New Pattern: Poinsettia Bracelet

After a long, hot summer I've been quite ready for Christmas, so I wholeheartedly dived into holiday beading right after Thanksgiving. Dragon Scale beads in particular have previously spoken "flower petals" to me in other designs, but I've recently found them particularly suited to poinsettias.

Miniature Beaded Poinsettias

The Poinsettia Bracelet features miniature beaded Poinsettias joined together in a delicate a bracelet. I chose the reddest Dragon Scale beads that I had in my stash for the poinsettia flower, but I didn't have any that were green enough for the leaves. So, I used bugle beads instead to mimic the angular, pointed shape of the poinsettia leaf. A handful of tiny 15° seed beads and some stabilizing Half Tila beads complete each flower.

Red and White Poinsettias

I had so much fun making the red poinsettia bracelet that I had to make one depicting white poinsettias too.

I used crystal AB Dragon Scale beads for the white poinsettias. These beads are so shiny!

Matching Earrings

Since this is a component-based design, the individual poinsettia flowers are easily adapted into matching earrings. I used gold seed beads in the center of each flower in this pair, which more accurately mimics the poinsettia flower.

Holiday Beading Pattern

The pattern for this design is now available on my website at beadorigami.com, and it describes how to make the beaded poinsettia component and how to weave several components together to make this bracelet. The circular peyote stitch is used to weave most of each component, and a variation on the cubic right angle weave (CRAW) technique is used to finish each flower. The pattern is in the PDF format, and clocks in at 12 pages of step-by-step instructions with 32 full-color illustrations and photographs.

Thanks for looking and Happy Holidays!

Holiday Beaded Bead

This blog's been a little sparse as of late because I've working on several exciting upcoming projects that I'll be able to talk about more in the coming months. In the meantime, I carved out a little bit of time to weave something from my growing collection of beading patterns that I've purchased in the past but that haven't actually made anything from. This one is Carol Dean Sharpe's Blooming Beaded Bead.

I made a couple of discoveries when I made this beaded bead. One, that I had Delica beads in my stash! Specifically, I used the slightly-larger-than-usual size 10° Delicas for this beaded bead, in sort-of-Christmasy colors for the upcoming holiday season.

Two, that this is a clever, deceptively simple design that's quite fun to bead. There's something so elegant about a beaded bead design that can be woven using the odd-count peyote stitch from just two colors of the same size of bead. Don't get me wrong; I'm a big fan of all the new bead shapes that have come out in the past few years, and I love using them in my work, but it's nice to try something outside of my usual comfort zone.

The beaded bead measures about 1 3/4" long and just under an inch thick. I may put it in another, more complicated piece at some point, but for now it's going to sit solo on a nylon cord.

Carol's pattern for this design is available in her Etsy shop, and the pattern describes how to weave four different kinds of Blooming Beaded Beads. The pattern is full of tips and tricks on how to successfully weave the design, including key pointers on thread tension, what the design should look like at midpoint steps, and lots of encouraging words to help you get through the project. Thanks Carol!

A Trio of Rizo Triangles Necklaces

I've finished a new colorway of the petite version of the Rizo Triangles Necklace, this time in copper and bronze, with a touch of purple. I'll be teaching this project at the BABE! Show next weekend.

Here's an earlier version of this necklace in soft purples and golds:

And then here's the original colorway, in purple, green, and silver:

I love all three colorways, but the new bronze and copper colorway is just perfect for the fall, and I've already enjoyed wearing it a couple of times :)

I'll be teaching this class at the BABE! Show on Sunday, November 16. Please visit the BABE! website for more information. Online registration closes on Saturday, so don't delay!

Rose Blossom Pendant Workshop

I'll be teaching a new floral pendant beading workshop at two venues in the next few months.

A Rose Shaped Pendant

The Rose Blossom Pendant uses two different sizes of rose petal beads to encircle a Swarovski rivoli crystal, and this pendant is further embellished with a ring of O beads and completed with a beaded bail. The petal beads in this piece sit at an angle, making the rose look a bit like a turbine.

This project uses variations of the circular peyote and right angle weave (RAW) stitches, and uses some thread paths similar to that of modified right angle weave (MRAW). It's an intermediate project that's most appropriate for beaders who are experienced with these stitches, and who are willing to try a new twist on these concepts.

A Solo Beaded Pendant

I like to wear this pendant as a solo piece, however it can also be used as a focal in a larger necklace.

Many Color Options

This design lends itself to many different color options. I prefer varying shades of purple, but it also looks lovely in light blues and silver.

You could even wear a bunch of them at once for a whole garden of roses!

I'll be teaching this project at Creative Castle in Newbury Park, CA this Friday, October 3. I'll also be teaching this project at the BABE! Show in Oakland, CA on Saturday, November 15. Registration information for both classes can be found on their respective websites. I'd love to see you there!

New Pattern and Kits: Prism Blossoms Pendant with Dragon Scale Beads

My newest beading pattern, the Prism Blossoms Pendant, is now available at beadorigami.com

Flowers with Dragon Scale Beads

This pendant features Sabine's newest bead shape, the Dragon Scale bead. It's a small, 4 mm-long diamond-shaped bead with a hole on one end, and it does look very much like a dragon scale. I was immediately drawn to the pointed shape of this bead, and I incorporated them into little five-petal flowers. I'm envisioning several different kinds of jewelry that can be made with these petite little flowers, but for this piece, I wove seven of them into a circle around a sparkly Swarovski rivoli crystal, and attached a pear-shaped crystal at the bottom for a sparkly, floral pendant.

The pattern for this design describes how to make the complete pendant, including the bezel for the rivoli, the foundation for the flowers, the flowers themselves, the Half Tila bail, and the complicated connection for the pear-shaped crystal pendant. The pattern is in the PDF format, and clocks in at 18 pages of step-by-step instructions with 41 full-color illustrations and photographs.

Three Kit Colorways

Kits for this design are available in three colorways and include all the beads needed to make one pendant. You can create one in Sunlit Garden, Ancient Garden, or Midnight Garden hues.

A Coordinating Diamond O Beaded Chain

The pendant can be strung on a variety of materials, and it looks quite elegant on a silk ribbon. Another option is to string it on a coordinating beaded chain. For this pendant, I wove a matching Diamond O beaded chain with a simple variation on the original; this variation incorporates Half Tila beads into the design.

While the pendant pattern is a for-sale product, the original Diamond O beaded chain pattern is available as a free download on its pattern page.

Thanks for looking!

New Pattern and Kits: Fairy Triangles Set

My newest beading pattern, the Fairy Triangles Set, is now available at beadorigami.com.

Triangle Components from Triangle Beads

Last week I blogged about making little beaded triangles out of triangle-shaped beads, and how they can be connected together to make bracelets or a large beaded bead. Here are several of the triangles that went into the large beaded bead above:

I liked making this beaded bead so much that I also made two smaller versions. Here's the medium-sized beaded bead, alongside a matching Fairy Triangles component:

This version also uses Tri-beads instead of O beads, just because I wanted to add extra triangles ;).

All three beaded beads are based on the geometries of the deltahedra; the group of 3D shapes made up entirely of equilateral triangles. The pattern for this design includes guidelines on how to join these components together to make all three of the above beaded beads, and these guidelines can be applied to the rest of the deltahedra as well.

An interesting note about this design is that it uses a different strategy than the one I usually use to make a geometric beaded bead; most of my beaded bead designs take an edge-skeleton and face-embellishment approach, as I discussed in my beaded bead webinar. The Fairy Triangles beaded beads, on the other hand, take a face-component and corner-join approach that's a little easier to tackle than my usual methods.

Petite, Quick Earrings

In addition to beaded beads and bracelets, these components also make a quick and easy pair of earrings:

A Solo Pendant

The large beaded bead can also be strung on a silk ribbon for a stunning solo pendant:

Beading kits for this design are available in four colorways, and include all the beads needed to make and connect 30 components together. Many different jewelry combinations can be made from this kit; it makes enough components for one large and one medium beaded bead, or three medium and one small beaded bead, or seven small beaded beads, and many other combinations are possible too. Additionally, you can combine these kits with your own findings to make earrings, bracelets, and necklaces.

New Pattern and Kit Pricing

Last month I made some big changes to the Bead Origami kits page: Bead Origami kits are now "unbundled" from their patterns. The kits are now "à la carte" and still include the listed materials and all shipping costs, but the pattern must be purchased separately (all kit prices have been lowered accordingly, and some of my pattern prices are also slightly lower). 

Under this new pricing method, you can now purchase the pattern and then sort through the beads that you already have before purchasing a kit. Plus you can purchase kits for a specific design in two or more colorways without paying for the same pattern twice. If you wish to order both the pattern and the kit at the same time, simply add both items to your shopping cart before completing your purchase. Finally, if you already have a copy of one of my designs that has been published elsewhere (such as in a magazine) and you want to purchase a kit for that design, you can now do so without purchasing another copy of the pattern.

It's my hope that this method will offer additional purchasing flexibility to my customers, while making the logistics a little easier on my end. I'd be very interested to hear your feedback about this change!

Thanks for looking!

Beaded Triangles

I've been making beaded triangles... Lots of triangles.

What's more, these triangles are made out of other triangles. Two-hole triangle beads, to be exact, plus Rizos, O beads, and Japanese seed beads. Joined together, they make a nice, delicate bracelet.

But they can also make many kinds of beaded beads. Here's one made out of 20 triangles.

It's a pretty big beaded bead, so I think I'll string it as a pendant. What do you think?