Sunday, January 29, 2012

Tennis Revisited

I've taken several classes at my local bead shop, The Bead Hive, which were taught by the very talented Sue Snell.  Sue calls these "Tennis Revisited".  They are simple yet very beautiful and are quick and easy to make. I used 1.5mm Japanese cube beads, 11/0 seed beads and finally 3mm bicones all on 6 lb. Fireline. The combination of colors is endless!


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Lekku Neckace

This necklace was quite the challenge. I found the instructions in Rachel Nelson-Smith's Seed Bead Fusion book and fell in love right away.  I'm currently in my "beading period" which may be followed by some other craft or revert back to a previous one - who knows.  I purchased all my supplies from local bead shops and went to work. The directions were relatively easy and I found myself moving right along. There are two stages to this piece - the rope base and the embellishment.  I followed Rachel's directions and used "beading thread" - I think it was nymo. I was about 90% done when I looked down and was shocked to find the drop embellishments in the middle coming apart. I used double thread just like Rachel suggested and was dumbfounded. Since this piece is worked in a netting style there was just no way to repair it. I had to take the entire thing apart.  I think my husband was more upset than I was. I knew how many night he went to bed alone while I stayed up beading this behemoth and the thought of a repeat was a bit shocking to him.

Anyway, I'm a glutton for punishment I guess and I separated all my beads and started again. This time I used 6 lb Fireline DOUBLED for the entire piece. I figured better safe then sorry.  It came out really pretty and much chuckier than I had imaged.  I typically wear simple pieces so on Christmas Eve I wore this with a simple white blouse and black slacks. Boy did it stand out. I received many compliments and no one could believe I made it.  I even had someone place an order for two bracelets I made - thanks Nikki!!

I'm not sure I will ever make this again. It was very time consuming and used tons of beads which add up after a while.  However, it's a special "statement" piece that I will always cherish!