Astral Spore Pendant

My newest beading pattern is now available.

The Astral Spore Pendant features the new Quarter Tila Bead in this very tactile, geometric pendant. It uses four colors of Quarter Tilas and a whole bunch of bugle beads and round seed beads, and it's hollow and self-supporting so you can see right through it. This beading pattern is an advanced design, and it teaches you how to weave the finished pendant.

Like the Succulent Topiary Pendant, this design uses the geometry of an icosiedodecahedron, which is like a dodecahedron but with 20 extra triangles. In this design I've embellished each of the 12 pentagons so that they stick out from the base. I've also attached a tassel-like set of matching fringe containing Czech etched dagger beads in colors that just make me swoon. The whole design reminds me of something from astronomy, like a comet, but I already have a design that has "comet" in its name (I'm going to run out of names someday!). But it also reminds me of a grain of pollen, so it's the Astral Spore Pendant.

This is actually my third attempt at stitching a geometric design with Quarter Tilas; the first two attempts were a little smaller, and the smallest one was harder to stitch than this design. The pattern contains a few photos of the smaller attempts.

The beading pattern is 24 pages long and contains 70 photos and illustrations. Kits are available in the three colorways pictured, and contain all the beads needed to stitch the finished pendant.

Thanks for looking!

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Succulent Topiary Pendant

I wrote a new beading pattern.

The Succulent Topiary Pendant features a whole bunch of shaped beads all woven together in a geometric floral pendant. This advanced beading pattern teaches you how to stitch the finished pendant.

When I set out to stitch this design, I wanted to play with some Tulip Petal beads that had been sitting in my stash for a couple of years. I didn't intend to use so many shapes to stitch these little beaded flowers and bits of greenery, but as I worked I found that a collection of Rizos, Gekkos, drops, and Spiky Buttons complemented the floral Tulip Petals. Oddly enough, by the time I finished the flowers didn't look much like tulips, but they do remind me of cactus flowers.

It's a relative of the Tila Garden Pendant. Both designs use shaped beads and Tilas on their edges, and both have dodecahedral symmetry, but the Tila Garden uses the geometry of a standard dodecahedron while the Succulent Topiary uses that of an icosidodecahedron. You can think of it as a dodecahedron with 20 added triangles. The Succulent Topiary Pendant is also quite a bit bigger.

The beading pattern clocks in at over 20 pages and 60 photos and illustrations. Kits are available in two colorways and contain all the beads needed to stitch the finished pendant.

Thanks for looking!

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Beaded Bead Reflection Photography

I've been playing with photographing some of my beaded beads on a reflective surface.

It's a fun but challenging photography technique and I think it works particularly well for silver beadwork. I used a piece of dark reflective plastic to generate the reflection, which does the job quite nicely however it also picks up every single speck of dust in the light tent. I had to spend a ton of time editing out the dust specks in post-processing to generate these shots.

Here's a shot of a Fairy Triangles beaded bead. I like how the reflection picks up the lower part of the beaded bead as well as the top.

Here's another shot of the silver Half Tila Technocluster beaded bead, which I previously tried to photograph in a previous post.

For reference, here's my previous attempt at photographing this beaded bead. The big difference is in the reflective surface; in the older shot I used a clear piece of plastic to generate the reflection (instead of a dark piece of plastic), but since both the top and bottom sides of the clear plastic show, it makes a double reflection rather than a single reflection.

I like the reflection in the new shot, but the beaded bead is a little overexposed. I prefer the way the beaded bead looks in the older photo.

Finally, I used this same technique to photograph the Diffractions Necklace, which is the project that I'll be teaching at the Beading by the Bay bead retreat in March of 2016.

This necklace features both cube- and dodecahedron-shaped beaded beads that use a unifying set of materials and embellishments, and I'm looking forward to teaching this project because it's a great example of beading with different geometries to make different types and sizes of beaded beads.

Thanks for looking!

New Beading Video: Geometric Beaded Beads, From Cubes to Dodecahedrons

A few months ago I had the opportunity to film a series of videos based on four different areas in beading. The videos are now available at the Interweave Store both as instant high definition video downloads as well as in the DVD format. This is the second in a series of four blog posts on those video projects; check out the previous post on working with 2-hole beads here.

Together with the team over at Interweave/F+W, we organized these videos with each level of beader in mind. Beginners can watch me weave each step of the project one stitch at a time, I share several variations for experienced beaders, and throughout the course of each video I include many tips and tricks that are useful for beaders of all levels. If you're new to my Bead Origami style then these videos are a great introduction to my approach to beadweaving, but if you're already familiar with my work then you'll want to check them out too as I cover a new project in each one.

The second of these videos focuses on a topic near and dear to my heart; geometric beaded beads.

When I was putting together this video, I asked myself: "if I could teach a beginning beader the fundamentals of geometric beaded beads, what would I cover?" I started outlining this video on how to weave the five Platonic Solids, and I still give a brief lesson on what makes these particular forms so interesting, but after thinking about it and receiving some insightful feedback I decided to focus the beading portion of the video on cubes and dodecahedrons and an important variation on each form.

There are several different ways to make beaded beads using these basic geometric forms, and many different beaders have explored these forms over the centuries (Valerie Hector's research in The Art of Beadwork indicates that Chinese beaders have been making these beaded beads since at least the 15th century). I cover both the basic cube and the dodecahedron using the single-needle, cubic right-angle weave (CRAW) approach with sparkly bicone crystals, and I explain each stitch to fully show each step of the process.

In the next part of the video I show how to weave a cube beaded bead with corner-cover beads. In this variation, we weave the structure using both bicone crystals and seed beads to give us seed beads at each corner. The advantage of adding these beads is that they protect the threads that can show at the corners, and they give us points where we can further embellish the beaded bead.

A pair of these beaded beads makes a quick, delicate pair of earrings.

The section on dodecahedron beaded beads with corner-cover beads is the most challenging part of the video, but I think it's one of the most useful techniques to master. Adding this form to your stitch repertoire will give you a strong foundation to tackle more advanced embellished beaded beads.

For a neat pendant using just this one thread path, I created three beaded beads in different sizes using a simple bead substitution...

...And then I wove them one by one, enclosing the smallest inside the medium inside the largest structure for a dodecahedron, inside of a dodecahedron, inside of a dodecahedron. It's three dodecahedrons in one!

A collection of cube and dodecahedron beaded beads pair with round crystal pearls for a very sparkly necklace.

Experienced beaders will want to check out the sections on bead type variations, and the summary of several advanced designs that use these beaded beads as a base.

This video is available both as a High Definition Video Download and in the DVD format, and includes a supplementary PDF pattern with step-by-step written instructions and a complete materials list for the beaded beads, necklace, and earrings shown here.

Thanks for looking!

Bitten by the Silver Bug

I've been bitten by the silver bug...

It started with a pear-shaped Swarovski silver patina crystal that had been sitting around my studio for the past several months. I incorporated it into a Prism Blossoms Pendant, and complemented it with silver half Tila, bugle, triangle, and seed beads.

I used a crystal clear rivoli for the center to keep the emphasis on the silver beads and the flowers. To keep the focus on the silver portions of this piece, I also used a relatively simple complementary color palette of oranges and blues for the Dragon Scale bead flowers.

For my next silver piece, I turned to the Annular O Necklace. This colorway features silver patina rivoli crystals, but these shiny crystals are paired with more muted pewter seed beads. A touch of purple adds color to the necklace.

Finally, I collected a bunch of Tila, half Tila, bugle, and seed beads as well as crystal AB crystals for a Half Tila Technocluster beaded bead. I left the half Tilas clear in an attempt to blend them in with the crystals, and I think I was successful on this point, however the resulting beaded bead does not show the sharp lines that some of the other colorways of this design.

I also experimented with reflective surfaces for this photo, but it didn't quite turn out the way that I would have liked. So the photography of this piece remains a work-in-progress.

Beading patterns for all three of these designs are available at beadorigami.com, and kits for these colorways and more are available as well.

Which do you prefer? Silver, gold, bronze, or another color entirely? Drop me a line in the comments :)

Thanks for looking!

Highland Garden Necklace Workshop

I'm very excited to be teaching a new beading class this weekend. This workshop, the Highland Garden Necklace, combines the beauty of beaded flowers with the geometry of dodecahedrons.

Embellished Dodecahedron Beaded Beads

This necklace features six beaded beads woven with six different colors of O beads that make up the petals of very dainty flowers. Additional tiny Japanese seed beads contribute to the fine detail of these beaded beads.

This colorway features pastel-colored O beads for a very soft look:

A Floral Focal

The focal piece of this necklace features slightly larger flowers woven with lentil beads and additional seed beads, in the colors and style to match the beaded beads. I drew on Sakura Charm and Tila Garden Pendant designs to construct this piece; I had been tinkering with the idea of weaving twelve Sakura Charms together for quite a while, but I wasn't able to effectively execute this idea until after the release of the Half Tila bead. Additionally, a number of new colors of lentil beads are now available that have greatly expanded the possible color combinations for this design.

A Geometric Necklace

The beaded beads and pendant are strung in a symmetric arrangement with a simple combination of round beads to complete the necklace. This colorway uses bronze and cranberry hues for a fall-themed take on this beading design.

I'm currently scheduled to teach this class at City Beads in Chicago on April 12 (this weekend!), and at Beaded Bliss in Danville, CA on May 2. Check out their respective websites for information on how to register for this class. I'd love to see you there!

Beaded Bead Soup

There's bead soup, and then there's beaded bead soup! I couldn't pick which beaded bead to feature for the final slide of my webinar next week, so I decided to use them all :)

The webinar will take place on June 24 at 1 PM EDT (10 AM PDT), and you can register for it at the Interweave Store. Attendees will have the chance to ask questions at the end of the presentation. Can't make it on June 24? No problem! Anyone who registers for the webinar will receive a downloadable video recording of it about a week after the webinar airs.

I'd love to see you there!

New Pattern and Kits: Half Tila Technocluster Set

I'm pleased to release my latest beading pattern, the Half Tila Technocluster Beaded Bead Set!

A Faceted Dodecahedron Beaded Bead

This beaded bead combines Miyuki Tila beads, Miyuki Half Tila beads, bugle beads, and Japanese seed beads with Swarovski rivoli crystals for a very sparkly, tactile, angular beaded bead. This design is woven using the circular netting stitch and a variation on right angle weave, all in the geometry of the dodecahedron, for a total of 12 pentagon-shaped sides with one crystal in the middle of each side.

The crystals sit close to the middle of the design, and I really like how the Half Tila beads reflect and extend the facets of the crystals outward. The angular shapes of the beads used in the Half Tila Technocluster give it the look of an advanced technological device, hence its name.

A Stunning Solo Pendant

The Half Tila Technocluster is self-supporting with no inner core bead, and can be strung through any pair of the triangular-shaped holes formed by the bugle beads. This beaded bead measures about 33 mm diameter, and stands on its own very well as a pendant. I've strung this one on a Diamond O Beaded Chain that I usually use for an O Stars Pendant (though, I think a Diamond O Chain woven with bugle beads would complement this beaded bead quite nicely too):

Matching Earrings for a Complete Set

A pair of matching earrings completes the Half Tila Technocluster Set. Here's the beaded bead in matte metallic patina, bright green, and lavender hues:

And here's the pair of matching earrings for this colorway:

The earrings are light and comfortable, and well-balanced so that the beaded component does not bend forward. Do you see how the earring takes the shape of one of the 12 pentagons from the beaded bead?

A Trio of Beading Patterns in One!

This is perhaps the most technically-challenging beaded bead I've designed, so I was initially wary of writing it up as a beading pattern. If you've previously mastered the Tila Garden Pendant, you're in great shape for tackling this beaded bead. 

If you're new to dodecahedron beaded beads, I really tried to bring my "A Game" when I wrote the pattern for this design. So, I started with the instructions for the matching earrings, which teach you how to use the Tila and Half Tila beads in layered, dimensional beadwork. Then, I include instructions for a basic dodecahedron beaded bead, woven with bugle beads and size 11° seed beads, for an easier introduction to the geometry of this design. Finally, I conclude with the instructions for the full Half Tila Technocluster beaded bead, which combines both lessons together for this stunning statement beaded bead. This is one of my longer patterns, and clocks in at 28 pages and 90 full-color photos and illustrations.  

Four Kits!

Beading kits for this design are available in the four colorways shown above, and include all the beads and findings needed to make the main Half Tila Technocluster beaded bead, the matching earrings, and at least one basic dodecahedron beaded bead.

Thanks for looking!

New Pattern and Kits: Magic O Ball

For my second O bead pattern, I turned back to my roots in 3D geometric beadwork, and developed the Magic O Ball.

A dOdecahedron Beaded Bead

This large beaded bead is in the shape of a dodecahedron, a polyhedron with 12 sides, each in the shape of a pentagon. It's the same structure that I used in the Tila Garden Pendant and the Wildflower Fields Pendant, however it's also hollow, like the Fiberoptic Dodecahedron. It's my largest dodecahedron design yet, measuring about 34 mm in diameter!

O Beads + Chaton Crystals

The Magic O Ball features two different colors and orientations of O beads, along with 12 sparkly Swarovski chaton crystals. The crystals, oddly enough, came about after I completed the first prototype of this design. The prototype had just enough space for an 8 mm crystal on each side of the beaded bead, and an 8 mm rivoli didn't work, however an 8 mm chaton crystal turned out to be the perfect fit!

A Sparkly Pendant!

I like to wear this design as a pendant, so I included instructions on how to weave a bail using modified right angle weave (MRAW). Since the design is hollow on the inside, you can include a special something in the middle such as a rattle bead. The green Magic O Ball above encloses a little jingle bell! 

The Magic O Ball pattern is available exclusively at beadorigami.com, and beading kits for this design are available in the three colorways shown above. Each kit contains all the beads needed to make one beaded bead!

Thanks for looking!

Origami Interlude: Rafaelita

To catch up with my monthly series of Origami Interludes, this month I folded two pieces using a module designed by Lukasheva Ekaterina of Kusudama.me.

The Rafaelita Module

Both pieces were created using the Rafaelita Module, which is folded from a square piece of paper. I went total bling and used a textured gold foil paper for these modules, cut into 3" squares. Foil paper is a double-edged sword to work with; it makes very crisp, clear creases that are easy to see and manipulate. However, once a crease is made in foil paper, it's there for good, so it's much less forgiving of errant creases compared to more fibrous papers such as washi.

Here's what one individual Rafaelita Module looks like after it's folded:

The 12-Unit Kusudama

For the first completed kusudama, I wanted to test out the Rafaelita unit before folding all thirty pieces called for in the original pattern, so I folded and connected twelve Rafaelita modules together using the symmetry of a cube. I found the individual modules pretty straightforward to fold, but the joints were much tricker to do correctly than I had previously thought; the pockets have to be almost completely unfolded before the tabs can be inserted, and then additional creases are made in the tabs as they are enclosed by the pockets. However, no adhesives are needed to keep the finished Rafaelita constructions together. Here's what the 12-unit construction looks like:

It's slightly smaller than a baseball:

The 30-Unit Kusudama

Once I was comfortable with the 12-unit construction, I folded thirty Rafaelita Modules for the 30-unit construction. This kusudama uses the symmetry of the dodecahedron, and I really like how its shows a floral motif on each side. I also like how none of the white backside of the foil paper is visible in the completed construction.

The 30-unit construction is a bit larger than the baseball:

I think both pieces will make gorgeous Christmas ornaments!

Same Unit, Different Symmetries

I can't count the number of times that I've used this same process to explore a new origami module. First, I'll fold the individual module. Then, I'll try the 12-unit construction. Finally, once I'm comfortable with that, I'll move on to the 30-unit construction, and sometimes I'll try other combinations of units. As Ekaterina shows in the gallery of her website, this series can be extended to 60, 90, and even 120-unit pieces!

Have you noticed the same strategy in my beadwork?

A free diagram and how-to video for the Rafaelita Module is available at Kusudama.me. Check out some of my previous interludes into paper origami here.

Cosmic Dodecahedron

Have you ever had an idea for a project, a project that you knew would be quite cool, but never seemed to find the time to sit down and build it? I've been thinking about weaving this beaded object for close to a year, but I knew it would take many hours of painstaking, fiddly beadwork, so I kept putting it off for another time. This past weekend, I finally sat down and put it together.

A Dodecahedral Variation

The result is a dodecahedral variation of my Cosmic Nocturne Pendant, and it is indeed as cool as I thought it would be! It's hollow and completely self-supporting, and surprisingly heavy for its size and lacy nature. It was also as fiddly as I thought it would be, as I had to perform several feats of Beading Needle Gymnastics to get the beads to go where they needed to go.

A Very Large Beaded Bead

This is easily the largest beaded bead that I've ever created. So much so that I'm learning towards using it as a Christmas ornament. Here it is next to the beaded bead that was previously my largest design, the Fiberoptic Dodecahedron:

And here it is next to a quarter:

It measures about 45 mm in diameter, which makes it slightly larger than a golf ball. I don't have a golf ball for comparison, but I do have a baseball. It's a little larger than half the diameter of a baseball, and with enough practice, you can get it to balance on top of a baseball:

And of course, my tiny paper cranes had to get in on the act too :)

Three Cosmic Symmetries

Together with the original Cosmic Nocturne Pendant and the Tetrahedral Variation, the Cosmic Dodecahedron variation completes the trio of these lacy beaded beads.

I'll be describing these variations in my Cosmic Nocturne Pendant class at the Bead & Button Show next month if you'd like to learn how to make your own!

The Cosmic Nocturne Pendant is just one of the projects that I'll be teaching at the Bead & Button Show this June. The class for this particular project is on Friday, June 7, from 1-4 PM. More information about the show can be found on their website.