Bead Society of San Diego - Talk and Workshops in April

In this coming April, I'll have the pleasure of being the speaker at the monthly meeting of the Bead Society of San Diego. My talk will be be an updated version of the talk I gave to the Bead Society of Northern California, on the influences of mathematics and science in geometric beadwork.

In addition, I'll be teaching two workshops the day after this meeting. In the first workshop, students will learn how to weave the Circle Starburst beaded bead. I wove up two new colorways for this beaded bead for kits for this class; one in a dark teal green and bronze combination, and another in a more silvery steel blue:

The second workshop will be on the Tila Garden Pendant. Here it is in a white picket fence color combo:

The Bead Society of San Diego meets on the third Saturday of every month at 10 AM at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park, San Diego. The workshops will take place on April 21 starting at 10 AM in nearby Lemon Grove. Contact the bead society at sdbeadsociety@gmail.com for more information about these two workshops, and follow their blog for information about other upcoming talks and workshops.

New Necklaces and a Bracelet in the Shop

Sometimes I find it hard to let go of the jewelry that I've made, even when I know deep down that I need to put it up for sale to make room for new designs. I finally did just that with several pieces that I've been hanging onto for quite a while (click on the photos to learn more about each piece). First up is this Crystal Helix necklace in silver night and hematite:

Next, we have this ocean-themed aqua and silver necklace featuring Pagoda Beaded Charms strung as beaded beads, complemented with lampwork beads handmade by glass artisan Melissa Vess:

This necklace features a Circle Starburst beaded bead focal and four Squared Circles beaded beads, strung with Czech glass and grey freshwater pearls. It reminds me of the foggy summers on the San Francisco peninsula where I grew up:

Finally, this little sparkly bracelet was the result of my experimenting with substituting crystals for Czech glass beads in some of my designs. It has a Double Bubble Jacks beaded bead woven with crystals as a charm.

All four items are available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

New Winter Starburst Set in the Shop

I listed a new jewelry set in my Artfire and Etsy shops today. It consists of a Circle Starburst beaded bead pendant and Squared Circles beaded bead earrings:

It's in sort of a wintery nighttime color palette huh? I think that the sharpness of the Swarovski crystal circle pendants accentuate the crisp feeling of this palette.

The Circle Starburst pattern is available at beAd Infinitum, while the Squared Circles tutorial is available in my Artfire and Etsy shops.


I also recently received the beads for my latest contribution to the Artbeads.com blogger program, which is also in a wintertime theme this time around. The colors will be in more of a black and light sapphire palette, and the beaded beads will be of a different construction, so stay tuned for this piece over the next few weeks.


What beads do you choose for a wintertime theme?

New Circle Starburst Kits

Two kits are now available for the Circle Starburst pattern at beAd Infinitum. The first is in copper, purple, and silver, in a color palette I've named Royal Copper:

The second uses Swarovski crystal circle pendants instead of glass lentils, in deep red and dark purple, with a hint of silver. This color palette is called Sharp Siam: 

Both kits can be found on the beAd Infinitum Patterns and Kits page, and include the full pattern, all the beads necessary to complete the project, two needles and plenty of thread, and (since it is recommended for this design) a copper headpin for storing the finished bead. 

New Circle Starburst Pendants

I listed some new Circle Starburst pendants in the shop.

I listed this one, which uses a Southwestern teal, brown, and silver palette.

This pendant uses purple, blue, and green seedies with a little bit of silver, along with an alexandrite shade of lentil beads. The differing colors and seed bead finishes resulted in a different overall effect than I had expected:

Finally, this pendant uses Swarovski crystal circle pendants for lots of sparkle. I'm much happier with the "snowball" look of this pendant compared to its Teardrop Bubbles cousin. The blue seed beads give added contrast to enhance the look of the design.

All three pendants are available in my Etsy shop. The Circle Starburst pattern is available at beAd Infinitum if you'd like to make your own.

Half-Starburst Flowers

When I think of the springtime, I immediately think of flowers. So what better way to celebrate Artbeads.com's "The Beauty of Spring" theme than by creating flower beaded beads out of Czech glass beads!

I tend to think of these beaded beads as "Half Starbursts" because they use exactly half of the number of lentil beads as the Circle Starburst design. These beaded beads have the geometry of regular pentagonal prisms, and are an easy variation of the Circle Starburst. They measure about 7/8 of an inch (22 mm) across at their widest length, and can be strung a couple of different ways.

I sampled some of Artbeads' amethyst and matte peridot lentils for this one, as well as some of their 15° Japanese seed beads. The result is a color combination that I didn't quite expect, but it definitely sets off the flower portion of the beaded bead compared to the light green "leaves."

The best part about these flower beaded beads? They're reversible!

I made a necklace with five of these beaded beads in lovely matte blue lentils. Combined with some gorgeous Czech Opalite Blue Roundelles, this necklace is perfect for a tropical spring vacation!

Or, turn it around, and it's perfect for a spring day in the garden!

The possibilities are endless!

Full disclosure: The Czech glass lentil beads, opalite blue picasso roundelles, and a selection of 15° seed beads used in these projects were received as a gift from Artbeads.com. No payment was made for the review of these products.

New Pattern: Circle Starburst Beaded Bead

I have two exciting announcements to unveil! First, my newest beaded bead pattern, the Circle Starburst, is finished:

This beaded bead was the result of months of experiments with ways to get lentil beads to hold firm in a dodecahedron structure, and I love how it ends up looking like an icosahedron. The above beaded bead was woven with Swarovski crystal circle pendants, sometimes called Rivoli pendants, article no. 6200 (the new Xilion cut is article no. 6428). These crystals really give the Circle Starburst a fantastic extra sparkle!

I've shown this one with teal glass lentils before, where I used a Southwestern color palette:

A neat variation on this beaded bead is that it is easily adaptable to larger lentils, such as those in the focal of this black and gold necklace:

I discuss how to make this larger beaded bead in the "Variations and Inspirations" section of the pattern.

The same variation is used in last year's Christmas ornament, which I've shown on this blog before.

The second part of this announcement is a that this pattern is available through an exclusive partnership with the talented Gwen Fisher and Florence Turnour of beAd Infinitum. I'm really excited about this partnership: I've admired Gwen and Florence's work ever since I began working in geometric beading, and their designs have had a huge influence on my development as a beader and an artist. It's an honor to have my Circle Starbrust pattern available alongside their fantastic designs that I've held in such high regard for so many years.

The Circle Starburst pattern is available here, and more Circle Starbursts can be seen in the beAd Infinitum Gallery. While you're there, check out the new Hour Glassy bead and Toggle Clasp and Cable designs!

As always, I'd love to see your own iterations on the Circle Starburst!

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Merry Christmas Ornament!

I make at least one Christmas ornament for my Mom every year. One year I made her an entire set of origami snowflake ornaments out of fancy textured paper, but lately I've been into making beaded ornaments. Here's this year's ornament:

This ornament features a Squared Circles beaded bead and a Circle Starburst beaded bead, both woven from medium-sized Czech glass lentils and fancy Japanese seed beads. It was hard to get a picture of it on the Christmas tree since the tree casts so many shadows, but I think this one gives an idea of how it looks in tree-context:

A tutorial for the Squared Circles beaded bead is available in my Etsy shop, and I'm currently writing a tutorial for the Circle Starburst beaded bead. I meant to get it done before Christmas, but I've found that the busy holiday season is not conducive to writing!

In the meantime, I hope you have a warm, happy holiday!

Season's Greetings!

Craft Show This Saturday!

I'm participating in a craft show this Saturday, December 12, from 10 AM to 4 PM at the knit-one-one studio in Berkeley, CA! The show will feature about 10 local artisans, who will be displaying all kinds of crafts including jewelry, textiles, pottery, and papercrafts! The show will take place in the intimate knit-one-one crafting studio at 3360 Adeline Street, Berkeley CA, so it's a great chance to do some holiday shopping without the hassle and crowds of the malls.

I'll be bringing a wide selection of earrings, necklaces, and bracelets to the show, as well as some print copies of my beaded bead tutorials. In addition to the pieces available in my Etsy shop, here's a sneak peak of some of the items I'll have on sale at the craft show:

If you're in the area, I'd love to see you there!

New Lentil Beaded Beads

I have a soft spot for lentil glass beads. Maybe it's because I like teardrop beads a lot too. I've been working on incorporating them into beaded beads for close to two years now, and it's been such a challenge to engineer a solid beaded bead structure without the lentils flopping all over the place! After many attempts (resulting in many ugly prototypes), I've finally come up with some structures that I'm happy with.

The first is about 16 mm in diameter, and is completely hollow. I've named it "squared circles" since the circle-shaped lentils form a cube-like structure, and I thought it was a rather quirky name :). I made three of these beaded beads for this necklace:

This necklace also features some of Melissa Vess's beautiful lampwork beads. I was happy to find that the high-luster lentils ended up matching the lampwork beads perfectly!

This design is so versatile; it also works very well with Swarovski circle pendants. Here are two in a pair of earrings:

The other structure is much larger (24 mm!) and was much more difficult to design. It took lots of work and experimenting before I finally constructed this design to my satisfaction, as the prototypes to this beaded bead were either too squishy, or so stiff that completing the structure was physically impossible. I named it "circle starburst," and made it into a solo pendant in a Southwestern color palette:

I hope to complete tutorials of these designs before the end of the year, and I'm working on incorporating crystals into the circle starburst design as well. I'm trying to come up with a special holiday deal for these tutorials, so keep an eye on this blog!