Tumbling blocks & trefoils

trefoils and...

tumbling blocks [from a recent Beadwork]

little triangles form circles

I can't get away from the herringbone/peyote combination.  I guess they are my two favorite stitches so using them in combo couldn't be better.  The golden khaki delicas don't really look so pukey green in person.

more trefoils

This is the largest trefoil I've made.  This time I tried to graduate the color using the limited selection of pinks I had on hand.

this is a large terfoil - the smalls are tiny

The Trouble with Trefoils

Actually the only trouble with trefoils is that I can't stop making them.  It is fun to start beading flat and see something 3-D grow from the beads.  I made this necklace for a friend who just retired.  We taught next door to each other for all of the time I have been teaching Spanish and I'm going to miss her daily comradery terribly.  She is also one of my biggest fans and has been encouraging me since I started beadweaving.

from Diane Fitzgerald's Shaped Beadwork

bead corral

I've been making beaded beads the past few nights.  Right now I'm waiting for an order of Delicas to make a stunning dragonfly cuff I spotted at Good Quill Hunting.  I keep telling myself I won't make another one-drop peyote cuff, but I found this one and fell in love.  This is the photo from Christina's pattern site:

you cannot tell how shimmery this is in the photos

These are the beads I've been playing with since the weekend.  The little ones are woven on an 8mm core of 15/0 seed beads.  The larger ones are made from 11/0's and are on a 10mm core.

these are about 9.5mm across

these are the little guys; the big ones are rolling around in the background

I use circular peyote to make my beaded beads.  I make two halves and join them together.  This came about because I find it very difficult to decrease on a 3-D surface in the round.  Also because I originally followed a tutorial in French and the part about the increases was about all I could understand.  The details for the decrease were not accompanied by the best diagrams, so this was the solution  I invented.  I like getting all my rows to line up and not having any bulky areas sticking out as I had with some other methods.  I'm pretty certain this is fairly similar to the TQB beaded bead.  But if you check out her beads you will not believe how tight they are.  I guess mine will get better after 15 years of practice.

My mom commented that I needed another light source for my photos.  I've got three lights now, but they are not fancy photo lights.  I think I need to change the bulbs and see if this helps.  Above is my do-over pic of the celtic trefoil.  I think it is a little better photo, but I'm going to continue working on the lighting.

Third times the charm

To go to Bead Soup Blog entry click here

I tried twice before to finish the Celtic Trefoil from Diane Fitzgerald's book Shaped Beadwork.  Each time I broke one or more beads when I was zipping up the piece.  After speaking to another beadworker,  I switched to KO thread, and had success.  I love this thread.  It is so silky and didn't need any wax or thread conditioner.  I'm hooked on this for projects that need a softer feel than Fireline.

I'm not in love with the color choices I made, but I wasn't really certain this piece would come together

 I'm still working on my indoor camera skills.  I tried a set-up I read about - cut off the bottom of a plastic milk jug and shoot through the top.  I got my lights set-up and tried it and it worked better than anything I've tried before.  I've got to keep experimenting to get better color and sharpness, but shooting a silver beady thing probably isn't the best place to start figuring it all out.  I need to get out some matte pieces and see what I can do.