials.

Full disclosure: The 7 mm clear crystal briolette Swarovski pendants used to construct these pieces were received as a gift from Artbeads.com.

Birthday Gift for my Great Grandmother

My great-grandmother is 100 years young this week, and as per her preference I set out to make her a pastel pearl necklace. Even though I had recently gotten the Double Bubble Jacks beaded bead to work with drop-shaped pearls, I wasn't quite ready to try pearls in the Teardrop Bubbles beaded bead anytime soon - I was afraid that it would require too much tinkering to get it to work. But I wanted to make something really special, as my great-grandmother is the crafty genius of the family, excelling in crochet, needlepoint, gorgeous french-beaded flowers, and yes, beadwork, since long before I was born. Plus how often does your great-grandmother turn 100?

So I started with some drop-shaped cream-colored freshwater pearls which are about the same size as the drop pearls in the beaded beads in this necklace. To my surprise, the result was very encouraging the first time through. The only adjustment that this beaded bead needed was the addition of a large core bead to stabilize the structure, mainly because the holes of pearls are smaller than those of Czech beads, so the finished freshwater pearl beaded bead cannot be satisfactorily stabilized by filling the holes with thread.

I strung the finished beaded bead as the necklace focal, and rounded out the necklace with more drop-shaped freshwater pearls. Here's the finished piece, in dedication to the woman from whom I inherited the crafty gene:

Happy Birthday Mimi, and Rock On

New Tutorial - Teardrop Bubbles Beaded Beads

This week I finished my third tutorial; my favorite pendant and the subject of my online avatar, the Teardrop Bubbles Beaded Bead

 It was difficult to write this tutorial for a number of reasons. For one, it's complicated to illustrate this design, which resulted in quite a long tutorial! It clocks in at 27 pages and over 80 photos and illustrations! While it may be a bit verbose, when I write my tutorials I try to err on the side of too much detail rather than too little. This tutorial is an advanced design and can be quite tricky to weave, but my hope is that others will be able to reproduce it from my instructions and troubleshooting tips. The other reason why it was so difficult to write this tutorial is that it's one of my favorite designs and it's hard to share something so special to me. But a big part of what I want to do with my work is write tutorials, and I've received plenty of requests for this particular design. Eventually I decided that I'd rather write it up than keep it entirely for myself. Anyway, I've experimented with color patterns for this design a number of times. In addition to the pieces available in my Etsy shop, I also made some additional pieces. I like how the finishes of the seed beads give this beaded bead a different texture:
I love working in this color scheme. I don't wear a lot of gold but I love how it complements the blue in this piece. The smaller beads are also beaded beads, of a yet-unpublished design:
I've shown this one before, but I just had to mention it again because of how the Teardrop Bubbles beaded bead complements the Double Bubble Jacks Beaded Beads
 You can see more images of these and other designs in the gallery of my website. As always, if you use this tutorial, I'd love to see what you create!

Thanks for visiting my blog! Please subscribe to my mailing list for updates on the latest and greatest Bead Origami news!