SATeam Promotion Preview and New Earrings

This holiday season, the Etsy SATeam is having a fun promotion! The details are still being worked out, but the basic idea is that everyone who purchases an item from a participating shop will be entered in a drawing for a bracelet containing many different charms made by members of the SATeam. The bracelet is still being constructed, but here's a sneak peek of the charm that I contributed:

I also made a matching pair of earrings, which are currently available in my Etsy shop. This pair is included in a gorgeous treasury curated by TwoSilverMoons!

I also listed two additional pairs that use the same construction but in different colors. I sold a similar pair in this style recently so I decided to make another pair. I like how these earrings are festive and elegant, yet not so holiday-oriented that they can't be worn year-round:

I just love the shade of the green Czech beads in this pair:

I have some ideas for other pieces using these three color schemes. I can't wait to try them out!

Double Bubble Pearl Experiments

After my successful pearl experiment in which I was able to incorporate peacock pearls into one of my Bubble Box beaded beads, I decided to dig into my stash to try drop pearls in my Double Bubble Jacks beaded bead design. I found three strands to try:


For my first experiment I tried the small, light blue pearls. These are slightly smaller than the Czech drop beads used in the original design.

I wasn't too happy with how this beaded bead came out for a few reasons. The irregularities in the shapes of the pearls made the resulting beaded bead irregular, which isn't necessarily a bad thing because this can look neat if it's the desired effect. The main reason why I'm not satisfied with this bead is that it's too squishy for my tastes. I like my beaded beads either completely solid, or with less than a millimeter of squish when squeezed on two opposite sides. This one has about five millimeters of squish.

For my next experiment I tried the shiny peacock pearls, which worked quite well in my Bubble Box design.



This bead came out much better. It's a little irregular, but it has a much more acceptable level of squish for my tastes.

For my last experiment I tried using the purple pearls. These are wider at the base than the Czech beads in the original design, but they're still about the same height.



I was really happy with how this beaded bead came out. It's very solid, regular in shape, and it's also a bit bigger than the original design. The drop pearls in this beaded bead do not have high luster, so I compensated for this by using matte metallic seed beads. A big advantage of using these pearls is that they have larger holes than the other two types that I experimented with, so I was able to pass through the finished bead multiple times to stabilize it.

I liked this beaded bead result so much that I made five of them and incorporated them into this necklace, and put it up in my Etsy shop.



So, to summarize, I found that the drop pearls that work best in the Double Bubble Jacks design are regular in shape, slightly larger than 4 x 6 mm Czech drops (especially at the base), and have larger-than-average holes. I also found that since pearls can scratch very easily with say, the tip of a beading needle, I had to be careful to avoid scratching them when I weaving the beaded bead.

I'm looking forward to using freshwater pearl beaded beads in other pieces!

Bead Origami on Craftgawker!

Have you ever checked out Craftgawker? It's basically an eye-candy festival of crafty items from Etsy, Artfire, blogs, Flickr, or pretty much anywhere crafty images can be found. One of my SATeammates mentioned it on the SJA forums, so I decided to submit some of my work to their site. I quickly learned that they are very picky about the quality of the images that they feature, but after doing some editing two of my photos were accepted to their site!

Both of these pendants are available in my Etsy shop.

Have you ever perused the work on Craftgawker? If so, how do you like it?

Freshwater Pearls - Shopping Haul and a Woven Pendant

There's something about a freshwater pearl that just calls to me. Maybe it's the unique shapes, the variety of colors, or the beautiful luster, but either way I'm always drawn to them every time I'm shopping at a bead or gem show.

At the beginning of the month I attended a special seminar on freshwater pearls underwritten by the Bead Society of Northern California (BSNC), an organization devoted to the education of bead history, production, design, and exhibition. It was a very interesting seminar presented by Damien & Wendy Masterson of East West Best Trading Company, and they had some great tips on how to judge the quality of a pearl based on shape, luster, and the dye job. I took their tips into account the next time I went shopping, and came away with this stash from a vendor called Chau's Pearl (who sadly do not have a functional website):

As you can see, I'm partial to small, evenly-shaped pearls that I can attempt to incorporate into beadwoven designs (except for the funky-shaped white pearls near the top; I just found those too cool to pass up). It can be quite difficult to find these qualities in small freshwater pearls, and unfortunately some of the pearls I bought didn't have the kind of luster I was looking for.

I did however find some gorgeous peacock-toned drop pearls that size very closely to the Czech teardrop beads that I've been using in my recent designs. Since the Bubble Box beaded bead worked so well with either Czech or Japanese drops, I decided to try it with these pearls and came up with this pendant:

I was thrilled when I found that these pearls work so well with this design! Although these pearls are not as uneven as other pearls that I've tried to work with, they still have a bit of variability so I'm not sure if they will work in my other teardrop beaded beads. I should these pearls in my other designs to find out!

New Tutorial - Bubble Box Beaded Beads

I've finished my newest beaded bead tutorial, the Bubble Box beaded bead.

This design is in the same family as the Double Bubble Jacks and Teardrop Bubbles beaded beads, but it has different construction elements that separate it from both of my previous designs. This design is also much more adaptable to different sizes of drop beads; I've made it with Czech teardrop beads, Miyuki fringe drop beads, and even freshwater pearls! I'm very happy with how this tutorial turned out, because I think my illustration skills are improving. I'm much more comfortable with Adobe Illustrator than I have been in the past, although I still have a lot to learn!

The Bubble Box beaded bead rounds out my teardrop beaded bead trilogy, and I'll be working on other non-teardrop beaded bead designs for a while. I have some ideas for some Czech lentils and roundelles that I'm looking forward to creating.

Anyway, I've created a number of pieces using this design. Here's a pendant that I mentioned in my last blog post:

These Bubble Boxes are made with Miyuki fringe drops for a more petite look. It was interesting and challenging to work in a black-and-white color palette for this piece:

Finally, this piece features both Bubble Box and Double Bubble Jacks beaded beads, along with some Swarovski crystal pearls. I really like how both beaded bead designs complement each other.

You can see more images of these and other designs in the gallery of my website. As always, if you use this tutorial, I'd love to see your creations!


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Bubble Box Pendants

I made a couple of new pendants the other day, contributing to my collection of teardrop beaded beads. I think they look like little boxes of bubbles. What do you think?

News From the 'Net

I haven't posted very much lately, but I've been mentioned in a couple of places and I'd like to talk about their work in return:

Diana mentioned my Teardrop Bubbles tutorial on her blog, GlasPerlenDesign. She has a great eye for beadwork, and although I can't read German, it's a great deal of fun to peruse her site and ogle over the beautiful designs that she's posted there.

Amigo created a beautiful pendant from the Double Bubble Jacks and Teardrop Bubbles beaded bead tutorials. I love the Czech drop beads that she used in this piece! She has a whole bunch of beautiful beaded pieces up on her blog, so be sure to check it out!

Finally, I snagged a treasury featuring a bunch of my SATeamates, and I'm included in this gorgeous treasury by JewlieBeads!