Today's post will be a quick one. We had a lovely visit with Steve's parents, and now I need to kick the jewelry-making machine (me) into high gear to prepare for the Donna Lexa Memorial Art Fair in Wales, WI on August 18th. Also, the Bead&Button Show faculty submissions are due on August 10th. Ack! That's next Friday! I'm in pretty good shape for that. I know what designs I'm submitting and have the instructions written for everything. I have pictures taken for all but 2 of the designs, and all that's left is writing the descriptions and all that. I should be able to use most of what I wrote last year. Still - lots to do!
Last week (in my Anatomy of a Spiral post) I showed you a spiral rope necklace I made using vintage bicone beads. Here it is again:
Using the same bicones and the same 15/0 seed beads, I made a bracelet using Right Angle Weave:
If this looks somewhat familiar to you, it should - it's the same stitch I used with the red saucer beads and black peanut beads in my Red and Black post about a week and a half ago.
Where there's a necklace and a bracelet, there must be earrings:
These are 12-bead beaded beads (try to say that 10 times fast!) - essential Right Angle Weave stitched together to create a circle. With 4mm crystals it looks more like a bead, but with these 6mm bicones it looks like a doughnut. I don't know if it was because they're bigger or if it's because the edges are softer. Doesn't matter. They're doughnuts. So I put a bicone on a headpin, put the beaded bead on with the obvious holes on top and bottom, then put another bicone on top. With the two beads nestled in it looks like a proper beaded bead, and none's the wiser. Except for all of you, of course, and everyone you tell (while you're telling them to come read my blog). Okay - everyone's the wiser. I can live with that, especially if you're recommending my blog! (hint hint)
Another option, of course, would be to string the bicones on beading wire. But I've been having fun playing with the different stitches. What else should I try?
I paid $5 for the bag of beads. After making a spiral necklace, RAW bracelet, and beaded bead earrings, I still have a fair amount of these beads left over. I think I definitely got my money's worth! I get lots of compliments on the pieces, and I can wear them with a number of different tops.
A note about these beads: You can see from the above pictures that the color isn't consistent throughout the beads. The shape of the beads isn't consistent, either:
I chose the ones that were more "bicone-like" (like the ones on the left) for the bracelet and earrings, as any deviance in size would throw the stitch off. The ones that were definitely off but still useable (like the ones on the right) went into the spiral. I was going to throw the "snub-nosed" ones away, but I found there were far too many of them. Much better to put them into a spiral where the defects don't matter. Keep this in mind when working with your beads. Don't get angry - get creative!
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