New Group Pinterest Board

UPDATE 6/27/17: I've decided to close the group board. The purpose of the board was to be a place where my blog readers could post examples of their own beadwork. Things went well for a while but over time fewer and fewer members were using the board for that purpose. I was spending too much time every day editing the board to remove spam and pins that were being re-pinned from my own boards as well as from all over Pinterest. Although I've closed the board, I will leave all of the old pins intact.
 
Being new to Pinterest, I just learned yesterday that you can create "group" boards and invite others to pin things on your board. I thought it would be fun to have a special group board for my blog where those of you who visit my blog can post examples of your own beadwork and craft projects, especially if you've tried any of the patterns and projects that I've blogged about. I will act as moderator and delete anything that's not appropriate and that sort of thing.

The group board is for visitors of my blog to share examples of your own crafty projects. Please do not use the group board for advertising items for sale.

What you will need to do to join my board, is post your Pinterest user name in the comments and say that you'd like to join the board so that I can send you an invitation. You'll receive an email with a link you'll need to click on to accept the invitation. Once you've joined, you can pin your project photos from your own website or blog, from your Pinterest board or upload them from your computer directly onto the board.

Obviously, you'll need to create a Pinterest account if you want to join the group. Click HERE to learn how to join Pinterest.

Once you've joined the group board, if you'd like to pin photos from your computer, go to your Pinterest profile page and click the "+" sign in the upper right corner of the page as shown below:

During the upload process, you'll be asked which board you want to pin the photo on and you'll need to choose "Linda's Crafty Inspirations" from your board list.

I've added a button to the right side of my blog that will bring you to this post if you decide to join my board later. That way you won't have to hunt through all of my posts to find this one.

When you pin your photos on the board, please add a description of your project. Everyone should feel free to comment on anything that is pinned on the board. 

Bracelet of the Day: Duo Bobble Band - Spring Green

DUO BOBBLE BAND (LIZBETH BAND)

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 3x4mm rondelles "Celery AB" (Chinese)
• SuperDuo beads "Luster Gold"

For this one I used 4mm rondelles instead of 3mm druks for a different look. I made this bracelet for my step mother's birthday. My Dad asked me to make the "India" bracelet that I posted here on February 16 for her and I decided to throw in a bonus bracelet for free. It turned into a rather funny story that had me very puzzled until just a couple days ago. My Dad told me later that Penny loved the black and gold bracelet but he never mentioned anything about the green one. When I asked him what she thought of that one, he said he had no idea that there was a second bracelet in the box. I had sent them both in one of those little gift boxes with a pad of cotton in the bottom of it. He asked Penny if she had two bracelets and she said she only had the one. Finally the other day my Dad asked Penny to check under the cotton pad and there was the green bracelet! I was afraid that she had thrown out the box without ever finding the second bracelet. So, what was meant to be a nice surprise turned into a mystery. It would have been very interesting had the black and gold one slipped under the cotton and Penny had only seen the green one when she opened the box. She actually knew that I was making the black one for her birthday because I'd emailed my Dad a photo of a sample in advance. My Dad wanted to be sure that she would like it before I made the final bracelet and sent it.

Because my Dad was paying me to make the black and gold bracelet for Penny, I had to calculate the cost of the materials I used to make it. While I was at it, just out of curiosity, I also figured out the cost to make the green one. The black and gold "India" bracelet used about $7.00 worth of materials and the green one about $2.80. Of course my Dad paid me more than that plus the cost of the postage to mail it to Michigan.

By the way, I don't really know the color name for the rondelles since they don't come named or numbered where I bought them. It was a toss-up between "Spring Green" and "Celery". I bought those at Beadohlique from a bin where you have to dig through a pile of Chinese crystals that they call "Chinavoski". They have a large variety of rondelles, rounds and bicones in all sorts of pretty colors. I've learned though not to expect to find the same colors again the next time I go there. This week they're having a "Make your own Sale" as their weekly special. You choose a category of beads and get 20% anything that you buy from that category. I may go by there later today and see if they've got any 3mm Chinavoski bicones and get them 20% off. I found a few pretty colors last time I was there but I really had to hunt for that size.

UPDATE 1/24/18: A free pattern is now available and the new name for this pattern is "Lizbeth Band". Visit THIS post to download the free pattern.

Bracelet of the Day: Crystal Flower Bracelet - Ivory

CRYSTAL FLOWER BRACELET

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (15-457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (11-457D)
• 4mm fire polished beads "Opaque Beige Luster"
• 4mm bicones "Golden Shadow AB" #C25 (Beads One)

This is a Deborah Roberti creation which you can buy HERE. I made one small change to the pattern to the way that the clasp is added. Rather than making a loop of beads as directed by the pattern, I came out through a fire polished bead on the end, added 3 seed beads then the clasp. I went back through the last seed bead added and then added 2 more seed beads and went through the fire polished bead on the other side. Here is a close-up showing you how it looks:

Bracelet of the Day: Double Diamond - Coral Pink

DOUBLE DIAMOND

• 4mm fire polished beads "Coral Pink"
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (11-461)

This was one of the very first beading patterns that I learned and is a combination of two different free patterns that I found online. I mainly follow Robyn's pattern, which you can find HERE, but there is something I didn't care for in her version that I like better in THIS pattern from Interweave. When Robyn adds the seed bead diamonds between the fire polished beads, she only puts three beads instead of four in each corner so the thread shows where it jumps across to the adjacent fire polished bead. But, I prefer the smaller, in-between motifs of Robyn's pattern over the jumbled beads between the Beading Daily version. I may have also made some other small changes to the way I make this pattern.

UPDATE 5/27/23: I removed a link in this post because it went to an infected website.

Here are some samples that I made to illustrate the difference between the Beading Daily connector motifs and how I made mine:

The top example shows a couple of ways that I sometimes make my motifs. The bottom one shows the problem I ran into when I followed the Beading Daily tutorial. There is no distinct design to the cluster of seed beads between the main motifs.

I should mention that if you want to copy and paste Robyn's tutorial into a text document to print it out, there is text that you can't see on the website because of the large black ReoCities banner that covers up most of the page. If you drag your cursor over the black area, the text will appear white when highlighted and you can copy it. There are three pages to that tutorial so don't forget to click the arrow at the bottom of the page to get to the next page.

By the way, I made a very pretty bracelet last night to go with the "Little Dots" earrings that I posted about yesterday. I'll post details and photos once I've had a chance to make the final pair of earrings. I think they'll make a lovely set.

 

Playing with my beads...

I made three samples of Sidonia's "Little Dots" motif as earrings last night. Since earrings have a tendency to turn around while you're wearing them, I added the same embellishment to the backs as on the fronts. She explains how to do that in her YouTube tutorial for the "Art Nouveau Style Earrings" which you can watch HERE. It's quite easy to figure out though. After embellishing the front of the earring, you weave your way down to the side, flip it over and do the same thing on the other side. However, I found a way to do it more easily with this particular pattern. I had a little trouble getting back through the fire polished beads the second time when I embellished one side at a time because they'd been pulled very close to each other. In the Art Deco Style Earrings video, she adds a seed bead between each bicone which gives you a little extra wiggle room for your needle. So, all I did was create the netting arches for both sides at the same time. As soon as I made an arch, I right away made the one in the same position for the other side.

I tried three different things with each of my samples. I knew that I liked the vintage grunge look of the pattern done with matte bronze seed beads but I wanted to see how well I would like the earrings with shiny bronze seed beads. I don't think I care for that version very much. I think that the shine of the beads overpowers the subtle colors of my other beads too much. When I have that earring on, all I see are the shiny seed beads and the rest of the beads disappear.

The other thing that I tried was adding a 15/0 seed bead between each fire polished bead like Sidonia did in her Art Deco Style Earrings to see what effect that would have. I got a slightly larger motif that looks almost square and it's a bit flatter than the other two samples. I prefer the more round, compact appearance of the motifs done the "Little Dots" way.

So, I will make myself a pair of earrings like the sample on the far right. I plan to use a different bracelet pattern to go with the earrings and it will have the same matte bronze seed beads and 6mm "Champagne" fire polished beads as the earrings.

For the grunge version I used:

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Matte Bronze" (15-2006)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Matte Bronze" (11-2006)
• 3mm fire polished beads "Champagne" (Nirvana Beads)
• 4mm fire polished beads "Smoky Topaz Luster"
• 6mm fire polished beads "Champagne" (Nirvana Beads)

For the shiny bronze version I used:

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (15-457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (11-457D)
• 3mm fire polished beads "Champagne" (Nirvana Beads)
• 4mm fire polished beads "Smoky Topaz Luster"
• 6mm fire polished beads "Champagne" (Nirvana Beads)

Bracelet of the Day: SuperDuo Rosette Bracelet - Black & Mint

 SUPERDUO ROSETTE BRACELET

• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Antiqued Metallic Black" (TY-11-Y0503) *
• SuperDuo beads "Jet Bronze Picasso"
• 3mm Druks "Mint Picasso" (Nirvana Beads)

* These also go by the name "Jet Bronze Picasso" (TY-11-0506). I have both colors and they're identical.

Time for another SuperDuo Rosette Bracelet. I used all 11/0 seed beads for the netting on this one. Pardon the poor photos but I sent this to a friend for Christmas and can't re-take them. You can buy this pattern in Sam Wescott's Etsy shop HERE.

Organization Inspiration - Part IV: My Beads - Part 2

I bought these stacking Sterilite drawer units at Walmart. I use the shorter tower for storing my main seed beads and the taller tower contains mainly my backup supply for refilling the tubes in the other tower.

Starting with the beads in the shorter tower:

This drawer contains my metallic seed beads, mostly 15/0's. I like to store my 15/0 seed beads in small tubes rather than the large ones. The ones on the left side are all 15/0. The ones on the right are other sizes that I only have small amounts of.

These are my colored seed beads, somewhat sorted by color. By the way, the tubes fit quite well in the drawers because the little hang tabs on the caps are able to overlap in the center.

This drawer holds my metallic 11/0 seed beads in various shades of bronze, copper and silver. I found out the other day that I need to be VERY careful when pulling a tube out of the drawer. I apparently caught the edge of the cap on the underside of the frame of the unit and it pulled off the cap. Luckily, the beads all went into the bottom of the drawer and not on the floor. The crazy thing is that I'd never done that until just recently and then I did it twice. I suspect that the caps are starting to get looser over time. In any case, this drawer is getting a little too full but I don't have space for another drawer unit.

This drawer contains my metallic 8/0 and 6/0 seed beads as well as any other colors in those sizes. There are also a few non-metallic colors in 11/0. This drawer is very full too.

The bottom drawer contains a big assortment of seed beads of all sizes. Because they are medium size tubes, I had to arrange them in the drawer differently than the large and small tubes. I also had to put something in the back of the drawer to keep them from moving around too much. I got all of the beads in this drawer from Deborah Roberti. She was cleaning out her bead stash a while back and wanted to get rid of anything that wasn't labeled with the brand and/or color numbers. So, she graciously sent them to me, all 8 pounds of them! 

This is just a small sampling of what she sent me. I have a few others in bags in the other drawer unit and I sent a bunch of them to Teejay. Deb did label the bags she sent them in with the sizes and I've come up with my own names so that I can remember what I've used in my projects. So, whenever I post the "ingredients" for a beadwork project here and say "no info available" for the colors, they are probably from this stash from Deb.

And now for the taller tower:

The top drawer in this unit holds refills for the tubes in the other tower.

In this drawer, I keep refills for the  tubes of beads from Deb plus a few colors that aren't in the tubes because I didn't have enough tubes for them.

This drawer is a hodge-podge of beads in unknown sizes, mostly sent to me from England by Teejay. The beads that they sell in the shops over there tend to be unusual sizes that I never see for sale over here. Some of those larger ones make nice center focal beads for bracelets such as "Russian Snake".  The gorgeous bright blue beads in one of the bracelets in that post are from Teejay.

This is a refill supply for my metallic beads. These came in tubes so I left them that way.

The bottom two drawers contain a wide assortment of specialty beads such as drops, cubes, 6mm druks, tube beads and more. Since I don't use those kinds all that often, I don't mind having to dig through them to find what I need. The drawback is that I tend to forget what all is in those drawers.