Taming the Long Magatamas

I love long magatama beads, but their wonky hole and odd shape can make them a bit difficult to use with the common beadweaving stitches.

  

The holes go through the beads at a slant so they don't sit all nice and neat like cylinder or seed beads.

But still, I wanted to use them and like a design challenge.  I found they play pretty nicely using the spiral stitch so I created a pair of earrings.

The long magatama beads are the white beads that spiral gently down around a center core of size 8 seed beads.

Somewhere along my beading journey, I learned a trick to tighten up a spiral stitch so that the beads don't hang all willy nilly.  I experimented with my earrings and discovered that with a small change, I could tighten up the magatamas and really show the spiral effect.

I've created a tutorial for the earrings as well as a matching bracelet and have now listed it in my Etsy shop.

I hope you'll give the long magatamas a try!  Happy Beading!

Crochet Ribbons Bracelet Tutorial

Seems like forever since I've been able to design and create a new bracelet tutorial.  I just listed this new bracelet pattern in my Etsy shop.  It's a very easy pattern using 3-drop peyote stitch.

Metal Bead Blessings

Yesterday I received the exciting news that The Beadsmith will be placing a full page ad in the award winning German beading magazine Perlen Poesie.  The advertisement (shown below) will be promoting their heavy metal seed beads and they are using my Metal Bead Sampler Bracelet as the picture.

I absolutely love my bracelet.  I wear it all the time.  It seems to go with almost every outfit I have.  I also enjoy making this bracelet.  It works up very quickly and I can easily complete one in a day.  The beads are very uniform in size and shape.  It's almost like they were made for the Right Angle Weave stitch.

Metal seed beads come in size 15 (tiniest), size 11, size 8 and size 6 (largest) and are more expensive than glass seed beads, but the size 6 metal beads are the least expensive of all the available sizes. 

The beads are solid metal.  They start out with a brass base, and then are heavily plated in the various finishes. They all have a seam.  On the smaller beads the seam is barely noticeable.  On the larger beads the seam can be seen and on a very few beads (1 out of approx. 50) the seam may not be closed properly.  These beads should be discarded, but as will all glass beads, this culling process is normal and to be expected.

Almost all metals will tarnish and most plated metals will wear with time.  Oil on our skin, humidity and exposure to the elements, or excessive rubbing will speed up this process.  To slow down or prevent the plated finish from changing color or rubbing off, some suggest using a sealant such as Permalac Sealer, Renaissance Wax, Future Floor Was or another protectant/sealer.  I have not tried any of these sealants yet, so I cannot speak to their effectiveness.

I sell a pattern for this bracelet in both my ArtFire and my Etsy shops.  For the pattern only you need to purchase the size 6 metal beads and Elegant Elements clasp from your local bead store.  Both the metal beads and the clasps are distributed by The Beadsmith.

I also sell a kit in both my Artfire and Etsy shops which includes the pattern and all supplies needed to make the bracelet.

Life is good, and metal beads make it even better.  Have fun with beading and be adventurous with your beads.  You never know what blessings await you.

 

Metal Bead Sampler Kit and Pattern

I have had this as one of my goals for over a year.  It feels good to finally accomplish making my first beading pattern and kit.  I could not have accomplished this without the help of several friends. 

I thought at first I would learn Adobe Illustrator and Marcia DeCoster invited me to her place and spent a couple hours going over the basics of how to shape and color the beads, place, rotate and group them, and create the thread path going through them.  I went home to practice and after several days, my frustration resulted in a few tears.  I feel I let Marcia down a bit (although she swears that is not the case). I have not given up on AI - just put it on the back burner for a little while.

I shared my struggle on facebook, and received suggestions from several beaders who make patterns, but I didn't have the programs they suggested.  Eva Dobos of deEva Designs (who is from Hungary) explained how she uses Word to do all of her beautiful patterns.  Isn't it amazing that someone I've never met in person from half way around the world would come to my aid and be such a support?  I caught on to using Word pretty easily and within a week or two I had created my very first pattern (with diagrams) for my Metal Bead Sampler Bracelet.

Two other facebook friends, Carol Dean Sharpe of SandFibers and Cynthia Newcomer Daniels of  Jewelry Tales (both of whom have created and sold many beautiful beading patterns) proofread the pattern and offered excellent suggestions for improvements.  I am forever grateful to all the wonderful beading friends who so generously gave their time and expertise to help me.

If you buy the tutorial only, you will need to purchase the metal beads and a clasp from your local bead store.  If they do not currently stock those, you can ask them to order them from the Beadsmith (formerly Helby) Company.  The tutorial lists all the required supplies.

For anyone who cannot locate the metal beads and clasp, I have also created a kit that includes all the metal and glass beads, Elegant Elements clasp, Fireline thread and two needles, along with the 10 page tutorial.  Both the tutorial and kit are available in both my Etsy and ArtFire shops.

It is such a wonderful feeling to accomplish a goal but I can't quite cross it off of the list yet because now there are more patterns and kits to be made.  My todo list has actually gotten longer (sigh) - but that's a story for another day.   Happy Beading!