Beaded Flowers - Day 6

I usually work a 3-bead peyote band on this flower and teach it as the Flower Power Ring shown here. These also make very nice earrings when glued to an earring back. The bead used is a 6x8mm Czech petal bead, sometimes called a cupped leaf bead. There are two Czech beads with the same dimensions, but they are different when worked into a flower. The one I'm using today has a wide base and an oval shape, while the one I'll use tomorrow has more of a teardrop shape. So today it's the Flower Power and tomorrow it will be the Water Lily.

The petal beads shown here have a vitrail coating on one side. When you purchase a string of these, half of the cupped side will be the vitrail coating and half of the beads will be the plain glass. I separate them out and use the vitrail on the bottom layer and the plain glass on the top layer. I use the new 10/0 Delicas for the seed bead rounds since 11/0s are too small to allow the petals to sit nicely. This flower has a top-drilled pearl in the center which I like for the contrast. A top-drilled 6mm crystal, a 6mm round crystal, a 3.9mm montee, or a Swarovski sequin would also work well. The 3mm bicones in the final round simply add a twinkle to the finished flower.

Begin in the usual manner with about 48 inches of thread doubled to 24 and ten 10/0 Delicas, going through every other one and pulling into a circle (In The Beginning). Add a petal bead between the beads in the outer ring.When you have finished the round, bring your needle through one of the beads in the initial inner ring where indicated by the arrow. I hold on to the starting thread as well as the ring of Delicas until I've put on my first round of petals and usually until I've put on the center pearl. Then I tie off the starting threads and clip the ends about 1/8" away from the beads.



Place the top-drilled pearl on your thread and take the needle across the circle and through a bead also on the inner ring. Come through the pearl again and bring the needle across the ring and through a bead to anchor the center. Now work your needle up to one of the Delicas in the outer ring.





Work one round of peyote with the Delicas placed on top of the first round of petal beads as shown by the arrow. Step up at the end by going through the first bead in the round.Work the next round of peyote with the last five petal beads, stepping up at the end by going through the first petal added.




Finish the flower by adding one round of 3mm crystals between the petals and coming through the last petal bead to step up. Work the thread to the bottom of the flower. You can finish it off now if desired, but I leave the thread on until I'm ready to sew the flower to a bracelet or necklace.

Remembering Dona

The first thing I remember about Dona was when she beaded her Tom Cruise purse as a gift for Rosie O'Donnell. Soon after that Nancy of SuzaBeads (my local bead store until it closed)brought Dona to Sugar Land, Texas for classes. I think I took them all, or at least a good number. The kaleidoscope class was my favorite, although the dolls heads were a close second. Somehow, I couldn't see me in a necklace with heads dangling, so I thought of mine more as a mannequin than a doll. I gave the only other class project I finished, the beaded kaleidoscope, to a friend without taking a picture of it, but I still have five waiting to be adorned.

Dona's work was always innovative, colorful, and fun to work. She encouraged me to add my own interpretations to her designs, as well as to use my own colors. Classes with her were always a time to banter ideas and tips back and forth, to laugh a lot, and to participate in her joy of our craft.

We spent time this past weekend at the Shreveport Bead Retreat reliving some of our favorite moments with her and being thankful that we had crossed paths during her all-too-brief life.

Kris Self, a close friend of Dona's, was our bead supplier at the retreat. She had a large selection of Dona's patterns and also a good supply of the fork handles that feature in one of her last projects. So now I have those to add to the kaleidoscopes, the ceramic faces, the wooden balls, the metal pieces, and the beads from the peacock feather lariat! I could just feel her chuckle as I went up to buy one more set of handles.

Please visit Dona's site to see what all of these raw materials can metamorphose into someday.

Bracelet Base Continued

I work with a double thread on quite a few of my projects, and I often have to add a new thread. Here's how I do it: Work with the old thread until there is about 4" left. Stop, thread a new needle, and start this new thread about 4 or 5 rows back from where the old thread waits. Make a few overhand knots along one of the sides, not through the middle beads, and exit the bead where the old thread is. Tie a square knot and continue beading with the new thread.

When the beading has progressed for about an inch or so, pick up the old thread and work it up along the side making several overhand knots. Cut off the needle and tie the ends in a square knot before clipping or burning the thread close to the beads.


The bead that I'm using in this base has 9 beads to the inch along the side. If you want to know how many beads you'll need for the base, multiply this number times three. In this case, twenty-seven beads to the inch or 182 for a 6-3/4" base.


I use the new 8mm heavy magnetic clasps on a lot of these bracelets. (If you can't find them at your local bead store, Cindy Tipton, the Beadlady, has them available on line.) Stop when you have a "Straight" row coming up, and the magnet will fit right in the gap. Take the thread through the first bead, string on the magnet, take it through the last bead. Now come through the bead right below and start working overhand knots along the thread between the bead and the magnet. Go through the magnet and work overhand knots on the thread between this side of the magnet and the end bead. (It's like sewing on a hook with buttonhole stitches.) Work the thread along the side and finish it by clipping the thread leaving enough to tie a square knot, before clipping it close. I add the other half of the magnet the same way on the other side by threading the needle with the beginning thread, adding one bead to the side to get to the "Straight" row.

Once you've made a few of these you'll be amazed at how quickly you can create a base. Next week I'll be building a bracelet on this base. It's going to be "Miss Beddie's Pond" with a new flower made from petal beads.


Here's another bracelet with the flowers made from leaves. I titled this one "The Secret Garden," because you have to look really hard to find the flowers.


I'm off tomorrow for a weekend at the Shreveport Louisiana Bead Retreat. I'm teaching a new piece, the Rose Vine Bracelet. I'll also be teaching this bracelet at Beadoholique Too in Houston during April.

Bracelet Base

I have more flowers to share with you, but I wanted to pause and add the tutorial for the base I use when making bracelets using these beaded flowers. There's one bracelet pictured in the header of this blog, another in this post, and one in yesterday's post. All of these bracelets are built on a 3-bead peyote base made of either 8/0 or 6/0 seeds, 3 or 4mm cubes, Miyuki 8/0 plain or hex seeds, 8/0 or 5/0 Miyuki triangles. The one thing I want is a large-holed bead because I will be adding all of the embellishments through the center beads. I also like this technique because it has a nice working rhythm that yields a flexible, sturdy and smooth band. Here's one of my bracelets using "loopy" flowers and sunstone chips, one of my "Chips Ahoy" collection of necklaces and bracelets.



I first found this 3-bead technique in a special Interweave publication, Jean Campbell's "Beaded Cords, Chains, Straps and Fringe," and I've used it ever since.

I work with nine to ten feet of thread doubled to four and a half to five feet, so I don't have to add a new thread. And, yes, it can be aggravating in the first few rows, but I deal with it.

The beginning:

String four beads and move them to about 6" from the end of the thread.










Bring the needle through the first two beads on the thread as shown. Pull the thread until the last bead added (#4) is sitting on top of bead #3.










(I flip the beads in my hand after each step so that I'm always moving the needle from right to left. There's no real reason for this except that I can work faster this way.) Pick up a bead and take the needle through the center bead and the #3 bead below the bead on the left. Pull the thread to bring the needles into position. You'll note that there's now a space in the middle.


Take your needle through the first bead in the row, add a bead, and take the needle through the last bead in the row. Now you're ready to weave the band.



The Rest of the Story:

I think of the three steps as Straight, Down, and Across. (Remember that I flip the strip with my left thumb as I pick up the next bead with my right, so I'm always moving my needle from right to left. It's all part of the rhythm.)








I continue with Straight, Down and Across until the base is the desired length without the clasp.

Beaded Flowers - Day 5

Today's flower is worked pretty much like the leaf flower on Day 4. These leaf beads are quite a bit larger than the beads used in yesterday's flower, but you'll use the 10/0 delicas for the first two rounds and 8/0 seeds for the next round just as before. Add the leaf beads.

Here's the difference. I used a coin pearl for the center instead of a 6mm montee, so I didn't need as many 8/0s around the center to finish the flower. I simply added one more round of 8/0s between the leaf beads. If I use a montee as I did in the flower that's the centerpiece of the bracelet in the header, then I add at least two rows of 8/0s around the montee rather than placing them between the leaf beads. The photo below shows the back of the completed flower.

Tip: I don't end the thread when I'm making these flowers for use in a bracelet or necklace. (Jelcy Romberg passed this tip on to me.) Instead, I take the needle and place it in a hair roller, wind the thread around the foam, and close the roller. When I'm ready to use it in a piece of jewelry, I simply open the roller, unroll the thread, and remove the needle. I found the rollers at my local Dollar store. I also use foam make-up wedgies in the same way, but I don't remember who told me about substituting them for the rollers. Either way, the flowers are ready to go when I'm ready to use them without me having to add a thread to the back before I attach them.