Wednesday Worktable

I am a beadweaver, to the core. Love those tiny seed beads!

My first exposure to beading was a beadweaving class, and I fell in love. Spirals are my very favorite, but I love all the stitches. Although I probably won't be doing any twisted tubular herringbone again - a little too tedious and boring for me. But that's in the past.

I always turn to beadweaving when I find myself in a creative rut - I buy tutorials, or I leaf through the thousands of patterns and pics I have stored meticulously in various 3 inch binders - I just love starting with piles of pretty glass seed beads, and ending with a beautiful woven work of art!

As I said, I love spirals. The very first stitch I learned was the spiral rope, and I'm still making them.

I have watched someone else make a double spiral, and I found it fascinating. I always meant to try one, but I just never made time for it.

Until yesterday - I printed off a free tutorial I found on the internet, spend entirely too much time picking out (and rejecting) seed bead colors, and finally got started about 5 PM.

I got about 3/4 of an inch stitched before quitting time - Here's another view:

I'm not entirely sold on this combination of colors/design - I'll stitch a little bit more before I decide whether to abandon it and start over. There's a fine line between having not enough stitched to get an idea of how it looks, and continuing to stitch because you think eventually it will start to look ... better. And I am NOT going to cross that line today - I really hope I have committed THAT lesson to memory! If it doesn't look great at 3 inches, it is NEVER going to look great!!

Regarding the double spiral - the particular tutorial I decided to print was just the latest one I had pinned to my Pinterest Jewelry Tutorial Board. I know I have at least 4 different Double Spiral Tutorials on that board, but I didn't spend any time studying them - I was eager to get started. I just grabbed the first one I saw, and took off! I'm not linking to the one I am using because it has several mistakes in it - the author typed right when she meant left, and vice versa - and therefore the text sometimes doesn't match the diagrams. Making it hard for someone doing the stitch for the first time to know whether to go with the words or the pics!

The double spiral is a very tight stitch. The tutorial recommended using an 8/0 or a 6/0 for the core (versus an 11/0) because you have to make so many passes through the core - I chose an 8/0, and am not sure I am going to be able to get all the passes in there!

I haven't got a long enough piece yet to really see the pattern, and so I am not 100% convinced I am doing it correctly.

When it is a bit longer, I'll be able to see whether I like it, and if I don't, I'll hopefully be able to tell whether it's the stitch, or my color choices and design.

So, that's today's worktable - have a great Wednesday!