Saturday, August 24, 2013

Beaded Beads with Long Magatamas

Long Magatamas are interesting little beads - they have a neat shape, and are often used to provide texture to patterns, but they flummox me a little. They are highly directional - if you don't pick each one up with the same orientation, your finished piece can look very "disheveled".

I used Magatamas to create a kumihimo necklace a few weeks ago, and have been looking for other ways to use them in my beadwork.

Yesterday, I started playing with some Magatamas, and found I could use netting to create beaded beads with them:





 Beaded Bead with Long Magatamas and 11/0s (netting)

It may not look like much in this picture, but after I made a few more, and strung them into this bracelet, I really like the result:

Beaded beads made with Long Magatamas (netting)



I separated each Long Magatama beaded bead with 10mm Swarovski crystals, which are each bookended with square textured and domed bead caps.



This bracelet is now available in my Etsy shop!

2 comments:

Karin Slaton said...

Very clever. The square bead caps are an unexpected, rich detail in your oh-so-elegant design!

H.T. said...

Hello,Sweetie:-)
Your bracelet is charming!Wonderful beaded beads with the Magatama -long!
Lovely colors too and great texture.
Greets-Halinka-

p.s.I have 'woken up' to beading,blogging and commenting again-/just in case You missed me:-))/