Curly Curl How To

The above is with the curl pulled out, so it is more of a swirl

and will have a beaded bail at the top, and some sort of focal

hanging from the base, perhaps a beaded rivoli in heliotrope?

Thanks to Stacie (Whytefeather- you can see her blog thumbnail at the bottom right of my main page) asking questions, there is this step by step word explanation of which beads were added to make the spiral.

I LOVE questions about how things are done- and think that sharing ideas and patterns is a blessing. Of course, I respect those who make a living doing this, and their right to keep their ideas to themselves, but for my own, I just have to share them.

Here it is, in a nutshell, a very LARGE coco-nut shell, the rows and colors and styles (oh my!) that were used. A few tips are scattered throughout.

The only trouble I had was getting the two largest rounds, the 8mm and 6mm beads to be the actual beginning of the 'flat' peyoted piece. They just wobbled around. So, I did the 3mm cubes in Gold AB matte and the 3o in the gold AB as the first two rows, then immediately went back to the outside edge of the 3o gold AB, added a row of light amethyst 6mm, then on top of that added the 8mm glass chandelier rounds. At this point, it was a more or less flat piece of peyote 13 beads wide, and 4 beads deep.
Working the needle and thread back down to the 3o gold AB, I began another peyote row at that point with the 6o Czech green seed beads, then added the 8o red-gold hex, then a row of 8o triangles in blue-lined purple, next row was the blue satin S/L 8o Japanese style tube( tho not delica, think they are Matsuno), a row of green satin S/L 11o Matsuno, then a row of 11o Czech blue AB matte, a row of 13o matte gold charlotte, and finally, on what is a heavily curved piece, a row of pale peach/green 14o Matsuno.
This should be a total of 12 rows of peyote on what would be a flat piece, if all the beads were the same size. The beads getting smaller with each added row makes it spiral.
Alternating the Czech with the Japanese seed beads gives more of a curve to that spiral.
Turning the piece over, I added a row of gold 14o seed beads to the pale peach 14o of the previous, pushing it to the other side as I went, then added a row of bronze 13o to that gold row, beginning the building of the other 'side'. Now a row of matte gold AB Matsuno, green satin S/L 8o Matsuno, 8o light amethyst triangles, bronze 3o, dk blue matte 3mm cubes.

I then took the thread through the 6mm amethyst rounds of the first row, attaching the blue cubes to it with peyote stitch, and up through the 8mm glass afterward, to pull tight and make sure they stayed in place.
Turning the piece over, I saw the gold AB 3mm cubes had pulled loose from the amethyst, so redid the peyote holding them to the 6mm amethyst rounds, to pull the work tightly together on both sides.

If I had not chosen the 6mm and 8mm round beads for my outside, this process would have been much easier, and would have looked more like the photo I remembered. But it would not have been so interesting looking, so am happy I did.

All the triangles used were the smooth-edged variety- don't recall the manufacturer-sorry.
Thank you for asking questions, Stacie- nothing makes me happier than someone wanting to learn a new process!!

Remember to click on the pics to make them full-size, then right click and 'save as' to save to your computer, which allows you to print them out, number the beads rows and recreate, if you so wish.

Curly Curls

curl

What do you get when you peyote long strips, and have the rows of beads graduated in size, from smallest to largest? Why, a curl, of course!

The more size differentiation, the better the curl.

The longer the original strip, the longer the curl.

Why I made these is a story, or a couple of stories, unto themselves.

The Pigtail, so named because, well, it looks like one, was an attempt to do the Peeking Pearls pattern using different sizes of beads, rather than separating a box of 11o Dynamite beads. Lesson learned; the outside diameter not changing is what makes it into a necklace or bracelet, rather than a pig's tail. Changing that diameter brings on a curl that makes it unfit to wear as such, but could be a cool focal. Still working on that one.

The fatter curl was an attempt to recreate a curl I saw once in a photo, and that was from an advertisment for that class. It looked double sided, sort of, so I started with the largest seed beads, did a couple of rows, then went back to the outside and added the 6mm and 8mm rounds. Then it was back to the inside, and adding more and more rows of smaller and smaller beads, finally ending with 15o charlottes. I then used that base row of charlottes to begin adding my other side, building off it in the opposite direction; toward the larger beads. I tried to match up sizes, but change colors, and sometimes styles. When I got to the 6mm rounds, I took the last row on the 2nd side through that row, attaching the two side together at that portion.

Remember you can click on any pic to make it full size.

While this may not be exactly what that class and teacher had in mind, I like it alot, and are going to add a beaded bail to the 'top' and perhaps hang a nice Swar at the base, then put it all on a rope, or maybe even a chain.

What kind of curl can YOU come up with??