Sampler
posted on Monday, 25 September 2006
My latest Sampler delivery arrived today. I always look forward to this, as you never know what you're going to receive. This time I got some lovely soaps, body butter, handmade cards, badges, earrings, magnets and a crafting zine. The picture shows some pieces I've received in my last three samplers.
I taught chain maille as a private lesson this week which was great- reminded me how much I love doing it- need to get that Koil Kutter out and some jump rings made!
I'm still working on geometric 3.7.3 it's up to 6 triangles now and I'm having fun working with the different colours. My experience of working on 3.4.2 and mixing the matte and the shiny beads is paying off.
New Book, New Magazine And New Jewellery
posted on Monday, 18 September 2006
An exciting week- got my first copy of the book I co-wrote with Liz Thornton! Like with my first book, it's so different seeing it in all its colourful, bound glory. It's nice to flick back through and see all the projects and samples we worked on and remember how much I enjoyed working with Liz on this. We originally began it a few years so it's been a long time coming- but worth the wait.
I also received an advance copy of the Oct/ Nov 2006 issue of Beadwork Magazine with my Honeycomb Beaded Beads project in it- a follow up to my honeycomb bracelet that was featured in their Feb/ Mar 2006 issue.
Went to bead group on Saturday where I continued my new necklace- geometric 3.7.3. Bought just the right crystals for embellishing the triangles. Sunday was a great day of wirework with friends- I managed to start another Viking weave necklace and make a basket weave bracelet all in silver to contrast with my gold and silver one- now I just need to adjust the size and polish it up. Despite a few problems with size and shrinkage of bracelets, the day was a success and it was nice to sit and do wirework with friends and catch up- it doesn't get better than that.
Beading In London And More Triangles
posted on Monday, 11 September 2006
We finally managed to launch our newest baby- our new website Beading In London. My designer in crime has done a great job and I hope the website proves to be popular and useful. I get lots of emails from people who are planning to visit London and want to know where the shops are, places they can visit etc so thought it would be good to have all that information in one place.
It was nice to get the details of the first London Beading Day out as well- planned for 2nd December 2006 the theme will be bead embroidery- full details can be seen on the site.
Beading wise I've been playing around with more triangles- no surprise there! I find them so satisfying to bead. This time I wanted to develop the beaded beads I've already made and bead a linked chain. Cue lots of beading and calculating inner and outer edges as the central hole needs to be able to fit two triangles and they need to be able to move freely. All very easy until you add in the fact I want them to look nice! I wanted nice fat triangles, not skinny ones. Lots of beading later – you can see my samples in the picture- I got what I wanted and managed to begin my necklace. After working with so much colour recently I decided to try a black and white based palette.
Peyote Lariats
posted on Monday, 04 September 2006
More geometric beading this week- can you tell I'm addicted? I managed to finish 3.4.2 and am really pleased with it. The mix of colours- 87 in total- work well and The mixing of matte and shiny definitely works. Your eyes are drawn around the piece to see the colours but because it's not all shiny they're not tired or searching out contrast. It's a wonderful tactile piece that is great to play with in your hands.
I also managed to bead some peyote stitch lariats as class samples and a bracelet.
Shiny vs Matte
posted on Monday, 28 August 2006
Working hard on my latest geometric piece 3.4.2 which I'm loving. With bigger triangles and more space between them than 3.4.1 this is looking quite different. I'm changing colours regularly at set places but am choosing the colours themselves fairly randomly. (fairly randomly doesn't make much sense I know- but I've found I need to regulate how many shiny beads there are without being broken up by some matte, but other than that, the colours used are just whatever I pick up next.)
I taught a class on herringbone stitch this weekend. Some of the samples I beaded in the class are in the picture along with some other herringbones samples for a piece I've been working on for around 4 years now! and my experience in that and beading 3.4.2 have confirmed two things that I'll definitely bear in mind when beading other things and hope they'll help you too.
1- Too much shine doesn't look good. There are a few reasons for this- the main one is that when looking at any surface, your eyes search out balance, which means they often look for contrast; if there isn't a contrast they continue searching, don't rest and get tired. This, and the fact they reflect so much light, is why looking at shiny or bright surfaces can often have the effect of hurting your eyes. Adding matte beads gives the required contrast and can make the piece work. Also, shiny beads come forward in a colour scheme, whereas matte beads recede- so if something has lots of shiny beads, they're all fighting for pole position and your attention- you can't relax and look at the whole piece.
Unfortunately, shiny beads are the ones that often first attract us and I have often found when teaching, these are the first beads new beaders buy- and then struggle to use. Shiny beads tire your eyes and add in clear shiny edges, and in my experience, people often find it difficult to even see the hole in the bead; the edges of the beads; or even accurately see how many there are.
All of these make it harder to learn a stitch, as being able to easily pick up beads, or see how they're lying, or how many there are, is essential. Because of this, all my class requirements lists now recommend new beaders begin with matte or less shiny beads – try this for yourself if you're struggling with a stitch or technique and see if it makes a difference.
2- You need to have beads on either side of a colour to see if it works. This is something I always tell people in my classes when they're not sure about a colour. You need to not only try the colour, but bead on further and add beads and colour each side of it to really see if it works. The same often also works in stitches- you need to bead on a few rows before the previous work tightens up and looks as it should. Picture herringbone stitch; the stacks of beads in the last row you added will flare out and not lie next to each other until you bead at least one more row, as each row added has the thread going through previous rows and altering them.
Of course, now I just need to remember these things and not lose heart straight away when something I'm beading doesn't look right!
Some great links with more info on shiny, matte, contrast, and putting colours together:
Bead Cats
Margie Deeb 1
Margie Deeb 2
Color Matters
