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!

Fun with Super Duos

Just a quick post to share some fun things I've been making with the new Super Duo beads.   I created these earrings for a fun earring exchange this Christmas.  These are the earrings I sent.  I'm still waiting to receive mine from an unknown Santa.

 

I also made a necklace for my Mom for Christmas.  She's told me at least 35 times how much she likes it which makes me very happy.  Mom will be 100 years old Jan 11 2013 so I called this necklace Centennial.

 

I love the Super Duos.  They have two holes (one in each end) and are very uniform in shape so they are easy to use in many different ways.  There are lots of new colors to play with too.

 

Happy Beading!

What Inspires You?

Artbeads.com provided a beading contest entitled "What Inspires You?"  Voting opened today, November 23 and ends Wednesday, December 8. Winners will be announced Thursday, December 16, 2010.

There are two categories - a Necklace Category and a General Category and you can vote for your favorite in each one.  Click on the first name in the group and it will show you the original inspiration and the creation it inspired.  From there you can click on the "next" tab and see all of the beautiful entries in each category.

Congratulations to everyone who entered and good luck!  The prizes are fabulous!

Bounty of an Artistic Touch Treasury

Noah's Ark Collection created this wonderful treasury on Etsy and included my watermelon blossom earrings.


Check out Noah's Ark Collection shop on Etsy. There are oodles of cute animals in all shapes and sizes to choose from. Here's a picture of some carved bone cats I thought were very cute! There are also lots of sterling silver animals.

My Journey to Beads

All my life I have enjoyed creating. As a young girl I learned to sew with needle and thread and to crochet with my grandmother. I enjoyed artwork and crafts. But I never realized how much it meant to me until a few years ago. I worked several years as an elementary grade school teacher and then got into computers and accounting. I spent my whole life working at jobs I didn't really enjoy. I discovered beads in my 50's.

It all started with my love of discovering pretty rocks. Whenever I would visit a new place, my head would be looking down at the ground hoping to spot something pretty. My growing rock collection soon led me to joining a rock and gem club. I learned how to identify my rocks, but I also learned much more. I learned that rocks I had collected could be cut, polished and formed into shapes that could be used in jewelry. Well that opened up a whole new world! Making cabachons, wirewrapping and silver work were soon new skills I was learning.

Then came the Gem and Mineral shows. While attending all the shows, I made a new discovery - beads. I began stringing beads to make my own jewelry. I learned how to crimp and about all the different findings that could be used in making jewelry. I became hooked.

I think I came full circle when I discovered that I could use a needle and thread with beads and with my pretty rocks. I learned that there were many different beadweaving stitches that could be used to combine all the things I love into jewelry. The creative possibilities were endless!

But I'm not done. I also discovered Polymer Clay and Precious Metal Clay. These two mediums allow for even more creativity in combining them with beadweaving. And what about making my own beads out of them? And what about learning lampworking? Those handmade glass beads are gorgeous!

So that's my journey to beads in a nutshell. I'm pretty sure the journey will not be over for a long, long time, God willing. I thank Him for giving me this desire to create.