Snowflakes and Hearts with CRAW and PRAW

Over the past couple of months I released a couple of patterns using CRAW and PRAW. Lately, my designs seem to use either shaped beads and two-hole beads, or just seed beads. These designs are firmly in the seed bead camp.

Snowflake Pendant

You need only a handful of seed beads and a needle and thread to stitch the Snowflake Pendant. This pendant features several units of CRAW and PRAW stitched side-by-side to create the finished snowflake. The concept behind this pendant actually goes back to my original experiments with PRAW, though I only recently managed to show how to stitch these units side-by-side.

Large and Small Snowflakes

The pattern shows how to stitch the finished snowflake pendant as well as smaller and larger variations. You can also use just one color of seed beads for a sleeker look. The full pattern is 19 pages long and contains 66 full color illustrations and photographs.

Peace and Double Hearts

My next creation with these stitches is two-in-one design. The Peace and Double Hearts Pendants use the same CRAW and PRAW stitches to create two types of beaded hearts. One is a heart within a heart, and the other is a combination of a heart with a peace sign.

The Peace Heart came about after I combined Gwen's Sweetheart Pendant with Marcia's Peace Sign pendant. It was actually the last piece of beadwork I created before Sophie was born, but it took me a while to carve out the time to write its pattern.

The full pattern is 30 pages long and contains 128 full color illustrations and photographs. I classify both patterns as advanced as I don't cover the basic CRAW stitch in detail. However, if you are experienced with CRAW and you're up for the challenge of stitching these shapes, these patterns are for you!

Thanks for looking!

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

Shimmer River Earrings

Life with an infant has left no room for dangling earrings. So I adapted a pair of Shimmer River components into post earrings.

Life with an infant = more post earrings. #beads #beading #beadwork #earrings #crystals #swarovski #miyukibeads #beadorigami

A post shared by Cindy (@beadorigami) on Feb 18, 2018 at 2:44pm PST

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

Shimmer River Bracelets

A few months ago I made a new set of bracelets, the Shimmer River Bracelets.

The Shimmer River Bracelets feature a whole bunch of Swarovski's "shimmer" fallback crystals, along with either Toho's Demi Round seed beads or Miyuki's Spacer seed beads. These thin beads are available in two sizes and are half the width of traditional 8° and 11° Japanese seed beads.

I've noticed differences between Toho and Miyuki brands before. True to form, there are subtle size and color differences between Demi Round and Spacer beads too. But I was able to use them interchangeably in this design.

When I first set out to stitch this design, I wanted to show off the crystals without covering them up or overshadowing them with other beads. This design was actually my first attempt at this idea, but then I stitched another bracelet that used and exaggerated different beaded elements. Unfortunately, the crystals were lost in this second attempt, so I circles back to my original idea. Sometimes simplicity is better and less is more!

It works up so quickly that I stitched it in five different colorways!

The beading pattern for this bracelet is appropriate for advanced beginners. The pattern is 12 pages long and contains 37 photos and illustrations.

Kits are available in all five colorways pictured, and contain all the beads needed to stitch the finished bracelet (extra crystals and beads are included so you can make a bracelet longer than those shown here).

Thanks for looking!

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