New Pattern: Crystal Helix Beaded Bead

Along with the development and launch of my new website, I also wrote up a new pattern, the Crystal Helix Beaded Bead:

These little beads work up quickly and are fun to weave, and are a great step up in complexity from the simple cube beaded bead. When woven with 4 mm bicone crystals they make a nice size for earrings, but with 6 mm crystals they make a petite pendant:

I discuss how to make both sizes in the pattern.

I also like how this design can be woven in both the right- and left-handed directions; the seed beads will spiral one way or the other, regardless of how the bead is oriented. The photo below shows both versions. Imagine turning them over or upside-down... The seed beads will still spiral in the same direction, just like DNA.

I also made a simple necklace in black and cobalt using both sizes of this design. Even though the design is based on a cube shape, the finished beaded bead takes on a round form.

The AB finish on the jet black bicone crystals looks a little yellow in this particular batch of crystals (jet AB crystals are notorious for looking different from batch to batch), but I think it provides a nice contrast with the blue beads.

The Crystal Helix pattern is available for purchase exclusively at my new website. Remember that from now through Monday, January 23, enter the coupon code 20off at checkout to receive 20% off your entire order! 

Website Re-Launch - Instant Download Patterns, Kits, and More

After much coding, writing, designing, and editing, I've finally finished rewriting my website:

I re-wrote the entire site from the ground-up, and it includes tons of new features. To start, all of the beaded bead patterns/tutorials previously available through my Artfire or Etsy shops are now available through my website to download immediately after payment; no more waiting for the pattern to be e-mailed to you! In addition to rewritten versions of the first six patterns I ever wrote, my website also contains my newest pattern, the Crystal Helix beaded bead:

For beginning students, or if you've never woven a beaded bead before, I figure that the best place to start is with a basic cube. With this in mind, I wrote a free pattern for a cube beaded bead in several different color combinations. It reminds me of candy, so I've named it the Candy Cube beaded bead: 

Kits are now also available for several of my patterns. Here's one of the color schemes available for the Teardrop Bubbles kit:

I'll be talking more about the new features of my website over the next couple of days. In the meantime, to celebrate I'm offering a special discount valid only at my website: from now through Monday, January 23, enter the coupon code 20off at checkout to receive 20% off your entire order!

And don't forget, Bead & Button Show Registration opens at noon CST today! I've heard that some classes sell out within minutes, so don't delay!

Bead & Button Class Registration Begins January 10

I'd like to start off this first blog post of 2012 by wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous New Year! I'm looking forward to all kinds of exciting changes in 2012. One of which is that I'll be teaching four projects at the 2012 Bead & Button Show in June. Class registration starts next week on January 10, and you can click on the links below the images below for registration information for each class:

Cyclic Orbitals Beaded Bead Necklace - Friday, June 8

Ice Queen Necklace - Saturday, June 9

Tila Garden Pendant - Saturday, June 9

Cubed Tila Beaded Bead Necklace - Sunday, June 10

More information about class registration along with general information about the show can be found here. I hope to see you there!

Christmas Lights Necklace

I finished this piece a little while back, using a relatively simple beaded bead design based off of a truncated dodecahedron structure; a regular polyhedron with faces of triangles and pentagons, with 90 edges for 8° seed beads to lie on. The twist with this design is that it's color-symmetric; the five seed bead colors used in the beaded beads are distributed symmetrically, and no two beads of the same color lie next to each other.

I thought about what kinds of repeating patterns use the same amount of several different colors, and immediately thought of strings of Christmas lights. So I used bright colors of silver-lined seed beads to mimic the shimmer of these tiny lights.

Christmas tree-green fire polished Czech glass beads complement the colorful Christmas light beaded beads.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Bead & Button 2012 Classes

I have some exciting news to share! I'll be teaching at the 2012 Bead & Button Show next June! The show jury accepted four of my class proposals, three of which feature brand new beaded bead designs. This will be my first time teaching at Bead & Button in addition to my first time attending the show, so I'm just stoked to be going!

My classes are tentatively scheduled from June 8-10. First up is the Cyclic Orbitals beaded bead necklace, featuring three different sizes of Cyclic Orbitals beaded beads. The completed necklace includes lapis, smoky quartz, and Czech glass beads:

Next up is my Ice Queen necklace, which you might remember from last winter.

Then I'll have two classes featuring the two-hole Miyuki tila beads. I call this pendant "Tila Gardens" because the tila beads form little plots for colorful beaded flowers:

I'll wrap up with the Cubed Tilas beaded bead necklace, featuring the tactile and geometric Cubed Tilas beaded beads:

The 2012 Bead & Button Show will take place in Milwaukee, WI from June 1-10, and class registration will begin online on January 10. If you're going, whether you're taking a class or not, I'd love to see you there!

New Necklaces with Lampwork

I took a break from web design last weekend to finish a piece that's been sitting around for over a year (eep!) I wove this electric green Ionic Octahedron last year when testing Gwen's Ionic Polyhedra pattern, and made two matching Mini Ionic Octahedrons shortly thereafter. I was having a hard time deciding what to do with these beaded beads, until Melissa Vess suggested that she could do some custom work matching lampwork beads to my beaded beads. I sent her the Ionic Octahedron, and she came up with four cute little lampwork beads:

I strung this necklace rather simply with matching Czech fire polish glass beads and silver Japanese seed beads, to leave the focus on the lampwork and beaded beads.

Speaking of lampwork beads... I got around to taking some pictures of a necklace I strung as a gift for my Mom a while back. It features more of Melissa's work, this time a lampwork focal bead. I strung it with six strands of Czech seed beads, fire polish beads, and freshwater pearls:

The stringing method is the same as my Lavender Splendor necklace, featured in the 2009 Bead Star special issue.

Thanks Melissa!

Fall Harvest Set

Dust has gathered around this blog over the past month and a half, so I thought I'd start by explaining what I've been up to. I'm working on revamping my website from the ground up, so I've been spending some long hours at the computer when I would normally be beading. It's been a lot of work, but I'm learning a great deal about web design and I'm excited about how it's coming together!

But in the meantime, I found a little time for some beading. I created these Pagoda beaded charm earrings for the fall season about a year ago, and found it high time to make a matching pendant. 

So I made an additional Pagoda beaded charm, turned it upside-down, and matched it with a Double Pagoda beaded bead:

Both the earrings and the matching pendant use 4 by 7 mm briolette Swarovski pendants (article no. 6007) in the place of Czech drop beads, a substitution that I've explored before and found that it generally works for most of my designs.


I also made a pair of little crystal helix beaded bead earrings in the same color palette. 

The copper ear wires in this pair are from the same batch as the year-old Pagoda pair, so when you compare them you can see that they oxidize quite a lot over the course of a year of moderate use. I think I like the oxidized look better though; the darker copper draws less attention, leaving it on the beaded charms where it belongs. What do you think?