I’ve spent more time sitting lately which gives me the excuse I’ve been looking for to crack open the Delicas and tackle geometric seed beading for the first time. A year of ignoring pain will give you a nasty case of tendonitis. And while I may never run another marathon, I never ran one before I donned the knee brace and that’s something.
My friend Ellen gave me a copy of Jean Power’s Geometric Beadwork, Volume 2. I had already salivated over Beading Yoda’s geometric beadwork interpretations and was ready to try some of my own. I bought the last copy of Kate McKinnon’s Contemporary Geometric Beadwork Vol.1 at Blue Santa Beads. I had already watched most of the videos from Kate McKinnon’s Contemporary Geometric Beadwork channel on YouTube, but reading the book helped make them crystal clear.
This small pagoda bracelet was fun to make. I like the idea of adding bead increases to a simple peyote stitch and watching the beads take on a sculptural shape.
The zigzag motif is a bit more challenging if only because of the sizing issue. How many beads to string to make a bracelet to fit your wrist?
McKinnon suggests that if you make something the wrong size, you can try tailoring it into a new design which is what I did here.
But Jean Power solved the sizing problem for me with the suggestions she gives in Volume 1 of her book which arrived at my door a few days ago. Here’s what I’m working on now:
I love McKinnon’s books AND Power’s books. You need all of them because if McKinnon does not answer a question, Power will and vice versa. And there is plenty of free information on YouTube and the Contemporary Geometric Beadwork Blog.
And I made myself two bead-on-it boards! I looked all over for instructions. There is a tutorial on YouTube that uses hot glue. I tried it and could not for the life of me make a board that did not look like a piece of, well you know what. Lumpy and sloppy. Who wants to bead on something like that? Then I found the video I link to below. I resisted watching it at first because it is more than two hours long. But it’s so long because the makers show the assembly of one of their boards from beginning to end-every nail driven and every staple stapled (including the ones they pull out and do over). But you can fast forward through all of that and learn how to make yourself a nice beading surface.
Ornamento 