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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New Pattern and Kits: Opulent Deltahedra Set

I wrote up a beading pattern for the Opulent Deltahedra Set!

Beaded Beads with Triangle Weave

You may have recognized this project from a 2015 issue of Beadwork Magazine; the Opulent Octahedron Necklace was one of my six Designer of the Year projects for 2015. These beaded beads use the geometry of the octahedron and a variation of triangle weave to make these sparkly, self-supporting beaded beads.

Five beaded beads pair with shiny crystal pearls and additional crystals for an elegant necklace:

Matching Pendant and Earrings

While I'm quite partial to the geometry of the octahedron (especially for beaded beads!), the great thing about triangle weave is that you can use it to create an infinite number of geometric objects made up of equilateral triangles. One of these objects is the icosahedron, which is made up of 20 triangles instead of eight. The Opulent Icosahedron makes a substantial beaded bead that's the perfect size for a pendant.

Additionally, a single triangle unit pairs with pear-shaped crystals for an easy, elegant pair of matching earrings.

Several Variations

The 3D shapes that can be made up only of equilateral triangles are called the deltahedra. While there are an infinite number of deltahedra (some of which feature quite cool star-shaped points), there are only eight that are strictly convex. I beaded all eight of them using the same technique that I used to make the Opulent Octahedron and Icosahedron. They make a collection of interesting structures that offer intriguing possibilities for further jewelry designs.

The beading pattern for this design includes complete written instructions on how to weave the Opulent Octahedron, the Opulent Icosahedron, and the matching Opulent Earrings. Additionally, I included several pages of variations showing photos and descriptions of all eight convex Opulent Deltahedra. The pattern is in the PDF format and clocks in at 26 pages and 89 full-color illustrations and photographs. I classify this pattern as intermediate and it's most appropriate for beaders who have already tried triangle weave and who would like to learn several possible ways to create 3D beaded beads with this stitch.

Kits for this design are available in three different colorways and in two different configurations; the Opulent Octahedron necklace kit makes one necklace with five Opulent Octahedron beaded beads, and the Opulent Icosahedron and Earrings kit makes one Opulent Icosahedron beaded bead that can easily make a pendant, and one pair of matching earrings. Each kit contains all the beads and findings needed to complete the project.

Thanks for looking!

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!

2015 Toho Challenge Necklace

This year I was invited to participate in the 2015 TOHO Challenge, a beading challenge put on by the Japanese seed bead manufacturer TOHO Beads. Each participant was given the same set of Japanese seed beads and Czech beads to create a finished piece of beadwork. We didn't need to use all of the beads in the challenge kit, but we couldn't add any additional beads except for findings and stringing materials (with the option of including one extra focal piece). All the challenge pieces are on display at the 2015 Bead & Button Show, and after that they will travel to Japan where they will be on display for a year.

I was stoked to receive the challenge box because they included colors that I already love and use in my beadwork; gorgeous magentas, bronzes, and rich metallic greens. For the challenge piece itself I wanted to create something representative of my signature style, and I also wanted to play with a relatively unused stitch. I went for a more everyday-wear look rather than anything over-the-top, and I ended up with this simple but elegant necklace.

The round focal uses the geometry of an icosahedron, so it has 30 edges and 20 triangle-shaped sides. The edges are represented by 2-hole tile beads while a collection of magmata and mini dagger beads sit on each side, in a manner similar to that of my Tila Garden Pendant. But unlike the Tila Garden design, this focal is self-supporting without the use of a round core bead, though it did require some extra engineering to keep this beaded ball from being squishy.

Since the focal is hollow, it could be strung on a headpin or through beading wire as a beaded bead, but I instead elected to attach it to a beaded rope.

I wove the rope using twisted cubic right-angle weave (CRAW), using primarily green beads to set off the magenta and bronze beads in the focal. The twisted CRAW technique is a versatile stitch that can make a variety of ropes, bangles, and components, but it seems to intimidate everyone I describe it to. It's actually much more meditative and easier than CRAW once you get the rope started (no, really!), and I'm looking forward to exploring this stitch further. In this piece I wove it in both the right-handed and left-handed directions so that each side of the rope is symmetrical with the other side, and both sides meet in the middle in a novel join. I also had fun incorporating fire polish beads into this beaded rope, which become more prominent closer to the focal of the piece.

The clasp is a little beaded toggle that mimics the triangular shape of one of the sides of the focal. I sometimes elect for a metal clasp over a beaded clasp primarily due to time constraints, especially if it's a piece that I will need to illustrate for a beading pattern. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to each clasp approach, but for this piece I was able to use a beaded clasp which nicely complements the focal of the necklace.

If you'd like to see the 2015 Toho Challenge pieces in person, please visit the display case near the registration desk at the Bead & Button Show. Keep an eye on the Team Toho page for more images of the challenge pieces as well.

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!

PRAW Webinar Airing Soon!

A quick reminder that my webinar on Prismatic Right-Angle Weave (PRAW) is airing this Tuesday, March 24, at 1 PM EDT.

The webinar is in the style of an academic lecture, and is very much like my beaded bead webinar; you can think of it more as a live TED Talk rather than a Craftsy how-to video, and attendees will have the chance to ask questions at the end of the presentation. Also, anyone who registers for this webinar will receive a tutorial in the PDF format that describes how to make bracelets and simple beaded beads using the PRAW stitch. Here are some examples of those beaded beads and bracelets:

If you can't make it on the 24th, you can still register for this webinar and you can watch it later; anyone who registers will get a link to download a recording of the webinar a couple of days after the live presentation. If you're interested, you can register at the Interweave Store.

If you'd like to learn even more about PRAW and its place into the beading lexicon, Jean Cox wrote a post over at the Inside Beadwork Magazine blog about how this naming convention fits into the context of prism geometry. I must admit that it was really interesting to read this post and learn how the self-described "snooty editors" over at Beadwork Magazine don't often accept new naming conventions, but they like the name PRAW "because it makes so much sense." Check out the post on their blog here.

Thanks for looking!

Prismatic Right-Angle Weave (PRAW)

I've been playing with prismatic right-angle weave, or PRAW. So what's PRAW, you may ask? Well, the short answer is that it's the technique of cubic right-angle weave (CRAW), applied to the geometry of prisms.

Prismatic Right-Angle Weave

PRAW is a relatively new term, but it describes a variation of CRAW that's been around for a while. Marcia recently blogged about the consensus around the PRAW term in relation to her gorgeous Ancient Bells necklace. Basically, the great thing about CRAW is that it's such a versatile stitch that can be adapted in many different ways, but many variations of this technique have gone beyond the "cubic" part of CRAW to the point where what's being stitched is no longer a cube, but rather a prism. While PRAW adds another term to the lexicon of beadweaving, the good news is that if you already know CRAW, you're in great shape to learn PRAW.

One way to think about PRAW is that if one unit of CRAW makes a square-shaped room with four walls, a square floor, and a square ceiling, PRAW starts with a different shape for the floor. If you make the floor a pentagon, then you will have five square walls, and the ceiling will also be a pentagon. This can be described as PRAW-5. PRAW-3 has a triangle for its floor and ceiling and three square walls, PRAW-4 is the same as CRAW, PRAW-6 has a hexagon for its floor and ceiling, and this stitch can be expanded to PRAW-7, PRAW-8, and beyond. Finally, since a cube is special a type of prism, CRAW is also a type of PRAW, and all the beading tips and tricks that are used in CRAW (such as turns, joins, and embellishments) can apply to PRAW too.

PRAW Beaded Ropes

PRAW is an excellent method to vary the thickness of a CRAW beaded rope while keeping the detail that you get from using small seed beads. I made four bracelets using this stitch using size 11 seed beads punctuated by units of crystals. From left to right, the bracelets are in PRAW-6, PRAW-5, PRAW-4 (CRAW), and PRAW-3.

PRAW Beaded Ropes

Since I can't get enough of beaded beads, I had to make a handful of them using PRAW. These beaded beads use PRAW-3 through PRAW-6, and use fire polish beads for the floors and ceilings and bicone crystals for the walls.

PRAW Beaded Tilings

Individual PRAW units can be joined together at their square sides to make both 2D and 3D beadwork. Gwen's used this stitch to make some amazing 3D beaded sculptures, as well as an adorable beaded heart pendant. I used the same strategy to combine PRAW-4 and PRAW-5 units to create this beaded flower.

PRAW in Beaded Flowers

Speaking of flowers, several of my floral designs actually already use PRAW (though I didn't know it at the time :) ). PRAW is used for the flowers in my Sakura Charm, Poinsettia Bracelet, and Prism Blossom Pendant designs.

Live Webinar!

If you'd like to learn more about this stitch, I'm giving a PRAW webinar on March 24 at 1 PM EDT. The webinar is in the style of an academic lecture; I'll talk about the history and technical details of this stitch, and several artists other than myself have graciously contributed photos of beautiful beaded eye candy to this talk. The format is very much like my beaded bead webinar; you can think of it more as a TED Talk rather than a Craftsy how-to video, although anyone who registers for this webinar will receive a PDF that describes how to make bracelets and simple beaded beads using the PRAW stitch. If you're interested, you can register for it at the Interweave Store. Attendees will have the chance to ask questions at the end of the presentation.

If you can't make it on March 24, you can watch it later! Anyone who registers for the webinar will receive a link to download the archived version, which you can watch as many times as you'd like.

Thanks for looking!

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Beaded Bead Webinar - Join me on June 24!

I'm giving a live webinar presentation on June 24! What's it about? What else? Beaded beads!

In this presentation, I'll talk about how I design and create many of my geometric beaded beads. If you sign up for this webinar, you'll learn the different geometries that can make up beaded beads, and how one geometric structure can lead to a wide variety of designs. 

This webinar is appropriate for all levels; if you're a beginning beader, you'll learn the basic instructions on how to create a cube or dodecahedron beaded bead, such as this one made out of pearls:

From there, I'll talk about several of my more advanced designs based on this structure, such as the hollow Fiberoptic Dodecahedron:

And the not-hollow Tila Garden Pendants:

Have you ever wondered why you would use a round core bead in the middle of one design, but not another? I'll talk about that too, and how you can use these principles in your own beading designs.

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? You can watch it later! Anyone who registers for the webinar will receive a downloadable video of it about a week after the webinar airs!

Oscillations Pendants

I finished two additional colorways of my Oscillations Pendant. The first uses dark brown Tila and SuperDuo beads to frame rosy peach Rizo flowers:

The second combines dark green seed beads with a lighter, metallic patina shade for the Tila and SuperDuos, which frame silvery violet Rizo flowers.

Here's the original colorway for comparison. This one is paired with a matching spiral rope, however the pendant can be strung on a variety of materials including a metal chain or a silk ribbon.

I'll be teaching this project at the Bead & Button Show on Wednesday, June 4. You can sign up for the class here. I would love to see you there!

2014 Bead & Button Show Classes

It's my pleasure to announce that I'm teaching seven classes (!) at the 2014 Bead &Button Show next June. The show jury accepted five of my new proposals, and two classes that I taught last year as well. When I was submitting these classes for review, I noticed that these projects fall into three general themes: geometry, botany (with an emphasis on flowers), and chemistry, so I figured that would be a good way to cover them in this post.

Geometry

First up in the geometry category is the Rizo Triangles Necklace. This is an expanded version of the class that I'm currently teaching at The Beading Bar this week. In this 7-hour workshop, you will learn how to create three different beaded triangular components, along with a matching triangular-themed beaded rope. Rizo beads and SuperDuo beads give a ton of dimensionality to these components, which can also be incorporated into any number of matching earrings, bracelets, or pendants. Personally, I love how I feel like royalty when I wear this piece!

Next up is the Oscillations Pendant, which features three different circular beaded components arranged in a cascading pendant, and finished with a teardrop-shaped Swarovski crystal. It's hard to see in the photo, but the components are very dimensional, and give a shadowbox effect to the little flowers nested within. A spiral rope finishes the pendant, however it can be strung on any kind of beaded rope, cord, or chain. It's a fun design to construct and wear, as you get the feeling of looking into a special place in each component.

Botany

In the Botany category, we start off with the Tila Garden Pendant, a class that has sold out at the previous two Bead & Button shows. Above is the newest version with the very colorful rizo beads. It's a challenging design to weave, but my students have told me that they feel so very accomplished when it's complete (that's certainly how I felt the first time I came up with it!)

Next is the Sakura Bouquet Necklace, which I'm also teaching at BABE! this November. This piece features four different varieties of the cherry blossom flower, all incorporated into a cascading necklace. The individual blossoms can be used in a variety of other types and arrangements of jewelry, as I've discussed on this blog before. I'm currently working on other colorways for this project, and I also came up with a fifth beaded sakura variety which I may be able to incorporate into this class too!

Last in the botany category is the Raindrop Flower Necklace, which features a beaded focal pendant and three different kinds of matching beaded beads woven from teardrop-shaped glass beads and seed beads. I like this design because the beaded beads can be adapted into earrings, and the focal can also serve as a solo pendant.

Chemistry

The last two projects utilize the beaded molecule technique that I developed for my Endorphin Necklace. The first of these two projects is the Brain Chemistry Earrings, which feature a molecule called, γ-Aminobutyric acid, or GABA. This molecule is very important to brain function, and has a calming effect on brain cells. This 3-hour class makes for a nice introductory project to the world of beaded molecules, and give off tons of sparkle for a fun, fancy way to show off beaded chemistry!

The last project is the Red Wine Chemistry necklace, which also uses the beaded molecule technique to create several beaded molecules found in red wine. These molecules are connected together with silver jump rings for this fancy necklace, which is decorated with little grape beads for that extra enology touch. In truth, for this project I chose a set of molecules found in most alcoholic beverages, so if you're not into red wine, this piece can be worked up in different colors and styles to represent your favorite cocktail. Both beaded molecules classes include a mini chemistry lesson which will explain how the techniques learned in this class can be applied to an infinite number of molecular structures.

The 2014 Bead & Button Show will take place in Milwaukee, WI from May 28-June 9, and class registration will begin online on January 7. It's the biggest bead show in the country and it's a whole lot of fun each year! I'd love to see you there!