Beaded Bangles & EBW Friends

Here I am again! This last week has been pretty devoid of beading - a horrible thing for me - but I thought I would tell everyone a little bit about my new beaded bangles that I am offering for sale on Etsy. I am so proud of these!! I have seen many different designs for bangles that include an armature of some kind, such as a rubber cord (Marcia DeCoster) and brass rings (Lisa Kan), and some that are completely beadwoven...but I don't think any of them are made the way I made mine (I hope, anyway!) and I was extremely happy to have thought it up!

I started with two ropes of cubular right angle weave, stitched them together with a strip of right angle weave, finished the other side by adding another row of right angle weave, this time of beads AND swarovski crystals, then joined the ends, and VOILA! a beaded bangle that keeps its shape really well, and is flexible enough to slip over the hand without stretching out. (I used fireline for the whole project, which means people would really have to TRY to break it!!) I really enjoyed the process of creating it in my head first and thenn translating it into beads. Since I am sharing my technique - if not in detail - I ask that anyone who tries it out, please give me credit for the design in your description of your piece.




I also decided that I would really like to include some of the members in my Etsy Beadweavers Team in my posts, so I am going to add in a few things here and there this year about their designs and shops. We have the most incredibly talented group of beadweavers EVER!!

This week I would like to introduce those of you who aren't familiar with her, to Patricia at Silver Dragon on Etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SilverDragon

This is just one of her lovely designs, I encourage you to follow the link above to her shop!



And I just have to include my friend Linda Jones in this, as she is a huge inspiration to me and has been a great support through some hard times in the last few years. She has the most amazing color sense, and stupendous amounts of creativity. You can find her lucious work at:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/wildwickedbeads

And a tease; just a sample of what she is capable of:



I am hoping that the coming week will yield much more time to bead, I am starting on a new right angle weave collar, which I have been thinking of for awhile. I also have a bead embroidered collar in the works, and have almost collected all the various beads and cabochons to start on that one. (Think of woods, forest, cool, quiet, shimmery woods in the late evening...)

I wish beady blessings to everyone, and hope that the coming week brings you everything you need! See you next Wednesday!!