Experimenting with Rachel Nelson Smith "Bumps"

Thanksgiving weekend, and I finished this funny little experiment with Rachel Nelson Smith's "bumps" - little Peyote hills atop Right Angle Weave units. This is from the Bead Riffs book by Lark.

The rope is an odd count Peyote rope, 5 beads round.  Very dark blue, and lots of misshapen beads so it is not terribly regular. 

The beaded bead is 5 units wide and 8 around.  That is a lot of bumps, and the last few were super hard to get in there!

Can't decide if I like this or is it too odd?

Of course, the author's bumps are a lot more regular, but I am starting to think this is pleasantly wonky.

Voices for Justice Necklace

Can you spot the result of 1:00 am stress-beading from two nights before my big work event?

Correct!  An incredibly fussy bezeled rivoli crystal!  The thread broke, I dunno, 1,000 times.  Probably because it was the middle of the night and my reflexes were completely gone.  But I was determined that it was exactly the necklace I wanted to wear that night.

This picture is from after the event, with the lovely Renee, my Voices for Justice partner in crime.

Tubular Netted Rope a la Jessica

My friend Jessica (the co-owner and bright light of the magnificent Studio Beads) showed me a lovely tubular netted rope with size 13 beads, just a 3-bead net, that she was working on earlier this fall.  I was so taken with it that I ignored my internal warnings about losing my vision early to those tiny beads over such a long rope, and I dove in.  Finished today.  The result:

My camera is not doing so well getting this, but it is about 17 inches and very shimmery, and nicely lacy and see through.    I may end up hanging something from it to spice it up a bit, something I could remove and then wear the rope solo.   There are two colors in my 3 bead net, I still can't keep track of net without color changes to mark the connector beads.  Jessica's was a pure taupe, and it was sooooooo lovely.  I am getting there, but not there yet.

Owly

I've been working in the rope for my Bead Show owly forever.  Just inching along.  I think I started it in June!

Here is the Cubic Right Angle Weave rope, embellished with the accent colors from the bead:


Once I made the rope, the next challenge was to do a beaded bail that looked nice and was also removable so I could wear the rope without the owly for more grown up occasions.  Here is the result:

The bottom of the bail is a circular peyote disc that is a little lumpy, and a little lopsided.  It is attached via the owly bead hole to a herringbone loop that is large enough to slide on and off.  I think it is very sturdy if not perfect in terms of symmetry, as this design (the peyote) allowed me to take multiple passes through the owly with every consecutive round of the disc.

I am really pleased with the way the colors worked out.