Neapolitan

It's been quite a while, even for me, since I last posted.  Life has intervened and kept me busy these last few weeks.  Things are close to settling down around here, and I'm looking forward to being able to enjoy the beauty that is Fall!  I wanted to share the latest installment of my triangle adventure.  I'm not saying my final installment because I know other ideas are waiting in the wings.  I've had a great time designing this piece, so I had to share it.

This picture isn't the greatest.  It doesn't capture the true colors of the Delicas, but I really just don't have time to work with it.  I wanted to share it with you all now.   The title of this post explains the colors.  As I worked on the different triangles it reminded me of Neapolitan ice cream.  You know, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry!  Yum!  Anyway,  here it is!  I stitched triangles using Heather Collins wonderful pattern, and also a layered triangle from the book "More Seed Bead Stitching" by Beth Stone. I really love the idea of layering the triangles and I think the idea has a lot of potential for design, and color pairing.  The funky little triangle in the middle is my second variation on Heather's triangle bezel.  I stitched the base and then started to build up an open vessel-type shape with peyote which I increased on each end.  I zipped up the two sections and put a picot on each end. 

It's a little difficult to see the picot because I used the same color as the triangle next to it.  In the center I stitched a margarite crystal.  I really love this idea and I think it also has potential for variation.  A larger triangle perhaps, which would make it more of a vessel to contain other components.  As I said, this isn't the end of the adventure!  But, I love dimensional stitching whether it's beads, fabric, or knitting.  Which is why Beth Stone's layered triangle was so appealing.  I use layers a lot, even in decorating my home.  I layer plates and bowls in my hutch, and in seasonal displays I create throughout the house.  I use layering in fabric embellishing and in knitting the Bohemian scarves. Here's a close up of the layered triangle.

Again, I see lots of possibilities.  Larger base with additional layers, a bead or margarite in the center...lots of ideas!
To stitch the necklace together I experimented with layouts and when I found one I liked I took a picture of it.  I'm happy that I did that because as I picked up the different triangles to stitch them together I would lose exactly where I wanted to place the  next one.  So, I  had my picture to refer to.  I just zipped the pieces together where they touched each other and then attached a chain with jump rings. 

I'm really happy with this piece.  I used the rivoli setting from Heather's triangle pattern, and the triangular setting that my beading group worked on, so I have some bling in there, and I got to try out another idea that came from the triangle necklace pattern I got from Heather.  Cherry Wine, in my previous post, was the first variation I tried and now the vessel type triangle is the second.  I'm sure I'll find something else to do with triangles!  I just love them.

Well, I've got to run so I can get some others things done today.  I promise I won't take so long to post this time.  In fact, there is something right around the corner.  Stay tuned for this over the weekend.

I hope you have a wonderful day.  Enjoy the loveliness that is Fall and find inspiration in it to create something fun!  Thanks for stopping by!







Triangles, Part One

My bead group worked on this bezel for a 14mm rivoli a few weeks ago.  The pattern is from a British bead magazine called Bead!  I think that's it entire title, I may be wrong and I apologize if that is the case.  At any rate, we had a good time watching all the different colors develop.  I love triangles in any format and so I really loved this idea.  Here is what the triangular bezel became:

A really great necklace with a dimensional twisted Herringbone rope and an embellished bail. 
Stay tuned.  As I said, I love triangles, and this one got me making different triangles, lots of them! 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day and make something fun!





Something new...

Well, for me  it was new.  I had never done an inside bezel.  I don't know if that's what it should be called, an inside bezel, but since that's what it is, that's what I call it.  This is the result.

This is my newest necklace.  It started when Kathy, who owns a great bead shop called Bead Soup, at Savage Mill in Savage, Maryland, showed me some pottery pieces made by another artist who has a shop at the Mill.   Charlene Randolph owns The Clayground and makes these great pendants, among other wonderful pottery creations.  A customer of Kathy's had taken one of the pendants and bezeled the inside of the hole.  So, of course, I had to learn how to do it.  One Friday morning we sat at the bead shop and Jo taught  Kathy and me how to bezel the inside of the pendant.  It takes some trial and error to get the correct number of beads for the inital ring of beads.  Each pendant is hand made so the diameter is different for each one.  But, when you've determined how many beads will fit, you just begin to peyote stitch the bezel.  I ended the peyote with a picot stitch.

Once the front of the bezel is completed you fit it into the hole and work from the back side to complete the bezel and keep it from slipping out.  This pendant had a small hole in the top so that a wire or thread could be inserted up through it.  I used that in the finishing to attach the pendant to the necklace.  Once the pendant was finished I decided I would use it as the closure on a covered cord.  I had the perfect batik fabric in my stash and I used that to cover cotton cording.   I finished the ends with peyote tubes and firepolished crystals.  I stitched a peyote tube for the bar and attached it to one side of the necklace with a ladder stitch tab.  I then used the small hole in the top of the pendant to attach it to the other side of the necklace, going through a firepolished crystal to keep it all in place.

I was really pleased with how it turned out.  I love the idea of a bezel inside a doughnut or pendant.  It was fun to work out how to put it all together.  Because I used the fabric tube for a necklace it's very comfortable and light weight. 

It's always fun to learn something new and to add to your store of techniques. 

Thanks for visiting, have a wonderful day creating and maybe learing something new!