Bead Spinner - it ROCKS!!

I love my bead spinner. This is a suncatcher I made tonight. I think next one, I'll make the dragonflies, flowers and leaves in advance, wire them to the bare wire and thread the leftover wire tails through the beads already on the wire and then load more beads - that way the wire for the add-ons won't show as much. At least that's the plan. :)

French Beaded Rose

This little fleur is actually huge. It's got five layers of petals. The interior is AB gold miyuki 11/0 seeds and the outer petals are a mix of AB gold, maize, light brown and matte cream. I had to use two floral wires, bent in half to support the weight of the flower, and a ton of floral tape. The stem, which you can't see, is finished in green ribbon. I was going to add leaves, but I felt that would be gilding the lily (or rose, as the case may be!)

French Beaded Flower - My first one! YAY!

Well, I was asked to teach Victorian and French beading recently. I can do Victorian, but I'd never done French, so for the past two nights I've been teaching myself. Last night I worked on just getting the technique right. Thank GOD for a bead spinner! Tonight I started at around 11:00 PM (it's now 3:40 am) and finished up at about 1:30 a.m. I'm tired, but I accomplished my goal and now I just have to finesse it a little. The leaves are too small for the flower, but overall, I'm happy.

Victorian Beading - Today's Flower

I love the colors on this one, but I didn't achieve the effect I was going for, which was a lacy, open look to the edges of the petals. A fellow artisan suggested the lacy, open look might succeed with a lighter-coloured flower, so I'll try that next.

The "space" you see between the petals is wire weaving where the petals were stitched together using wire. I wove it through the loops at the end of each bead row, joining the petals together.

These actually look lovely under low lights or candlelight because of the Swarovski Crystals in them.

Front View:

Side View:

And both flowers together: (can you tell I'm proud of them?) For a first try at this, I AM pretty proud. Now I have to get REALLY good at it.

Victorian Beaded Flower - Using the Tutorial I posted here

I followed the tutorial I have posted here and just added my own touches. I didn't make the petals tapered on both ends, because I wanted to make a tulip. I made 7 petals and then "stitched" them into a cup-shape with wire. The stamens and pistils are Swarovski Crystals on wire and then fed down through the center of the flower and wrapped around the top of the stem (which was created by the leftover wires.

I modified the tutorial instructions a bit. Since my wires ended at the wide end and I wanted them ending at the narrow end, I just wove them down the sides of each petal. I then brought all the petals together by threading a wire through the bottom bead of each petal, making sure all the other wires were facing the outside of the flower and downward, pulling it tight and then wrapping it around the remaining wires, thus forming a "stem."

I "stitched" each petal to it's neighbor using wire, making sure I ended at the bottom, and secured those wires at the top of the "stem."

This is stupidly simple. Seriously. Each petal took me less than 10 minutes. The hardest part was stitching the last petal into place, since I was working in such a small area.

Try the tutorial. It's easy and it WORKS.

Now the photos:

Side View:

Front View:

Making Flowers from Scraps - for Scrapbooking or anything!

I really liked this. If you're creative you can figure out that you can take her technique and do it any old way you want. You can cut your petals from scrap cardstock or even wired ribbon. This is the thing I like about paper crafts- there is very little waste.

Victorian Beading Tutorial

When I woke up this morning, I was all excited about attempting to make another beaded flower petal. It's the little things, you know. :) THIS tutorial is easy, and makes sense of what the diagrammed tutorial I used yesterday was saying. I'm a visual person, and watching her do this made the CLICK! go off in my brain. She doesn't say what gauge to use, but I would say use 28 or 30 gauge wire, dead soft. For jewelry, I'd use sterling silver wire - it simply adds a touch of elegance to the piece that it wouldn't otherwise have, and you can polish the wire that shows until it shines.

She only shows one petal here, but it's a very very helpful tutorial and you can build on it. Have fun!



She refers to her wire, at first, as "string." She means "wire."

You could do this with any small bead with a hole big enough to allow a double width of small-gauge wire to pass through.

This IS the technique I used last night, but it took me so long because the instructions I was using were NOT very comprehensive.

Enjoy!

Below she shows how to attach the petals together to make a flower. I would make several layers of petals and take some clear quilting thread, and holding the flower upside down, with the petals brought together in one hand and cupped (don't worry about bending them - you can shape them later) and stitch the petals approximately 1/4" from the bottom, all the way around. This will create a flower "hip" and will keep your flower petals from flopping. Then just bend your petals to create your flower!



And here she shows how to attach them to a stem. For this she is using heavier gauge wire, and you can also use floral wire and floral tape, if you desire. I prefer to bead my stems, though. That's a different technique than she shows here.

More Fun With Alcohol Inks

So I got bored tonight and decided to play around in Alcohol Inks. I stamped a tile using Sandal,Ginger,and Caramel with a tiny bit of Gold thrown in and then I rubber stamped a design using Archival Ink in Jet Black. Then I decided what the heck. I'd embellish. It was too one-dimensional. I also decided to attempt to embellish using only what I had lying on my work table - that's not as much of a challenge as you might think if you could see my work table. :)

So I pulled out some findings. They were all boring silver and gold-colored. Guess what? I dyed them! I used Twilight Purple Alcohol Ink, put three drops in a small plastic container, dumped the findings in, swirled them around until they were covered, pulled them out and let them dry.

Word of warning - if using Gorilla Super Glue on the findings after the ink has dried be careful not to get any on your hands because the ink will pull away on your fingers. Other than that, it won't rub off. If I were dying findings for jewelry use, I'd seal it with Krylon's Make It Last spray sealant. It's non-yellowing and lasts forever. It's a very good sealant but it also needs 24 hours to dry completely, so be sure to dye everything and seal it all at the same time - that way you can use the findings the next day.

Anyway - the photo below shows the tile, nothing is adhered - I'm simply laying out, but in the upper left corner, you'll see two butterflies. One is silver and the other is purple. The purple one has been dyed using Purple Twilight. I made antennae for it using brass craft wire and then added a drop of Hypo Cement at the top, since the finding is actually a pewter bead and the wire runs through the body of the butterfly. I just coiled the ends to make spiral tails for it.

I love these inks. My next project is to use some primer on a large picture-sized area over my bed and then ink the wall and rubber stamp it. Weird you say? Not really - think about a mural. You can do a LOT with rubber stamps if you know what you're doing.

Okay - since I know you really want to know what my work table looked like tonight, here it is. A little embarrassing, but hey - it is what it is. :) That's just the table I use for paper and altered artwork. I have my bench in my living room (a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!) where I do all my metal work.

This is Steampunk

This is an image that I borrowed from Crafty Bitch (she's got a blog here) and it's a GORGEOUS example of Steampunk. The very cool thing about Steampunk is that if you do it RIGHT, you're recycling. It can be very green! What I really like about this piece is that it's not over-industrialized. She's created an excellent balance between Victoriana and Industrial. Some who believe themselves to be "Steampunk Purists" maintain that it has to be all edgy and streamlined industrial with just a few flourishes of Victorian embellishment, but I disagree. As with any art form, it is what YOU want it to be.

Steampunk 101

Below is a link to information regarding the ongoing craze for Steampunk. Steampunk is an astonishing and lovely amalgamation of Victoriana and Science Fiction. The article below describes and defines it and provides some very cool images. Steampunk is funky, fun, and while the images in the article take it to an extreme, it is a very effective jewelry statement. Read on and then visit ArgentSol - Steampunk Findings to purchase the REAL thing - vintage jewelry findings that can be used in infinite ways to create interesting and unique pieces of Steampunk Jewelry. While this is a trend right now, my belief is that it will not be something that goes out of style with regard to jewelry, if pieces are constructed with an eye toward elegance and minimalism, and NOT over-done. If they are made correctly, and with quality components, these are unique pieces you will be able to hand down and they will be one-of-a-kind. Have fun reading and shopping. I'll be posting some Steampunk tutorials here soon.

Steampunk 101 | tor.com | Science fiction and fantasy | Blog posts