Fun at the Bead Retreat, Robbinsville, NC

Just a couple things finished; Ukraine-style netted necklace, pattern by Maria Rypan of Rypan Designs and a Beez to Butterflies chainmaille, done in parawire, taught by Genny Smith of New Bel-Gen.

Lots of fun, and a GREAT time was had by all!

Tutorial-RAW and netted bracelet

A friend sent me this pic of a bracelet bit, and asked if I could help
her figure out how to do it...mine is done in all one color- a RAW chart
can help her, and you, figure out how to do the color changes.
Enjoy- just follow the steps below, and feel free to share. If you click on the
photos and save them to your computer, you can use the free pdf creator
cutepdf to make them into a pdf to save for future use, offline. Of course,
you can use whatever program you wish for this.

If you follow the steps top to bottom, making the bracelet as long

as you want with the first RAW steps, remembering that adding

the netting will 'shrink' it about 1/2" (and remembering to figure

in whatever clasp length you are using!), you should be able to

create a beautiful bracelet for yourself!

Happy Beading!

What a fun set of earrings!

I have had my eye on these earrings and this
pattern ever since I saw it done by Kassie of
The Beading Butterfly, way back when the mag
issue first came out. I was doubly reminded of
the pattern when Genny S of A New Bel-Gen
did her own variations using Swar glass pearls.
I hope you like the ones below, and do try this
pattern for yourself! It is fast and easy, making
it a wonderful gift item for the last minute, plus
being able to use any style bead allows you to
fit it to the giftee easily....even wooden beads
would work nicely!

Probably the closest to Amy's pattern, using
6mm, 4mm and 3mm Czech faceted FP, but did
them double sided, with the FP held firmly in
place with the netting, and carrying the netting
around to the 'back'. Which side is the 'original'?
You will have to guess!! I love them both.
SS earwires.


Purple Velvet Satin and Satin AB Swar bicones
in 6mm, 4mm and 3mm, with PF gold Tohos in
11s and 8s- additional 15s on either side of the
8s used near the base of the 6mm for looks and
to prevent thread wear at these points. My
birthstone, so my fav pair!
GF earwires.


Again, Swar bicones in 6mm, 4mm and 3mm,
but with all the netting in the same blue, so
as to not distract from the crystals and be a
bit more subdued in look.


These were done using Chinese 6mm faceted
roundelles, Chinese 4mm bicones, and Czech
3mm FP, with titanium wires.

Here they are done in 6mm and 4mm Indian

agate, with 3mm garnets, plus PF Toho Rose

Gold seed beads.

Copper earwires.

Just think of what possibilities YOU can do!!

Scottish Wood

I love these 15o gold matte beads from beadlady.biz - they change looks with everything I use them in. When I first bought them, I wondered where I was going to use them, but they really add that bit of 'unusual'. In this netted piece, they bring a look of tiny wooden beads, especially as I used a single hole wooden button as part of the clasp. The pattern reminded me of a Tartan, therefore the name.

The bugles are Toho # 3, and the seed beads are lovely Tohos, that were a gift from my creative beader/metalsmith/chef/polyclay expert, Harry Solly!

click on any photo to make it full-size.

Simple net instructions

4 yds of thread should finish a bracelet 6-8" long- use a thread that will go through your beads at least 3 times. If you prefer to add thread, weaving in the old tail and weaving in a new is preferable to having a knot, as there are little opportunities to hide a knot in this bracelet. Weaving also means using a thread thin enough to support this, and the addition of embellishment later, as you will reweave many of the original thread paths to do this embellishment.

Place stop bead, leaving tail long enough for clasp end of your choice-8 inches is usuall enough.

Add 20 beads to thread, slide to clasp bead. If you wish the picot to be a different color or size of bead, add 17 beads, then 3 beads of the different color/style.

Take thread BACK through 4th bead nearest end, creating a 3 bead picot.

*Pick up 7 beads, and go through the 8th bead. Repeat.

Either pick up 7 beads and go BACK through 4th bead of last beads added to create picot

OR

pick up 4 beads, add 3 beads of different color/style, then go BACK through 4th bead just added to create picot.*

Repeat from * to * til bracelet is as long as you wish, minus clasp length. Netting stretches, so be sure to pull it a bit when testing for length.

This can be widened or made narrower by adding or subtracting multiples of 7 to the original line of 20 beads.

Add buttons or other clasp end before adding top embellishment. If you wish, this is a good place to make peyote circles for the loop ends of a self-clasp, as shown in the above photos.

Add pearls or other beads to crossover points in the netting by working your way back and forth to the beginning, going through the crossover bead, adding pearl and 15o bead, then back through pearl and through crossover bead in same direction you went the first time, pulling tight. continue to next crossover point. When you reach the last crossover and add your pearl, you will have to go around the outside beads and picot to get to the next crossover point. This is why you want your thread size to be able to go through beads multiple times.

Add your other clasp end, or your buttons, etc if you used a self-toggle of beads on the other end.

Wear your bracelet with pride!

You may click on any pic to make it full size, and right click to save it to your computer for future reference. Please feel free to share these insructions in any manner.

Pearly Net

Rita Crow, our bead teacher at Alice's, found a bracelet at a flea market which was netted, with gemstone chips on top. I wasn't fond of the chips, but thought pearls might be nice, and they were! Fast, and fun!

It's Ornament time!

I finished this one, called Ole' because it looks like a flamenco

dancer with hat. I started out doing just netting on a teardrop

ornament, and kept adding...well, y'all know that is what I do! LOL!