Beading

by Karin on February 6, 2007 · 0 comments

in Beading, Crafts, Just thinking, Knitting

I enjoy beading now, better than any of the other crafts I've done or am doing. I sort of rotate with some knitting at the moment, but beading is my fun-creative-thing.

Like any craft (except for knitting or cross stitch or needlepoint where you buy by projects) there is a certain level of investment before it begins to pay off. The more beads, the more interesting, the more creative.

But you can't accumulate beads unless you can find them. So, I simply buy some beads whenever they strike my fancy, whether I know what I'm going to do with them or not. And sometimes people give me old beads...or you find them in flea markets, etc.

Then I wait for the muse to hit, or not, or for them to speak to me.

I generally limit myself to one strand of whatever it is, and out of that, with adding other beads, I can usually get a necklace, bracelet, and earrings. Or some combination. Leftovers, go into the bead mix.

I've had people stop me on the street or in the mall and ask if I sell them. Not so far.

A local woman (now a friend) who owns a store makes beautiful beaded jewelry. She works with both seed beads and larger semi-precious stones and beads. With her leftovers she makes more beautiful jewelry by simply running a needle through the seed beads and smaller beads and doing multiple strands, very ecclectic.

I put my beading away sometime before Christmas, because I felt I wouldn't have time, and I wanted a neater look with so much going on. The only way really to bead is to look very scattered so you can see colors, etc. so the muse will find you. Mine tend to be in ziplocks, which isn't as ideal. My friend's are all out on a table or on hanging rods. I want to do something like this, if I can figure out how to make it look like a changing display. Then it wouldn't look so messy, even though it would be messy.

She has a very distinct style, and it is fun to see what she does and how she does it.

After doing next to nothing with beading since before Christmas, taking a hiatus of sorts, having organized it all away, I finally got the gumption to begin again. The muse didn't hit, but I took a couple of things to my friends and used her creativity and bead mix, and we did it together. I knew she'd accomplish what I was hoping for.

Then I was bitten by the bug again.

I had bought some seed beads months ago, seeing another project in a bead store, but it seemed more like a chore than fun, so I felt burdened by it. But this week, I finally decided to make them up into the project I had bought them for so they wouldn't be hanging over my head any longer.

First, I had to try to learn Peyote stitch. Try is the operative word. It took a couple of tries. I laughingly say, it might be the only time I do it. (It is a two-stitch pattern that is laying up sort of like a basket weave.) The pattern shows doing a whole bunch of beads on top of the basic bracelet, but I only want the bracelet, which I saw while the project was in process at the bead store where I bought the same color beads. My idea is that I might also be able to design it, so it can be worn as a collar. I want to be able to attach different pins to one side of it through silver rings (using a locking mechanism with it, between the rings, so the pin won't fall off.) When I want to wear it plain, I'll just flip it over, and the rings won't show.

That's the plan. I think it will work. I like to design...I won't know until I actually get to that point if it will work or not. Stay tuned.

Meantime I've put some time into it. The good thing is that it is mindless, in that there is no pattern per se. I think all the skills learned with knitting ski sweaters and doing cross stitch and needlepoint (following designs) could easily be transferred to seed beads. And ee gads, I might even try it. On the next project.

I kinda, sorta, maybe, think I like doing it, if I'm not into fast, but just into repetitive. Of course, adding a design takes it out of repetitive. And there are a lot of designs available.

Repetitive can be very relaxing. Plus I don't fall asleep. Which can be a problem when I'm reading...

When I bead to make up a design, the time is in deciding the design, which I generally cannot duplicate. Just doing repetitive is a nice way to bead without any big effort of thought.

Karin

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