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!

Multicolored Wildflower Fields Beaded Bead

I wove a Wildflower Fields beaded bead using six different colors for the flowers.

I describe this color distribution in the Tila Garden Pendant pattern, where each color of flower is next to a flower of a different color. I tried to use the same colors that I used for the original Tila Garden Pendant, but since the Wildflower Fields design uses additional peanut-shaped beads, it ended up a little more colorful.

I think both of them would look great in the same piece together... Perhaps at the ends of a lariat or other long, drape-y necklace. What do you think?

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!

Scenes from Bead Fest Philly

I'm back at home and decompressing from a fun trip to Bead Fest Philly, and I thought I'd share a few of the pictures I managed to snag while I was there.

Susan took a few minutes between the Wildflower Fields class and the Tila Garden class to find some black tila and round seed beads on the show floor. She combined them with the beads from the Rizo Flowers kit to create this striking version of the Tila Garden Pendant:

I had a nice classroom space for this class, with a whiteboard and everything! I used it to point out some helpful tips for this project:

Several students finished one piece or another of the Sparkling Compass Set in class! Here's a completed bracelet in the Golden Denim colorway:

And the earrings in the Jet Cosmos colorway:

I managed to do a bit of shopping on the show floor too. I picked up some buttons and Czech glass beads from Nirvana Beads, filigree from Kabela Design, Swarovski flat backs and Miyuki long drops from Beyond Beadery, and a Crystal Katana from the Ninja herself!

I'm looking forward to playing with these new components this week. Next up on my schedule is a class on the Cosmic Nocturne Pendant at the Beading Bar this weekend in San Diego, followed by preparation for my classes at the BABE! show in November. If you're interested in any of my BABE! classes, be sure to register soon, as some are close to selling out!

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.

Scenes from the Bead & Button Show

I'm back from the Bead & Button Show and slowly getting back into my normal routine. It was a whirlwind of work and play, but I did manage to remember to take some pictures!

Milwaukee

It was a little chillier in Milwaukee this year compared to past years, and ranged from partially cloudy to raining! Here's the view from our hotel room on our first morning there:

Workshops

I always love teaching beading workshops and this year's classes were no different! A couple of my students finished their Cosmic Nocturne Pendants in class!

Here I am providing some one-on-one time for the Tila Garden Pendant:

And here are some of my students' completed Raindrop Flower Necklace components - both the Raindrop Flower focal and a few of the accompanying beaded beads!

Awesome People

There's no other place where you can see so many fabulous bead artists under one roof! Sabine Lippert, (aka The Fastest Beader in the West), finished her Tila Garden Pendant in class!

My friend Susan Blessinger and I represented the San Diego contingency at the Bead Dreams Reception. Isn't her beach-inspired necklace awesome? (check out her Bead Dreams finalist entry, "The March Hare," here!)

And along with Marcia DeCoster, we made a trio of San Diego Bead Dreams Finalists! Marcia and I got the chance to model our respective pieces together (check out Marcia's blog for the story behind this collaborative piece between her and Sherry Serafini - truly a melding between the minds of masters!)

As a San Francisco Giants fan, I always have a reason to wear orange and black jewelry, but I didn't think that this color combo would be popular with any other beaders (outside of October). The always-fabulous Suzanne Golden totally proved me wrong!

I had the pleasure of meeting many of the fine people that work so hard to create all the little Japanese seed beads, Czech shaped beads, and sparkly crystals that bead artists adore. The folks at Miyuki took the time to take and present me with my own souvenir Beading Happiness photo. Cool huh?

Fireworks

On our last night in Milwaukee we were treated to a perfect view of a fireworks show, right from our hotel room!

A fitting end to a wonderful trip!

Scenes From the Kit Production Line

Over the past week I've been knee-deep in the Kit Production Line in preparation for the Bead & Button Show. This means that there are far, far more seed beads on my beading trays than there usually are, especially since I'm a beaded bead specialist. For example, here's a snapshot of a big ol' pile of round seed beads for the Tila Garden Pendant:

Since the Rizo version was so popular at the San Diego Bead Society last month, I'm putting together a limited number of kits for this version too. The finished Rizo/Tila Garden Pendant took a little swim in a sea of tila beads:

There are still a few seats left in the Sunday session of this class if you'd like to see this pendant in person!

Tila Garden Pendant with Rizo Beads

In preparation for my classes at the San Diego Bead Society later this month, I re-illustrated most of the Tila Garden Pendant pattern to reflect my most recent illustration style. I think it's easier to understand, though I'm going to see how well it works in the class before updating the version that's on my website. While I was illustrating it, I decided that it needed a few more step-by-step photos, so I wove a new Tila Garden Pendant for myself with a simple variation...

Another Rizo-Bead Substitution

Yep, yet again, I substituted the fringe drops for rizo beads, which is becoming a recurring theme on my bead tray nowadays; I previously swapped out other beads for rizo beads in my Double Bubble Jacks, Tila Droplet, and Sparkling Compass designs.

"Burst" Variations

The rizo beads wiggle around more in this pendant compared the original version, but it also makes the pendant more tactile and it gives the flowers a burst effect. Plus I'm loving the colors! I've gotten several positive comments about it from the ladies in my local bead circle, so I'm thinking of offering it as a kit option for this and my Bead & Button classes. What do you think?

The same burst effect can be achieved with Swarovski briolette pendant crystals, as seen in this pendant that I wove last year:

More Matching Earrings

Continuing with my goal of designing matching earrings for my pendants, I put together a pair to match this pendant too. It actually took a pretty big design-concept-paradigm-shift on my part to come up with this earring design, even though the end result looks so similar to the flowers on the pendant. They're quick to weave together too.

The class that I'm teaching at the San Diego Bead Society will take place on April 21 starting at 10 AM. There's still one space left, so contact the bead society at sdbeadsociety@gmail.com for more information about how to register. I'm also teaching this project at Bead & Button, and there's still space left in the session on Sunday, June 9, from 9 AM - noon.

Bead & Button Show Class Update

A reminder that registration is open for classes at the 2013 Bead & Button Show, and the classes are filling up! The Friday session of my Tila Garden Pendant class is already full, but there's still some space in the other session on Sunday. I'm teaching a total of six classes at the show (click on the images for registration information on each class).

The first class that I'm teaching is the Raindrop Flower Necklace. In this six-hour class, you'll learn how to make three different kinds of beaded beads with drop-shaped beads, as well as a very flowery teardrop beaded focal that can also stand alone as a pendant!

Raindrop Flower Necklace - Thursday, June 6, 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM

The next class is the Tila Garden Pendant, where you'll learn how to weave tila beads and shaped seed beads into your own little miniature garden. This advanced project uses quite a bit of geometry, but it's so satisfying to wear once it's done!

Tila Garden Pendant - Friday, June 7, 8:30 - 11:30 AM Sold Out!

and Sunday, June 9, 9 AM - noon

The night sky-inspired Cosmic Nocturne Pendant uses Swarovski crystals, round and shaped seed beads, and either twin or SuperDuo beads all together in this self-supporting, hollow pendant. This layered, tactile pendant is such fun to wear because its look changes depending on how it's strung, and since it can be strung through about a dozen different openings, you can customize how you want it to look when worn!

Cosmic Nocturne Pendant - Friday, June 7, 1 - 4 PM

The Ice Queen Necklace uses 17 individual Pagoda charms for a beautiful statement piece. You'll learn not only how to make these eclectic little charms, but also how to use redundant thread paths to strengthen the beadwork. The class kit actually comes with enough materials to make 20 Pagoda charms, so students can elect to make a slightly longer necklace, or a necklace of the same length plus a matching pair of earrings! Last year, many students completed the matching pair of earrings in class.

Ice Queen Necklace - Saturday, June 8, 9 AM - noon

Finally, the Sparkling Compass Set is perhaps the most versatile of the classes that I'm teaching at the show. It's a class for all levels of beaders, where you'll learn how to make the Sparkling Compass component and weave it into earrings, a bracelet, and a beaded bead! If you're a beginner, you would probably want to start with the earrings, and you'll be able to finish at least one of them and probably the pair in the class. Advanced students can elect to skip right to the beaded bead. The class kit contains materials for all three pieces, and it even works with rizo beads too!

Sparkling Compass Set - Saturday, June 8, 2 - 5 PM

More information about class registration, as well as general show information can be found here. I'd love to see you there!

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.

Bead & Button Show Class Registration Begins January 8

Class registration for the 2013 Bead & Button Show begins at noon CST on January 8! I'm teaching six classes this year; click on the images below for registration information on each class:

Raindrop Flower Necklace - Thursday, June 6, 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM

Tila Garden Pendant - Friday, June 7, 8:30 - 11:30 AM

and Sunday, June 9, 9 AM - noon

Cosmic Nocturne Pendant - Friday, June 7, 1 - 4 PM

Ice Queen Necklace - Saturday, June 8, 9 AM - noon

Sparkling Compass Set - Saturday, June 8, 2 - 5 PM

Last year, one of my classes sold out within 24 hours, so be sure to register early to secure your space! More information about registration as well as general information about the show can be found here. I'd love to see you there!