Infinity Ubercube Bead & Button Class Kit

Florence Turnour and I will be teaching together at Bead & Button Show 2012 in June.  This is the pink and purple kit for our Ubercube Necklace class.  Have you signed up yet?

Cube Cluster Pattern

With the release of the 3-page, abridged version of the Cube Cluster Beaded Bead pattern (above right) in the current issue of Beadwork Magazine, we are now selling the full 14 page version of this pattern combined with our old favorite, the Octahedral Cluster (above left). You get two patterns for the price of one, 33 pages and 140 photos and illustrations in all. Included are lengthy discussions of basic beaded cubes and octahedrons so that even beginning beaders can follow along.

These two beaded beads make a great matched set, because they use the same weaving technique and have the same symmetry.  They are also both very round and in two complimentary sizes, with the Cube Cluster measuring a full inch, and the Octahedral Cluster at 3/4 inches.   And OF COURSE, our pattern has lots of variations and inspirations if you want to explore the technique further. The Cube Cluster also has a remarkable large hole, over 3mm, making it suitable to be strung on a cord or a thin chain. See the hole in the center of the blue and gold one below.

Boo Kitty Speed Painting on My iPad

Last time I showed you this Doceri painting of my cat.

I recorded a video of the speed painting so you can see how I did it.

By the way, she's not angry, that's just the way her face was made.

Painting on my iPad

I went to a few art galleries recently, and it left me wanting to paint.  Today I painted pictures of my pets.  Meet Walter. 

Walter is not actually purple, but he is the nicest animal you will ever meet.  He's a lap dog, and weighing in at about 90 pounds, he makes me wish I had a bigger lap.  Fortunately, he knows the command "move."  Good doggy!

This is my cat Boo. 

You could say that Boo is less sociable than Walter.  I always wondered what little Boo would look like if I dyed her pink.  Now I know.  Notice that Boo is so poofy that her fuzziness overflows into the air around her.  She's that fuzzy.

I painted these pictures with Doceri software on my iPad.   I took a photo, and then colored over the top.  Fun stuff.

Top Hat No.7 with Ribbon Roses

I just finished a new top hat, this one is a more classic topper shape than my Wonka of Wonderland hats.  I didn't intend to make this a girly hat, but I made a bunch of ribbon roses that I didn't know what to do with, so I put them on the hat.  Here you can see me in it.

Click the photos to go to the listing.  Have a great day.

Twisty DNA Earrings

I tried a new variation of my DNA beaded earrings.  These are all in silver seed beads, with matte silver on the inside and shiny silver along the edges.  I removed the bugle bead rungs to make a narrower helix.  The result gave not only a narrower helix, but more twist per rung.  See, in the original design below, eight rungs gives just over one complete twist.

But with this new pair,  eight rungs gives about one and a half complete twists.  They're more twisty.

What I learned from this little experiment is that you can use different lengths of bugle beads for the rungs, but the smaller the bugle bead (or none at all) will make the beaded DNA twist more, and conversely, if you use longer bugle beads, the DNA will twist less.  Click the photos to see the listings.