Welcome to The Beaded Heart Blog

Welcome to The Beaded Heart Blog
Two-Tone Crystal and Bugle Bead Bracelet,design by S.Eddy

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

A rose by any other name...

I've long been wanting to make a necklace from the Russian spiral stitch. On Sunday, while watching the Patriots on TV, I started one. I like the way the two colors continually spiral like an endless staircase. Imagine my surprise when I realized that the stitch I'd been waiting to "try" turned out to be nothing more than a version of odd count peyote. So simple!

That's one of the things I love about beading. Sometimes the most complicated looking piece is really just a combination of relatively easy elements. A recent class I took with Stephanie Eddy is a good example. The base for both the bracelet and the necklace was nothing more than peyote stitch. The straps of the necklace was daisy chain (the very first thing I did in beading all those many moons ago as a teen.

The leaves were brick stitch, which I needed a bit of a refresher on because I hadn't done it in a while, but still an easy stitch to master. The berries are tedious, yes, but difficult? Not at all. I imagine many beaded berries being created before this football season is over.

I've been looking at different floral designs to see how I can translate them into pieces as lovely as the ones Stephanie designs. I can see that instead of bracelets or necklaces I can use the peyote base with a glued magnet on the back to create "pins." I can craft petals and seasonal leaves, I can fill in spaces here and there with bits of this and that...look carefully at some of your favorite designs and see how to easily break them down into components. If you spend time building a reserve of various components, then when you're in the mood to produce a finished piece, you're more than halfway there!

Especially of interest to me has been the idea of poinsettia pins. They're already done in my mind. I just need the time for that image to be translated to my fingers.

Be well,
TBH