Playing with beads

It has been a wonderful six months!

As a member of the beAd Infinitum Design Team I have had the opportunity to play with their patterns, create wonderful pieces of jewelry and share them with you! My fellow designers are an auspicious group of creative people and I am proud to have been included.

Those who know me well, know that I cannot just simply follow the directions...I have to tweak and play with things to give it my touch.  That is just what I have done with beAd Infinitum's patterns. 

After playing with Kepler's Star I knew that I wanted to make a tubular version using this pattern.  It is a very simple pattern to adapt for this, but still requires some finessing. 

None the less I have my first piece to share.

Dungarees

Look closely, you can see the Kepler's Star forming the tube. Inside are a combination of wooden beads and Chinese crystals for a little sparkle.  The focal beaded bead is, of course, one of my favorites  the Infinity Dodecahedron.

The last pattern I received as a team member is the Circular Starburst.

This pattern by Cindy Holsclaw is another variation of the Dodecahedron. 

This is a challenging piece, requiring some practice and attention to your tension.  I am not completely satisfied with my final iteration, so I will continue to play with this pattern until I have mastered it to my satisfaction.  I used my final beaded bead on a bracelet using memory wire, a product I haven't worked with much.  The beads are a bit heavy overall for the wire, but I like it.  That's all that really matters, don't you think?

Brickels Bracelet

Earlier this year our Guild posted a contest challenging members to submit pictures of their "messy work space".  I was one of only a few brave people to participate.  Our webmaster, the instigator, decided to award all of us.  We got to choose from several sets of vintage crystal rivolis from her stash (she's so generous!).  Below you will see how I used one pair of the six I chose!  I challenged myself to play with a color I don't usually use, yellow.  I picked up some nifty pillow decoupaged beads from my local bead store (Alada Beads).  I knew they needed to be together in earrings.

I bezeled the rivolis and the pillow beads using the Infinity Prism pattern.

Lemon Kickers

When it came time to assemble the components, I asking my beading buddies for their opinion.  We all agreed that they were so fun that they needed to match but not be exactly the same.  I love the way they turned out!

I have one more project still in process...coming soon. 





New DNA Discovery!

Hey all you science geeks, math nerds and beadaholics!!

Gwen Fisher, of beAd Infinitum,  a rockin' mathmagician who applies her wonderful brainiac powers to beads, felt, fabric and probabaly pi to the gajillionth other materials, is at it again! 

What's all the flap you ask? 

She has discovered, nay, created beaded DNA! 

Yes, that's right, the double helix of beads!

No it's not an April Fools joke!

She really did it!

Check out her tutorial on You Tube, made with a cool software tool for the iPad called "Doceri".

Here's the link  Beaded DNA

Super cool right?  It will help your nerd look, look cool.

(I know you have tape on your glasses, don't deny it.)

Gwen's double helix earrings were so nifty I had to make a pair for myself!

Here they are....nerd glam!

AgDNA Earrings

Notice the little sparkly bits on the left? 

 Hint: those are some of the bits from my current beAd Infinitum Design Team project! 

Coming to this blog in a few days....

Here's a hot tip for you nerdy beadaholics....

Those sparkly bits are from the Infinity Prism pattern. 

Watch for the finished piece, coming soon.... 

Beaded Beads

Here are my latest experiments....

I am playing with the various beaded bead techniques in the wonderful patterns from beAd Infinitum.  Recently I made several Time Machine beaded beads, which got me to thinking that I could combine the lace overlay technique with the Ionic Polyhedra shapes (leaving out the ionic overlay). 

I made a simple bead first....

This bead is approximately the same shape as the Time Machine bead, although it is smaller.

It insists on being called "The Time Capsule".

Next I applied this same technique to the Cuboctohedron shape....

Here is the result!

So far the name for this little beauty is "Fancy Cuboctohedron".

Maybe I should call it "The TARDIS", what do you think?

Hope you enjoy the results of my exploration!

River's Time

The Collector

This is my latest beAd Infinitum Design Team Project

"The Collector"

I haven't stopped playing with the Infinity Dodecahedron,

 it lends itself to so many variations!

As you can see, I used a variety of beads for the second layer this time.  The base is made with 6's and 8's and the Infinity weave beads are 4mm drops, 5mm magatamas and vintage matte curled leaves (some refer to them as fingernail beads).

This necklace also includes two Time Machine beaded beads.

These are made with 8mm Black Onyx rounds, 6mm Aqua Fire Polish, 4mm Capri blue AB Fire Polish,

Capri blue Miyuki drops, 8/0s, 11/0s and 15/o beads.

While I worked on this project it occurred to me that I could apply the principles from

the Time Machine bead technique, to the shapes in the Ionic Polyhedra pattern.

I chose to work with one of my new favorite shapes, the cuboctohedron.  I added looped sections and lace overlay to each four sided face and a lace overlay with drops at each three sided face. 

This produces a softly curved six pointed star. 

The picture below is a view from the top down, so unfortunately you cannot see the true shape.

I see many more of these in my future...oh there I go again referencing time!

TTFN!!

To Infinity and Beyond....It's Ionic!!



Well, I'm finally back! I have been very busy! So I'll get straight to it!

I'm just not done making the Infinity Dodecahedra!  But as a Bead Infinitum Design Team Member I am challenged to move on each month to another of Florence and Gwen's fabulous patterns!  So here you can see the results of my playing with the Ionic Polyhedra pattern.  This pattern has multiple geometric forms to really challenge you!  I had to include some Infinity Dodecahedra with variations of my own!




  The Ionic Polyhedra pattern starts out with a simple Ionic Cube or Octahedron and transitions to more complicated forms.  Finally on the very last page is a matrix of the various Ionic Polyhedra that can be made using this technique.  The necklace above incorporates Infinity Dodecahedra with crystal tipped fringe, Infinity Dodecahedra with multiple over lapping loops, Infinity Dodecahedra with captured 8mm Czech fire polish, an Ionic Icosahedron (largest beaded bead) and 6  Lacey Cuboctahedra (my variation with only one layer of embellishment).  This is a long piece, 35 inches total.



Ionic Icosahedron



Lacey Ionic Cuboctahedron and Infinity Dodecahedron with crystal tipped fringe.

Undaunted, I had to try more forms.....





Ionic Polyhedra 345 Necklace

  These are, from the top down, Ionic Tetrahedra, Ionic Octahedra and an Ionic Pentacluster.  The Ionic Pentacluster is done with my own embellishment variation adding crystal clusters over the "holes". 

Here is another view of the same piece so you can see the base bead cluster showing through on the side and how the crystals sit on the five faces (both sides).

Ionic Polyhedra 345 Necklace

This necklace sits nicely in an open neck top and is 20 inches long.  I wore both pieces together this past Tuesday night to the Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild member meeting.  I received rave reviews!!  It is particularly special because some of the great reviews came from Marcia DeCoster, Kim St.Jean, Sherry Serafini and Barb Switzer who are here in Michigan teaching classes for our Guild! 

But I couldn't stop there....no, I had to have some earrings too....lovely little Lacey Pentaclusters.  They have only one layer of embellishment and hang from light silver chain on studs. 

Lacey Pentacluster Earrings

So, for now...that's all I have for you! <grin>  Well, except for one tip....if you have trouble visualizing or figuring out the bead path of any of these geometric forms.  Before you throw up your hands or beads, google the geometric shape along with the word "net",  i.e. Cuboctahedron Net.   You should see line drawings of the form flattened out; print it out, cut it out and fold it into the appropriate shape.  This will help you with the thread path and construction of the various forms without step by step instructions! 

Happy Beading to you all!!



Edited and reposted for the picture storage problem!

Thanks for the warning from "No Easy Beads"!!