Beaded DNA Replication Fork Necklace

Over the holidays I carved out some time in my beading schedule to treat myself to a new jewelry set. It's another piece of beaded DNA, in the Y-shaped structure of a replication fork.

The colors and design of the necklace came about from a pair of earrings that I made alongside several other pairs of earrings that I wove for Christmas presents. For this pair, I continued the theme of using larger beads for the purines and smaller beads for the pyrimidines: I used 4 mm bicone crystals for A and G, and 3 mm bicones for C and T. I also added little caps at both ends of the earrings for an aesthetic effect.

The problem with these earrings is that I didn't use a seed bead between the crystals and the DNA backbone, which leaves the thread exiting the crystal at an angle. As any experienced beader will tell you, this can make the thread weaken and snap, which was the case when I made these earrings even though I used the stronger fireline thread instead of a nylon thread. As such, I didn't feel comfortable giving away or selling these earrings, so I kept them for myself.

These earrings needed a matching necklace, so I set out to create a beaded replication fork. For the types of beads used in the DNA itself, I added back in a 15° seed bead between the crystals and the backbone, so that the necklace would be stronger than the earrings. I also decided to forego the variation that yields major and minor grooves that you can see in my gene regulation necklace. The resulting necklace less-accurately portrays real DNA in that respect, but it does look closer to real DNA in another; since I used smaller beads for the backbone (I replaced some of the 11° seed beads with 15° seed beads, and the 8° seed beads with 11° seed beads), and a relatively longer set of beads for the base pairs (approx. 9 mm), there are about 11 base pairs per turn of the beaded double helix. B-DNA has about 10.5 base pairs per turn. In all the variations I've beaded on this design, I've only been able to get up to about 8 base pairs per turn until now. (For more on this subject, take a look at Gwen's two crystal DNA pieces - you can really see the effect of base pair length on helical pitch in these pieces).

I call this necklace a replication fork because it depicts how real DNA is replicated; since each base pair is defined (C always pairs with G and A always pairs with T), each strand has enough information to serve as a template for the other strand. Real DNA replicates this way; the double helix is unwound into single strands, and the new strands are synthesized on to the two older strands, one nucleotide at a time. So in this piece, the older DNA is at the focal point of the necklace, and the newer DNA wraps up the necklace towards the back.

For the branch point of the necklace, I left one base pair unpaired so that each daughter strand had enough room to twist up the necklace. I should note that a real DNA replication fork looks quite different than this one; the two new strands are not joined together at the branch point as they are in this necklace, and there are quite a few more bases unpaired at the branch point. The method of replication is also different for each of the two strands because of the antiparallel nature of the strands and the requirement that DNA can only be synthesized in one direction, but that's a story for another time.

The necklace has a beaded custom toggle clasp, woven with a twist on the embellished RAW technique.

Finally, additional Swarovski bicone crystals and Venetian glass rounds complete the necklace.

The sequence used in this necklace comes from the alpha subunit gene of the E. coli DNA polymerase III complex, which is responsible for most of the DNA synthesis in the E. coli cell. The story of its discovery, 24 years after the first DNA polymerase was characterized, is an interesting lesson in persistence and the methodology needed to solve complicated scientific questions. Plus it's the perfect sequence to use for a depiction of DNA replication :)

Double Bubble Rizo Beaded Bead

I picked up some of the new rizo beads earlier this month, and for my first project using these little rice-shaped drop beads, I incorporated them into my Double Bubble Jacks beaded bead design:

They move around a tiny bit in the finished beaded bead, but they fit well enough to work without making the beaded bead squishy. To use the rizos in this design, I swapped them out for the 4 by 6 mm drop beads called for in the original pattern, and applied the same variation that I used for incorporating pearls into this design. The resulting beaded bead is a very cute variation of the original design, and two would make a nice petite pair of earrings.

Rizos are still pretty new, so they may not be available yet at your local bead store. I bought mine from Whimbeads.com, who are unfortunately already sold out of these little beads, but they should be getting in more stock late this month or early next.

Have you Rizo'd yet?

New Beaded Caffeine Molecule Pendants in the Shop

Three new beaded caffeine molecule pendants are now available for purchase in my Etsy shop. You can read more information about each pendant by clicking on the images below. First up is this green tea-esque version:

Next up is this pendant in mocha:

And finally this one in carmel:

All three pendants are available for purchase in my Etsy shop, and come with a 16" or 18" sterling silver chain. Of course, if you'd like to bead your own, a pattern for this design is available at my website.

Scenes From the Beading Tray

I thought I'd take a quick snapshot of the seed beads on my beading tray right now:

I've been using these beads in a new beaded bead design using SuperDuo beads, which I hope to finish up pretty soon.

As you can see, I've been on a purple-bronze-silver color combo kick. I really like Toho's dark copper seed bead (mid-upper left in the photo below), which is redder than both Toho and Miyuki's dark bronze seed bead (mid-right), but lately I'm using a little of both. I think that the bronze color is a more commonly-used bead though. Which one do you prefer?

New Kits: Morning Coffee Molecules

Kits are now available for the Morning Coffee Molecules so you can weave up some beaded chemistry. I've been experimenting with different colors of seed beads on a base of silver-plated seed beads, and came up with this colorway that reminds me of an iced coffee:

I also remembered how black and silver goes with everything, so I beaded up this colorway for a no-frills black coffee that remains elegant and stylish:

Finally, I included this colorway in latté flavors.

All three kits are available at beadorigami.com, and include a needle, plenty of thread, and all the beads needed to make the finished molecules. They can then be strung on a jump ring and through a chain for pendants, or through a thin beading wire for a very chemical necklace.

New Pattern: Morning Coffee Molecules

My newest pattern, the Morning Coffee Molecules, is now available on my website.

The pattern is easily the longest one I've written, clocking in at 30 pages and 85 photos and illustrations. It describes how to render, in beadwork, the skeletal chemical structures of just three of the over 1000 compounds present in your morning cup of coffee; caffeine, caffeic acid, and trigonelline (right-to-left in the photo above). As I mentioned previously, skeletal structures are a shorthand way of drawing a chemical compound. Here are the skeletal structures of the three beaded molecules above:

In writing this pattern, I first chose to describe how to weave the structure of caffeine, because, let's face it, it's just so cool:

For the other two structures in the pattern, I picked compounds that are both present in coffee and mostly aromatic like caffeine, which makes them flat and therefore more accurately-represented with this technique of beadweaving as compared to a more dimensional molecule. I also chose molecules considered unrelated to caffeine for some variety in this trio of beaded compounds. The second structure is caffeic acid, which, unlike its name, indeed looks quite different than caffeine:

For the third structure, I chose trigonelline, a smaller compound which is a relative of vitamin B3:

All three compounds have a connecting seed bead that can be strung through a beading wire, or through a jump ring as shown in this pendant:

The Morning Coffee Molecules pattern is available exclusively at beadorigami.com, and I should have kits for this design ready in the coming weeks. What's your favorite coffee flavor?

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!