New Pattern: Sakura Charm

Just in time to celebrate the arrival of May flowers, my Sakura Charm pattern is complete and now available at beAd Infinitum. 

The idea for this charm came out of the Bead Mavens Vernal Visions Challenge, where I created this necklace to mimic the cherry blossom trees that bloom at the start of spring. I was humbled to receive an honorable mention for this entry! Each Sakura blossom was woven individually into a self-supporting charm measuring about 10 mm in diameter, and then I assembled over 30 of them to make the necklace using a combination of three different stringing methods. These charms are easily incorporated into other types of jewelry. I created two of them to make this pair of earrings to match the original necklace. 

But why stop with cherry blossoms? This design also works for several kinds of 5-petal flowers. I used three shades of blue lentils to make these cascading forget-me-not earrings:

As with the Circle Starburst design, the Sakura Charm also works well with Swarovski crystal circle "rivoli" pendants in place of the glass lentils. Here's another take on forget-me-not earrings using these sparkly crystals:

Finally, I made a forget-me-not necklace using charms made with sapphire AB lentils, and strung with bugle beads for festive simplicity. 

The Sakura Charm pattern illustrates in detail how to weave the basic Sakura Charm, and then describes how to make all the jewelry that you see here. It also includes over a dozen photos of completed pieces for inspiration, as well as a couple of variations by both Gwen Fisher and myself. I'd love to see what you'll create with this design!


How are you celebrating Spring so far?

Infinity Egg

Continuing with the theme of egg-shaped beaded and origami polyhedra, I've completed this beaded egg using Gwen and Florence's Infinity Weave technique:

This "Infinity Egg" measures 1 1/2 inches long, and just over 1 inch wide. It's surprisingly stiff and stable for such a hollow structure. It's a little big for a pendant, but it would make a nice ornament for an Easter Egg tree.

The basic structure is the same as the truncated hexadecahedron that I've wrote about before.

The Infinity Weave is used in three patterns over at beAd Infinitum, starting with the Infinity Dodecahedron and continuing with the Donut and Prisms patterns. I guess that this egg is a variation of both the Dodecahedron and Donut patterns, but the weave is so versatile that there are an infinite number of other possible variations as well.

Happy Easter everyone!

SATeam Mother's Day Giveaway Event

My wonderfully talented team is having a Mother's Day giveaway! 

Until May 1, each valid entry will be included in a drawing to win one of three gift certificates to any participating SATeam shop. You can enter more than once, and all entries are free of charge! For the details on how to enter this giveaway, along with a list of participating shops, check out the SATeam blog. 


Mother's Day is a month away! What are you getting for your mother?