One thing I love about Geometric Beadwork is the sheer endless variety possible. Even if I stuck to just beading triangles for the rest of my life I don't think I'd run out of ideas and probably barely touch all the possibilities.

One thing that is nice though is when I have a reason to use those possibilites rather than leave then hiding aay in my bead rom or just have them racing through my mind.

When I was working on Geometric Beadwork it was great to delve into my samples box (though it's a lot less organised now than it as then!) and pick up all those ideas I had had over the previous decade, such as Rick-Rack, Horns, Rivoli Flowers, and actually turn them into finished pieces.

Often an idea will present itself with a clear project in mind  for the end result (Rivoli flowers is one example from Geometric Beadwork which was a finished project right away) but other ideas have to sit in the back of my mind for a while or be played with in samples until I can see what I want to do with it.

For example the Rick-Rack and Horns projects which appear in Geometric Beadwork took a lot of playing with over the years before they were allowed to leave my bead room.

Rick-Rack was because I needed to experiment with it a lot so that I could get the sizing right so anyone would know what size the item would turn out when they began. I hate projects where the sizing is an unknown quantity, beading takes too long in my view to take that risk, so I spend a long time making samples and measuring so that when any project is released I've worked through those issues so you don't have to.

Horns because I wanted to ensure that the final project was a wearable and replicable project. I love playing with projects and inspiring others to play with techniques and ideas, and I hope Geometric Beadwork encourages that, but I strongly always want to write patterns and instructions so that anyone can make EXACTLY what I'm showing if you want to.
I know when I'm following anyone else's instructions it's because I want to make THAT item. I might want to play around with it later but I want to be able to fully understand the base project or idea before I do so.

That’s why in Geometric Beadwork there are 28 projects (or 31 with the extra postcards) but over 70 other photos with project variations showing different ideas to inspire and that's what is also planned for Geometric Beadwork Volume 2.

One project which has been whirring around for a long, long time is my new piece: Dana's Gift.

This necklace uses scalene triangles (where no side is the same length) as beaded beads/ pendants. Each piece is graduated in size along the necklace so that although they grow in one direction they stay the same size in another which means they visually unite.

Now that I have completed one project with these triangles I can see me creating a few more over the next few years so watch this space to see them appear again.