Adventure in Herringbone

My daughter Dani happened to be with me when I stopped into my local bead shop last week. While I looked for a few finishing touches for my kumihimo designs, Dani noticed a bracelet on the counter that went perfectly with her outfit. The colors were intriguing and the project was a simple design that could easily be finished in a single class, perfect for a beginner. When Amy, the shop owner, mentioned she was teaching that piece this week, we told her to sign us up.

Dani chose the same colors as the sample, and I pulled some blue and raspberry beads from the shelf. Soon Dani was breezing along on hers, the herringbone design working up quickly in the size 8 seed beads. Customers coming in and out of the store invariably pegged us as a mother-daughter team, some questioning the wisdom of my exposing Dani to the lure and sparkle of molten, polished glass. Could a single household actually support more than one beadaholic?

We spent a fun afternoon, and picked up the perfect buttons to finish off our bracelets at Jo-Ann’s on our way home. Dani reworked her design today, preferring a more delicate mix of Swarovski crystals to the all-turquoise strip in the original. I think it was a good design call - but is a bead obsession developing? Not too worried - when I invited her to come along to the Down the Street Bead Show this afternoon, she politely declined.

Carnelian and Silver

A Labor Day slip on a small puddle of water left me with a mild back sprain, and in a horizontal position for an entire week. My doctor allowed me to sit or stand for 15 minutes each morning and evening! Of course, I dedicated those precious vertical moments each day to literally inch along on my silver and golden raspberry herringbone rope.

Finally on my feet again, I finished embellishing the necklace this afternoon.  The accent strips are done in right angle weave and filled with pearls, crystals, amethyst and carnelian rounds, and matte metallic fire polished beads. Beautiful fall colors to complement the carnelian and sterling silver focal. The herringbone rope design is Maggie Roschyk’s cover piece from June’s Bead and Button magazine.

Labor Day Week-End Project

Fiery reds and brilliant oranges drew me to this carnelian and silver pendant several months ago, and after considering and rejecting at least a dozen ideas on how to incorporate it into a necklace, I finally found what I think will be the right design.

I began working on it over this long week-end, but can it really be considered labor when a herringbone rope with hex-cut delicas and sterling-silver-plated seed beads is involved? These Toho size 11’s are beautiful to work with, and I have been amazed at the quality – I’m on my third bag, and haven’t culled out one bead that was misshapened or poorly coated!

Hope to be able to show you the finished work – in the perfect colors for autumn - by the end of this week.

Beads and Braids

Last week I took a beginning Kumihimo class with Becky Patellis. While most beading classes end up being social gatherings to get to know like-minded students and swap ideas, this class was a little different. We were all so intent on repeating the mantra: right down, left up, turn while moving the cords across our kumihimo discs, that I don’t think I even remember anyone else’s name! Still, a fun afternoon learning a lovely and fast technique – all of us finished our bracelets in the three-hour class.


My bracelet colors were inspired by the liriope that bloom all over Atlanta this time of year.

One Fine Afternoon

This turned out to be a great afternoon. I just finished edging my first beaded cuff, wandered down to the mailbox to stretch a bit, and reached in to find the new issue of Bead and Button magazine. Perfect timing!



This was my second bead embroidered piece, and my first attempt at a cuff. I loved working with the blues, greens and all manner of golden taupe beads to give the bracelet a very textured look.




I'm counting on it to give fresh pizzazz to my plain white shirts and denim this fall.

Stepping Off the Path

Another thing that I loved to do when I was ten was embroider. I learned the essentials as a Girl Scout, under the careful eye of my Mom and my aunt, who were our troop leaders, and Diane Sawyer (yes, that Diane Sawyer), who served for a time as our junior leader. After whiling away many, many hours back-stitching a half-dozen pillow cases, I set my needle and thread aside, neglecting the art of hand stitching until this spring, when I took a class in bead embroidery.

While I was away, the artform has changed. What an exciting array of materials! Beads, of course, have entered the mix, along with silk, leather, lace, metals, mesh and more! Up until now, my beading projects have begun by finding a pattern and rounding up beads. With this cuff, I stepped off that path and started with a cabachon and let the beads tell me where they wanted to go!



It's a beginning...check back in a bit to see how it turns out!

Finding More Fun

Gretchen Rubin, in her excellent book, The Happiness Project Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, encourages us to Be Serious about Play. Don’t know how to tap into your inner child? Rubin was having the same problem, until a friend asked her this question: “What did you like to do when you were a child? What you enjoyed as a ten-year-old is probably something you’d enjoy now.”

I recall with relish playing marbles with my little brother. Although I enjoyed the actual game of marbles and capturing all of James’ alleys (he was 5 years younger, and we never played for keeps!), what I really liked was rolling those cat’s eyes in my hands and examining the swirling colored glass that was injected inside.

So I set off to replicate that experience this weekend. The marbles were jasper, the swirls of color were on the outside, and I captured them with seed beads. A great week-end of work, but work that was fun!



The necklace is Carole Ohl's Earthly Hues design from the current issue of Beadwork magazine.

When’s the last time you knuckled down to a day at play?