Clover Tire 50wt silk thread – 100 spools in Pink, Taupe,Harvest Gold, Dark Purple, Red, and Grey We now have almost all the colours. It’s a really good alternative to the YLI 50wt silk thread which is not so easy to get.
Beadwork Magazine June/July 2013
Got my copy of June/July 2013 Beadwork magazine and found my Rabbit Hole bangle – which is inspired by the Rabbit Hole fractal quilt, in the What Our Readers Did section.
Aurifil thread – 100% Mako cotton fine embroidery thread 50wt 1422 yard spools in Chili Pepper, Zebra, Seamist, Atlantic Blue, Sunset, Ebony Acquarelli,
Contemporary Geometric Beadwork by Kate McKinnon
After a long gestation period this lovely spiral bound book arrived in my mail box. Along with some sweet ‘extras’ which Kate very kindly included. A tube of candy which I ate absolutely immediately – no hesitation. A tube of delica beads and an eraser in the shape of a small donut! Plus some postcards and a signed book plate to stick in the front of the book.
Actually, there is a very good reason for the donut eraser. The simplest way to crack out a bead is to slip a thumb tack through the bead into the eraser. None of the other beads get damaged, the thread stays intact and the bead pops out easily.
When you open the book up you can feel the intensity of the design work and all the hours of creativity which went into the pages. Just chocker block full of pictures, tips, ideas, variations. Yowzers. It takes a while to absorb all the information so you need to turn the pages slowly.
Double Cone Ring made by Christina Vandervlist, photo by Kate McKinnon
Before you even reach the Table of Contents you know the writer is talking to you. Little comments such as …beads, how we love them … give a clue to the relaxed and humourous subtext. Short quotes throughout are little nuggets of thoughfulness. Do read everything – you cannot miss a smidgensworth.
Devil’s Eggs Are Hatching, Horned Rick-Rack cuff by Gabriella van Diepen, photo by Jeroen Medema
As you can see the illustrations are mouth watering. Both text and diagrams take you through the how and why of techniques. There are many sections: Basics, Triangles, Wings and Horns, Zigs and Zags, Glorious Combinations, Cones and Bead Number Tables at the back. But the telling section is the the Introduction for Backwards Readers at the end of the book. Kate writes: ‘I always begin at the back of a book, and I never follow directions. I suspect the two are related. If you’re like me, you’ll love that Contemporary Geometric Beadwork isn’t about following patterns, it’s about exploring ideas.’
And she is right. This book is not for you if you love to simply follow a pattern and come away with a finished piece. It’s for those who want to play with colour, shape and lines. Or those who want to take an exciting step further into design.
My opinion is this book is, or will be, a beading bible. Mainly for its thought provoking design ideas, its colour combinations, and its freshness. These are simple designs, beautifully executed. You can feel the honesty and integrity which went into the writing and assemblage of the book. Kate WANTS you to go away and be thrilled with the myriad of ideas which start popping into your head when you peruse each page.
Very nicely done – and I am glad I own a copy. Go get yours – Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.
And don’t forget, Volume II is already in progress and you can be part of it.
YLI 100wt silk thread 1000 yard mini-cones in Electric Blue, Royal Blue, Medium Grey, and Bright Apricot.
Our lovely library in Safety Harbor, Florida is having a fundraiser. They decided to get local artists to decorate a chair to be raffled. So here is my chair before:
Safety Harbor Chair-ity fundraiser chair
And here it is after:
Front of decorated chair
Back of decorated chair
I rough cut some of my hand dyed fabric into squares. Using Paverpol I layered them onto the chair using the traditional nine-patch quilt block pattern. I cannot tell a lie – some of the fussy cutting to fit pieces into awkward places….. well, language please.
Do go and look at all the brilliant decorated chairs for the Chair-ity Fundraiser. The drawing for the raffle is taking place on April 19th during Library Week.
Curved blade Perfect Scissors by Karen Kay Buckley
Well, colour me stupid but I didn’t realise Karen Kay Buckley had brought out a third set of Perfect Scissors.
I already knew about the large and small serrated edge ones but these have curved blades as well as being serrated. Well!
Good for cutting away stabilizer and clipping close to fabric.
I do love these scissors.
A lovely assortment of soup mix from Shirley Moore – Bread and Beads blog. See the original boxed soup in an earlier post.
This is the first time I have taken part in Lori Anderson’s Bead Soup Blog party and I am sooooooo GLAD I did. She wants us to challenge and stretch our design selves and it sure worked. Learning new ways to use colour, specially colours I am not fond of, new stitch combinations, and new shapes.
I have said it before, and no doubt I will say it again - BEADWORK IS THE MOST UN-DOING-EST CRAFT!.
Summertime Necklace
Summertime Necklace
Pendant of Summertime Necklace
I can’t tell you how many times I reworked the pendant on this necklace. And I love the end result. Emerald green is the Pantone colour of the year but damn, it’s a strong colour to work with.
What do you do with a donut? They are just so round! After much scouring the internet, beading books, and magazines I discovered netting. OK – step 1, net the donut.
Got to do more than that. Mmmmmm…….
After many interations the focal donut bead became a netted flower with inside embellishments of emerald green silver lined magatamas. Never used those before. And a peyote bail to slip over the twisted herringbone chain.
Clasp for Summertime Necklace
Rope embellishment on Summertime Necklace
Can you believe it? Shirley gave me EXACTLY the right number of emerald magatamas to include in the rope embellishments and to go around the toggle. How could she have known? Just love the way the toggle balances out the pendant.
The necklace is approximately 31 inches long from toggle to clasp. It’s a long rope and the pendant hangs quite low.
Purple Netting Necklace
Purple Netted Necklace
Now purple is not a favorite colour of mine. I like its effect, its meaning and how it works with other colours. But I seldom if ever, wear it or use it in my decorations. So this box of purple/lavender shaded beads slightly floored me.
Pendant of Purple Netted Necklace
The look of netted beads appeals so here they are together in one hayuge lump as the focal point of this necklace. They feel substantial and weighty. To keep the netting going I used some peach pearls, jasper semi-gemstone beads and some of the soup seed beads. To continue the sides of the necklace I transitioned to tubular peyote and spiralled some size 8 seed beads around the core.
And then Shirley did it again. She read my mind and sent me EXACTLY the right amount of crackle lentil beads and 2 extra gemstones so I could string the rest of the necklace. Isn’t she brilliant!?
Clasp for Purple Netted Necklace
The clasp came with Shirley’s soup mix and is made by Sharyl’s Jewelry. The bright copper complements the purple/lavender, browns/creams theme of the necklace.
Look at that! One lavender pearl left to put onto the other side of the clasp.
Guess what? I’ll probably wear this as it looks so interesting.
Lavender Pearls Bracelet
Lavender Pearls bracelet
This bracelet is a simple design – beaded components stitched onto a band. It is made from some of the extra beads in Shirley’s mix. Having already used the focal bead and clasp I wanted to make something else.
Lavender pearls bracelet open view
The band is done in peyote stitch using the twin beads from the soup mix, with size 15 seed beads filling in the gaps. I calculated how long the band needed to be and then stitched 4 rows.
Lavender pearls bracelet component
Lavender glass beads are encircled with seed beads and tipped with fire polish beads – brick stitch around the center. The lavender pearls are in the mix too. So I was able to use two things from the soup.
The purple/violet colour family is out of my comfort zone. This really made me stretch my colour chops. But in the end the amber/peach glow around the lavender, along with a tiny accent of lime greens worked.
And I find I wear the bracelet a lot. I think it makes me happy!
All together this was a great experience. I made some pieces I would not have made otherwise. Used colour schemes I would not have thought of without this outside nudge, and came away with some great additions to my jewelry box.
The only thing which was a bit stressful was the timing. This blog post was written while I was in America. All the pieces had to be finished and photographed early as I left for England on March 27th. Yikes! It cut my time short by a few days.
So worth it.
Go here to see the list of the other 1st reveals - http://lorianderson-
Subterranean Spiral – hybrid quilt by Rose Rushbrooke
The hybrid quilt Subterranean Spiral is exhibiting in Female Voices: Fiber to inspire body, mind and spirit. The show is being sponsored by the Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild, hosted and exhibited at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Clearwater and the Octagon Arts Center, Clearwater, Florida – February 22 – April 3, 2013. So you have a few more days to go see.
This is a sample quilt. I really wanted to work out a way to combine quilting and beadwork. It’s a small piece. Only 8 inches by 10 inches. It worked out to my satisfaction, ie. the end result pleased me and inspired me to go further with this idea.
The basic construction is in steps. First, the fractal design. I use Ultra Fractal to create a fractal image which is then printed out on my Epson Stylus Photo printer. In my more adventurous days the cotton fabric would be prepared, cut to size and ironed onto freezer paper. Things have gotten lazy around here and EQ prepared sheets of cotton came into the picture. Time saved and end result the same.
Then the quilt is sandwiched and hand quilted. I absolutely love my collection of variegated quilting cottons. Collected over many years. There’s always a suitable colour for each quilt. And I love defining shapes and lines on the fabric. It’s another level of design.
Green crystal circle beadwork embellishment
Thirdly, the beadwork embellishment. Which is easy in this case as many of the fractal parts are circular and lent themselves to circular components.
And voila, a cross over piece of textile beadwork.
Am working on another one already.
Sheep’s Eyes beaded beads
These beaded beads took a long time. Three is quite enough!
Sheep’s Eyes fractal art quilt
They are inspired by the fractal quilt Sheep’s Eyes. The colours are pulled directly from the quilt and the circular theme fits round beads perfectly.
They are done in freeform peyote stitch around a 25mm wooden bead. I found all sorts of shapes I could use – seed beads of various sizes, crystals, and bugle beads.
I love trying anything once, and I loved the look of these beaded beads. But it was a bit mind boggling creeping around the bead finding suitable shapes and sizes to fit in the spaces.
Sheep’s Eyes beaded beads – alternate view
Here’s another view of the beads from a different angle. They are strung on a black leather cord – but a blue silk cord would look good too.
