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.

More Beading

I seem to be in a beading mood. Yesterday I was going through by bead cupboard and found a 12" square box with bead kits I have purchased over the years. Quite a few years. I decided to try and whittle the box down a bit and worked on this bracelet called "Hugs and Kisses" by Debby Rea Taylor and Amy Loh-Kupser. You can find it here on the i-bead.com website. Scroll down and look for Hugs and Kisses; the sample shown is in blue and gold. I bought this at a show and was able to get a kit with the beads. It was very easy to put together. I used the extra crystals and made earrings - there are no instructions for this, I just made them up using the basic steps for the bracelet.

It uses 6mm fire polish crystals and size 11 seed beads. Instructions include making the closures. One end (left in photo) is a kind of button made with crystals and the other end is the loop to go over the button. 

Now to go back to the box and see what else I can make! 

In a Beading State of Mind

Last Saturday and today I took beading classes from my Don’t Worry Bead Happy Club here in my community. The first class was a combo peyote brick stitch flower bracelet and is on the bottom in this photo.

Today I made this Pretty Posies bracelet show on the top in the photo.

Below are links to these  projects. I am posting this using my iPad…..hope it works.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/861486224/brick-and-peyote-miyuki-bracelet-pattern

https://jillwisemandesigns.com/patterns/pretty-posies-bracelet/

Now a little Paper Crafting

Here are a few things I finished lately in the paper crafts category, but on also kind of slips over into stitching too!

First, I made this kimono using the Spellbinders Kimono die (S3-393). I used black, red and gold cardstock. I filled in the flowers on the red part of the kimono with a black sharpie rather than deal with all those tiny centers.

Next, I took a paper mache tissue box and painted it a cream color. I then put some of my smaller stitched pieces on my copy/printer and used them to decorate the top and sides!

It was lots of fun, and it sits on my work area for me to look at the pretty stitching!

Have a great day!!

Peeps!

I made this cute little pillow for my Easter display. 

It is a free chart from DMC! I used slightly different colors.

 

Elements by Carolyn Mitchell

I told you a bit about this in this catch-up post from September 15, 2021. I have worked on it here and there since and finally finished it! I am not sure I will be brave enough to finish it as a tray, but I put the snaps in the corners just in case. There are so many long thread stitches, I am afraid to use it and catch them!

The colorway I chose was Fire and you can see it is well named!

It was an ANG Cybercourse that I was happy to take since in person classes were still not very common then. 

That about covers it for now!