Bead Fest :: A Look At The Loot

I'll try to be heavier on pictures and lighter on words because I know you guys just want to see the loot. So let's get to it. First stop for Bead Fest is always Artisan Alley. I tried not to go too wild because I shop so many of my favorite artisan Etsy sites throughout the year that I really just wanted a chance to meet many of the people behind the beads. It was so fun to see Linda Landig selling her beads this year - go Linda! And one of my favorite Artisans to buy from flew all the way from England to join the show; Lesley Watt. What fun to meet her! She is just as nice in person as I thought she would be.

I also have a tiny thing ... ok kinda a problem with findings. I am absolutely in love with the ball clasp thingies. Can you tell? And then there were these cute little fish and bird clasps ... the bird ones open when you push down the tail. How cute is that? My young assistant, aka The Bead Girl, just had to have those. My absolute favorites were the fish with hooks in that yummy patina. Can't wait to match those up with some turquoise or something.... hmmmm

Ok, where next? Oh right, seed beads! Oh the seed beads. I could spend hours upon hours just digging through the colors, and sizes and shapes! There are so many new shapes these days with tilas, and duos, and superduos and what have you. I picked up beads by the half tube, the full tube, the hank, the strand and cluster. Look at those ones in the center called Picasso (right next to the half tubes). Aren't those gorgeous!

I got completely distracted by the stones, as I always do. I lost my bead show partners in crime (Melinda Orr and Linda Younkman) more than once. You know when you try to call or text a serious beady lady at Bead Fest they don't pick up? whatsup with that? I absolutely HAD to check out the jasper again this year. I picked up quite a lot of it last year, and seriously didn't need any more, but I couldn't help myself! Look at the reds in that Red Creek jasper. Then I found a total steal on strands of stone at 75% off. Say what? I picked up some green turquoise, lemon chrysoprase and I think that was picasso, but I completely forgot what the others were. I just love those rich earthy colors! The pendants aren't stones, but they sure are sweet. 

Ok just one more set to show you all. It wouldn't be Bead Fest without a little swapping. You can see all the people swapping in the pictures I posted over at Creative Bead Chat on my article Behind the Scenes of Bead Fest. I got these awesome closures from my friend Linda Younkman and that cool leather snap closure from Melinda. The rest of the swap items were The Bead Girl who was running around handing out beads to everyone. A beader in the making to be sure. Bead Fest can be a bit overwhelming, to say the least. We were all talking about the 'Bead Hangover' come Monday morning. But I wouldn't miss it for the world. It is so much fun to meet everyone in person.

Stones :: Beadweaving with Jasper

A jasper focal I had kicking around in my stash for the last year is one that I've been wanting to use, but kept getting distracted with other projects. 

But this focal was calling me, and I've been dreaming about what I'd do with it. I just love it's Southwestern vibe.

I decided that what I really wanted was a necklace that could stand up to the size and substance of that focal. So I pulled out some howlite rounds. The color of sand. Perfect. Substantial, but not too colorful to overwhelm the jasper.

Next I pulled out accent beads in gold that I think brings out the veining in the howlite, and the flecks in the jasper. I really just love the banding in the top half of the focal.

But, what to do? Simple stringing? Multiple strands, or graduated? I just didn't think the focal would hang right. Then it hit me. A classic right angle weave alternating the large howlite with the seed beads. This would give a nice, substantial band for the necklace. 

The pattern was a little lose with the size of the howlite, so I decided to come back through to both tighten it up and add one more row of the gold seed beads that creates beautiful little squares between the larger beads. I had not planned that, but I love how it turned out.

I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. And absolutely love how it lays when you wear it. I might have to try this pattern again with a different set of colors and stones.

Beadweaving :: Herringbone Tutorial

A few weeks back my beady friend Linda Younkman and I were playing around with herringbone. I had pulled out these large square wood beads (size 8) to practice this weave. But I really like how the angled squares turned out in this pattern.

I was pretty technology challenged at the time as I was up in the Adirondacks for a break from work. I was trying to snap a picture to send to Linda, of which it took something like 20 minutes to upload to Facebook (insert swear word ... then multiply). Anyway, once I did upload Linda was game to give it a try. And as usual I got the BRB message as she high tailed it to her LBS .... that would mean she would 'be right back' after heading to her 'local bead shop.'  She pinged me later with her own stash of square beads and off she went to try out the pattern. 

And man, I love how she added a leather closure to her version. Check out her post called Needle, Thread and Beads, but don't forget to come right back because we then decided to write up a quick tutorial on this simple weave and show you a few closures and variations. I whipped up a second cuff, this time in reds, to show you a slide closure. You can check it all out in this month's Bead Chat Magazine, or read the full article on the BCM site. Either way, give this one a try for a quick cuff that feels really nice around your arm.

Oh, and btw (I'm just full of acronyms today) Linda's post (featuring several different beaded cuffs) caught the eye of one of the editors over at Beading Daily and they gave one of her pieces top billing on their recent post! Go Linda! bead on my friend.

Beadweaving :: Wedding Ring

I saw an absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous bracelet a while back over at Backstory Beads where Karin showed us a beaded bracelet with circles for the last ATTS hop (A Time to Stitch). I could not stop thinking about it. I really wanted to try this pattern by Rachel Nelson Smith featuring the O. Mosaic Cuff. I really should just break down and buy the book Seed Bead Fusion, but I thought I could figure out this pattern. I did eventually work it out, but I completely lost count of how many times I pulled out all the stitching .... was it 15 times? sigh. Just buy the book.

I went with a mud-brown color and gold circles. I wanted the circles to stand out, but not over power it. So I did not fill in any of the circles. I had a couple of people tell me the pattern looked like the classic quilt Wedding Ring pattern. I agree it does, or maybe the Olympic Rings? The first time I wore this out I had at least 4 different people ask if they could see it and pulled it off my arm. It really is kind of a stunning pattern. One person even mentioned how cool it would look as a choker. Hmmmm, now that's an idea. Might be next up.

Choosy Chicks Choose Chicklet Hop

Back in June Rita from Toltec Jewels Jewel School Friends posted that she went a bit nuts buying these cute Chicklet beads from Sue Beads. Can you blame her? They are pretty awesome, and they really do look like those Chicklets I remember from childhood ... except, well they didn't have the sweet flower imprinted on it.

What fun little beads these are. So when I saw the post from Rita, I took about 2 seconds to raise my hand to create with some Chicklets. But then here's the thing. Somewhere in my head I was thinking we'd be getting a few of them to create a pattern. When my single bead arrived I thought, huh just one? What in the world do you do with one bead? 

What I do is make it the star of the show and create a pattern around it. I decided to use it as a charm on a bracelet. I have been wanting to figure out how you bead a right angle to a peyote stitch. I figured how hard can this be? So as my husband would do .... I didn't ask for any directions. Yeah, not so smart.

I kept trying to bring together two ends of a peyote strip and it looked like a complete mess. Not even worthy of a picture to show you just what a disaster it was. So I broke down, and turned to YouTube. What in the world did we do before we could google anything we needed? I quickly found a tutorial on a Peyote Stitch Triangle. Of course a beading tutorial on YouTube wouldn't be complete without a Russian accent. A few pauses, and rewinds and off we go.

I wanted to bring out the orange in the bead which meant not over powering the rest of the bracelet with the same color. I used it only as an accent. This beaded up in under an hour once I had figured out the peyote triangle part of it. Yeah, I should'a started with the tutorial in the first place. Next time.

Apparently I was not the only one that found these sweet little beads a fun challenge to try. Originally Rita was looking for 20 people to join in on the hop, but she had so many people respond she actually expanded it to 44 people. This baby is going to be a big hop! So let's get on with it. Here are all the other artists working with Chicklets today:

Guest of Honor & Featured Artist:  Susan Kennedy
Sue Kennedy's blogs:         SueBeads...A Beady Girl's blog
                                    Art Jewelry Elements
Sue Kennedy's website      SueBeads
SueBeads Art Beads          SueBeads

Hostess: Toltec Jewels                 
Artists: Linda Anderson, Jennifer Reno, Shirley Moore, Kristen Stevens, Marybeth Rich, Jael Thorp, Melissa Trudinger, Andrea Glick, Nan Smith, Blanca Medina, Shai Williams, Carolyn Lawson, Kay Thomerson, Rana Wilson, Robin Reed, Robin Showstack, Sheila Prosterman, Karla Morgan, Kari Asbury, Kelly Rodgers, Jayne Capps, Mischelle Andrade Fanucchi, Heather Richter, Chris Eisenberg, Kathleen Breeding, Linda Landig, Crystal Thain, Cheri Reed, Heather d-Entremont, Dini Bruinsma, Lori Schneider, Tammy Adams, Melinda Orr, Lennis Carrier, Cynthia Machata (that's me), Elizabeth Hodges, Debbie Rasmussen, Tanya McGuire, Charlie Jacka, Ev Shelby, Sharyl McMillian-Nelson, Jasvanti Patel