Bead & Button 2013 Starburst Galaxy

We just got word... Florence Turnour and I will be teaching two classes together at the Bead & Button Show in June 2013.  Here are a couple photos from the workshop I designed.  First is an 8-pointed star. 

And here is a necklace that I made from 6-pointed stars in four sizes.

I call the workshop the "Starburst Galaxy Made With Right Angle Weave."  I call it a galaxy because you can make more than 20 different stars in different shapes and sizes, all with one combination of techniques.    I'll show you more photos of the different stars you can make in the coming months as I assemble kits. 

Here are the class details. B130411- Tue. June 4 - 9:00am-5:30pm (with 1.5 hr. break) - DC Show Floor 22.  Registration doesn't begin until January, I think.  I'll give you more info as I get it.

Highly Unlikely Squares and Blueberry Earrings

Red, it's one of those colors that I generally don't like much.  For once, I was truly inspired by red, and with turquoise no less! 

I was inspired to use this color combination from the bracelet shown below.  This bracelet was designed and beaded by the very talented Mikki Ferugiaro (photo used with permission).  Thank you, Mikki, for the great color scheme and the inspiration! You actually made me like red, and that's no small accomplishment.

Here's another close up of the earrings.

Do they look huge? Last time I saw Florence in person, I was wearing my own Mini Blueberry Beaded Bead earrings (in purple and green), and she was very surprised by how small and dainty they are.  She had seen photos on line, and she always imagined them to be much larger than they really are.  Mini Blueberry Beaded Beads measure just 11 mm in diameter.  In my book, that definitely qualifies them as minis.  See how small...

While I had these seed beads out, I made a second Highly Unlikey Square pendant that matches the first, but with green instead of red.  What can I say?  My love for red is fickle, and by now, you know how I feel about green.  At the same time, I actually like all colors (except yellow) because I've learned that any color can be beautiful if it's used well with other colors, even red.  Now, if I can just figure out how to love yellow, I'll be set.

I have a tutorial for the Highly Unlikely Triangle, a related but simpler design. 

Thanks for looking.

Rainbow Twist Beaded Beads No. 11 and 12

I'm still making Rainbow Twist beaded beads because I'm really liking playing with different color combos.  This one is No. 11, and it's one of those color combinations that I like to return to from time to time. This one started as all white, but I also used silver, and I fudged it a little more and added a some lavender. It reminds me of snow crystals. 

 

Here you can see the symmetry it exhibits from the side and how small it is.

This one reminds me of spring flowers.  I like the way it can be formed into a pinwheel design with 4 petals in two color schemes, 

 or you can reform it into something that looks like some weird sea creature.  These beaded beads are for sale.  Click the photos.  Thanks for looking.

Rainbow Twists No 9 and 10

I'm still making Rainbow Twist beaded beads because they're like potato chips.  You can't eat just one. 
Mmm. 
Wait...

This one is a true Mobius band with a half twist, and it fits comfortably on the tip of my finger.  See how happy my finger is?

And this one is a regular Rainbow Twist with a full twist. It's very flexible.

Want one?  You're in luck.  They are both available in my Etsy shop.  Click the photos to go to the listings.

Rainbow Twist No. 6

Last week, I shared instructions for how to make a Rainbow Twist beaded bead. I made them free, so if you haven't checked them out yet, you should go watch the video.  I'm still making them, and I love that each one is a little different from the others. 

This one has extra rows to give a scalloped edge, and it has two full twists instead of one.  It also has more repeats and the extra length makes it quite flexible and fun to play with.  This beaded bead is for sale. Thanks for looking.

Link with 4 Rings in Felt

This piece is made from felt, and making this piece gave me many surprises.  The image above shows that it has the chiral symmetry of a tetrahedron, but this isn't how I thought it would look before I made it.   I made this object because a friend of friend asked if I could bead a version of the logo for Alximia winery, shown below.   I decided to make one in felt instead because felt is so flexible, and I imagined that this particular link would be especially fun to play with if it were made from felt.  And so it is.

Each component  in the Alximia logo is supposed to represent one of the four alchemic elements: earth, air, water and fire, and they suggested using some colors related to these.  So I made earth brown, air blue, water green, and fire red.  Green water?  Anyway, moving on...
    
To my great surprise, I found many different ways to arrange the four felt rings, shown in the Doceri drawing below.  You can see the logo represented in the two photos on the top right (just below my signature).  It has 3-fold symmetry.

We can see from the logo that it is an alternating link with 4 rings (components).   (By alternating, I mean that if you follow the path of a ring, it weaves over, under, over, under, and so on around the other rings.  You never get two overs in a row, or two unders.)   But if you look at the photo on the far left of the picture above, below the words "chiral tetrahedral" you can see it's an alternating link in this arrangement too.  This arrangement has 4-fold symmetry.  These two different arrangements both show that the link is alternating.   I wasn't expecting that.  Cool. 

This link has 12 crossings.  Twelve crossings is a lot.  Some link tables only go to 11.  So I was having a hard time figuring out which link I had.  But when I built the logo in felt,  it turned into my old favorite, the four intersecting triangles.   You might remember this beaded bead:

You can see it's the same mathematical object in the same orientation as in the largest (first) photo of the felt above.  Well, almost, one is a reflection of the other.  They are opposites.  In other words, the felt piece and the beaded piece have opposite chiral symmetry, but otherwise, they are identical. 

And the last surprise for this felted logo... If I pull hard, I can fit it over my hand and wear it on my wrist.  I had no idea it was going to be a bracelet.  Sometimes, you just get lucky.  The felt bracelet is for sale.  Click the photos.

Rainbow Twist Monarch Butterfly

A couple posts ago, I shared instructions for how to make a Rainbow Twist beaded bead. I made them free, so if you haven't checked them out yet, you should go watch the video.

Like the beaded bead in my last post, this version here has 20 repeats instead of the 16 I describe in the Doceri video.  It does not include the optional shared J bead.  Leaving out the optional step makes it more flexible.

 
This piece is SOLD!  Cheers!