New Kit: Rizo Tila Garden Pendant

New kits are now available for the Tila Garden Pendant, now with little rizo flowers!

I also updated the pattern for this design with updated illustrations, new photographs, and a brand new bead checklist! My class students found these updates quite helpful for completing this challenging design.

I should also note that I have a limited number of Ice Queen Necklace kits left, and unfortunately Swarovski has decided to discontinue the air blue opal shade of the bicone drops used in this necklace. Since these crystals are getting difficult to source, once these kits are gone, they're gone.

These kits are available at www.beadorigami.com, and contain all the materials necessary to make each design.

Online Class Registration Ends Tomorrow for the BABE! Bead Show!

Online registration for the BABE! bead show ends tomorrow. You can still register for classes on-site, but many classes are close to selling out, so online registration is the best way to reserve your spot in your favorite class. Here are the four classes that I'll be teaching:

Tila Garden Pendant, Saturday, November 3, 9AM-1PM

Ice Queen Necklace, Saturday, November 3, 2PM-6PM

Rivoli Kaleidoscope Pendant, Sunday, November 4, 9AM-1PM

Cubed Tilas Necklace, Sunday, November 4, 2PM-6PM

Click here for additional information about the BABE! bead show.

Four Classes at the BABE! Show

The Bay Area Bead Extravaganza or BABE! show was one of the first bead shows I ever attended when I started working with beads several years ago. I've always been fond of this event, and I'm happy to announce that I'll be teaching four classes at this year's BABE! show:

Cubed Tilas Beaded Bead Necklace

Tila Garden Pendant

Ice Queen Necklace

Rivoli Kaleidoscope Pendant

The BABE! Show runs from November 2-4 in Oakland, CA. More information about class registration, along with general information about the show can be found here. I'd love to see you there!

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.

Scenes From the Kit Production Line

I've been busy working on putting kits together these past few weeks. I took a few shots of my desk during that time. This is what it looked like after sorting tila beads:

And here it is before sorting 11° seed beads

Petals for Tila Garden Pendants:

Bags of bead caps:

Swarovski crystal "icicles" for Ice Queen kits:

Silver and gold seed beads:

They're so shiny, I can see my camera reflected in these beads:

OK, back to work!

Harvest Queen and Night Queen Necklaces

I finished the two alternate colorways for my Ice Queen Necklace class at the Bead & Button Show. The first is the fall colors version that I previewed last week, the Harvest Queen:

And the other is a black and silver combo, with a touch of dark blue, that's great for any season. I'd like to think that it's fitting for the Night Queen:

The Ice Queen Necklace class will be on Saturday, June 9, from 9 AM to noon at the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee, WI. I'd love to see you there!

Fall Colors for the Ice Queen Necklace

I've been working away on class samples and kits for the Bead & Button Show next month. For my Ice Queen Necklace class, I decided to make up kits in both alternate color combos that I previously mentioned. Here's a sneak peak of the fall colors version:

I think this palette would work well for summertime jewelry too.

The Ice Queen Necklace class will be on Saturday, June 9, from 9 AM to noon at the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee, WI. There are still seats left for this class... Will I see you there?

Ice Queen Necklace Alternate Color Ideas

I came up with a couple of alternate color ideas for my Ice Queen Necklace class to be taught at Bead & Button this June. I started by working them into pairs of earrings to get a sense of the colors before weaving the entire necklace. For this pair I combined blue iris and black with silver:

And for this pair, I combined tanzanite with dark purple, red, and gold:

This is actually the third pair of Pagoda charm earrings that I've made in fall colors... For some reason I'm drawn to these colors in this particular design (previous versions here and here).

For reference, here's the original Ice Queen Necklace:

Which combo do you prefer?

New in the Shop: Pagoda Set, Rivoli Kaleidoscopes, and Sakura Earrings

I listed several new items in my Etsy shop over the past few weeks. If you're interested, click on the images to get the detailed information on each item.

First up is a pair of earrings in silver and red, created with my Pagoda Beaded Charm design:

...And also a matching Double Pagoda pendant:

Next there are three Rivoli Kaleidoscope Pendants; the first in red, crystal, and silver, and loosely matching the above Pagoda set. Do you see how I replaced some of the Miyuki drop beads with peanut-shaped seed beads?

Then there's this one in black, green, and gold:

And the larger variation in fern green, purple amethyst, and teal:

Finally, I listed two pairs of Sakura Charm earrings, the first in the original cherry blossom colors:

And the second in apple blossom hues:

All of these items are available for purchase in my Etsy shop: click on any of the images above to get more information about each item.

Pagoda Series Kits

I created two sets of matching kits for my Pagoda series. First we have the Pagoda beaded charm in Redwood:

And in Pandora Sapphire:

Next there's the Double Pagoda Beaded Bead in Redwood:

And again in Pandora Sapphire:

The Double Pagoda kits make one beaded bead each, while the Pagoda kits make three beaded charms. All of the kits are available at my website, and include all the beads needed to create the design, a beading needle and the appropriate thread, and the pattern for the design delivered electronically in the PDF format.

Bead & Button Class Update

A brief update on my Bead & Button classes: the Tila Garden Pendant class is already sold out, but there's still room in the classes for the Cyclic Orbitals Beaded Bead Necklace, Ice Queen Necklace, and Cubed Tila Beaded Bead Necklace. 

The Cubed Tila design in particular is a relative of the Tila Garden Pendant, and students of both classes will learn the strategies of tila beaded bead weaving used in both designs.

More information about class registration along with general information about the show can be found here.

Bead & Button Class Registration Begins January 10

I'd like to start off this first blog post of 2012 by wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous New Year! I'm looking forward to all kinds of exciting changes in 2012. One of which is that I'll be teaching four projects at the 2012 Bead & Button Show in June. Class registration starts next week on January 10, and you can click on the links below the images below for registration information for each class:

Cyclic Orbitals Beaded Bead Necklace - Friday, June 8

Ice Queen Necklace - Saturday, June 9

Tila Garden Pendant - Saturday, June 9

Cubed Tila Beaded Bead Necklace - Sunday, June 10

More information about class registration along with general information about the show can be found here. I hope to see you there!

Bead & Button 2012 Classes

I have some exciting news to share! I'll be teaching at the 2012 Bead & Button Show next June! The show jury accepted four of my class proposals, three of which feature brand new beaded bead designs. This will be my first time teaching at Bead & Button in addition to my first time attending the show, so I'm just stoked to be going!

My classes are tentatively scheduled from June 8-10. First up is the Cyclic Orbitals beaded bead necklace, featuring three different sizes of Cyclic Orbitals beaded beads. The completed necklace includes lapis, smoky quartz, and Czech glass beads:

Next up is my Ice Queen necklace, which you might remember from last winter.

Then I'll have two classes featuring the two-hole Miyuki tila beads. I call this pendant "Tila Gardens" because the tila beads form little plots for colorful beaded flowers:

I'll wrap up with the Cubed Tilas beaded bead necklace, featuring the tactile and geometric Cubed Tilas beaded beads:

The 2012 Bead & Button Show will take place in Milwaukee, WI from June 1-10, and class registration will begin online on January 10. If you're going, whether you're taking a class or not, I'd love to see you there!

Fall Harvest Set

Dust has gathered around this blog over the past month and a half, so I thought I'd start by explaining what I've been up to. I'm working on revamping my website from the ground up, so I've been spending some long hours at the computer when I would normally be beading. It's been a lot of work, but I'm learning a great deal about web design and I'm excited about how it's coming together!

But in the meantime, I found a little time for some beading. I created these Pagoda beaded charm earrings for the fall season about a year ago, and found it high time to make a matching pendant. 

So I made an additional Pagoda beaded charm, turned it upside-down, and matched it with a Double Pagoda beaded bead:

Both the earrings and the matching pendant use 4 by 7 mm briolette Swarovski pendants (article no. 6007) in the place of Czech drop beads, a substitution that I've explored before and found that it generally works for most of my designs.


I also made a pair of little crystal helix beaded bead earrings in the same color palette. 

The copper ear wires in this pair are from the same batch as the year-old Pagoda pair, so when you compare them you can see that they oxidize quite a lot over the course of a year of moderate use. I think I like the oxidized look better though; the darker copper draws less attention, leaving it on the beaded charms where it belongs. What do you think?