It's a long time since I wrote a blog - I didn't even realise how long it had been.

A new project

I call this bracelet "Stops and Starts". It's a herringbone stitch bracelet which I designed to teach at the Bead Society of Victoria. The aim was to teach students to be comfortable with increases and decreases in herringbone stitch. Once you get the hang of it, the pattern is reasonably easy to follow. I'm happy to teach this elsewhere if asked, and have a set-up to teach on zoom.

My Instagram link is @seaford_beader.

What did I learn from this project?

One thing I learnt was to always use the same brand of beads. I don't think it's obvious, but the blue bracelet is made with Toho and Miyuki beads. It was difficult getting the right tension, because even though they are both size 11o, they are slightly different heights. The bracelet made with all delica beads has much better tension.

My "Battle of the Beadsmith" Entry

This beadwork consumed my beading time for a few months, although sadly it was mostly because I couldn't figure out how to do what I wanted to do! I wasted a lot of time sitting and thinking instead of doing, which was a problem considering there was a time limit for getting it done.

This was my entry for the "Battle of the Beadsmith" Facebook competition, and I have to say that my original design was much more elaborate than the finished design. It's one of those necklaces that looks much better on than lying flat.

My piece is named "Helios Wept". I feel that the gold and blue beads and cabochons are reminiscent of a Greek summer, or at least, the photos I have seen of Greek summers! The teardrop shaped fancy stone of course makes one think of tears. The eventual shape of the central pendant makes me think a little of a mask. And Helios was the Greek god of the sun.

Anyway, I had had these heliotrope Swarovski crystals hanging around for several years, awaiting inspiration. I was delighted to have an opportunity to pull them out and make something with them. Confining myself to dull gold and bright blue made for an interesting design process, and I love how they go together. It was very satisfying to use of my stash of beads, although I still have heaps left - more than enough for another blue and gold project! I really love the heliotrope crystals, with their dash of purple. I have a heliotrope bush in my garden and the purple is definitely the same.

What did I learn from this project?

You can't do multi-stranded necklaces without a dress form. I tried using a jewelry bust, but of course it doesn't have shoulders. I won't try anything like this again until I can get a dressmaker's dummy. This was why I couldn't get my original idea to work - I just couldn't get the strands and the other feature jewels to sit properly.

If you're going to enter a competition like this, get your beadwork finished in time to get decent photos done. I was late finishing and had to send in snaps which were taken with my camera phone. Because I don't know how to use photoshop, the photos looked a bit drab and shadowy. Many of the other entrants went to great lengths to have professional photo shoots done. Some even hired models and made elaborate costumes to complement the beadwork. I personally thought it was a bit over the top, especially considering there's no prize money involved, but I suppose if you want to make a name for yourself as a bead artist, this is a good way to do that. My drab little photos attracted no attention, and I was voted out in the first round. Such is life ...

Simple but effective

Sometimes a simple beading project can be very effective - it all depends on the colour choices and the quality of the finish. This little pin was actually made as a class sample. I taught the class at a monthly meeting for the Melbourne branch of the Bead Society of Victoria. The aim was to teach a simple bezelling technique and basic bead embroidery.

The central cabochon is African opal. I really like the mix of colours in the stone, especially the aqua blue. There are three rounds of graduated sized beads around the cab, and then a beaded border. This kind of project can be completed in a few hours, so it makes a great gift.

The back of the pin is faced with blue ultrasuede. The pin is actually a combined pin and bail, which I purchased from Kay's Artycles. It's a great idea, as it allows the owner to choose how to wear it. The simple design would be just as pretty on a necklace as it is as a brooch.

What did I learn from this project?

Firstly, the importance of taking good photos, as I used those for the class instructions.

Secondly, the need for a good description of requirements. One of my students - a beginner beader - took the requirements list to Spotlight ( a craft/home wares store) and of course the staff there had no idea what 15o seed beads were!

Next, it was a good lesson in colour theory, as I had to make up a few kits, and that was fun - trying to find beads that work together with the cabochons. I also found that I personally really like having an inner ring of metallic beads. For some reason that seems to be a nice finish to the project to me.

I enjoyed teaching this class, and most of my students finished their pin at some point over the next few months, so I guess they enjoyed themselves. My next class is going to be in herringbone techniques, which will be interesting. I'll have to get stuck into my class sample soon.

Twisted Herringbone Rope

Here's a necklace made with a twisted herringbone rope. There are two colours of cylinder beads, but one is delica and the other is Aiko. They are noticeably different in size, which made the twist more pronounced.

I like the effect that the two types of cylinder beads made and just wish it was easier to buy Aikos here. It's the Aiko which is slightly larger than the delica.

This is a fairly simple piece. The cab is ceramic and was purchased from http://www.cranberry.net.au/

The two metal buttons are vintage ones - I can't recall where I bought them from, but I like how they look.

I wanted to experiment with swags and drops with this project. I've only done quite simple swags here, but I like the way they look. Slightly steampunkish and slightly industrial I think.

I have some really nice cabochon sets which I can use for pendants like this, and I plan to experiment more with swags when I turn them into necklaces.

Collaborative Beading

Each year, for the past few years, the Bead Society of Victoria has made necklaces of beaded beads as a group project. We do this in Winter, at what we call our 'Busy Beads Weekend'. Every person that comes along makes a bead, then does what they feel like for the rest of the day. We buy rolls and cakes, and several members make soup for lunch. It's a lovely weekend! The beaded beads get assembled into necklaces which are then raffled off. The subsequent funds are used to fund members' community service projects.

This year, one concept for a necklace was actually bead embroidery and cabochons. Several people did either simple or embellished bead embroidery around a series of cabochons. I was then given the job of assembling them into a necklace. This was actually a lot harder than it sounds! The cabs were multiple sizes, multiple shapes, and two different colours. Many of them were regular ovals, but there were some irregular focal cabs. Simply arranging them all into a pleasing design was incredibly difficult.

I ended up using my phone to photograph a series of options, which I then sent to our workshop coordinator, LW. LW then came down to my place and we came up with a completely different idea altogether!

These photos are a bit rough because they are working photos, but they show how I tried a variety of ways to arrange the cabochons. Something I have learnt from working with multiple focals is that there are many different ways to arrange them, and it's worth while to take the time to explore a variety of options.

From memory I left the cabs on the beading mat for a couple of days and played around with them, taking a photo each time.

One of the hardest things to figure out this way is how the eventual necklace would actually 'drape' on the wearer. I really would have liked to have had a dressmaker's dummy when doing this, to pin the various pieces to. You could also temporarily stitch them together just with big tacking stitches I suppose.

Anyway, LW and I came up with a design that we were both happy with, and I got to work. All of these cabochons had been beaded by different people, and this meant that the stitching, particularly the edging, varied somewhat from cab to cab. This presented an interesting challenge - it meant that I had to work out different ways to join each set of cabs to suit the edging used.

I also had to play around with options for filling in the spaces between the focal cabs at the front. I used fire polished beads and seed beads and made joins that look a little like webs but are really netting. I think they came up really well, and helped to make the central point more cohesive.

The final piece is above, and a full-sized photo is on the BSV's web-site, or it can also be found on my Pinterest board. The photo is a bit skewed - there is a central line from the top of the central black cab to the bottom of the central triangular cab - when worn, that is the centre point of the necklace.

Lessons learnt: I learnt a lot about joining multiple pieces into one necklace. There's a real art to arranging all of the pieces so that they work together and sit well on the neck. I feel much more confident about trying my hand at making a bead embroidery piece with multiple components now. In fact I have one piece partly done (my Steampunk piece) that stalled partly because I wasn't confident with how to join everything together. Hopefully I will be able to get back to that now.

The raffle has been held and this piece is going to a lady in central Victoria. I sincerely hope she gets a lot of pleasure from wearing this necklace - I certainly enjoyed being involved in making it!

Bonus: I also ended up making a matching cuff - this was a prize for the person that sold the winning raffle ticket. This was actually my first bead embroidered cuff over a brass blank. I was really pleased with how this turned out, although it would have been much easier to start with a 'raw' cab - I used one of the leftover bead-embroidered cabs from the necklace, so it sits quite proud of the surrounding beadwork. Nevertheless, it looks great, and I'm really keen to try one for myself now!

When I'm not beading ...

It's funny how you get into the habit of doing certain things in certain ways. For example, I can't do beadwork while sitting and watching television. It's just something about the location of the beads, the angle I'm sitting at ... I don't know. I have to be sitting at a table to do beading. One of my friends only ever beads when sitting in her recliner chair - we are all different!

Anyway, just because I can't do beading while I watch telly, doesn't mean I can't do anything. I can still embroider and crochet. I actually didn't do any embroidery for ages because I couldn't see well, but now I have my Craft Optic glasses and a fantastic new daylight lamp, I'm back in business.

I started work on a blackwork sampler in my embroidery class back in 2010 (http://www.crafteecottage.com.au/). I have been working on it sporadically ever since. I enjoy doing blackwork, but I did find some of the patterns very tedious to do, especially the large sections. I also struggled with doing this at night when I was tired before I got my craft optic glasses. Anyway, around Easter-time this year, I decided to really make a push to get this finished at last. It took a lot of work, but it was done by late July 2013 (3.5 years). There would be close to 400 hours of work in this, which includes quite a bit of pulling out and re-doing unfortunately. I got hung up on a couple of sections I didn't like and couldn't figure out what to do with - almost like writer's block! One night I sat down with a seam ripper and spent about three hours pulling out one section of stitching - I whinged to myself the whole time, but I felt so much better for having admitted that it needed to go!

This is the first sampler I have ever done and I can see a lot of faults in it, even though I am very proud of it. I want to do another one (yes I am a glutton for punishment), because I learned so much from this one and I would like to see how much better I can do.

I will have to get someone to take a decent photo of the sampler, these are terrible! But they give you an idea of what it looks like.

Lessons learnt:
Choose your main patterns at the start of the process and work out their repeat number of stitches, then plan your sampler around that. It's a minor niggle, but it does annoy me that the two lattice patterns don't go to the edge of the sampler.

Plan your layout, even a little bit, before you start. This sampler was very ad hoc - when I got bored with one section I would move on down to another section. So some of the stitches are not complementary to others, some should have have had wider or narrower bands. I left a blank section below the half-done alphabet and moved on to the next pattern, then had a lot of trouble finding a pattern that would fit in the space I left. I should have chosen a stitch and worked even a little bit, before moving on down.

Finally, if you're doing an alphabet, work out your spacing before you start. I didn't even try, I just copied the alphabet and spacings directly from the printed chart. That's fairly standard practice, I know. However, if I had been less lazy, I could have centred the alphabet so that there wasn't such a big gap at the end, which would have looked better in the long run.

Lots of lessons - the last one is: chip away at a big project and don't get discouraged. Don't feel bad for putting it away for a while, but do persevere. If you keep on with it, you will eventually finish! Maybe I should pull out that old Teresa Wentzler cross-stitch and have a go at that again?

Twin Bead Herringbone Bracelet

I like the new two-hole beads which have been coming out over the past year or so. Any excuse to try something different!
Herringbone is one of my favourite stitches, and I found a pattern for a mixed twin bead/seed bead herringbone on Patty Perline's blog here: http://pattyperline.blogspot.it/2013/06/superduo-herringbone-texture.html

Once you get past the first couple of rows, it's a very easy pattern to work with. My only suggestion would be to pick up two seed beads in the first row (ie one two-hole, two seed beads ...), but only stitch through the second of the seed beads in the next row. Without doing that, you get very loose tension in the first row, or a lot of thread showing. The second seed bead takes up the slack and the start row looks much better. When you get to the other end, do the same thing in reverse.

Here the bracelet I made using this technique. I have used alternating shiny and matte metallic purple two hole beads, with silvery-grey seed beads. The alternating matte and shiny produces a really interesting effect and gives an extra texture to the weave. This beadwork is very supple, almost as soft as fabric, and very comfortable to wear. I would possibly make it one or two rows shorter if I had a do-over, but that's a minor quibble. One more UFO finished!

Thank you Patty Perline!