New Tutorial - Coral Cube Beaded Bead

Here's my newest beading tutorial.  This one shows you how to weave elaborate beaded beads with seed beads and round beads. 

The design is based upon the structure of a cube and, as such, has 6 large (6 mm) holes running through its center. Yes, those are huge holes for a beaded bead, and they go through every face.  I think they look like clusters of coral, hence the name, Coral Cube.

The beaded beads are hollow and stiff, and come in three versions.

This tutorial is suitable for intermediate to advance bead weavers who know how to do tubular (circular) peyote stitch and increases. I don't think the easiest one is too terribly difficult, but they do take a few hours to make.  Peyote stitch... that's a lot of stitches, but the materials aren't fancy, just regular seed beads and round beads. No fancy shapes required, so you can work from your stash.  Thanks for looking.

NEW TUTORIAL - Horned Bangle Bracelet Beaded with Peyote Stitch

This tutorial explains how to bead weave a bracelet with seed beads and thread. No fancy shapes required! The Horned Bangle Bracelet is inspired by a workshop with Kate McKinnon on Contemporary Geometric Beadwork. This bracelet is a hollow tube and somewhat flexible. It measures 14 mm wide and 11 mm thick.

This tutorial includes step-by-step instructions for weaving the bracelet into a continuous bangle. For a short project, use fewer repeats to make a donut.

This tutorial is designed for advanced beginning bead weavers who know peyote stitch.

The tutorial is 9 pages, including 60 illustrations and photographs. The tutorial is a PDF file that gives step-by-step instructions for the bracelet and donuts.

You can make the horned cable with any size seed beads you like. Use all one size, or for a better fit, make the L beads one size larger. The smaller donut is made with size 15° and 11° seed beads. It measures 26 mm (1 inch) in diameter and 10 mm thick. It is a little too small to fit my pinky finger.

The larger donut measures 4 cm wide and is made with all size 11° seed beads. It fits my thumb.

The bracelet is made with size 11° and 8° seed beads, and if you want to make a faster chunky version, use size 8° and 6°.

Acrylic Painting on Canvas -- Pixel Painting 2, Kintsugi

Here is my second "Pixel Painting," created with cellular automata.

This one is called, "Kintsugi," named after the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold in the cracks.

Each pixel has many layers of paint, making the colors rich and complex. The colors are mostly light blue, gray, black, and many shades of gold. The blacks vary from green to blue to purple to burgundy. There are lots of colors in there for depth and contrast.

 In the mean time, I bought a fifth canvas. So there will be at least five of these 20" by 30" cellular automata paintings before I finish the series.

 20" by 30", unframed. The sides are painted black so it doesn't need a frame..

Signed and dated. I sealed it with three coats of acrylic clear coat to make it a little shiny and protect it from scratches. Looks nice. Find it in my Etsy shop.

Acrylic Painting on Canvas -- Pixel Painting I, Water Lilies

This acrylic painting is from my new series "Pixel Paintings." In this series, I explore the designs created with cellular automata. This painting is the first large piece in the series, although I did several smaller pieces to get my technique. This series will have at least four large paintings, hopefully more.

In this series, I am trying to achieve a sense of rhythm, repetition, order and chaos. I am trying to create a balance between organic and geometric.

Each pixel has many layers of paint, making the colors rich and complex. The colors are mostly greens and blues, but there are lots of warm colors in there for depth and contrast. I had been working with beads on similar designs, but found that I wasn't getting the depth and variety of color I wanted.  So I switched to paint.  Also, I wanted to make it big enough for a wall, and size 11/0 seed beads just weren't big enough. 

20" by 30", unframed. The sides are painted dark gray so it doesn't need a frame.