Talk About Blog - Handmade Division

It's time for the October Handmade Division Talk About blog post, and our topic this time is how we acquired the skills that we have today. Instead of rehashing my older post, where I discussed how I had actually come to beading, I thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to talk more about how I found the skills and how I use them differently now.

Brick stitch was the first stitch I learned, and the ONLY one I learned directly from another beader. Once I had the stitch down, I swear I spent two solid years making brick stitch earrings, brick stitch bracelets, and just plain old swatches of it. During those two years I looked for every book known to man (back then - and there weren't that many) to try to find more stitches. I longed and ached and NEEDED to learn peyote, I was amazed at how other beaders could make it into so many different shapes - especially and above all, self-supporting vessels!! My entire goal in life at that point was to make a bowl or a box or an urn...anything that would hold something else and be entirely made of these gorgeous little tiny seed beads. And it was HARD. It looks so simple, on the diagrams. You just skip over a bead. How could this be so difficult????? I couldn't get the tension right, I couldn't get the beads to lay right (I was using only czech beads at that point), I couldn't figure out how to shape it....and there were NO books that explained how you went from skipping a bead to making it hold together with increases and decreases and how that would make all the difference. It took me two and a half years to finally get proficient enough in the stitch to feel that I had made something that I liked. This seems incredible to me now; most beaders who talk about it these days say that peyote was the first stitch they learned. And there are so many examples of how to do it!! You can't pick up a beading book that doesn't have instructions for not only the stitch itself, but how to do those darn increases and decreases!!! I still struggle with free form peyote, and was sooooooo proud of my first bracelet...well, you all know that, I posted Mystic Pathway everywhere I could! I think that it is still hard because I still don't have confidence in my basics; to get everything to line up, before branching out into unknown waters. I know I can do it; but I don't have confidence in doing it.

Because of all the trials, tribulations and time involved, I think that I value peyote stitch more than the others that I have learned. When you really really have to WORK for it, you are so much more pleased with your results. I love my bead embroidery, but it comes so easily. Freeform work there is simple, I just pick the beads and let them decide where they want to be - and this has been said of freeform peyote, but it just doesn't work the same way for me!! It curls where I don't want it to, it tightens up in the wrong places and drives me nuts when the beads try to tell me where they want to be, as they don't arrange themselves in the same way at all. I would love love love to make a freeform necklace with peyote stitch. It's one of my goals for myself this year.

I have been working on using Beverly Gilbert's book, Beaded Colorways, as a sort of stepping stone in this. Using her three bead netting technique as a base, I have an easier time shaping my piece before beginning to add some peyote in here and there. The bracelet I made recently as part of a trade is my first one; and I can still see where things are curving in a way that I don't care for. But you watch! I'll want it to curl so that it will drape nicely as a necklace, and it will stay perfectly straight, you wanna bet?! I'm not giving up, nope. I am going to keep at it and see what happens - after all, it sure took a long time to get to the basics...

And I had a thought about perhaps using some fibers in as well, and maybe that will make some more of a difference. And, it may help to simply let other stitches creep in there amongst the others...

Make sure you stop by the other team members' blogs to see what they have to say!!!

Andes Cruz - http://andescruz.wordpress.com/
Tess Norberg - http://www.nova-designs.blogspot.com/
Jaime Pickering - http://bellabijoujewellery.blogspot.com
Purified - http://purifiedart.blogspot.com
Nancy Dale - http://www.nedbeads.blogspot.com
Jewelry by Natsuko - http://jewelrybynatsuko.blogspot.com/
Sand Fibers - http://sandfibers.blogspot.com
Alice Istanbul - http://istanbuldesigns.blogspot.com/
Thomasin Durgin - http://metalriot.blogspot.com
Susan Moloney - http://susarto.blogspot.com
Beth Cyr - http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
emily watson- http://nocoloratall.tumblr.com/
Tosca Teran- http://www.nanopod.wordpress.com