Beaded Bargello Pendant - Finished

 I finished the pendant. The necklace part was a very interesting two needle ladder stitch, and the fringe is a basic fringe with a twisted bugle. Now I just need to find something to wear it with!!

It is made with a three-bead brick stitch, so this helped it go a little faster and I was able to get it done in good time working in the evenings.

You can find more information about this pendant in previous posts.

Beaded Bargello Pendant

On this post: Still More Beading, I told you a little bit about this Bargello Pendant that I decided to take out of by bead project box and start working on. It is a three-bead brick stitch project, so it increases in size rather quickly. You start at the widest part, and it is about three and a half inches wide. 

Here is my progress so far:

It is from the August 1998 issue of Bead&Button magazine. Designed by Carole Collier and I believe it is in her book Three-Bead Brick Stitch: Necklace Expressions, Seven Fabulous Projects for Intermediate to Advanced Beaders.

Originally, I had all my beads, except the silver set up on my Bead Butler (not sure if you can find it anymore).  

I enlarged the chart on my computer and printed out the legend. I wrote letters on the legend next to the colors that match the letter I wrote on my tray. I also cut out the little color squares from the legend and put them in the bead slots. This only works for a project with 6 colors, this one has 7, so the other is off to the side on my bead mat.

I decided to experiment and got out my Bead Buddy Save 'n Go mini and a piece of Velux (from an old blanket). I used my Big Shot and a circle die to cut circles in the Velux fabric and then glued it to the inside of my Save 'n Go mini. I can now do a project with 12 colors!! So far, it works GREAT!! I can close it and the beads do not move around.  I do remove the legend before I close it to make sure I get a tight fit. Not sure that matters, but better safe than sorry. If you are not familiar with the Save 'n Go, it is made by The Bead Buddy and comes in different sizes. It is hinged with a squishy bead mat on both sides (lid and bottom), so when you close it all your project parts stay in place. 

That is if for now! Take care.

Still More Beading

 I dove back into the beading box and found another project I picked up at a show from i-bead.com. Sadly I do not see it on their website right now, but they do have lots of other nice things!!

It is called Pearlicious and designed by Any-Loh-Kupser. It was not too hard and I finished it in an evening.

It came with a snap clasp which I have never used before and she gave a hint on how to attach it to the end so it would lay flat. I will try to explain. You string beads then run it though the clasp and string the same number of beads before the clasp and the tun it though the center bead of the bracelet, but you go in the bead the same direction the thread is coming out. You do this again on the other side of the clasp. Your thread should be coming out of the center bead of the bracelet in the correct direction to do this. Reinforce by going through all the clasp joining beads three times. Then repeat this process with the other half of the closure. Hope that made some sense, but her directions are copyrighted so I had to tell you in my own words.

I dove back into the beading box and found a necklace that may take me a little while to finish. It uses brick stitch, but for each row they are stacked three high. This will be new for me. The project is called Bargello Pendant by Carole Collier. I am doing it from the August 1998 issue of Bead&Button, but I think it is also in her book "Three-Bead Brick Stitch: Necklace Expressions, Seven Fabulous Projects for Intermediate to Advanced Beaders".  Which a quick google search just now found it here on Amazon. I could not tell if this necklace is actually in the book, however. I do not get any kickbacks for sending you to Amazon, just saving you all a google search step.

This photo is from the magazine. I am doing the colorway on the right and substituting Delicas for the Toho Antiques, so my purple will be more blue, but I think it will look fine. Here are my substitutions in case you find the pattern and want to get going. 

A241 sub. DB1308

A705 sub. DB361

A461 sub. DB 47

A566 sub. DB 567

I do not recall where I got these numbers. I have had this project in my box for at least 15 years since I know it was originally brought up in my bead group in North Carolina.

I will try to post some progress photos as I go along. I did get the foundation row and a little bit of the next row done before I went to bed last night.