Ode to Puca

stack o'bangles

If you follow just about any European bead stitching blog, then you have seen these bangles derived from a pattern by Puca at Les Perles de Puca.  Actually, I found details about how they are assembled at the French bead forum Histoire de Perles.  They are also very similar to Sabine Lippert's A Square and His Friends pattern.  [Her English language book will be realeased in May 2012 by Lark!].  These bangles and Cynthia Rutledge's Honeycomb Bangles seem to be in every French or Italian blog.  I'm not usually into so many crystals, but I was drawn to these bangles particulary since I could stitch each with just Delicas, 11/0 seed beads, and some 4mm bicones.

three different colors of Delicas

Golden Dragonfly

I made this dragonfly with 24K gold wings from a Good Quill Hunting pattern.  Christina has amazing patterns and kits for a variety of stitches.  If you don't weave but bead embroider, go to her site to get inspired.  The mix of beads, stones, colors, and stitches takes my breath away.  She has some free patterns and tutorials as well as an amazing list of links and resources.  Click here for Christina's blog, also full of gorgeousness and info.  My dragonfly cuff is coveted by my friends, co-workers, and students.  And you can see why:

look at all those shades of gold in the wings!

add a little sunshine and it glows

a little closer

the beads on the wings shift colors in the light - she really appears to fly on your wrist

I love the bright blue eyes

Finished with vintage glass buttons and peyote loops

I messed around with each end of the pattern a little bit so that the bands of color would meet up at the closure.  The idea didn't dawn on me until I was finishing so I didn't get it quite even, but I like the result.  I also tapered the corners to avoid them getting dog-earred with wearing.  The sweet little clover buttons are vintage pressed black glass with facets and heavy brass shanks.  I found them at an antique shop here in Q'town which specializes in vintage clothing.  They measure about 8mm across.  This cuff is about 2 1/8" wide. 

On Christina's web site she recommends Joan Painter of Painter's Art Beads as a source for small quantities of Delica beads.  I followed this advice and managed to get the quantities I needed down to 1 gram of this and 1 gram of that.  Joan carries just about every Delica number under the sun.  I saved a bunch of money on beads for this bracelet, but went a little crazy ordering beads that I had not been able to find elsewhere!  Joan takes her orders via email.  Send her a message with your order and she charges you for the actual shipping cost.  She is great!

Sakura

In early spring when the flowers were bursting I found this pattern and finally got working on it last week while watching a marathon of Doc Martin episodes.  I purchased this drop-one even stitch peyote pattern, but when I started on it a few things combined to prevent me from starting the project.  First, I could not find some of the Delica colors needed (later it turned out that the European studio who put out the pattern had access to new Delica codes that were unheard of by Fusion Beads or Art Beads for a few months).  Then when the beads arrived I found the colors to be rather garish, but I decided to go ahead anyhow because frequently they look different when in place.  The colors are much better in place.  I love this pattern and bought more beads for another - this time the translucent background is more of a pearly cream and the flowers lean toward peach blossoms.  Oh, Georgia on my mind.  I love the little toggles I added.

Although I'm not really a pink girl, I do like the results.  I'm going on a little trip and will look for some more subdued and botanically correct cherry blossom colors which I can select in person.

Medina bird

2700 size 11/0 delicas...and more dog hair than I would have liked.  This pattern was designed for loomwork, but I square stitched it.  About 2/3 of the way through I discovered two-bead square stitch which would have made the work go a bit faster, but I didn't want to change the spacing.  Oh well, next time.  Being a beginner has its drawbacks. 

I learned a lot about needle and thread size on this project.  I realized that I should have been using a size smaller needle and probably size B Nymo instead of size D.  It took breaking a couple beads to come to this conclusion.  For this project, I did switch needles to John James sharps and I love them.  They last a long time and do not bend and break like the cheapo needles I was using from the big-box craft store. 

I also realized that I should have returned the Transparent Rainbow Inside Color Lined Candle Lit White (those would be the lightest color beads which form the thick scroll at the bottom) because even though these little guys are Delicas, this batch was just the slightest bit larger in diameter.  I didn't think that it would make a difference, but I can tell, particularly in the bird's eye and the scrollwork around the bird's tail.

The pattern is Medina Bird from FusionBeads.com.  I changed the clasp by square stitching two rows of beads for the base of each strappy thing to give a little more heft.  If you want to make this, don't buy the quantities they suggest.  Buy one bag of each color. That is all I needed and I have left overs of each color.