beadweaving – The Indecisive Beader

NEW TUTORIAL – Quintessence Beaded Beads

Earlier this year I started making a set of beaded beads. I love beaded beads, they’re something I come back to time and time again when I need a beaded piece for an outfit, when I’m stuck creatively, or when I want to really dig into some new 3D techniques and ideas. I went back to geometric solids and started playing with some methods and ideas I’ve been back and forth with over many years. I was trying to put together ’99 Red Balloons’ for a competition (Bead a Song) – that didn’t work out (I’ll tell you what did another day) but returning to such a versatile method made me realise I needed to get this one published and out of my system.

About 10 years ago I started making dodecahedra a lot, first using well known methods to do single layered versions alongside icosahedra. Those can be self supporting if you weave through enough (and you’ve picked the right bead size), and I loved that. A self-supporting beaded bead is hollow, often see through, and you don’t have to faff around finding exactly the right size and colour of inner support bead. 2 holed beads were starting to become mainstream, so I made double layered versions using Twins and SuperDuos and found that if I used the right combinations of beads I could make rigid 2 layered beaded beads, and also use (if I wanted) feature beads to the outside layer. The first of these were made with Twins and Pips and I used them a few years later to enter a Preciosa competition in 2017. The Pip versions were pretty good but at this stage the naked Twins were still a little wobbly.

So far fine, but nothing revolutionary. I played around a bit and worked out that other 2 holed beads worked, made a few pretty solid sets with Nib Bits, and even started playing with 4 holed beads with limited success (I need to go back to that one day). Other beaders were doing way better things with multi-holed beads and geometric builds and my efforts were cute but not really clever enough on their own compared to work being done by others, so I put them away.

Then I started working with etched beads more, and at the same time, buying wholesale for my Materials Packs. I treated myself to packs of all sorts of Etched Slipperit beads in different shapes as this was my favourite finish at the time, and suddenly found myself with big enough bags to really delve and experiment. I tried different feature beads such as the Tulip Petals, and even 2 holed daggers (sometimes with single holed ones too for extra daftness) and at last something more interesting seemed to be coming.

I was still as you can see above also pursuing the supported bead options – the right hand two have wooden centres, and they were nice but the hollow beads were really starting to be an obsession. I worked with whatever shaped beads I could get in that colour/finish in wholesale packs, and I even started adding Bucky Balls (Truncated Icosahedra) to the Dodecahedra.

The result of that obsessive period was this necklace (along with some pretty awesome Christmas Baubles).

But the trouble was, I couldn’t work out how to write this up. I hate writing up 3d beadwork – it’s just really really difficult, and I know from making these pieces that it’s really easy to get lost as you bead, which means not only do you have to deal with multiple layers as you draw, you have to help your beader know where she is. Even something like CRAW is hard for many beaders to follow, so how on earth could I extend that to this and not make them feel defeated? So I looked at the lovely necklace, felt proud, and put it away. Every so often I’d make some more, ponder the write up and give up again.

Fast forward to this year and the 99 Red Balloons. I made about 44, decided I would go mad if I made 99, and also that the song itself, being about accidental nuclear war probably wasn’t best represented in a long string of jolly red beaded beads (however much I tried to play up the ‘atomic’ structure). I made my competition piece about a completely different song, using completely different techniques and colours, and then once that was posted looked at the huge pile of red, pink and orange beaded beads and thought ‘hmmmmm….I love these so much, I’m so proud of them that I want to show them off, and I have all these extra combinations now – is now the time to make myself work this through?’

In the bead world if you do show off your work but don’t tutorialise some ignorant beaders think it’s then OK to reverse engineer. It’s really not OK, your work is yours whether you commercialise it yourself or not, but more and more I’m seeing discussions where the good guys are having to work very hard to stamp this kind of practice out, and also where the ‘no tutorial’ argument seems to be trotted out more and more often even by the helpful, respectful beaders. If I want to show these off, I run the risk of copying if I don’t also publish as a tutorial. I’ve been bitten before, bullied by other beaders who’ve ostensibly asked for ‘permission’ to reverse engineer a piece I’ve chosen not to publish for valid and important reasons (too close to the work of other beaders I wanted to protect) and then even when I’ve begged them not to have big fat done it anyway, and then against my wishes shared their methods (just because you don’t charge doesn’t make that OK – you know who you are). So I’ll be honest, me forcing myself to work out how to teach this is as much about protecting my own ideas and techniques as it is about wanting to share them. I absolutely do want to share them – these are completely addictive and a joy to make once you’ve properly learnt how, and I want other beaders to be able to knock up these super beaded beads too, and to start to play with their possibilities. So anyway, sorry for the digression, but this is pretty much why I had to get over myself and work out how to write these up once and for all, and here at last we arrive at the finished tutorial:

Buy on Etsy

Buy on Payhip

Techniques – Angle Weave

Difficulty Level – Advanced. Experience with RAW and CRAW/PRAW, good tension control (consistently able to vary from soft to medium to tight as instructed), and experience with following complex instructions for 3D layered beadwork.

This is a set of instructions to teach a method for building self supporting hollow dodecahedra (the fifth platonic solid or ‘quintessence’), using a variety of layouts or models, each of which can be used with a variety of bead recipes to give endless beaded bead combinations.

The 6 lessons will teach you each model step by step, and focus on learning the techniques, thread paths and understanding the layouts. They need to be done in order to learn the different variations logically. At the end of each lesson you can either try some alternative bead combos, or move onto the next lesson. The masterclass includes lists of the different bead combos you can use in an Appendix, as well as hints and tips for designing new combinations using the 6 methods, and for moving beyond dodecahedra into other geometric solids.

Because I’m planning to continue pushing through the multi-holed bead options, and feature bead options, I’ll inevitably have more recipes to add to Appendix 2 of this tutorial, so I’ve developed a secret formula which is explained there, which you can then use when you look at that page (linked in the tutorial) to decipher which beads and which techniques from the tutorial to use. I’ll also publish a notification when I update the page to my Facebook and Instagram pages. I know it sounds a bit mysterious but again, I want to share as much as possible whilst also protecting my work – if you buy the tutorial it will all make sense (and you can always contact me if it doesn’t!!).

The tutorial is now available in my Etsy and PayHip shops, and I will have ‘orientation bead packs’ available too in my Etsy shop in the next couple of days. If the tutorial sells well I’ll follow that up with some curated bead packs to make sets of Quintessence Beads.

I’ve loved spending more time on this series, although to be fair the write up has been a long slog (51 pages and countless diagrams and photos). The beading has been a delight – at the last count this morning I’d made over 70 this year alone (and that’s not including the ones I frogged because I needed to re-do photos etc) – I took a photo a few days ago but the eagle eyed among you will see I forgot the Lesson 6 samples (among quite a few others!):

December 2023 ‘Thank you’ Sale

I may not do Black Friday or Cyber Monday but I do like to try to offer a discount on my Tutorials in December as a seasonal gift to my lovely customers around the world.

Please note that this only applies to Tutorials, but hopefully that will still keep most of you happy. So, 10% off all Tutorials in my Etsy & PayHip shops throughout December, links below, discount automatically applied at checkout.

Etsy sale

PayHip Sale

Thank you!

Making of Kākāpō Cape

This was my winning entry in the ‘Previous Winners’ class of the Beadworkers Guild annual challenge – you can learn a little more about the piece in my earlier blog post here.

I really loved making this piece – every year I try to challenge myself creatively during the winter months, usually working on something big and using new techniques or materials. Often it’s a Guild Challenge provided that the theme is one which chimes with me.

I’ve worked in most of my usual beadwork techniques into this piece – peyote bezels, a wide variety of bead embroidery stitches, goldwork smooth purl loops, scale like sequinned areas, but the ‘fur and feathers’ theme meant I also added some new to me materials, and perhaps new to the Challenge techniques – not too many though, as it does have to be beadwork based after all.

Tiny tufts of fur and a variety of feathers were taken from trimmings and individually cut down and stitched in place. I used punch needling on a separate fabric using hand dyed threads and fibres to make additional mossy fur patches, which were then stitched onto the main base, and also used needle felting and felt balls cut in half to add height under some sections, which were then bead embroidered.

Early on as a key part of the piece I created the lutrador and tyvek sections – hand painted then carefully heat shrunk, the tyvek gives the bubbles, and the lutrador the mossy textures. Both were tacked in place and then bead embroidered using simple stab stitches and a variety of bronze Miyuki beads. The tyvek had to be pre-pierced with a beader’s awl so I could attach it and add the beads, and with the lutrador the objective was to fill in all of the lacey holes.

I’d already bezelled the cabs onto hard felt, and stitched those in place at roughly the same time as the manipulated synthetics, starting to build the layout. The hard felt edges were then masked with stacked seed beads and sequins. Below you can see one section as it built over time – bear in mind I was building all three sections in parrallel to ensure I had the same look and feel on each, so I was constantly swapping as I then went on to build up the beadwork sections.

As you can see above, all the sections were worked onto soft felt which was mounted onto tough dress net – I needed to use soft rather than hard felt so the collar sections would drape on the body and move, but it wouldn’t have been strong enough then to support such heavy beading, so I added two layers of net beneath. The net was easy to work through, and as well as strengthening the felt once the stitching started, it of course provided the tensioned base to get the felt pieces onto an embroidery hoop (or in the case of the largest section, a quilting hoop as I had no embroidery hoops big enough!). More often I work bead embroidery on hard felt, which doesn’t require a frame, but with the soft felt you have to work under tension or it puckers (as well as flopping everywhere) – slower and bulkier but worth the extra effort.

Some parts of the base felt were also hand painted – bright green felt was the right colour at the beginning of the project but then the teal and bronze colours took over from the lime greens as I progressed, so I needed to use watered down acrylic inks to tone it down into the background – silly error but a useful new technique for me to perfect.

The beetle wings have been in my stash for about 15 years, and this was finally the perfect project for them – they’re carefully attached through tiny holes with give in the threads to allow them to move with the wearer, and had to go on just before backing.

And finally, each section has small ‘button holes’ for the toggles – the sections need to move independently in wear so each have just two joining points, and the Anna Bronze toggles can sometimes just be seen sitting snugly in the textures. Each of those button holes plus all of the edges have been finished using the standard bead embroidery ‘sunshine edge’ – fiddly (particularly round the peacock feathers on the neck edge) but an important strengthening step to marry together the strong ultrasuede with the softer felt (which I’d already reinforced with dress net either side) .

I’ve probably missed some techniques or materials in this list – this was a very long project (started in November ’22, finished in March ’23) but I will try to share more ‘in progress’ shots on my social media accounts so we can all see it grow and I can describe some more of the process – just follow me on Instagram or Facebook to see those.

With so many materials in one piece a definitive supplier list is tough, particularly as so much came from my stash, but here are some key suppliers:

The majority of the beads are Miyuki and from my stash, but I did need to bulk out some colours from a variety of bead sellers including Old Bicycle Shop, local to me Peppy Beads and the sadly now gone Stitch and Craft, and NataschaKralen rescued me when I needed lots more frosted silver lined teal in seeds and drops, as well as being the only place I could find the dark green Ultrasuede used to back it in a big enough quantity.
There are also Swarovski pearls and bicone crystals from my stash, plus other crystals from Peppy Beads, who also supplied the long uneven rice pearl used in the reinforced linking strings. The chatons are Aurora from Old Bicycle Shop.
The cabochons are Parrot’s Wing Chrysocolla from Designer Cabochons, actually partially purchased using a gift certificate from a previous Guild win – these were a great find and were the starting point for the whole piece and it was lovely to cycle the prize money back into the contest like this.
The other pearls were all from my stash and had been there for many years, as had the beetle wings, and the Anna Bronze toggles have been languishing for a while waiting for a special enough project.
Sequins again from my stash but also quite a few new ones from Fan New Trimmings in Soho’s Berwick Street (who sell them loose by weight – wow – pictures below), and they also provided the amazing feathers (plus a few of the peacock feathers had been collected on our annual trips to Brownsea Island, where the peacocks roam wild).
Hand dyed threads for the mossy furry punch needled sections came from my stash, and were originally from Hope Jacare as usual.
The tyvek and Lutrador came in a mixed pack from Molten Designs on Etsy- really useful for trying this out. I you want to have a go you’ll need a heat gun to melt and I used acrylic inks to colour them – you can use alcohol inks but they’re not as colour fast.
And the smooth purls used on the loops are (obviously) from my stock for my own Etsy shop – where else!?

Anyway, overall I did enjoy making this piece, and after 5 months of work still actually like it (not always the case with some pieces). I feel very happy and proud that it won it’s class in such an important competition. Thank you to the Guild for continuing to run the Challenge and for setting such an interesting theme (and for liking my work yet again!). A particular thank you has to go to all those who enter – whether you’re like me and have entered several times or it’s your first try we’re all contributing to stretching and promoting our wonderful art form and I’m jolly proud to be part of that.

Kākāpō Cape

Inspired by the rotund green endangered Kākāpō parrots of New Zealand, this feathered cape like collar celebrates Kākāpōs and their dark, moist forest floor habitat.

Parrot’s wing chrysocolla is surrounded by seed beads, pheasant feathers, beetle wings, pearls, crystals and sequins. Tufts of salvaged fur and peacock feathers replicate hairy tree fern trunks, and hand painted heat shrunk lutradur and tyvek add pebbly and mossy textures to the felt base, strengthened with net and backed with ultrasuede. Displayed flat, when worn the cape sits comfortably on the shoulders, the three pieces linked by reinforced seed pearl strands and bronze toggles.

This was my winning entry in the ‘Previous Winners’ class of the Beadworkers Guild annual challenge. The theme this year was ‘Fur & Feathers’ and I’m looking forward to seeing all of the entries in the various classes soon. The cape will now go on tour with the Guild for a year, visiting shows and exhibitions, before it flies home here, at which point I will work out how and where to display it. Follow me here for some more posts on how this was made, and/or on Facebook and Instagram for more pictures and in progress shots.

International Beading Week Discount

This year’s International Beading Week runs from 23rd – 31st July. I’ll be doing my usual duty as Beadworker’s Guild social media helper as an admin on the IBW page and group, and also doing my bit for beaders everywhere by offering a massive 20% off all of the tutorials in my Etsy shop, including my brand new ‘Ice and a Slice’. No code needed, they’re all reduced and ready to go right here!

As an IBW Ambassador I’ve also donated a free fringe earring chart which you can download from my website here, or from the Beadworker’s Guild site where there are lots more free patterns from a whole range of lovely designers here.

Ice and a Slice

I know it’s been a long while, but I’ve finally had time to finish writing up a new tutorial which is now available in my Etsy shop. Ice and a Slice celebrates our love of Gin and Tonic with a variety of fruit adornments, each altering the flavour. It’s a bead embroidered component in three sizes which can be used separately or together to make a Pendant, Necklace, Brooch, Earrings or Ornament.

It uses a variety of bead embroidery embroidery techniques with optional goldwork, and will suit intermediate bead weavers, bead embroiderers, or embroiderers looking to learn some bead embroidery techniques.

The twenty six page tutorial contains a full materials list, with suggestions for suppliers, and as usual every step is fully illustrated with a detailed diagram showing thread paths etc, photos to show you what you are aiming for and every step is also written out clearly (in English). A detailed variations section covers a range of colour and final formations for a range of pieces, and the motif can be beaded in three different sizes, all covered. All of the different techniques used are covered in full, with tips as well as stepped out instructions, and you should finish this piece ready to use the techniques in your own designs.

Full requirements are available here, and the tutorial itself is available for instant download from my Etsy shop here.

Selling on Folksy

Did you know that I actually sell some of my finished beadwork and embroideries?

I have a little shop on the UK site Folksy with earrings, a couple of necklaces and some of my embroidered mini hoops – you can view it here. The range is deliberately small to keep it fresh and current, but I also run commissioned work through Folksy, so if you see something you like there or on my social media do feel free to contact me and request custom colours etc.

Folksy is a bit like Etsy but much smaller. They’re deliberately fussier about handmade only and it’s a sensible, easy to browse size as it is just for UK makers (although I can of course still ship worldwide from there). Best of all it has a small, caring, supportive and innovative management team and has a wonderful community of friendly makers which I love. That community take an active interest in promoting the site, spotting non-handmade shops and supporting other sellers with advice and help through the forums and Facebook group. The management team support makers with advice and help, and consult about improvements – Doug the IT guy is legend, and Camilla and her colleagues are experienced makers themselves who constantly feed us useful advice about selling and running our handmade businesses. They actively curate really lovely gift guides, themes of the day and highlight interesting pieces, and run a fascinating blog with ‘makers of the week’ (I was one back in 2014 – read the posts here – very out of date but fun to look back at where I came from).

I’ve been selling there for more years than I care to mention and it’s a lovely place to sell and shop for beautiful handmade items. I’ll probably always have my Etsy shop for supplies and tutorials but it’s very hard to be seen as a maker rather than a supplier there as it’s simply so huge and geographically diverse, so I find Folksy suits me really well for finished items.

Pop over and have a look at my works there using the link below, and do take time to browse some of the other lovely shops too. I’ve listed a few of my favourites below:

Susie West – stunning ‘travel posters’ – we have three of these already and are trying to collect one for everywhere we have lived (we have a little way to go!).

Claire Gent – amazing aluminium and silver jewellery. I’ve lusted after Claire’s work for years!

Holme & Moss – I’ve got one of their classic hairbands in my basket at the moment.

Eynonymous – I have a beautiful yellow silk hairband from Eddie which I wear a lot – she designs and prints beautiful textiles.

Clare Lloyd – modern polymer clay and silver jewellery.

Tanith Rouse – eye-catching contemporary coloured aluminium jewellery.

Jenny Newall – gorgeous stained glass birds and super cute egg earrings.

Sue Trevor – contemporary machine embroidery and fabric sculptures – I’ve bought lots of Sue’s work as gifts for the textile lovers in my family.

The Whimsical Marbler – lovely marbled papers, some in great bright colours for a more modern take.

Clare Buchanan – really eye-catching bright wovens.

Working with Colour

I’m often told ‘your colours are marvellous’ or words to that effect, and that’s lovely to hear as colour is incredibly important to me and I do work hard at it! I do have some specific methods I use to really get my colours to work whilst focussing on my designs, and I thought you’d like to hear a bit about my main one.

I’m sure many of you will have noticed that over the last few years you’ll see a run of pieces working through a similar colour theme being posted in sequence and may have wondered what I’m up to. This is a deliberate working method for me now – I focus on a set of colours for several months at a time, work them out, play with different combinations of finish, different juxtapositions, and get really comfortable with them. This saves time pulling and tidying beads, and allows me to focus on new designs without the endless distraction of playing with new colours and rooting around in drawers and drawers of beads.

This has become a standard working method for me of late and it started a while back when I used to pull sets of beads to take on holiday or for a large creative project. I pull a range of beads, threads, sequins, crystals, focals and basic supplies such as threads, findings and backing/foundation in a new set of colours. So for the seed beads that means a set of anything from three to many more colours in as many sizes as I have, plus corresponding delicas, then as standard I usually dig out whatever I have in 3mm and 4mm rounds, fire polisheds and bicones which gives me a really versatile working base. I’ll always add a complimentary metallic colour with matching findings, and then it’s time to rifle through my crystals, feature beads and growing collection of sequins. I’ll add drops (very useful) and then chuck in whatever I have in the right colours in shaped beads. If I have shrinkets or cabochons already made I’ll pull those out too or I’ll make more as I need them.

I’ll usually do some bead embroidery in one of these runs, but will grab foundation and backing as I need it, but I’ll get out the right shades of beading thread so I’m never tempted to use something less than ideal. These days I usually work with purls as well, so I’ll add smooth, pearl and textured purls, and if I’m also thinking of a hand embroidered piece, some linen, silk, tulle or organza and of course, stranded cottons, perles and treasured texture packs and hand dyed threads.

I can end up with anything from a small A5 box or bag to a big stack of A4 boxes, depending on how deep I want to go and how indecisive I’m feeling. So right now, I’ve deliberately picked a smaller set to work with, just beads, purls to complement a set of rainbow coated steel findings I want to work with. So far that’s just turned up one piece using a cab and set of shrink pieces I forgot I had made, but I’ve only been at it for a week. I’m already slightly off track as I didn’t use the rainbow findings yet but I’m quite happy nonetheless as can amble along trying out some ideas I have floating around without needing to root around for beads constantly. And when this is worked through, I’ll tidy them away and pull a new set.

My previous set was a box of beads the same size (A5) plus a similar size box of purls, findings and sequins and a bag of threads and fabrics – that lasted several months and resulted in these beaded pieces:

That set was inspired by a lovely yarn pack from Wild Floss Embroidery – ‘Sherbert Pastel’ colours on a dark teal base. I did an embroidered piece first, adding hand dyed threads from Hope Jacare and beads in similar colours, so once I’d completed the embroidery hoop I had a set of beads ready to go and had got the hang of how to use these colours – which aren’t my usual combo at all. As well as some pieces for myself (including the big embroidery hoop) some of the earrings are now available for sale in my Folksy Shop.

Looking back you’ll be able to see some other series of works which came about in a similar way – first some works which started with my big Egyptian piece for a Beadworker’s Guild Challenge a few years back and spawned several pieces:

And then my very long (over 6 month) pastel based marine inspired pieces – again coming from a winning Beadworker’s Guild Challenge piece ‘Where Corals Lie’.

International Beading Week

International Beading Week starts tomorrow (24th July) and runs until August 1st, and as a Guest Ambassador, member of the Beadworker’s Guild Social Media Team and all around IBW fan I’ve been busy getting ready.

As you know I’ve donated a chart which you can find on the IBW site or in my Free Charts section, and from 25th July until 1st August I will be offering 20% off all tutorials in my Etsy shop (no code needed, tutorials only, please note that this doesn’t start until tomorrow – 24th July).

I should say now that we’ll be taking a much needed holiday though for bulk of the week, so I’ll be closing my shops for everything other than those digital download tutorials (which run happily without me needing to post stuff), but fret not, the beads, cabochons, crystals and goldwork wires will be back on August 9th. During that time I will still be beading, as it’s time for Jean Power’s Secret Beadalong, so watch my social media to see how I’m getting on.

Whilst you’re there, why not join the IBW Facebook group, or have a look at the IBW Facebook Page and the lovely Beadworker’s Guild Instagram account and see what we’ve been working so hard on behind the scenes. This year we have a theme for International Beading Week (IBW) to celebrate the positive mental health impacts that beading has with the tagline: ‘HANGING IN THERE’. We will have daily prompts to help you get involved on social media and throughout the week we will be sharing tips, ideas, free patterns and beaders’ stories on our channels – and we would love to read your stories too!

Please help us spread the word about beading by tagging the Beadworkers Guild in all of your social media posts and use the hashtag #beadingweek.

International Beading Week

As part of the IBW social media team for several years it’s lovely to be able to show my support as a designer as well by becoming an IBW Ambassador. Beading along with others is such a pleasure, whether it’s done in person or remotely, and I’m looking forward to seeing the results all of the events and activities the IBW/Beadworker’s Guild team work so hard behind the scenes to prepare for you every year. This year’s International Beading Week runs from July 24th – August 1st, and as well as working away with my lovely colleagues on the Guild’s Social Media team I’ll of course be beading along with the wonderful annual Jean Power Summer Secret Beadalong.

As an Ambassador I’m proud to donate a design (or two or hopefully when I have time, three) to the event – here is the first one, a charted brick stitch and fringe piece which is available as a free PDF here. It’s also available via the IBW section of the Beadworker’s Guild website alongside many other wonderful free patterns from other Ambassadors and Beaders – have a look at the amazing selection.

This piece can be adapted to change the length, colours or overall use but at its’ core is the 12 colour spectrum of the IBW logo and a rainbow. The rainbow has come to mean a lot symbolically in the UK over the last year or so, so seemed an appropriate choice, although making curves out of things which want to run straight was a challenge – quite a few rejected versions here:

It’s also worth saying that this chart was created with Beadographer, which is a wonderful new chart/design tool. Prior to starting using this I’d never really got on with charted designs because I found the planning process inhibiting creatively. However I’m sure you can see from my recent work that Beadographer has allowed me to overcome that bias and I’m now embracing charting with the tool on my laptop (or even better on my iPad with an Apple Pencil) as an alternative way of creating with beads, so thank you to Leah and William for a super, very easy to use creative tool.