Let me call you Sweetheart

I'm in love with you. 
Let me hear you whisper that you love me too. 

I couldn't decide which color of pink crystals to use.  So I used all of them.  I wrote a tutorial for the Sweetheart Pendant so you can learn to bead one yourself.  Thanks for looking.

Tensegrity Sculpture with Seed Bead Weaving

My neighbor Ben brought me a gift of this tensegrity sculpture, made from six pen tubes, eight hair bands, and twelve bobby pins. The blue things are the pen tubes.  The triangles are each one hair band.  The bobby pins are holding the bands and hidden in each end of the pen tubes.

Of course, I had to make one in beads. It took me several tries to finish with this piece above. I tried first with bugle beads, but my results were quite wonky.  Eventually, you see above that I made six separate sticks with cubic right angle weave (CRAW), and I embellished them to stiffen them.  Then, with a seventh piece of thread, I assembled the sticks, using tiny seed beads (where the hair bands would be).

It turned out to be a lot harder to bead weave this piece than I expected.  With the hair bands, the tension balanced everything and the tubes sit in a position of least energy.  With seed beads, I was using a number of beads to determine the distance between the ends of the stick.  I had to get the counts just right or it would sag when I used too many, or bend out of symmetry when I used too few.  I know because I made errors both ways.  "Try and see what happens."  Well, I tried and saw, and in the end, it's still not as balanced as I'd like. Ah well.  I still enjoy a good new beading challenge, even if it doesn't always end perfectly.  Thanks Ben.  That was challenging!  I anticipate that one of you could do better.  Please show me, if you try.  Thanks for looking.

Mostly Cashmere Mostly Purple Tunic Sweater Dress

I put away my beads for a bit so I could do some sewing.  This tunic sweater is mostly purple, and mostly cashmere (with a bit of wool, which is mostly merino).

Oh so soft! The fabrics are super stretchy and did I mention that they're super soft? The tunic is semi fitted through the bodice and drapes slightly longer in the back than in the front.



I hand dyed two of the sweaters with wool dyes to get those bright purples. The accent colors include deep blue, olive green, deep forest green and brown. The seams are medium leaf green.

All seams and hems are professionally sewn with four polyester threads on my serger sewing machine. This is very well made, comfortable and warm.

Size: Medium, 38" bust measured flat, and stretchy. This sweater is SOLD. Thanks for looking.

This tunic was inspired by the sweater coats of Katwise, with help from her sewing tutorials, which are amazing, by the way.

Beaded Bead Necklace in Pink Silver Black with Lampwork Glass

For this necklace, I made 8 beaded beads, including a Conway Bead, 3 Nuts and Washers, 2 Infinity Beads, an Octahedral Cluster and an Mini Ionic Rhombic Dodecahedron. Then, I added 7 borosilicate and lampwork glass beads torched by several different artists. That's 15 beads in all. Together they make a pallet of bright and pale pinks, silver, gray, and black.

They're all strung on a yard of 100% silk cord that I twisted and plied on my spinning wheel. If you enjoy stringing beads, you could use this set as a beginning of a more elaborate necklace, but I would wear them just as they are, strung on cord.

Includes 6 inches (15 cm) of beads. Largest beaded bead measures just over an inch (26 mm). Click on the photos to go to the listing.

If you would like to learn to make your own beaded Nuts and Washers, I have a tutorial available here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/193802036/
I have a tutorial for the Octahedral Cluster here: http://www.beadinfinitum.com/Kits/Octahedral_Cluster.html
The Conway Bead tutorial is here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/202740541/
The Ionic Polyhedra tutorial is here: http://www.beadinfinitum.com/Kits/Ionic_Polyhedra.html
The Infinity Dodecahedron tutorial is here: http://www.beadinfinitum.com/Kits/Infinity_Dodecahedron.html

New Tutorial - Highly Unlikely Triangle with seed beads and thread

I finally finished a tutorial for the Highly Unlikely Triangle, now available.

This piece of beadwork is based upon the impossible triangle of Roger Penrose and MC Escher. I beaded my first impossible triangle in 2006, and it’s taken me until 2014 to write this tutorial. This wasn't my first try, or second!   Until recently, I couldn't find a good way to explain how to do it on paper.   In those 8 years, I have been developing my tutorial writing skills to the point that I could manage explaining such a tricky and challenging design in a way that I think advanced beginning beaders will understand.  And now, I think I finally got it.  The solution was lots and lots of illustrations.

This tutorial is designed to teach you cubic right angle weave with seed beads, including turning corners and joining ends to make a closed loop.  You will also learn to embellish CRAW with seed bead, on straight-aways, and also around inside and outside corners. You can even use tiny bugle beads, like I show here.

 Or even longer bugle beads, like I did here.

I hope you will enjoy my newest tutorial of one of my oldest designs.  Thanks for looking.