Snippets from a bead artist.

8.01.2018

August Beady Prompt

Good summer, friends!  At least, I hope yours has been.  Mine has been busy, but also SO rainy.  There are maybe three days of sun and bearable temps and then a loooooooong stretch of rain and thunderstorms - so frustrating when you need to see that sunny day! If you've been having lots of rain too, I hope that the beachy theme from July helped to get you through.

August promises to start off hot and humid and FULL of thunderstorms (for the next five days in VT) and so I thought I would pick one of my favorite things for this month's challenge so that I might be tempted to get my beads out and stick with the air conditioning happily rather than sitting in it with a mighty sense of frustration (so much that needs doing in the yard!).

One of my favoritest things are spirals - in any form, whether in nature, or in art, or in beads.  I LURVE spirals.  They speak to me of all the infinite things that are good.  They speak of ancient, lovely things.  They make me happy.   So August shall be Spiral month - any way you like.  Spiral beads (have you seen those? pressed glass beads that look like shells!), or spirals in the form of ammonite cabochons, or spiral motifs, or spiral ropes.

There are lots of different spiral rope stitches - Russian spiral, regular spiral, cellini spiral, double and triple spiral, spiraling (twisted) herringbone - and tons of variations of patterns in all stitches that include spiral motifs. I'm sure I haven't tackled them all, but I have done quite a few different things with spirals in the past!



 Two necklaces with spiral stitch and crystals.

 Right angle weave with embellished herringbone spiraling around it.


 My favorite ammonite in the world!

 Herringbone with embellished herringbone spiraling around it.

 My Triple Twist  has three spiraling ropes in one necklace.



If you're interested in the tutorial, I have it HERE in my shop. :)

Russian spiral bangle with drop beads. 

I found a ton and a half (maybe two tons) worth of spirally sorts of beady things on Etsy with a quick search.  These are a few that caught my eye.  :)

Carol Dean Sharpe has a plethora of spiraling, swirly patterns in her shop and this one is one of my faves - the LINK will take you to a page full of gorgeous designs:


This lovely bracelet tutorial really grabbed my attention - Tubular herringbone with a layered twist!  I'm purchasing this one myself to try, not only do I love the color combination, but the layer look is wonderful.  You can find the pattern HERE:


Sevtlana has this fabulous take on spirals HERE that I was soooo intrigued by, what a cool use of crescents!


And Heather Collin has a lovely pattern for a spiraling cubic right angle weave that I love HERE.
I promise you there are loads more patterns and tutorials out there if you need more inspiration, but I think this taster is a good one for now.  AND, if you're part of the Facebook group, I'm going to include a complimentary spiral tutorial in the files section just because.  Hope to see lots of spirals popping up this month!! Happy beading, everyone!