Honeycomb Bracelet

Cynthia Rutledge has a bangle on front of Bead and Button magazine, April 2011 issue #102. I am not fond of bangles, as by the time I make them large enough to get over my hand (which matches the rest of my 6' personage), they are WAY too large for my wrist and arm.

I wanted to make it with a clasp, but as she has the faceted crystal roundelles held onto the bangle with thread, tying it into a circle, that was not going to work for a clasped bracelet. (And I would use Beadalon or Acculon braided coated beading wire for that, with a crimp, before I trusted ANY thread, even doubled and going through the circle of crystals twice...those crystals are SHARP!)

Finally worked out on on a smaller base (9 rows, instead of 11 wide), smaller roundelles turned the other way, and less of those, size 15 seed beads on top and Miyuki 3.4mm drops on the sides, instead of 3mm pearls. It has a similar look, but the clasp makes it so much better for me.

Hope you like.

Click on any pic to make it full size.

Happy Beading!

Faget da pics, whaddabout da beadstuff??

There are a few blogs now that feature the 6th photo ever posted.. I would like to challenge everyone to post the first beadwork they ever did, if they still have it, and do a critique. What would you keep? What would you change? Mine is below, and I had a lot of fun doing this...now, where ARE my scissors???

Ah, beads, shiney beads, tiny beads, color, shape, FUN! Yes, learning to do offloom beadweaving was a milestone in my life, but the actual first beadwork was, and for a short while still, leaves much to be desired. Yes, if you have magnifiers on, the colors in these are wonderfully interesting. But, from 5 feet back? Not so much. Not at all, really.The technique, while not awful, especially as I remember doing the frogstitch on each of these at least 3 times, left alot of room for improvement, IF you don't count that I had such tight tension as to make the beads pop out of place and that I didn't really know what I was doing, just beading by the seat of my pants.

No matter. These two were the 'first' real beadwork, and I was proud as a new mama of her firstborn child!

Hey, look! It's a beaded bead, no, two beaded beads...well, isn't that just special (snide tone here)?

Both are done over wooden beads, both are so monochromatic as to make me cringe. Nuff said.

I thought they were the best thing since sliced bread when I made them.

Maybe I can use them elsewhere?? Nah. I can do better than that. And that overly tight beading thing- where the beads stick out all over? That has GOT to go!


How about this clasp? Not too shabby, and it shows that I already had a penchant for beaded clasps, rather than all metal. I loved the dragonfly enameled button, which matched the two I added to an emerald cloak stitched up earlier that year, but couldn't figure how else to get it to work. These 15o hex and seedbeads deserve better than this, so it will meet the scissors later.

This feather I still like, and was my first 'creation' using graph paper from an online free source and colored pencils, not to mention lots of erasures. I need to make another and have earrings, after I cut this all apart.

What was I thinking when I did this 'crow' feather, using Czech beads for the spine and delica hex for the feathers? Well, I was thinking it was pretty darn cool...til the thing began curling (check the previous pic), and never really laid straight. Probably that overly tight beading I mentioned earlier, and that I still work to correct.
All in all, it was a learning experience, lots of practice with stitches, and after today, I still have the beads and clasp bits, as well as the blue jay feather to show for it.
How about you? Do you still have some of your first beadwork?
Are you brave enough to share it with us?
Go on...it's a good thing!
As always, click on any pic to make it full size, and have a good laugh on me!

Herringbone Challenge at Beaddreamz Group

Flat view

top loop end

top clasp end

bottom loop end-peyote loop

bottom clasp- brickstitch

button sideways through loop

almost there, 5o beads go under button

button fully in loop underside

no unsightly loop gaps

Our newest challenge-to-be will be herringbone,

something I can do in the wavy style, but still have

tension issues with the flat or circular styles. I wanted

a place to show how to add a clasp to the wavy

herringbone bracelet, as I hate having the skin show

between regular loops and button clasps, and are not

happy adding metal clasps to offloom beadwork.

I hope these make sense and are helpful to you.

I'm BACK!

We have been learning alot during the Freeform Peyote Bracelet Challenge at Beaddreamz; mostly that there are many, many different ways to do freeform!

Here is the one I have been using as my tutorial, and specifically, the tutorial on what I call 'The Sideways Loop Clasp'. I am sure there are others using this, as beaders tend to run on the same wavelengths, but I want to post my version here.

Click on each pic to see it larger, and the name will give you what is going on (look at the top of your screen after clicking on it, in the address bar). The pics are letter-numbered, a1,a2, etc. through d.

Thanks for looking!