Tutorial for Beaded Cascade Earrings

New beading tutorial! Finally!

I call them Cascade Earrings. They’re for those of us who like itty bitty seed beads.

Find it here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1446919002/

Baroque Cube Earrings tutorial

Itty bitty beaded cubes to hang from your ears. 

Make your own. 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/250952884/

Floret Earrings and Charms with Modified Prismatic Right Angle Weave PRAW

Learn to make Floret Earrings and Necklace with this original variation on Modified Prismatic Right Angle Weave (MPRAW). This version of MPRAW is like Modified RAW described in Contemporary Geometric Beadwork, and other beading patterns. This tutorial is written for intermediate beaders who want to learn more about right angle weave (RAW). Knowledge of cubic RAW or modified RAW is recommended.

This tutorial includes detailed instructions for making the Floret Earrings and the matching necklace with of tiny pendants with matching beaded beads. Everything uses Japanese seed beads in two different sizes with the addition of other small round, roundel and/or bicone beads. They are a wonderful way to small amounts of leftover seed beads and other small one-hole beads.

Each floret is 11/16 inch wide (12 mm) and almost an inch tall (23 mm). They’re small and light, making them comfortable to wear as earrings.

The tutorial is detailed including 15 colorful pages, with 110 full color illustrations and photographs. The tutorial gives detailed illustrations, photographs, and written instructions to make the Floret Earrings and matching necklace.

 Thanks for looking!

Truncated Icosidodecahedron in Beads Crater Moon Beaded Bead

Meet Crater Moon.

and Crater Moon in White...

Each Crater Moon is composed of nearly 2700 beads.

The American Mathematical Society recently posted a photo of an amazing structure on their Facebook page with no comment of who made it. They called it a rhombicosidodecahedron (3.4.5.4) because that is the name of the polyhedron in the very inside layer, but Susan Goldstine noticed that the outside layer is actually a truncated icosadodecahedron (4.6.10). This object is a multilayered compound of unusual polyhedra.

With help from Susan, I figured out how to weave it with seed beads and thread. Susan built this model below using Zometool, and wrote, "This is what the structure above each triangular face of the rhombicosadodecahedron looks like. I feel better about not being able to make out what's going on from the original photo. The cavity has a triangle, six trapezoids, three pentagons, and the hexagon at the top." Furthermore, "Above each core pentagon is half an icosidodecahedron (3.5.3.5)."

To bead it, I used an edge-and-cover weave with 3 mm bugle beads for the edge beads and size 11° seed beads for the cover beads. (There's one exception, where I used 11° seed beads for the short edge beads under the squares.) In other words, every n-gon has 2n beads, including n edge beads alternated with n cover beads, all sewn in a loop.

Here you can see how I started to weave the inside layer, showing the edge-and-cover weave for (3.4.5.4), also known as the rhombicosadodecahedron as I mentioned above.

This is a photo from Ivona Suchmannova of Spiral Beading, showing the first layer curled into a ball.

This is the complete first layer of Crater Moon with 6 mm bugle beads and 11º seed beads. This piece will finish a lot larger than the others because the bugle beads are longer.

Here is the start of the second layer on Ivona's bead. She stitched loops of triangles around the pentagons, connected by at the bugle beads.

This shows the start of layer 2 with the longer, 6 mm bugles. You can see the 5 triangles around the pentagons and the 3 trapezoids around the triangles. The short edge of the trapezoids is the aqua 8°. All other beads are 11° and 6 mm.

 

Next, the center front is still just one layer, 

but layer 2 is nearly complete.  Layer 2 

consists of 30 little 3D pentahedrons sitting 

on top of the squares in the first layer. Four 

little walls like a camping tent, the four other 

sides of the pentahedrons include two 

triangles and two trapezoids. The short sides 

of the trapezoids are the one place where 

we use an 11° instead of a bugle bead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These show the second layer finished. The seed beads in the center of the Xs (aqua below, burgundy above) are the tops of the tents, the one place I used seed beads for edge beads.

This is the start of the third layer. It's triangles and pentagons. Here are the pentagons.

And here you can see both pentagons and triangles.

You can add the pentagons and triangle in two steps, or you can stitch them together.
Here you see 3 of the 12 rings done.

Four more to go!

 Here all 12 are done.

In the fourth layer, I finished the space under the 30 squares, adding two trapezoid loops per square.

The fifth and final layer requires adding 720 size 15° seed beads to the outer surface.  Only then does the Crater Moon really hold its shape neatly.

You should make one.

It's just 11°, 15°, Toho 3 mm bugles, and Fireline 6lb.

And a whole lot of stitches.

Here you can see how big it is, just 1.75 inches across or 45 mm.

If you would like to have your very own Crater Moon, you can find the white one in my Etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/579082293/

The larger Crater Moon is available here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/582628369/

Thanks for looking.

P.S. If you'd like to try weaving beads, but you think that the Crater Moon is a little beyond your skill set, have a look in my Etsy shop for tons of other tutorials for all skill levels.

Free Pattern for Puffy Heart SRAW and LOVE Letters

So, there's a blog called Bead Love...

It's a blog of inspirations on love and beads, and a group of about 50 of us bead designers are writing it, one post per week for over a year, until we have all had a turn.  

This week, it was my turn to contribute.  So, here.

Mini Crown Earrings Blue Jeans

It's been a long time since I made some jewelry just for the sake of making some jewelry. Lately, I've been focusing my attention on designing novel works for the purpose of writing tutorials, and that takes a lot of time to finish each project. But, last night, I made some jewelry using one of my older patterns, and gee, it was nice to finish a piece in one sitting. These are Mini Crown Earrings, in the colors of blue jeans.

Find this pair here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/522067551/
Learn to make your own: https://www.etsy.com/listing/202127734/

New Tutorial - Ginkgo Leaf Earrings Beaded with a Variation of Cubic Right Angle Weave

With nothing more than seed beads and thread, make these Gingko Leaf Earrings with this original variation on Cubic Right Angle Weave (CRAW). This tutorial is very detailed, written for advanced beginner beaders who have a basic knowledge of beading. Knowledge of CRAW is strongly recommended.

Each leaf is nearly inch wide (23 mm) and 20 mm tall. They’re small, and CRAW creates a lot of negative space. So they’re light, making them comfortable to wear as earrings.

The tutorial is 14 pages, with over 90 full color illustrations and photographs, a COLORFUL FEAST for the eyes. The tutorial gives highly detailed illustrations, photographs, and written instructions to make the earrings. Included are 14 different pairs of Gingko Leaf Earrings in different color schemes. That I have made so many pairs is a testament to how much fun these are to make and wear. Since they use mostly size 11° seed beads with just a few colors of 15° and 8° they are a wonderful way to explore color combinations with just seed beads.

I beaded Ginkgo Leaves from time to time for over three years before I figured out how to write it down on paper. In my blog, I said I'd be "insane" to write a tutorial for this design. This is actually because I didn't really understand how to do it. As I posted more and more pairs of these earrings on the internet, bead weavers wrote to me, asking me to write a tutorial. So, I kept making pairs and eventually, I drew some pictures, and my method became clearer to me. Months passed, and I made more pairs, and drew more drawings. Then I made more pairs and eventually I understood the method, and I was able to draw all of the steps in a way that makes sense. Then I took photos to match the drawings, and wrote it all up. This tutorial is the culmination of a long process to document these earrings so that other bead weavers can enjoy making them too. This tutorial is also super colorful. I used a rainbow pair for the step photos and illustrations in the hopes that you will enjoy looking at this the tutorial as much as making and wearing the earrings.

New Tutorial - Tentacle Bracelet Beaded with Honeycomb Weave

I recently released my newest tutorial for a bangle bracelet. I called it the Tentacle Bangle because the way the embellishment looks reminds me of the suckers on a octopus' tentacle.

This tutorial explains how to bead weave a bracelet with one size of seed bead, round or bicone beads, and thread. No fancy shapes required! The Tentacle Bracelet is hollow and somewhat flexible. It is quite substantial, measuring 14 mm wide.

This tutorial includes step-by-step instructions for weaving the bracelet into a continuous bangle. This tutorial is designed for intermediate bead weavers. The tutorial is 12 pages, including about 75 illustrations and photographs. The tutorial is a PDF file that gives step-by-step instructions for the bracelet and earrings in the photos.

This design uses the honeycomb angle weave. It’s like right angle weave (RAW), but with other angles. If you like RAW and want a new challenge, you’ll love this. However, you don’t need to know RAW to follow this tutorial. This is my fifth tutorial using honeycomb weave. The first was the Daisy Chain Cable.

Second is the Delta Queen Necklace.

Third is the Honeycomb Chain Bracelet.

Fourth is the Solaris Bracelet.

And here you can see one last photo of the Tentacle Bracelet. 

As you can see, honeycomb weave is a very versatile weave.  Somehow, I think I'm not done designing with it yet.  As always, thanks for looking.