MoJo Magic - Titanium and Gold

Titanium is the elegant and cool neutral in this season’s color palette from Pantone. It seems to me that it would work well with every other color in the Fall palette, a theory I plan to have lots of fun putting to the test over the next month.

I’ve paired it here with Honey Gold, a true Fall classic, and the very delicious, chocolaty brown, French Roast.

Heather Collin’s cubic right angle weave pattern, MoJo, was my vehicle. I chose Heather’s pendant for its balanced proportions and sculptural curves, and because her designs are always magical - fun to stitch and fabulous to wear!

Old Design, New Stitch

I came up with a crisscross necklace design earlier in the year for an Art Bead Challenge, using herringbone stitch. While I really liked the resulting piece, it didn't turn out quite as I envisioned it.

I decided to try again using similarly shaped stones from my stash and cubic right angle weave. Worked in CRAW, which results in a rope with supple drape but more structure than herringbone, this necklace is exactly what I had in mind!

Wish I knew what these stones are - the string is  marked simply "freeform flat nuggets," but they are slightly iridescent and change from gray to green to silver to blue with the shifting light of day. And the stripes in the Czech glass accent beads really are that magnificent blue!

The length is 16”, and it’s perfect as a choker, but for those occasions when I’d like it a bit longer, I finished it with one of my favorite adjustable closures, a design I picked up from Melinda Barta’s excellent Custom Clasps video.

Crazy for CRAW

I am totally hooked on cubic right angle weave! It’s a mesmerizing stitch that results in beadwork that has great structure and at the same time is amazingly soft and fluid.

When I was asked by an area bead store if I had an interest in teaching a beadweaving course,  I immediately thought of CRAW because it can be a difficult stitch to learn from written instructions.  Here are a few pieces I stitched up as class samples.

These lampwork beads with their bold expression of color were meant for a rope woven in size 8 seed beads and finished with a Vintaj clasp and chain. The rope is embellished with size 11's, with 2.5mm crystals surrounding the lampwork beads.

 This lighter, softer version in size 11’s features a dichroic glass focal framed with vintage Czech glass and drop beads. I  finished this necklace with a toggle of tubular RAW, which is a first cousin of CRAW.

This fun and fabulous finishing touch is from Rachel Nelson-Smith’s Bead Riffs.

The lampwork beads and dichroic glass were a recent find on a trip to South Carolina to meet up with my sisters-in-law for a yoga retreat. I stopped in to visit Lesley at YaYa Beads in Augusta. I love Lesley’s blog, Sweet Freedom Designs, where her posts always inspire, entertain or educate (oftentimes all three in a single post!) Her store is home to an amazing collection of artfully purveyed beads, findings and pendants. Oh, and her fabulous finished pieces, which I could have ogled for hours! And a store dog! I spent such a fun hour at YaYa, and brought home a small bag chock full of inspiration. Now, if I can just finish up this kitchen remodel so I can dig into the rest of those beads!

Maven Meld

What a lovely contest the Bead Mavens offered up, enticing those of us who are new to creating our own designs to take a step in that direction by melding two or more of their tutorial patterns together to create something new. I love pieces that are component based, and the Mavens offered some exciting ones. Do you ever see something and just know you have to make it? As soon as I clicked on Heather Collin’s Cactus Drops tutorial, I knew I’d found my focal. I was equally captivated by Cynthia Newcomer Daniel’s treatment of side-drilled beads in her Woodland Treasure design.



www.mzephotos.com/gallery/cacti/echinopsis-flower.html"
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On to colors! I chose chocolate brown and bronze, paired with delicate red violet tones, inspired by the mystique and majesty of night-blooming cactus.

My first attempt with this color palette was dreamy and delicate, but after stitching up a few sample components, I realized it didn’t convey what I was striving for -  the mood of a desert garden at the moment that day changes into night. 

Reversing the colors, using a warmer shade of violet as the accent, and switching from iridescent stick pearls to faceted nuggets in smokey quartz gave my design the glow and the feel of a moonlit garden.

The drops are stitched in cubic right angle weave, which was new to me. Drops finished, but still fascinated with the stitch, I continued it into the neckstrap. Heather Collin has a definitive basic CRAW tutorial, which helped me master this stitch, and you might also check out Gwen Fisher’s video if you want to take your CRAW skills to the next level.

The deadline for entries is tonight at midnight. Click over to the Mavens’ challenge page to see some very amazing work.