Beadie dreams, again

A year ago I tried to complete this project with half tila beads, but it was too hard for me at the time. It turns out (as with many beadie things) that it was just the first few rows that were tough, and once I got going it wasn’t hard to complete it.

This is definitely a pattern I will do again – a bit of concentration is required at the outset, but then it goes fairly quickly.

For some time now, I’ve been wanting to learn how to make beaded beads – especially ones that aren’t beaded around a large bead.  This is the first of a series of patterns I downloaded from Etsy.  Many (including this one) are from Gwen Fisher.  This is a dodecahedron which she calls an Infinity Bead.  This one has larger black and silver beads on the inside, and then the purple beads are embellishments.

I don’t think the photo does it justice, so here is a brief video:

It holds it’s shape pretty well, so I regret putting a 12mm bead on the inside.  Next time I will make it hollow, since I think it will be prettier if I can see all the way through it.

There are other dodecahedron patterns I want to try, including ones with crystals sitting in the holes (both Virginia Blakelock and Laura McCabe have patterns).  But I will need to buy the right sized crystals first (darn!), so that will have to wait for now.

Next up is Gwen Fisher’s Puff Bead, but for that I needed to learn a stitch that she calls Super Right Angle Weave (SRAW).  She has a short YouTube video teaching the basics, so I did that first. 

Here is the practice piece I created:

For something a bit easier, I wanted to string some beads for a quick necklace. My mother had sent me a piece she inherited from her mother, but it was such a mess that I really couldn’t salvage it. So I dug into my bead stash and created a modern version of the necklace for her. I would not have come up with the idea without the older piece for inspiration, but I love the combination of colors, textures and sizes in this finished piece!

I’m also enjoying mixing and matching some of my larger beads into finished pieces, though I was a bit disappointed to see that these beads have been dyed.

Nonetheless, the color, texture, experimentation – and of course the outcomes! – of beading continue to be a joy. I love that this is a hobby I can come back to again and again and find pleasure in new and familiar ways.