Elizabethan Beads

By: ornamento.blog
Alois Powers, Art, beading, , , , Leave a Comment on Elizabethan Beads

Years ago, I took a beading class with a woman named Alois Powers called “Elizabethan Beads.”  Powers  had designed some very stunning self-supported beaded beads made up of seed beads and crystals and she was an excellent teacher as I recall.

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Here are some pictures of what I made in the class and afterward.

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And thus my frenzy for beaded beads was born.  I still have all of my class materials, made some more beads and have worked out some of my own designs which Powers encouraged her students to do.

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Obviously, I cannot share any of the patterns.Fortunately the Internet abounds with information and ideas for making these jeweled  treasures.   Sidonia Petki’s channel on YouTube   is a fabulous resource.  Sidonia also sells tutorials on her Etsy Site.

Here is my favorite (so far) Sidonia beading tutorial video.

A New Beading Angle

By: ornamento.blog
Art, beading, beads, YouTube, YouTube Videos, , , Leave a Comment on A New Beading Angle

Well, it’s not really new. I have always had a fascination with beaded beads. I could not rest until I learned how to make the Puffy Heart which is really a beaded bead made from the two strand version of right angle weave known as cross weaving or the Hachinoji–ami or Kousa-ami stitch that one often sees in Japanese three dimensional bead work. For a simple project pattern, press here.

Arguably the dodecahedron shapes above and below are not really right angle weave because the beads don’t all sit at right angles to one another.

These beads are cubic right angle weave which is a wonderful stitch. It works up quickly and you can turn out shapes as if by magic. I was tearing my hair out trying to learn this stitch until I realized that it started with a beaded cube and the rest of the stitch was just a continuation of the cube. So I was able to figure it out on my own. But my mind works in funny ways. I am still stymied by the fax machine in the office where I work.

Anyway, I looked at a few on-line videos because I wanted to teach the stitch to Beading Yoda, (who is the Empress and number one Ambassador of flat right angle weave).

Most of the videos took a straight forward technique and complicated it to the point where it resembled Chinese Algebra rather than beading. And that’s not a good thing.

But then I came on this video by Heather Collin. It’s lucid, understandable, and you can see what she’s doing. Take a look.

I’m winding up with a picture of some more beaded beads including new Klimt inspired beads. I’ll post more on these later. I am still experimenting and have not gotten them out of my system. Yet.