Peyote Stitch Beaded Beads

I'm playing catch up a bit on all the crafting that's been going on here. I'm working on a new fair isle hat (and have finally worked out my wonky tension issues), made some awesome felt dahlias, been doing a bit of mod podging, and am working on a very ambitious embroidery project.

I made these beaded beads using a tutorial I found on youtube. The first bead was a little wonky as it took me a bit of time to figure out how to do the decreases and still maintain the pattern. I also had to adjust the pattern a bit as I was using size 11's. Incidentally, I discovered that there are several different ways of making peyote beaded beads, and next time I plan to try a new method. I read about a method where you make the two halves of the bead, then drape them over the wooden bead in the middle and join the two sides together. It seems like you can get a much more complex pattern using this method.

Rainbow Bracelet

This is as far as I've gotten on the Rainbow Bracelet so far. Since I've been on such a beading kick lately I hope to get it finished soon. It's been sitting in my beading box for ages!

Rainbow Bracelet

This is my current beading WIP. I'm using the great spring colored seed beads I got for my birthday.

The pattern came from one of my beading magazines. 

How to Organize and Store Your Bead Collection - Part Two: Beads, Findings, and Tools

Last time I talked about how I stored my seed beads, so now it's time for other beads, findings and tools! My system is pretty basic, but it's the best I've found and works well for me.

I have one of these, and bought it it several years before they started selling them in craft stores. I bought mine at Fred Meyer. They are a lot cheaper at non-craft stores, Fred Meyer, Target, and I think Wal-Mart sells them. It's technically a tackle box, so they're in the Sports and Fishing section.

This thing is fabulous. The clips are strong and easy to snap and unsnap, and the tackle box is very portable. It keeps all my non-seed beads, findings and tools in one place. The bottom holds four individually sealed trays with customizable slots. It's great because when I bead I don't usually work at a table. I'm usually on my bed or sitting in a chair, and individual trays allows me to only remove the tray I need. Best of all, the tackle boxes come in a variety of sizes. While it was a tight fit when I had all my seed bead tubes in the lower tray, without the seed beads I have plenty of room to expand my bead collection. When I do fill it up I can easily buy a size up.

I keep my tools in the top portion. The top compartment is pretty deep. It easily holds 3 rolls of wire, 3 pairs of pliers, 1 cutter, a wire jig, beeswax, plastic bags and a variety of other items.

Each removable tray has customizable compartments. You can only change the size widthwise however, which while slightly annoying does make sense from a construction/durability point of view.

The first tray has my Nymo and beading thread, needles, precious stones and clasps.

The next contains all my silver beads and findings.

The third is my main beading tray, with lots of fun colors. You can definitely tell how easy it is for me to get locked into the blue-green-purple color scheme. I'm working on expanding that range.

And the fourth is the overflow, as well as some jump rings and beads without tubes.

How do you store your beads?

The Birthday Addition to My Beading Stash

My birthday was this week, and look at the pretties I got!

My mother took me bead shopping for my birthday, which was greatly appreciated! I picked out some fantastic spring colors.

I'm trying to build up my stash of 11/0's, so they're all 11/0s.

This is what my seed bead stash looks like now. I'm trying to add some bright and lighter colors to my mostly dark blue and green seed bead stash.

How to Organize and Store Your Bead Collection - Part One: Seed Beads

As I posted about how I organized and stored my fabric collection and supplies, I decided to do the same for my beading collection. I love reading about everyone's methods of storage and organization for various crafts, whether it's fiber, beads, or paper. Some stashes are absolutely drool worthy and some methods of organization make me squee in glee.

Why Organize?

I enjoy organizing, and I am an incredibly detail-oriented person. Add in gorgeous colors and craft supplies and I'm in heaven. I love to see not only someone's method of craft supply organization, but also the reasoning behind it. I fully believe that good organization encourages and promotes more frequent crafting as well as streamlines the crafting process. I have a hard time being creative when I live and work in a messy and chaotic space. In my apartment my room is my haven, and as soon as I walk into the room I feel relaxed and serene. While I might not be big of feng shui, I am a big supporter of good organization.

This becomes especially important when you have a lot of craft supplies and several different crafts you like. I like to say that I don't believe in craft monogamy, and I partake in a multitude of crafts. I knit. I embroider. I sew. I bead. I like paper crafts. I love drawing and draw with multiple mediums, mostly watercolor pencils, pen and ink, and charcoal. Every craft has it's own supplies, and without some method of organization I would quickly become lost in my various stashes.

How large is your collection?

It's very important to consider the size of your craft collection. Use something that is large enough to leave room for you to add to your collection, but at the same time doesn't take up half the room. Think about your crafting process. Do you like to amass a large stash, or do you work with hardly any? How are you going to store your containers? While one or two of these containers is fine, what will you do when you have 6 or more? Sometimes the answer is: Find another method of organization, and that's fine. But if you think that in two months you'll need to completely redo your organizational system, then it's probably not the right system to choose. At the same time, don't buy a ten drawer rolling cabinet if you have a grand total of four seed bead tubes. Choose what's appropriate for your collection.

My bead collection is medium sized. While I would love to have enough beads to need a cabinet organizer to store them, I am nowhere near that point. Right now I have two separate containers for my beads, one for seed beads and the second for all my other beads and supplies.

My Seed Beads

The first container is your generic type of sterilite container with a lid, except that it has two handles on the lid that you snap down to lock the lid onto the body. I love the fact that the lid actually locks on rather than snaps on like your basic sterilite container. Even though all my beads are contained in their own little tubes inside the container, I feel a lot safer with a lid that locks.

This container holds all of my seed beads. Like most beaders, I have a variety of different sizes of seed beads, so I made dividers out of cardboard to separate the box into three different sections. The first holds all of my 6/0, 8/0 ,and 10/0 beads. The middle holds the 11/0 beads, which I have the most of. I've found them to be the most versatile size for bead stitching. The last section holds the 15/0 and a few tubes of bugles.

Every color and type of bead is in it's own container. Most are in bead tubes, which is my preferred method of seed bead storage. When I started beading I mainly purchased czech seed beads which are sold by the hank. When I redid my seed bead storage last week I took each hank and put all the beads into tubes, and when I ran out of those I put them into little bags. I don't like the bags, I think they take up too much space and they are not nearly as uniform as the tubes. However, I didn't have anything else on hand. Eventually I'll go and purchase some empty tubes so that I can get rid of the little bags.

I tried making a holder for the tubes so that they could all stand up vertically, but I found that this obscured their colors. The tubes in the middle were hidden by the other tubes of beads. As I do everything by color, standing the tubes up was simply not a viable option for me. Others have found it a suitable method of storage, so your mileage may vary.

I don't mind digging through the tubes a bit to find the ones I need. When I have 50+ of each size of seed beads it will be a different story. When that happens I'll probably switch to a smaller sterilite container for each color family, or use a container or two to hold a single size of seed beads.

Part Two: Storing Other beads, Findings, and Tools

Spiral Peyote Beaded Bracelet

Wow, it's been busy around here. Three members of my family, including myself, have birthdays in March. I made handmade presents this year, and got a bit too ambitious with my sister's birthday present. I decided to make my sister a beaded bracelet, and after a bit of research decided to try spiral peyote. This was the first time I've done the peyote stitch, as well as the first time I did peyote in the round.While the pattern was simple, it took a lot more time than I anticipated. I got a very late start, beginning only a week and a half before her birthday. No matter how much I beaded, it was only half done by the time her birthday rolled around.

Luckily, she's a crafter herself and was very understanding. I continued to work on the bracelet, finally finishing after another massive beading session (14 hours). It's definitely the most complex beaded project I've done so far and although it was easy it was incredibly time consuming. Every single silver bead represents a round on the bracelet. I was tempted to count them for future beading reference, but I think it would be too depressing to know how many rounds are in that bracelet! It's a wide, chunky/modern bracelet, which is my sister's style.  In case anyone is interested, the pattern is 1 4mm bead, 1 size 6, 1 size 8, 2 silver size 11, 2 purple size 11, 2 silver size 11, 6 black size 15.

I also had a couple of false starts. I tried two different combinations of beads until I found the right ratio of black to silver to purple. I had a spiral peyote pattern that I was basing this on, but due to different bead sizes and amounts I made some major modifications to the pattern. Then when I had the right combination, I realized I didn't have enough purple beads. As I purchased the purple beads many years ago in a different city, I didn't think I would be able to find them again. So in the end I purchased a different color purple, and had to start the bracelet yet again.

Aquamarine and Gold Necklace

This is the first beaded project I've done in a while. I've been so caught up in knitting, embroidery, and sewing that I have neglected my beading.

I went to the Gem Faire early this year and decided to make my mother a necklace as a Mother's Day/Christmas present. I purchased the aquamarine beads, pendant, 14k gold beads, and clear crystal beads. However, I didn't buy any gold clasps nor wire to string it on. This project has been sitting in my craft closet for a while, just waiting to be finished. I had nearly everything I needed, so I couldn't just leave it lying around. So I made it for my Mom for Christmas.

It took me a surprisingly long amount of time to find the right combination of aquamarine beads to gold to crystal. I don't usually do a lot of bead stringing, and instead often favor bead stitching (ie. peyote stitching) so this was a good experience. It reinforced the idea that while bead stringing may be easier than stitching, it can take just as much time to find the correct arrangement as it does to stitch a piece. I went through iteration after iteration before finally deciding. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and since I have a few aquamarine beads left over I hope to make a necklace for myself.

Finally, some crafty content

I know that my blog's been pretty slow lately. First I had spring break, and then when I came back I had so much to say that I would start writing up a post, only to end up saving it rather than posting it because it was still incomplete. Does that ever happen to you? So much to say that you don't say anything at all? Well, it's not so much to say, necessarily, it's that I have a lot of pics and the like to add, link to, and post. Anyways, instead of posting content, I've been posting memo's, videos, and other filler. They're a lot quicker than actually writing something.

But I'm biting the bullet, so here it goes. This is my first second week back from spring break, and getting back into the swing of things is being somewhat problematic. It's amazing howmuch a week off can get you used to doing what you want, and doing absolutely no homework. Over the past three days Mid last week I slowly started to do my homework again. It's very sad, but it's taking me a while to get used to being in school again.

Spring break was wonderful, if incredibly busy. On Monday I went to Vancouver BC with a friend, where we spent the day. We went to Stanley Park, and just had a bunch of fun hanging around downtown all day.

The rest of spring break was spent hanging out with friends, and it was pretty busy. On Sunday, I took the Amtrak back to school, where my sister picked me up and we went to Powell's, the largest used and independent bookstore in the world(my sister got me a Powell's gift card for my 19th birthday; she knows me too well) where I got the Yarn Harlot's new book as well as The Best of Knitter's Arans and Celtics. I love both books. There are multiple designs in Arans and Celtics that I love, but these two are my favorites.

Best of all, they are arans/celtics with SHAPING! Not only that, they also come in my size. No changing needed! I love it. It's going to be my next project after Edna.

Speaking of projects, I have quite a few going. I reorganized my closet which included reorganizing my knitting.

WIP's
- Clessidra from Knitty, using Knit Picks Essential

- Bunny Hop baby blanket for whomever in myfamily has a child next (several of my cousins have gotten married in the past few years)

- The Counterpoint baby blanket for my friend who's expecting in September

- Edna, of course
- Jaywalkers (I ripped all the way back and started them over)

- Great American Aran Afghan

These are the 6 that, when I have time to knit, I knit on. However, unfortunately knitting time has been lacking lately mainly because my time is taken up by school, and when it isn't I'm either reading or beading. Beading had taken over knitting time for a while because I hurt my thumb and could neither knit nor spin, but I could awkwardly bead. Now though, my thumb is nearly 100% and I can get back to knitting!

I finished Octavius! He's very, very cute. The Claudia Handpainted knitted up wonderfully.

Guess what I also made? I'm so incredibly proud of myself!

It's my first beading project that is not earrings! I also made a few pairs of earrings while I was home during Spring Break.

It's been a while

I know it's been over a week since I last posted, but I promise you, I come ready with excuses! Last week was a bit insane due to my huge essay midterm (write 2 complete essays (including thesis statements) in an hour and a half as well as write the answers to the 'short answer' questions, which mean paragraphs), so I wasn't able to post then.

But at the heart of the matter is that this is a crafting blog, and for the last week and a half, I have been unable to knit, spin, and until a few days ago, bead. I injured my thumb on Sunday the 11th, and it's currently in a brace. When I went to the health center on ca

mpus they said that it was probably a weird sprain, but that if it got worse or didn't get better within a week, to come back in and they'd refer me to the hospital to get an x-ray. It was worse by Wednesday, so I made an appointment for Thursday only to have it canceled because the practitioner was sick. The woman on the phone brushed me off, saying since I couldn't remember doing anything to it that it was almost assuredly not a break, so I shouldn't come back in. Yet come Tuesday of the next week, it was even worse, even with taking 1800-2400mg of Ibuprofen a day. Yes, you read that correctly. The practitioner prescribed me 9-12 pills of Advil a day. So today I'm going in again to see the nurse practitioner, and hopefully get a referral to get an x-ray.

Don't worry though; there will still be lots of pictures and other things!

Anyways, since my thumb is out of commission, my crafting has been incredibly reduced. The only thing I can do is bead, and even that is quite a bit slower and more awkward than normal. I have made a few things though, and I can show you the knitting I was working on before I injured my thumb.

I'm using Essential Solid (75% Superwash wool, 25% Nylon) in Burgundy, which is ridiculously soft. It looks like this yarn may be

prone to pilling, but we'll see. I'm using one of my Lantern Moon

bamboo circs, which I use when I do cables without a cable needle on socks.

As for beading, I made some Bluebell earrings.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but a few weeks ago when my sister and I went to Buffalo Exchange, I found an incredible purse. And I do mean incredible. 100% real leather (it creaks and everything!) that has been carved/burned into a beautiful rose design.

The detail on this bag is simply amazing. I think it's relatively old, although if anyone can contradict that, I'd be happy to know. I am completely in love with this bag. It's common knowledge in my family that I'm an avid bag collector; I just love having new purses. I am a bit picky though. Any bag has to fill several criteria. One, it has to be unique. I try to avoid the bags you find at Sears, or everywhere. You know the ones, the ones that although they may be made by different companies, they all look the same. Two, it has to be colorful. And obviously, I have to love it.Those are really my only criteria, but you'd be surprised how much that eliminates. Of course, if the bag is so extremely colorful it may overpower the fact that I found it at Macy's. But even then, because it's so colorful, not that many people will have it, at least in the surrounding area.

This Saturday I went to see the Plain White T's. Since it was an all ages concert and it was St. Patricks day (Portland really gets into it) there were a lot of high schoolers there; a few too many for my tastes. However, the concert was amazing. I moshed for hours in the pit, so when I came back I was exhausted. I was going to buy their cd, but I figured since I can buy that anywhere I'd get a tshirt instead. I'll have to pick up their CD later.

I'm going home on Friday! Go spring break!

Just a quick post

(Vox March 11, 2007)

You know that criminology test? (mentioned here) I got an 84 out of a possible 86! Whoohoo!

In other news, I gave my sister the earrings I had made for her, and she loves them. I can also post them here. I'm working on Clessidra from the Spring Knitty 2007, and it's turning out well. I have pics, but I think I dislocated/broke my thumb, and since I have to write 3 essays in two hours on Thursday for my CB class, I don't want to aggravate it any more.

It's definitely an addiction

Lookie! I can't stop making them!

Happiness is me

Surprisingly, I've had quite a good day. It's surprising because the day didn't start out so well. I studied the completely wrong things for my criminology exam this morning, so I was a bit annoyed about that. Unfortunately, it happens, as it was the first test of that class.

However, my calculus teacher drastically reduced the amount of homework that's due on Friday, which is also when our exam is. And I found out that I passed my Gateway, so I don't need to be bothered with that anymore. I was sure I hadn't passed it, which is what made it such a surprise.

Secondly, I made some beautiful earrings last night. I finished the Holiday Star earrings, as well as started and completed another pair of what I'm calling Purple Star earrings.

I'm simply loving my earring book. It's amazing. I'm so glad I bought it in spite of it's ad binding and the bad shape it was in. In the back, it has diagrams and explanations of several different kinds of stitches like right angle weave and brick stitch, so since I don't have any money to buy wire supplies right now, I'm going to create my own patterns for earrings using the seed beads and other beads I have on hand. I think I'm going to make at least one more pair of the Holiday earrings; I just love their design.

And lastly, I made the ones I'm calling them Sparkling Heart earrings. I love them, but I'm definitely going to have to go out and buy some wire in bulk so I can practice making wire wrapped loops. Part of the problem was that I didn't have enough space left on the head pins, but I know a lot of it was due to the fact that this is a brand new skill and I'm not used to doing it. Of course, even though on the second one (the one on the left) I left a little bit too much wire before the loop resulting in that earring being a little bit longer than the other, the wrap looks a lot better than the one on the right.

Beading: Another Addiction

(February 27, 2007 Vox)

Like I needed another one, right? What's this new addiction of mine? Notice I don't say hobby. Frankly, I think that anyone who is as obsessed with knitting and spinning as I am (and there are many of us) are in too deep to consider it a hobby. My new obsession is beading.

It's amazing how one addiction leads to another, kind of like gateway drugs. First, it was knitting, which I loved so much I wanted to start producing my own yarn, so it got me into spinning. Knitting also got me into bead knitting, where you knit the bead into the fabric. This introduced me to the wonderful world of beading. It was temptation itself to enter a bead store and to see all the bright and shiny things. Even if I didn't know what to do with it past using it in knitting, or bead knitting, I still was attracted to it. I started thinking: 'You know, I really like to wear unique dangly earrings. Earrings which I normally buy from small local and independent sellers. Wouldn't it be cool if I could make my own? They'd be the ultimate unique earrings, and once I accumulated a stash of beads, they'd actually be less expensive than buying them.' This train of thought has been in my head for over a month and a half, but what was really deterring me from getting started was the fact that I couldn't find a good book. There were plenty of good intro books to beading, but they only had one, maybe two projects of earrings, if I was lucky. At this point in time, I'm really not that interested in making anything else, although that may change. So a book dedicated to everything else probably wasn't for me.

Then. on Saturday, I found a book dedicated entirely to earrings. So far, without looking on the internet, it remains the only book that I've ever seen dedicated solely to earrings. It's called Beadwork Creates Earrings, and is wonderful. Look what I made!!!

My roommate's going to sleep, so I have to switch over to my laptop so my typing is quieter, so more on this later.
I'm going to bed. 'night.