2 new Herringbone Bracelets

I know you can't tell, but I've been pretty busy beadweaving lately - so busy I haven't stopped to photograph, list on Etsy, and blog - so I'm doing a little of that today.

I have been on a herringbone tear - I developed a new class to teach at the shop, and wanted to get some examples ready for the class, so here are a couple:

Black and White Colorblocked Herringbone Bracelet

This one is a patchwork, colorblock type of pattern, that reminds me of all those dramatic black & white colorblocked designs that Mila Hermanovski created week after week on Project Runway. I love black and white, so this one was a no-brainer! And I love the big black sunflower button clasp.

This size 7 bracelet is available on Etsy!

And here is another variation:

Metallic Stripes Herringbone Bracelet

Simple, elegant, metallic stripes: galvanized silver, galvanized gold, and copper/bronze. And I love how the beaded button sets off the design!

This one is also size 7, and is also available on Etsy! 

I have done herringbone with lots of different beads, and different bead combinations - I love how it looks every single time; it's one of my favorite stitches. Both these bracelets were stitched with 11/0 triangles, which I think are the unsung hero of seed beads - they don't get near enough credit for their versatility!

I'm currently working on yet another 11/0 triangle herringbone bracelet - I'll be taking it home for the weekend to stitch on. Plus I want to get back to Zentangling - I haven't done it for a month or so, and I miss it!

We've also added lots of new seed beads (including long Magatamas and SuperDuos) to the inventory at the store, so I've been busy with that, and get summer classes scheduled ... it's always something, right?

Stay tuned - I have more new stuff I'll be posting here soon!

Tuesday Tangle: Mosaic Ammonites

"Mosaic Ammonites"

This zentangle was inspired by "Not Atoll," a mosaic by Sonia King. I love her mosaics, and this particular one had elements I thought would translate well to zentangling. (Her website was down at the time of this writing, so here is an alternate link to "Not Atoll").

"Not Atoll", a mosaic by Sonia King

Unfortunately, the pic of my Zentangle doesn't show the effect I achieved by using Sargent Art Metallic Markers for the blue and silver - they gave a wonderful metallic shine to the piece!

Here's a little recap of my weekend full of "Possibilities:"

Naturally, beading won out. No surprise there. I had taken home a pattern from an old, old Beadwork Magazine - I had torn the page out of the magazine way back when it came out, and the page doesn't even have the date on it. Sorry!

So this is how I spent Sunday afternoon: The pattern is called "Beaded Pillow Beads" - and basically calls for stitching up 2 peyote/herringbone triangles, and then stitching them together to make a puffy beaded bead.

This is the same pattern I played with weekend before last, but I had chosen galvanized beads, and the colors were coming off on my fingers (leaving no color on the beads!) - so I had chosen some non-galvanized beads this time.

Here is my bead:

The pattern called for making the triangles have 13 rounds; I stopped at 11 (it has to be an odd number of rounds, in order for the triangles to stitch together properly). I'm glad I stopped at 11, and didn't waste any time making these any bigger, because I'm not real thrilled with the result.

It's cute, and a clever idea, but if you look at the pics, you can pretty quickly see that these "beads" don't have any holes for stringing.

My plan had been to make 5 of them: 1 larger than this one, 2 this size, and 2 smaller, and then string them as the centerpiece of a beadwoven rope. But I don't want to mess with trying to string beads with no holes - I know it can be done, I just don't choose to. Plus, the triangles are really tricky to sew together; if you look at the last pic (click to enlarge), you can see my thread showing at the lower left, where the corner of the bottom triangle (the dark blue beads) meets the middle of the side of the top triangle - I should have pulled harder and reinforced this stitch, but I didn't see it until this macro shot called it to my attention!.

So I have a little, lone, novelty peyote puffy bead.

But wait .... there's more!

I naturally spent several hours Sunday and Monday morning on Pinterest (which was on my list of possibilities). Check!

Sunday afternoon I made the bead. Check!

Monday afternoon (hold on to your hats...) I vacuumed and mopped my whole downstairs. That's a big deal for me. I wanted to do the upstairs, but once I had finished the downstairs, I was over it.

Clean house - partial Check!

Then I spent several hours finishing my Zentangle. Check!

So I was surprisingly productive! I even squeezed in a little reading. Yay!

Now, back to work on my freeform netting, which is almost finished - double yay!

Circular Peyote Earrings

These earrings are each made from 2 circular peyote triangles which were then stitched together. One triangle is large, and the other is slightly smaller - they are joined at the widest part of the earring as you see them hanging in the pic above.