Dilettantism part four - wirework

So far I've told you about bead embroidery, chain maille and lampwork. That leaves either seed bead weaving or wirework for my fourth (and last) beady activity of last weekend - and in this case, wirework won. I needed a new set of jewellery to go with an evening dress, and came up with a pendant and earrings set

The dress I wore for the party Dan and I had to celebrate our wedding was, in my best sod-the-tradition fashion, pillar-box red. At the time, I wore it with a pearl choker and cuff set belonging to my mother, and that looked great. Possibly not as great as the AMAZING brownie wedding cake which our fantastic friend Sarah made for us, but then I think that most things would struggle to look as good as that cake (excuse me while I drift off into a sugar-induced reverie...)

However, so that I can wear the dress again without having to tape it to my tits using wig tape (seriously!), I am having it remade. The new version has halter-neck which is slit all the way down to the lace, and is much more fitted through the skirt. The new neckline means that the pearl choker is right out, so I had to come up with something else. To save money I decided to upcycle my beaded wedding bouquet (check out Rachel Murgatroyd's site for similar ideas). After much playing around with cheap silver-plated wire, I made up the final jewellery set in sterling silver with red and clear crystals and pearls:

I'm rather chuffed with that - but I have to wait until the dress fitting tomorrow to find out it it's actually fit for purpose!

Part three of my dilettante weekend - lampwork

You didn't think I'd let a weekend go by without playing with fire, did you? Of course not - so part three of my weekend game session took place in front of my torch, playing with gorgeous deep red and silver-white glass. Hurrah!

To start with I pulled a couple of stringers out of each rod to keep for decorating other beads later. Brilliantly, I found that (for me at least) pulling stringers means it's easier to get a clean wrap around the mandrel when I start making beads. Maybe because the glass isn't quite stone cold when it first comes into the flame, maybe because it doesn't have such a raw edge - whatever the answer, I'm just pleased it works.

This time around, I wanted to concentrate on really getting a good shape out of my glass, so my first three beads were plain and simple red glass rounds. As usual, the first part of the process was introducing the glass rod into the flame slowly, wafting it in and out so it didn't shock (I suspect shocked glass would mean singed carpet, which would be A Bad Thing). Once it was warm enough, I let the end of the rod rest in the flame and develop a nice molten gather. I've found that by resting my elbow on the desk edge I can get a lot more control over the rod, especially when it's long, so it doesn't end up in all different parts of the flame as I heat it.

With the gather in place I introduced the mandrel to the flame, heated it up and then wound the glass onto it. Now came the tricky part: getting a good shape. I'm not very good at winding my glass on neatly and evenly yet (but I'm getting better!), so after detaching the glass rod and setting it aside I swapped the mandrel into my right hand and got to work. The first thing I did was tilt the mandrel and let gravity help me, allowing the molten glass to droop first one way and then the other. Doing that let me get those lovely dimples around the mandrel which means the beads don't have sharp edges to damage beading thread when you come to play with them. Once those were in place, I kept the mandrel horizontal and rotated it slowly, making sure to keep the glass hot and runny. Eventually, with a lot of patience, I had nice round beads. When I thought it might be ready, I brought the mandrel up level with my eyes and watched the upper edge of the bead as I rotated it: when the edge looked as though it wasn't moving up and down, I knew the bead was round (thanks to Keiara for the tip!).

I couldn't let playtime pass without a little decoration, so my last two beads were in the silver-white colour with red dots and stringer decorations. The five beads look so pretty together, I'm calling them my first set. Even though they aren't quite evenly sized.

What do you think?

Caffeine!

I can't believe it's Thursday... where did the week go?!

I'm very excited at the moment because Dan and I bought a Nespresso coffee machine this week, and I can now consume delicious espresso at home without having to faff around with the stove-top Bialetti pot. Wonder if the easy access to coffee will have an impact on my creativity (or at least my ability to stay awake to be creative)?

Dilettante (part 2) - bridesmaid patterns

Beady project number two last weekend was headband number five for my cousin's wedding (check out Bits for bridesmaids).

I promised a pattern for these, so here goes. It's pretty basic bead embroidery, which I am hoping will make my first ever pattern an easy one to write!

First, source a hairband of the appropriate size. The ones I'm making are for little girls so they're small, but if you want to make a band for a teenager or adult you'll need to find bigger ones. You'll need your band to be covered in fabric so that you have something to stitch to: mine were already wrapped in satin ribbon, but if your bands are plain plastic, buy yourself a reel of ribbon and follow these steps:

1. Seal the end of the ribbon by very carefully passing it through a flame - this will prevent fraying.
2. Place a small dot of fabric glue on the sealed end of the ribbon and stick it carefully to one end of the hair band.
3. Wrap the ribbon along the length of the band diagonally (this looks prettier than a straight wrap). Try to make sure that your ribbon layers overlap slightly so the plastic doesn't show through.
4. When you reach the end of the band, trim your ribbon, seal the raw end in a flame and glue the ribbon to the band.
5. You'll now need to neaten the ends. To do this, cut two lengths of ribbon which are each twice the width of the band. Glue one side of each ribbon and wrap like this:
1. Place the hair band on the glued side of the ribbon.
2. Wrap the side edges in so that the meet on the inside of the band (which will not show).
3. Wrap the bottom edge up to cover the side edges.

You might be pleased to know that the wrapping is the complicated bit, and also the bit that you can skip very easily, if you can source the right bands! So, how to do the fun bit? That's easy.

Take your fabric or ribbon-wrapped band and size 11 seed beads in your preferred colour (size 15s also work but will make your life harder!). Prepare a comfortable doubled length of beading cotton (I used Nymo) - doubling will help to ensure that your work is sturdy, and will help it to last longer. Secure the nymo to the inside of the band, then bring your needle to one edge of the band (I'll call this side one).

Pick up enough seed beads to completely cover the band - for my bands, I needed 11 size 11s. I stitched my beads on the diagonal because I think it's pretty, as did the bride and her mother, but you could go for straight horizontal lines if you prefer. Once you've got the number of beads sorted out, take your needle over to the other side of the band (I'll call this side two). Secure the beads by taking a tiny stitch through the ribbon, bringing the needle out of the ribbon, still on side two, about 1mm from the last bead. Pick up another row-worth of beads, take them over to side one, and secure. Keep zig-zagging from side one to side two all the way along the hair band. Try to keep the rows of beads nestled closely together, so that you don't end up with gappy bands.

You'll probably need to add more nymo, unless you're comfortable beading with about two metres of the stuff (I'm not!). I found that the best way to do this was to stop adding rows of beads when I had around 15cm of nymo still on the needle. I then secured my new length of nymo on the inside of the hair band as I had the original one, stitched through the last three rows again and continued adding new rows from there. When I had about ten rows on the new length, I went back to the original needle and stitched through the first three new rows before securing the old nymo and cutting the needle free.

Once your seed beads are on, you can start the crystal embellishment. I used 2mm crystals for this, and doubled nymo again as my thread (I know fireline is better for crystals but I don't like it!). Each embellishment was done as follows: stitch in from side one of the band towards the middle. Come out of the fourth seed bead from the edge of side one. Pick up one seed bead, a crystal and a seed bead. Take your needle three rows up the band and stitch through the fourth bead from the edge of side two. Come out of side two. Which seed bead you come out of and how many rows you skip will depend on how many beads you have in a row and how large your crystals are. If you've stitched your seed beads firmly enough, you''ll be able to weave in and out of the rows without having to go right to the edges. You're aiming for this:

I chose to add my embellishments against the grain of my seed beads because they seem to catch the light better that way, but you could go with the grain if you prefer.

A tip on dealing with ends of nymo: double knot the thread, trim the ends to around 1mm and seal them with a flame. Be careful not to singe anything!

Dilettante (part 1) - chain maille

As I said before, I am rather a dilettante when it comes to beads. Over the weekend, I managed to take in four - yes, four - different kinds of beadwork, as well as a trip to the dressmaker, posh lunch, a mega workout and two books (God is Not Great for my brain and Sourcery for my funny bone).

So, what exactly did I play with?

First up was chain maille. I've done some bits with Byzantine weave in the past, but this weekend I went to town on European 4-in-1, and came up with a very pretty bracelet (if I do say so myself).

After struggling to master the main weave, the embellishment was a nice relaxing change. I slid size 6 tris beads left over from a previous project onto small individual jump rings, and then scattered them around the large jump rings of the main wave for some colour.

If you are interested, Instructables has great tutorials for Byzantine and European 4-in-1 weaves, including how to make your own jump rings. Alternatively, check out Lark Books' Beaded Chain Mail Jewelry for instructions and projects.

Book review - Sculptural Metal Clay Jewelry

I've been not very well for a week or so, and while wrapped up in many, many layers of clothing and a duvet, I had time (between naps) to read the new book by Kate McKinnon, Sculptural Metal Clay Jewelry*. Carole Morris of the Bead Society of Great Britain asked me to review it for the next newsletter, so let's hope I've made the deadline!

* sorry for the American spelling, it isn't my choice...

This is the review:

"Before I get into details, I must confess that I am a dilettante - bead-weaving, wirework, lampwork, even mixed-media techniques get a look in, but I haven't done a great deal with metal clay before, beyond the odd piece with some scrap clay from my grandmother. Kate McKinnon's style is eminently helpful and friendly without being patronising, and it seems that all of her instructions have been carefully tested before being included in the book, which is a refreshing change from some of the other metal clay and beading books I've seen. The one thing I didn't find here is my personal favourite tip, courtesy of my secondary school art teacher (who was kind enough to let me use her kiln in the interests of this review): make a test first. That way you won't be wasting expensive materials!

Sculptural Metal Clay Jewelry provides plenty to get your teeth into, with chapters covering not just the basics, like tools and safety, but also a huge variety of elements as well as the to-be-expected projects (covering rings, chains and pendants). There is also a proper technique section, from basic through to more advanced ideas, which makes the book accessible even to beginners. Personally, I loved the elements sections, as I am always looking for new and exciting ways to finish my work. My new-found skill with metal clay has opened up a whole world of custom-made clasps, connectors, ring bands and bezels, and I can’t wait to start putting the principles into practice.

My favourite aspect of the book is the DVD. For something like this, being able to watch a video is an enormously helpful bonus, and I wish I'd done so before trying my polymer clay test piece. After watching the DVD, my second test piece – and my final 'real' piece – came out beautifully, and look likely to last (unlike my pre-McKinnon pieces, which all cracked within a day or so).

All in all, this must be one of the best books around for those who want to start out in metal clay, or even those who know what they're doing but want to pick up some new techniques and tips. Definitely one for the reference shelf!"

Purple vs. black-and-white

So here they are, my sparkler-inspired beads:

The trails of silvery-white on dark purple make me think of the optical trails left by sparklers when you wave them around. They might not be quite what I had in mind, but I still love them!

On the other hand, if you want to see some really gorgeous monochrome beads, head over to The Beading Gem's latest post for a look at some pretty spectacular black-and-white dots, swirls, bubbles and other glassy gorgeousness.