Pick your Path - a secret Beadalong with Cliff Swain-Salomon

The past months have been very busy for me.

 I've been working on several patterns among which my brand new Lady bug, and a tassel (Gazebo, for IBW) and I still am working on on my rainbow project, for International Beading Week. I just wrote a separate article about this. I am a permanent IBW Ambassador after all.

I have also been working since quite a while on a design parallel to the mystery project for the secret beadalong with the wonderful Cliff Swain-Salomon who invited me to join him in this project for the Facebook Group Seed Beads & More.

Pick your path flowers and pods

 We called this project "Pick your Path", because that is exactly what it was all about: making decisions as to what to make with the techniques taught: we made bezels, petals, flowers and pods... 

Pick your path flowers

 

 

Cliff and I published alternately a portion of each step, in writing and in video, so that each participant could try the various possibilities and in the end, choose what they liked most.

 

In fact, we very gently took them down the rabbit hole of designing with beaded elements.

 

Pick your path - various elements and steps

 

I enjoyed seeing what people made. So many different colors and styles! And one big surprise was that no matter what color was chosen, everything that folks made looked lovely. 

 

We mentioned that the pod could be all sorts of things (a pumpkin, a Chinese lantern, a poppy seed pod, a pomegranate). 

Then, folks started to see things that we hadn't mentioned, like an urchin, a cactus... 

Someone even mentioned a thistle, and another a puffer fish! 

 

 We were happy to see that, thanks to our teachings, many felt more confident to create their own flowers and pods, and some even tassels and a potted daffodil flower with stem and leaves and all.

Pick your Path flowers, one with IBW flower petals.

We kept secret until the very end that all the way long, the participants were making...

 

... pencil toppers!

 

How fun is that?

 

I developed a design in parellel, based on my portion of the bead along. It started with a photo of a "Fritilaria Meleagris" posted by Anita Adamson a while ago and of course with a photo of urchins.

 

 

Here I used my own bezel, which is very different from Cliff's. I also included two seed bead brands - and used another bead count. It is also a pencil topper, but it can sure be a flower... 

 

 

 

... or a table decoration, a hair pin adornment, a focal, a brooch, a bottle lid, a doll house poof or a knob cover if you leave out the inside tube... 

 

 

 The way the various colors are placed is the result of many, many explorations.

 

 

You will find the tutorial how to make this urchin here. 

I will be really grateful for your support.

Please note that the urchin is different from the Peyote Cactus (the cactus that gave the name "peyote" to the beading stitch). 

 

Peyote cactus

This cactus includes Cliff's bezel, fine petals and embellishments. The pattern is already half-way done, and, as soon as I can, I will get back to tutifying this fundraiser for RMHC - the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

 

Of course I will let you know when it will be ready, on Facebook and through my newsletter (subscribe to my newsletter to be sure to not miss it).

 

Peyote cactus

 Last but not least, I updated my workshop page with 2 more dates for the Sunshine workshop - there will be more dates, so if these two don't suit you, do not worry. I still need time before I can get "back to work" and take care of this type of things. 

You can contact me to be added to a waiting list. Don't forget to let me know your time zone so that you don't get added to the wrong list.  

 

Sunshine beaded by Eileen Montgomery (Canada)

 

 I look forward to beading together with you again. 

And perhaps we will meet on a special
Zoom drop-in during International Beading Week.

 Be(ad) well, take care

 

Cath

We exist in each others' eyes

I love the IBW logo because it is so meaningful. Sure, it shows beads of many colors, in a circle. But when you see the second logo, you understand that these beads represent us, beaders from everywhere around the globe, of different origins and colors, all in a circle, which means all equal. The Beadworkers Guild's aim is to bring us together! And they do!

Despite the Covid crisis, International Beading Week (IBW) was a real success. Unable to meet in person, our wonderful Beadworkers Guild trustees were prompt to find a solution and hosted quite an important number of ZOOM meetings for beaders around the globe to gather online. And it was wonderful. My only regret is that I couldn't attend all meetings!

The good news is that we will have a ZOOM meeting every end of the month!

Beading in our own little corner of the world is a nice activity. It can make us forget everything around us - which can be very therapeutic and prevent us from loosing our sanity, but beading is a visual art, and visual means "to be seen". Unless you are enlightened and chose to live like a hermit, if there is nobody to show your makes to, you miss half the fun. Even if it's just a matter of having our fingers busy, the result matters!

IBW Pride Flower

A teacher in highschool once told me that "we exist in the eyes of the other". In other words, if there is nobody to see me, or "acknowledge" my existence, I'm just a nobody and - here again - I might not be enlightened enough to deal with that.

After years of light sensitivity, I interact with a lot of people on Facebook. It could have been around another hobby - knitting, baking, painting... anything! But I happen to love the Art of beadweaving and share the thrill of a beautiful colorway or a special construction method with people who love beading too. And thankfully, beaders are mostly awesome people who encourage and support one another, which is so good! 

IBW double flower

When I started my first beading workshop for beginners here in my home town, a lady was surprised that she didn't have to pay for it. She asked why and my answer was: "I created these workshops to fight social isolation, starting with mine". Another participant smiled from ear to ear. I will never forget that smile.

Unfortunately, covid has spoiled our get-togethers. So to be able to bead together via ZOOM was the best thing that could happen. With the help of Sylvia Fairhurst, I enjoyed teaching the IBW flower workshop and hope to do more classes in the future. And I will join the monthly meetings organized by the Beadworkers Guild whenever possible. It's as good as sunlight in the rain creates beautiful rainbows!

The pattern for this key fob and the IBW Pride
flower are available from the IBW website

Now before showing the photos of the various IBW yearly color challenge, I would like to tell you about various collaborative beading projects taking place this year. They are in the spirit of "Beading together apart", and I love to participate because it connects us in a special way. If we are all part of Planet Bead, projects like these make you feel like a member of a beading family!

1. Initiated during IBW by Prof. Sam Norgard, beaders of all horizons (from as many countries as possible) are welcome to join the Black and White together Project. You can join and send in your B&W warped squares until October 1st to the organizers. Learn more about it on the dedicated IBW website page.

Beautifully beaded warped squares by Ann Rascenet-Cole

2. The B&W project is not the same as the one initiated by Kate McKinnon within the framework of the Contemporary Geometric Beadwork "CGB" Warped Square project. Beaders all over the world are invited to make and send warped squares for the CGB team to assemble into various sculptures. They plan on creating several huge museum installations incorporating them. The deadline was this Spring, but due to covid, it as been extended and warped squares are accepted until further notice.
Visit the CGB website for more details.

This incredible pile of delight counts 175 warped squares, beaded for
the CGB project by at least 20 talented South African beaders.
Photo courtesy Karen Beningfield

3. The new Museum of Beadwork based in Portland, ME, USA called for 6x6 inch tiles for their future permanent exhibit. Their deadline has been moved to the 19th of March 2021 so there is plenty of time left to bead your special tile for it to become part of their ginormous "beaded quilt". Please make sure to read the instructions and rules well. Below you can see a photo of the beautiful tile made by Karen Long, in its final stage of construction. It looks a little bit like a 3D Buddhist mandala.

 4. If you are not into square beadwork, then perhaps you will like Cate and Christopher Venn's incredible Universal Nebula Dress project, which will soon enter its second phase, that is the addition of the beadwork to a silk dress. If you haven't sent your bezeled rivolis or, even better, open rings with floating chaton, you still can until the end of the month of August. When finished, the dream dress will be auctioned to benefit head and neck cancer research.

5. Diane Fitzgerald created a Facebook group where participants can show and discuss their 92 Johnson Solids made with beads thanks to the clever patterns put together with the help of Pat Verrier and Julia Pretl. Most numbers were quickly taken by enthusiastic beaders, and when Sylvia Fairhurst took upon her to organize a UK collection with the help of Pat Verrier, there was quite a bit of a rush. The FB group is for both the US and UK projects and participants. What is left to do if all numbers have already been assigned? Diane has recently challenged beaders to create patterned solids. She will publish a booklet with photos of the pieces. I would recommend trying several shapes, for they are really very satisfying to bead and they naturally stretch your beady brain.

Johnson Solid #82 beaded by yours truly,

Net for Johnson Solid #82 (before assembling)

And now.... drum roll please! Here are the photos of the year-long beading challenge pieces. It's a stellar edition!!
Please join me in applauding the valiant beaders who finished their piece:

This is a real clock by Ann Bourke!!! Isn't it incredible? It is entirely her own design.

This beautiful collection of stars was made by Bertha Will Hawley. (stars like this were made first by Jean Power and Eva Maria Keiser).

 

Caroline Lloyd designed a fabulous collection of beaded tassels of all sorts (using the bolas canastas method ). She even made some of the silk tassels herself. 

This fabulous pod collection with encrusted bicones was made by Margaret Haigh‎. Pod design by Marca Smit.

Two participants went for delightful little pentagon cushions, as taught by Diane Fitzgerald (in one of her books). Both are beautiful and I love to see the two photos near each other, for they show the cushions from two different angles:

This one was made by Sue Hargreaves:

 

And this one by Sylvie Pelchat Sutter:

And this marvelous collection of stars of another sort - based on the Twinkle Twinkle Shooting Star Photo Frame Ornament from Thread A Bead - was created by Valorie J McClory, and I don't think that the other participants will mind that I post two photos, one of all the elements on the IBW logo, and one of the beautiful mobile that she made with them.

When I see this, I think that I need to make a mobile myself too!!!

Shelly Gillmann made an awesome lariat necklace with her beautiful crystal beaded dodecahedrons of her own design.

 Jessica Hayman made a beautiful collection of star-shaped "crystal flowers", a design by Jean Power. She hasn't assembled them all into a finished creation but just seeing these lovelies together is awesome:

Linda Schmieder made "perfect square rainbow simple little doo-dads with pearl coin centers" as she described them in our Facebook group, and plans to make a necklace with them.

Similarly, Nancy Deonarine wants to use her Pentabezels (from a free IBW pattern written by yours truly) to make a necklace, but she wishes to go beyond the 12 colors! She also made a little IBW vessel as taught by Katie Dean in which she stores them.

And this beautiful rick rack cuff was made by Teresa Shelton who proves that you don't necessarily need to make separate elements but you can also, like her, add a couple of rows each month to a rick rack and at the end, it turns into an amazing cuff. It doesn't even need to be made with Delicas, or a specific color number; her selection of beads bring incredible texture and spark to the piece.

And I made a Summer Flower hat this year, and because there's a lot to tell about it, I wrote another blogpost with more details about the flowers.

And now it is already the time to think about what to do next!

You can participate in this challenge too!!! Join the Facebook group and have fun!

Happy  beading!

Cath

From Petal to Pod

Happy New Year! May 2016 be healthy and bring you lots of joy!!! 

I have a project to start the new year with, and I hope that you will participate in it.

A sampler made by my mother

First a little flash back.
My mom had learned beading very well from her friend Berthy Bijlard, but all I can remember was how to make my own kidney earwires with wire and pliers. And cross-stitching. That, I have never forgotten. I was 14 when I learned this from Berthy. She was an Art Therapist. In fact, I don't know how they called her profession back then, but what I remember is that she had a huge art class in a clinic, where patients could learn painting, knitting, sewing, beading, cross stitching, etc.

A necklace crocheted by my mother
approx 25 years ago, thanks to
Berthy's instructions.

I loved to be at Berthy's home. It was fun and peaceful. Her daughter Lisette and I were best friends and often spent our holidays together. I am grateful beyond words that she welcomed me so often, and for having lit the spark of creativity in me. It has made me a happier person.

I stopped x-stitching when seed beads entered my life, when I saw  Diane Dennis's exquisite Firemountain Gems and Beads 2004 Grand Prize-winning jewelry set. In fact, I loved her beautiful work so much that it made me wish to be able to bead "like that", and so peyote stitch became my first love with seed beads (and pearls).

"Roma"

There weren't many tutorials and beading instructions available, but with a bit of research, I could find the needed instructions published by generous beaders, and with a lot of trial and error I learned the basic off-loom stitches and started exploring my "own inner voice". This is how my Jewelry Set "Roma" (also called "Peeking Pearls") was born, and thanks to this design I had the incredible honor to be the winner of the Grand Prize of the Firemountain Gems and Beads contest myself in 2006.

With peyote stitch, seed beads fall into place very naturally and the beadwork can be zipped easily. I prefer shapes with an even number of increases (or peaks or wings), because they can be folded, like a square, which becomes a triangle bail when folded, or a hexagon, which becomes a trapeze, or a multi-wing morphing into a puffy flower when zipped. These are all shapes which were and still are explored and taken further by masters and beginners, worldwide, in particular within the framework of Kate McKinnon's "Contemporary Geometric Beadwork" project.

a little petal

While playing with peyote to make geometric shapes, I thought “why 3 or more peaks and not just 2? So I tried. And there it was, a little petal that cupped a little bit. It is very modest at first sight, and one could be tempted to think that it is just another little leaf, but I think that it has great potential.

The past years, I worked on many different things but this petal always came back on my beading mat and each time I promised myself to take it further 'when time allows'. I think that now is the right time.

Petals like this hold their shape well, and can adopt various positions when cupped in or out, or both. In addition, thanks to the little dented edges, one petal can be part of a group of petals, zipped together, leading to endless design possibilities. I made several patterns using petals. When the other day I added a partial Elegant Guide Round to the petals of a large flower, I understood that I would never be able to explore all the possibilities in a lifetime, even if I had two other me. So I took example on  Kate and decided to make this petal exploration an open source project. I don't know exactly where it will take me. Maybe I will write a book with instructions for the best designs arising from it.

The video below shows a few things I made with petals. I am not a very good film-maker and apologize for the quality. I seem to never keep my hands in the frame of the image so I had to cut pieces and bits of 3 videos and assemble them in one.

Do you want to download the instructions for the petals and learn more? Join the  Facebook 'Petal to Pod' group, a place to share our Petal design ideas. It is my wish that it becomes a community of friendly enthusiasts playing with these petals to create new, playful designs, may it be single petal, two-petal or many petal designs, Flowers, buds, pods, pistils, in layers or abstract forms; short, long, wide or thin, cupping heavily or only slightly... whatever your beady brain comes up with. Ask questions, share your designs, trials and errors. Errors are very welcome, they often teach us much more than successes. It is entirely free.

And through this, I hope to light sparks of creativity in you!

Happy Beading,

Cath

Diamond Weave - DW - is here!

Diamond Weave front cover

I have not enough words to express my excitement! The book Diamond Weave is now available on Amazon, worldwide. It is printed by CreateSpace, which means that when you order it from Amazon, it will be printed just for you, in your country, or nearby, which means that it doesn't need to travel far over the oceans to reach you. You can find the links to the various Amazon stores below.

What you are buying?

I could answer: two years of my life. And many more of Gerlinde's, who developed the weave and all the stitches on her own since approximately 10 years and who continues to develop them. She has found a new stitch in the meantime.
I could also mention the number of photos and illustrations made... but you are probably more interested in what this book will bring you. Well, brace yourself: You are going to be blown away.

When I tried this stitch for the first time, I was happy that I was sitting on a chair. My first reaction was "Why would I start the beadwork in such an odd manner..." but then........ oh my gaaaaaaawd!!! That was the first of a long list of oooohs and aaaaahs. Of course, I wouldn't have taken so much time out of my own life, sitting in front of a computer, if it hadn't been so.

Diamond Weave back cover

First of all: This is a book with plenty of very clear illustrations. And it is crammed with knowledge.
 There is not just one stitch, but many stitches, and even more in potential. Diamond Weave is so incredibly versatile, you won't believe it unless you see it: You will not only discover Basic DW and the variations built upon it which result in beautiful woven fabrics including various hexagon weaves, 3 different octagon weaves and 2 Chinese coin motif weaves, but also instructions how to get the best out of them with seed beads, resulting in beautiful patterns and awesome textured beadwoven fabrics.

In addition, there are instructions on how to tailor the beaded fabric with  increases and decreases, tapering or sculpting, at the edge or in the middle of the weave.

You will find a flurry of hints, tips and design options which can result in a thousand different pieces of jewelry. The projects are there only to walk you through one of the countless possibilities.

You will never bead the same.


We could have made 3 or 4 books. One about the basic stitch, one for the variations, one for the seed beads, one for the increases and decreases (which are the basis for Dimensional DW). But we prefer to give it to you all in one and watch you fly with it. This is the Table of Contents:

 

Gerlinde says that this book is a miracle of friendship and it sure is. But it is even more. It is a victory. A victory over my fibromyalgy and on my light intolerance. I haven't felt this accomplished and proud in a very, very long time.

Basic Diamond Weave

Available from:

CreateSpace (author's platform)

Amazon USA

Amazon DE

Amazon FR

Amazon UK

Amazon IT

Amazon ES

Happy Beading!