Eat * Pray * Love

So everyone is familiar with either the book and/or the movie Eat/Pray/Love.  The movie now starring Julia Roberts. Well this designer, Barbara Ellis, has designed a couple of pieces based off of those works.  One is a bracelet and one is a necklace.  I think they are simply charming.  Not something I would create, because we have different tastes in jewelry and styles but simply charming nonetheless.  Here is a link to her pieces.  Click here to see her cute pieces of work.  There are other charming works on there too you may find interesting.  I personally like the cuff bracelet at the end, but that's my own personal style. 

Happy beading!

Fire Mountain Gems Gemstones for $1 sale

This is HUGE.  They have a TON of Gemstones on sale for only $1 a strand.  You have to check this out.  Even with seedbeads you use gemstones.  I know I use them to embellish my peyote bracelets or to adorn my necklaces.  Take advantage of this sale while it is still going on. 

Click here to get to the site and sale.

Happy Beading...and shopping!

Mini Tux by Amy Loh-Kupser

Here is an adorable little peyote or brick stitch pattern designed by Amy Loh-Kupser and found on Bead Patterns.com.  You can dowload the pattern for free there but here is a picture of what it looks like.  I take no credit for this design.  I just think it is absolutely adorable.  To download the pattern click here. 
Here is the picture of the pattern. 

You could extend this out and make it into a bracelet or bookmark or anything. 


Happy Beading!

My first experience with Bead Crochet

So on Sunday I posted instructions on how to Bead Crochet and said that on Monday I would be taking a class on this.  Well things went great, at first, when we were working with pony beads and yarn.  And the beads were arranged in color coordination.  So I did that practice model twice, felt very comfortable with it and decided to move on to a harder combination.  I moved up to size 6 seed beads, thread, and a size 1 needle. Oh boy, was I in for a challenge.  Now I didn't start this endeavor until I got home so there was no instructor or anyone else around to help me.  This is what I got after about 3-4 rows:

As you can see, if you know anything about bead crochet, it is not what it is supposed to be.  It looks more like a bead toggle.  So I am going to have to take it all out down to the first 6 and start over.  If the beads were in any type of color coordination it would be much easier, but since they are not, I am having much difficulty.  These are the beads I am working with:

As you can see there really is no way of putting them in a color scheme.  So I guess I will just keep at it. As they say, practice makes perfect.  

I would love to hear any of your comments or suggestions on this.  Maybe things to try?

Anyway if you like to bead crochet here are some books from Amazon you may like: http://www.bead-patterns.com/amazon_books.php#Bead-Crochet


Happy Beading!

Fun Peyote Patterns

Here are a few fun peyote patterns gathered together by Shala Kerrigan of Bella Online, The Voice of Women.  She has put together a few pieces that can be used for either bookmarks or bracelets.  Hope you enjoy.

Fun Peyote Patterns

I hope enjoy these patterns as much as I enjoyed graphing them!
I don't currently have a complete alphabet in the style I used for the leet and geek patterns, but intend to make one up to share with you soon.
They can be used as bracelets or bookmarks, if you are going to use them for bracelets I suggest you start beading from the middle, the graphs are marked every ten beads so the middle will be easy to find, that way you can shorten it if necessary or lengthen it symmetrically.
Click the images for the patterns, they will open in a seperate window and are oriented vertically for easy printing.

And here's a blank graph you can right click and save to design your own. I've love to see what you come up with!

Happy Beading!

Bead Crochet lessons

Bead crochet is something amazing and looks fantastic.  And the great thing is you don't have to know how to crochet in order to learn how to do this.  I am actually going to take a class on this on Monday on how to do this but found these animated lessons online today and thought I would share them with those of you who are interested in learning this art.  I am going to share the link to the lessons page as there are too many links on the page to all the lessons.  But I will give you an picture of what bead crochet looks like. 

To learn how to do this go to this website:  http://beadcrochet.com/lessons/lessonindex.htm.  Here you will find lessons for right handed and left handed individuals.  Also they are set out in different speeds, they slow the lessons down for you. 

Happy Beading!

Love Shadow Bead design graph

Beaded Patterns.com has a collection of free bead graph patterns that you can download and print.  However they are all copyrighted and I can not bring them to you here.  So I thought I would link you to their site and the free patterns.  The one for this month is the Love Shadow Bead design graph which looks like this: 

This is not the only free pattern they have.  They have a lot more so don't think you are stuck with only this one. They have zodiac symbols, celtic knots, holiday themed graphs, and much more.  Go check them out.  Click here to get to their site. 

Happy Beading!