Showing posts with label beading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beading. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Spooked by Right Angle Weave?

One of my daughters sent me some Agates for Mother's Day to use in my designs, breathtaking isn't it?!

After I bead embroidered around the Agate Cabochon, the only thing left was to figure out the neck. I really liked the look of Cubic Right Angle Weave but I have never taught myself how to work it up.
I have resisted learning Cubic Right Angle Weave for so long and today I have to wonder why. The only thing I can figure out is that when I first saw it there must have been something that seemed so daunting. For those of you who learn better by seeing rather than reading, this video is for you, fabulous & free.
It took me all of 15 minutes to get this down and once you do it goes very quickly!

I bead daily for most of my day so #11 beads were not a problem. If you ever have trouble learning a new stitch try it with bigger beads until you are familiar with the stitch. It also helps if you use different color beads for each new row so you can really SEE where you are coming from and going.
Have fun!
I post lots of little tips and tricks on my website at Divella Delights and also offer free peyote stitch patterns from time to tine

Wednesday, March 20, 2013


In addition to beading magazines like Bead and Button that have wonderful information on beading stitches, there are some books on beading techniques that I have and found invaluable time and time again. If you are like me and a self-taught bead-weaver, do yourself a favor and build a library in your studio. I have all my magazines in binders by year to keep them nice and neat.
I don’t ever part with my beading books…or any other craft books for that matter, I keep them all for the valuable resource they continue to be. I do have some favorites that I turn to.
“The Beaded Garden” by Diane Fitzgerald gives me references of leaves and flowers and the stitches used to create them. From there I make up my own but the techniques and instructions in this book are fabulous. I used it to help me create the piece below, my own beaded garden.
Recently I have become enamored with bead embroidery. My daughter was having a masquerade party for her birthday and asked if I would make her a beaded mask so I begrudgingly gave it a try and a new addiction was born. I then bought the book “The Art of Bead Embroidery” by Heidi Kummli and Sherry Serafini. In that book you will have an enormous amount of information about everything bead embroidery. They give you information about foundations to bead into, backings, finishing techniques and more so that you can make a piece of jewelry you’ll be proud to wear and is professional in detail and technique. I began with cuffs and am now designing my first neckpiece.
If you like to make your own beaded beads for your designs, “The Art of Beaded Beads” from Lark Books is terrific and again once you learn the techniques you create your own designs in no time. They have some really fun and quite fascination techniques to learn and explore. I found it very helpful with this design.
 
If you find yourself balking at the price of some of these and other beading books, just remember you will have this information at your fingertips for years and years to come. Don’t skimp on your supplies and this certainly includes your resource materials such as books, magazines, etc…
Be sure to stop by my website Divella Delights!