Beaded Bead Tips

I’m often asked how do I get my beaded beads so neat so I thought I would do a quick post with some tips. You’ll either need to already know how to make a peyote beaded bead or if you’d like to have a go at making one you can choose from one of eight different size tutorials in the Make It Yourself section of my Etsy shop.

You may be used to starting beads by making a band around the middle, fiddling around with trying to get it to fit and to stay in place. Sound familiar? It’s much easier to start from the holes, increasing to form a cup, popping the bead in and decreasing until you reach the opposite hole. If you’re working without a pattern just keep checking the fit of the bead right from the start, to make sure you’re increasing the right amount.

In my opinion, the best beads to use to make a peyote beaded bead are Miyuki or Toho. These are both Japanese brands and are fairly uniform in size and shape. But the fact that they do vary a little is what can make a great bead!

What I do when I’m working is try to pick up the medium sized beads from the pile. If I come across any that are much fatter or much thinner, I put them to one side in their own little piles. When it’s time to make the 2 bead increase, I head straight for the ‘skinny’ pile and pick up 2 of those. They don’t have to be crazy skinny (I throw those away as they’re so thin they could easily break!) but just thinner than average so that they don’t cause a bump. The same goes for the bead in the next round that goes in between those pairs, I choose a thinner bead if I can.

At the other end of the bead, having slightly thinner beads on the row preceding the decreases will do the same (the beads that are going to be pulled together to form the decrease). After you’ve made your decreases there’s usually a large gap between the beads on the following row. Here’s where the bigger beads you’ve picked out come into play, choose these to go on top of the decreases and they usually fill the gaps quite nicely! Tip: if you have huge huge gaps then you’re probably decreasing too early.

It does take a little time to select the beads as you’re going along but it’s well worth the extra effort when you’re rewarded with a lovely smooth bead!

New Patterns

I’m pleased to say that I’ve got another two new patterns in my Etsy shop! The first is Catwalk, a cat’s paw print design, which I’ve created especially to raise money for the UK’s Cats Protection charity. For every Catwalk pattern sold – even if it’s chosen as a freebie in my 3 for 2 offer – I’ll be donating £2 :)

 

And if you’re a long time reader of my blog you may remember this design from some time ago. I thought it was about time I got it made up into a proper pattern! I’ve also changed the name to Vortex :) You can find both Catwalk and Vortex in the Make It Yourself section of my Etsy shop.

Dear Old Blighty

I originally designed this peyote pattern for one of our challenges on OTTBS last year but I ran out of time and could only manage to work up one of the motifs! With a bit of ingenuity I turned it into a bracelet with lengths of waxed cotton cord, which you can see here on the blog. While the British flag is always popular, with the Queen’s Jubilee fast approaching I thought I would get my skates on and make myself the full version.

The pattern uses three colours (I’ve used funky turquoise here instead of the traditional blue) and because of the geometric design of the flag, I found that once you get going it’s quite intuitive as to where the next bead is going. Saying that I did make some mistakes due to not concentrating so I spent a fair amount of time unpicking and replacing my tattered thread! Even so, it only took me three evenings to make. If you want to fly the British flag and make one of these bracelets for yourself, you can find my Blighty pattern here in my Etsy shop. Don’t forget, all of my tutorials and patterns are permanently 3 for the price of 2 :)

Lunar Eclipse

Sometimes I really enjoy the process of photographing my work , especially if it’s a nice day with plenty of light. But sometimes it feels like the biggest chore in the world! In the Summer it’s great to be able to make something and photograph it the same evening. But in the Winter it’s a completely different story and around this time of year if I don’t get to that windowsill by about 2pm that’s my chance gone until sun up the next day.

I’ve been thinking of investing in a set of lights for some time so a couple of weeks ago I thought, what the hell, let’s go for it. Not wanting to spend too much I headed for Ebay and got a really good deal on a set. In all the excitement I didn’t check the measurements properly and so I had quite a surprise when my equipment arrived. The lights, currently taking up most of the space on my desk looking like something from War of The Worlds, are huge! But boy they are bright, perfect for showing up all the details in my beadwork and I’m really happy with them.

But the biggest surprise I had was when I opened the light tent – tent being the right word, I could practically go camping in it! It’s much too big for my tiny beading but not a disappointment as I only really wanted the lights anyway and the tent just came with them. I’m happy to stick a couple of pieces of greaseproof paper to them to filter the light, it actually works quite well. Folding the tent up again was a scream, I had to look on the internet to find out how and this was the best tutorial I found. Still a challenge but I got it in the end.

I’ve been really busy this week, packing up orders, working on commissions and trying to update the photos in my Etsy shop. But I have found time to make a new necklace. Lunar Eclipse is one of my Colossal beads in shades of red, on a length of black waxed cotton cord and you can find it here in my Etsy shop : )

Making a Bead Mix

Seed bead mixes are one of my favourite things to work with, especially when I’m making a beaded bead! There are many fabulous bead mixes available from both Toho and Miyuki but I have to admit that really enjoy making my own. Today I’m making one of my Colossal beads and need a custom mix so I thought I would take this chance to show you how I go about making them.

First I decide on a colour way. More often than not this is just two colours but today I’m making a three colour mix. I start by selecting my colours, this one is going to match the October Moodboard challenge over on Operation Tackle That Bead Stash which is red, white and aqua.

Rather than just select three boxes of beads in those colours, which can end up looking too solid, I prefer to pick out maybe three of four shades of each colour to get a more blended effect. I also like to combine different bead finishes to give variation in texture and depth. In the mix below there are opaque, transparent, colour-lined, lustre, milky, matt and frosted beads. A couple of them also have an AB finish which adds a little touch of sparkle. You may notice that I haven’t added any silver-lined to this mix, this is because I didn’t want to make my bead look too sparkly. Silver-lined can be very overpowering so when I do include them, I use them sparingly.

Here’s a list of the actual colours I’ve used, in case you’re interested…

Top row: Milky Aqua, White Lined Aqua and Dark White Lined Aqua.

Middle row: Matt White, Lustre White, Transparent Rainbow Crystal ABand Frosted Transparent Crystal.

Bottom row: Transparent Darkest Red, Frosted Transparent Ruby, Opaque Pepper Red and Transparent Rainbow Raspberry AB.

As you can see in the photo above, I’ve tried to pour out the same amount of beads for each of the three colours as I want them to be evenly balanced. But sometimes I will want more of one colour than another, it depends on the effect I want to achieve.

Here’s the finished mix after being scooped into a grip seal bag which was sealed and shaken until the beads were evenly distributed…

And here’s the finished bead! I’ve just strung it simply on some waxed cotton cord. I wear one of these pretty much constantly, they’re great to ‘play’ with (if you’re like me and constantly play with your jewellery!) and the waxed cotton cord stands up to wear and tear really well. Peppermint can be found in my Etsy shop.

Bloody Hell!

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve just finished my very first peyote cuff pattern! Inspired partly by one of my favourite TV shows, Dexter, and partly by a painting I did a few years ago, the design shows blood spatter on a white background. Hopefully you shouldn’t find a bracelet design like this anywhere else!

The design is in even count 2-drop peyote and uses just two colours. I’m currently not including peyote or finishing instructions, hence the lower price, but this is something I’m going to be working on very soon. Blood Spatter is available in the tutorial section of my Etsy shop and instantly downloadable on my website.

And here’s another eye pendant that I made a few days ago, it sold before I got a chance to share it :)