Mona Hair's Online Radio Show

Next week I will be on Mona Hair's online radio show as her featured jewelry artist of the week. Mona plays some beautiful music that she has the rights to use, shows pictures of the work done by featured artists, and has videos that she plays during her show. Mona runs her show through www.nowlive.com and started this venture a few months back. She now has thousands of fans listening every week and almost two dozen people calling into the show. Once the show was over, the recorded show is then put up on YouTube.

To get to the radio show, click on Mona Hair's Online Radio Show.

I hope you will join us next week for the show and become the next Mona Hair fan.

Another Flower Bead Crochet Bracelet

Designer Jewelry - Another Flower Bead Crochet Bracelet

Sometimes my designs come from combining two different things that I've done. One of my bead crochet bracelets that I've done in the past, used variegated colored thread with crystal glass beads. The design of the bracelet came from the thread not the beads. This weekend I finished a bracelet that used the same concept. I had some pressed Czech flower beads that were a beautiful shade of purple, and I wanted to make the body of the bracelet match that color. Not having seed beads in the exact color, I noticed that one of the two-ply nylon cords that I had was an exact match. So instead of using purple glass seed beads, I used the clear seed beads with the purple thread. The bracelet below is the result:

This is what the bracelet looks like when it's on your wrist:

Please visit Need for Beads see what else I have for designer jewelry!

New pattern published

This pattern is going to look very similar to the picture at the top of my blog. And for good reason...

The watch band below is one that I designed in response to a challenge made to create a watch band that was adjustable. I started with the bead crochet tube, and then used some techniques to add wire to the ends of the tube. When I was done with the bracelet, I donated the watch and the band to charity.

That was years ago. I had always intended to write up the pattern. However, other bead ideas flooded into my brain and I never got around to writing up the pattern. With one of my customers asking for the watchband, I finally put the instructions onto paper.

This week, I published the pattern for this piece on my website. I am currently experimenting with different colors of seed pearls and Myuki drops.
I am always fascinated by the way the different colors make a piece so distinct from another based upon the same size beads. and then of course, I experiment with different size beads. For instance, I made the same type of band using white pearls just a little bit larger and got this result:

The difference is subtle, but the first watchband in the top picture looks more blue than the band in the bottom picture which looks more white. Because the white pearls are a little bit larger, they stand out more in the watchband,
and of course, the band is just a little bit thicker around the wrist.

Gail H. Devoid, Ph.D

Need For Beads, Inc.

http://www.tarnhelm.com/NeedForBeads

Mailto:gdevoid@tds.net

New Amulet Bag Completed

While I am working on customer orders and new designs, which are the types of work that go quickly, I try to have a long term project going. If I don't, I make mostly bracelets, or my customers wait too long for their orders to be fulfilled. Worse yet, new patterns don't get written up!

Below is one of my long term projects. I break the project down into parts and that helps me finish the project instead of creating a UFO (Unfinished Object) I complete maybe three of these big pieces a year:

Aten's Disk and Ankh

Like most of the bags I make, this one has a pattern on both sides. I was going to do a different strap until I saw how well this modified herringbone stitch went with the design.

The purple iris Delicas provide great contrast to the gold plated beads. With that finish widely available, I was able to use twisted Miyuki bead bugles and Czech daggers for the fringe. This fringe gives the piece a fluid movement.

My next bag will have spring flowers. Hopefully, the long winter months will allow lots of time for beading!

I also did a matching bracelet. Simple and quickly done, the bracelet complements the necklace when worn together, yet is beautiful enough to wear alone.

The bag has the same clasp shown in the bracelet. Even though the strap in the necklace is long enough to just put it on, I used a matching clasp so the strap design went in the same direction. This carries forward the V-shape design of the fringe on both sides of the necklace. Another reason for using a clasp: The pattern used for the strap would not connect the beginning pattern to the end very well. The clasp solved both issues!

I did manage to design a few new bracelets using my favorite stitch, which is bead crochet. Below is one that uses Miyuki drops and this shows first the side view and then a closeup of the bracelet from the top, or how it looks when worn:

Gail H. Devoid, Ph.D

Need For Beads, Inc.

http://www.tarnhelm.com/NeedForBeads

Mailto:gdevoid@tds.net

Bead It Forward

Breast Cancer Squares for Bead It Forward

 

These squares were done by BSNH members to send to Jeanette Shanigan for her 2008 Breast Cancer "Bead It Forward" project (see the article on Jeanette in the December 2007 issue of Bead & Button titled "Beading for a Cause"). The theme of the beaded quilts for 2008 is "Roses". The squares for the quilts are sewn together by Jeanette, mounted and framed, and then auctioned at the Bead & Button Show. All proceeds from the auction go towards research for prevention and cure of breast cancer. These squares are not all the squares donated by generous BSNH members; some other squares were mailed to Jeanette separately and have become part of several quilts. The squares below, however, should be together in one quilt because Jeanette sews them together in the order they are received, and these will be sent as one shipment. I worked most of today to take pictures of these squares, and I have a great appreciation of all the work Jeanette does for this effort. She not only takes pictures of the squares, but then sews them together, mounts the quilt, and frames it.

The picture above is a composite of all the squares and gives an idea of how the squares would look in a quilt. This may not be how Jeanette sews them together. The quilts, as well as free patterns to make rose squares, are on her website at http://shanigansbeadshenanigans.com/BCQuilt.html. To see closeups of the work below, click on the thumbnail. I managed to do two squares, and hope to do at least one more before the April 1st deadline.

Beaded squares for Breast Cancer Project 2008

Linda Rheault	Linda Rheault	Bette Abdu	Bette Abdu	Gail Devoid
Gail Devoid	Paulette Mason	Nancy Cassidy	Deb Fairchild	Sue (Cinnamon) Cannella
Sue (Cinnamon) Cannella	Sue (Cinnamon) Cannella	Sue (Cinnamon) Cannella	Sue (Cinnamon) Cannella	Sue (Cinnamon) Cannella

New Bracelet from Need For Beads

I saw a great pattern in the Dec. 2007/Jan. 2008 issue of Beadwork Magazine written up by Michele Anderson and decided to give it a try. I used my loom made especially for Delicas, and the warp threads were long enough to knot the end of the fringe. But since I used fireline, knotting the ends was just as difficult and took as much time as sewing in the warp threads would have. The picture below shows the results:

Shimmering Tapestry Bracelet

I also changed the toggles on this. I saw Party Girl Necklace by Robin Cowart in the same issue of Beadwork Magazine, and knew I could modify the beaded bead to my project. I used 4mm Swarovski crystals, Japanese Delicas that match the pink beads in the band, and sewed up a beaded bead. It collapsed. So, I opened it back up and put in a black faceted 6mm glass bead, and the bead fit perfectly. Now I had a toggle that matched the band and was sturdy.

Here's the bracelet flat so you can see the pattern of the band and the beaded beads better:

Shimmering Tapestry Bracelet with Beaded Bead Toggles

The next one I am going to do with the pattern of the band will be in a different color, and I will use a no-warp threads method. I'll do this using the Versa Loom by Sova Enterprises. Although I will fold over the ends and embellish on top of the loomed band, I want to create a closure that brings the embellished ends closer together. I'll probably do that at the Bead Society of New Hampshire's March Bead Retreat.

Meanwhile, I am working on my Aten's Disk and Ankh amulet bag pattern, as well as getting ready to replenish my stock of finished pieces.