Tubular beadwork tutorial (Chenille Stitch): a simple idea for a tubular...

I have tried the plain chenille stitch and really like it - this multi-colour version is interesting too.
The video is by Sara Spoltore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7T5RSYp3q8

The Johnston Collection - update - the first lot of kits have gone out

It's amazing how complicated it actually is to manage a project of this size. Planning and making enough Christmas ornaments to cover a Christmas tree, plus sundry other items, is actually a lot of work!

We have planned a series of projects as follows:

• 3d Peyote stitch ornaments (range from beginner to advanced)
• Netted baubles (some easy, some difficult)
• Snowflakes and stars (all mostly easy)
• Bead-embroidered ornaments using cabochons based on miniatures in the Collection.

Peyote Stitch Ornaments

I purchased several patterns for these ornaments. The next step was to spreadsheet out how many beads would be needed for each kit. My aim has been for each ornament to be at least slightly different to any others made with the same pattern, so that each person has their own unique ornament. Actually working out colour-ways for the ornaments was surprisingly difficult, even though I had a limited colour range to work with. I sincerely hope everyone is happy with the results! The quantities had to be worked out down the number of grams for each seed bead colour and the number of crystals etc that were required. The beads were then ordered in by Cranberry Beads [http://www.cranberry.net.au/] for us. Jo spent a lot of time sourcing the beads at the best prices for us and I am exceedingly grateful, we couldn't have done this without her help.

The first set of about twelve kits of these has gone out. Thanks to a major sale on delica beads at Spotlight, I have enough beads to kit up several more of these ornaments, which I will do soon.

These pictures show the colours we are using for the ornaments: matte black, matte off-white (light cream?), rich red and dark gold. We would have liked to use a brighter gold, but matte gold beads cost a fortune! So I chose a darker gold, actually bronze, matte metallic, which is very striking, especially against the cream beads.

Netted/stitched baubles

I sometimes wonder why I refuse to take the easy route if I can find the more complicated way to do things! Yes we have patterns for easy netted baubles, but no, I didn't want to do those, I wanted to do some quite complicated patterns! Naturally, we couldn't find baubles of the right size to match the patterns (why don't they sell the same size baubles in Australia as in the USA?). Fortunately, we have a clever BSV member who is testing the bauble patterns and re-writing them to suit the size of the baubles we have. Once she has completed that, we will kit up all the beads that were set aside for baubles and then hand them out to members to make up the baubles.

Bead Embroidered Ornaments

I have just gotten started on these and have found that I am rotten at making cabochons. I will need to seek some help before going further with that, from someone who knows how to do it. I also want to go back to the museum and have another look at some of the Collection items to see if I can find anything I can use to inspire the bead embroidery around the cabochons.

We had a group meeting with all of the other arts and craft groups participating in this project yesterday at Baxter Hall. I was blown away by the creativity on display and the amount of work people have done on their contributions. I feel like so far most of what we've done has been counting, but now that we have embarked on the actual beading I'm sure progress will be made. This has been such an interesting project to work on and I have learnt a lot already about how to plan a group project and how to manage the set up for it - mostly of course by doing it badly and learning from my mistakes, but what's new there?

Here's a photo of the first order of seed beads for the peyote stitch ornaments:

And here's the first lot of bead kits, ready to go out to members:

I am really looking forward to seeing the completed ornaments and hearing what people think of them!