Finally! Tutorial for the "Polaris" pendant is finished! :)

At first let me apologize that you had to wait for it quite a long time... There were a few things though that didn't leave any time at all for me to do some beading. I knew that some of you could hardly wait for it, and I must admit it was quite motivating. :) So thank you for your patience and I hope you will like the tutorial.

I named the pendant "Polaris", because most of you could see a star in it. :) It isn't very difficult, not more than the rest of my twisted peyote patterns. But passing through the beads in the final rows can be more than challenging! Pliers were a must for me this time, so you might consider using them too - otherwise it can be really hard to hold the needle at some points. I would suggest trying to make the other twisted pendants before attempting at this one really. If you are already familiar with these twists, it is much, much easier.

This version of "Polaris" is made with Delica beads, and as they are slightly smaller than Toho Treasure, the entire pendant is a bit smaller too. By the way, it was the first time when I made something with galvanized Delica (#462, so not duracoat) and I was a bit afraid that the color might rub off. To my greatest surprise it survived all the twisting, turning, distorting and all the other torture the beadwork has gone through. That was a nice surprise then. :)

So, here you can see the pendant, and here you can find the tutorial. Enjoy! :)

Have a great day and I'll see you soon again. :)

More experimental twisting

Did I say that I love the twisted peyote more and more? That's a stitch that gives a thousand of possibilities! One idea leads to another one, and when I was making the square from the last post, such a new idea appeared in my head. I just had to try it out as soon as possible! Of course I had no idea about the final result in the beginning, but along with the growing number of beads I knew what I was going to achieve. Whether it was a successful experiment or not, only you can probably tell. I like it though, as it looks different from anything I have made so far - despite using the same stitch as in the last few pieces.

The pendant is made with Toho Tresure and round seed beads, with a big 18mm rivoli in the middle. It's not a small piece, not small at all, as it is almost 8cm (3,14") wide and long (without the bail). I haven't got any pattern for it yet - but could be that it will be ready by the end of this week. :)

So, is it a cross? Or maybe a four-pointed star? Can't decide what it resembles to me. I wonder what you can see in this pendant then. ;)

 

So, until the next time! :)

Windmill - or Twisted Square - another twisted pattern :)

I can't believe I have finished it...

Of all my twisted peyote pendants, this one appeared to be a nightmare. First I have chosen wrong Delica beads, with extremely thin walls, breaking more than easily. I had to go back a few rows three times (!) just to remove a half of a broken bead and replace it with a new one. Then I lost one of the bicone crystals and since I didn't have more than 12 beads of this colour in my stash, I had to replace them all. I truly hated this pendant long before I have finished it. Yet, somehow, it is finally done. :)

A similar pendant you could see in this post. This time I used a different cabochon - 14mm rivoli, so it made the entire piece look a little bit different. It's actually nice to see that you can achieve different results with exactly the same pattern.

Just as the rest of the twisted designs it is made with cylinder beads and seed beads in sizes 11/o, 15/o and 8/o. In addition, there are twelve 4mm bicone crystals woven in the edges. It measures 7cm (2.8") at the widest point.

And the pattern is traditionally available here on Etsy. :)

Have a nice Sunday, everyone! :)

Rosetta - just another beaded pendant :)

While working on a tutorial for a Twisted Square, which should be ready in a couple of days, I completely forgot that I have finished another pattern in the meantime.  Rosetta is my first trial with two-hole Piggy beads. Actually, even three trials as you can see below... And I'm not quite sure if I like these beads very much. It's not that they are bad... not at all! But if they were a little bit smaller, they would be perfect! I'm sure though that it's not the last time I used them in my beadwork. This pendant is a very simple one, so hopefully I will be able to use them in something a bit more complicated. ;)

The pendant measures 4,5 cm (1.77") without the bail and it is made, except of Piggy, with 8mm round beads and seed beads in two sizes. The tutorial is available here on Etsy.

And these are the three colour versions. I think I like the blue one the most. :)

Take care, hugs to all of you, and I'll see you again soon! :)

Another twisted triangle

Guess what? Despite my laziness I managed to finish the tutorial for the twisted triangle! You could see the design here before, but when I was making it for the second time, I decided to change one thing. Don't know about you, but for me the new version looks a bit better. :)

I used Toho Treasure again - gold lined aqua - and I must say that I didn't expect them to look so good in a beadwork. Depending on the light they look like a cold steel or they have a warmer, yellowish tint. Worked good with some antique bronze seed beads, I think.

The triangle measures 6,5 cm (2.5") at the widest point.

The tutorial is available here on Etsy.

Now I have to go back to work... I promised to prepare the tutorial for the twisted square too...
Have to keep my promise, you know! ;)
So I'll see you some other time. Have a wonderful day! :)

Twisted Star - again :)

The series of twisted patterns is not over yet. The instruction how to make the flower from the previous post not only is already available here on Etsy, but it is also accompanied by the tutorial for the twisted star. You could see one on this blog already, today I can show you another one.

This one is a little bit (two rows) smaller than the blue star, with a black edge that makes it look even smaller. This time I made it with Toho Treasure beads in one of my favourite color - Gold Lustered Raspberry. There's a beautiful square crystal in the middle (thank you Marcie, it is truly gorgeous!).

The pendant measures 6,5 cm (2.5") at the widest point and the pattern can be found here.

Please remember that I don't recommend any of these patterns for beginners. You should really be familiar with peyote stitch in order to make it. But if you want a challenge, well I won't stop you anyway. ;)

Hopefully I'll be able to prepare the rest of the promised tutorials for a twisted square and a triangle soon. I'll do my best. :)
And until then, take care, all of you! :)

 

Twisted flower

After a few bracelets it's about time for more pendants. And for more twisted designs, as it has been a while since I have shown the last one. :)

This time it is a twisted flower - or at least something that looks like a flower to me. Traditionally made with Delica beads and seed beads in three different sizes, with a glass pearl in the center. It is quite big, because it measures something like 6,5cm (2.5") at the widest point.

The good news is that the tutorial for this pendant is ready. :) I just need to test it before I can publish it, so you'll probably see another twisted flower soon. And I am really happy to announce that June Huber, the master of twisted peyote, has given me a written permission to publish the tutorials for these of my designs, which are based on her idea of combining the beads in certain order to achieve the twisted effect. Thank you, June! :)

So here's the pendant... and I'll see you soon again.

Have a great day! :)

Edit: This tutorial is already available here. :)



Sea Urchin - tutorial - and other water creatures ;)

I know, I know, I wasn't here for a long time again. This time though it wasn't just because of my laziness. ;) I was working pretty hard, restarting my 240l aquarium, which got quite neglected during my treatment last year. It didn't look good at all anymore so I just had to do something about it. It took quite a long time - I had to move the fishes to a small tank where they could live for more than a week, clean something like 70 kilos of gravel, prepare a huge amount of water, deal with two buckets of water plants, then wait until I could move the fishes to their old home again...  I still have to keep in check all the water parameters if I don't want any algae to appear, until the aquarium becomes fully stabilized, but now it is quite pleasant to look at it again. ;)

I have done a little bit of beading since my last post though. The Sea Urchin pendant is one of the pieces that some of you  have seen already (and some of you have even made it from my tutorial). ;) I guess it is time to show it finally on my blog too. It is made with 13mm spikes, SuperDuos, fire polished beads and seed beads. Not so difficult to make, I can assure you. It measures around 4,5 cm (1,77") in diameter, without the bail.

The tutorial is available here on Etsy. If you want the Polish version I would suggest waiting for the summer issue of Beading Polska magazine. :)

Here you can see two different colour versions:

But make sure to visit Silke's blog too! She made a really beautiful, blue version of the pendant!

Before I say good bye for now, I'll show you some pictures of my private underwater world too. These are different views of my aquarium, when it still looked good. The current layout can't be shown until all the plants will grow some more. ;)
So, enjoy and see you soon! :)

Triangulum - another beaded pendant :)

It's been a while again since my last post, I know. But I was on my vacation first, then I was sick, then I had a lot of work... but at least I can finally appear with a few new patterns. Today I'll show you one of them. :)

Triangulum is just another experiment. You know, the one when you take out your beads, start making something that you don't know yet what it is going to be, but then it turns out to be a piece which you are satisfied with. I was quite satisfied with the first attempt, so I made another pendant to see if I still remembered all the steps. I did remember, but I also realized that I must find some easier way to make it. Third time lucky, they say. The third pendant differs a little, little bit from its predecessors, but it's waaaay easier to make. Still I wouldn't say it was very easy anyway. But at least I like it. ;)

The pendant measures 4,5 cm (1.77") at the widest point. It is made mostly with SuperDuo beads and seed beads in two sizes. A huge 14mm round bead is placed in the center of the piece.
The Polish version of this pattern will be published in the next issue of Beading Polska magazine. The English one is available already on Etsy and Craftsy.

Before I show you the pendants, I have one more information. The twisted peyote patterns I was promising to write cannot be published yet. As they were inspired by wonderful work by June Huber and her Peyote Twist Earrings, I wanted to be on the safe side and asked for her opinion, if using her idea (in a different way and different beadwork though) wouldn't violate her author's rights. Due to some urgent matters though she is not able to give me the written permission yet, but I was already promised to be granted it. So we all need to be a little bit more patient. In the meantime make sure to check out her website and the beautiful patterns she makes! You won't regret it, I promise! :)

Back to the triangles though, here are all the pendants, in the same order as they were created.
And I'll see you again soon, with a few more tutorials! :)

Thank you for dropping by and take care, my friends! :)

Twisted triangle

Still playing around with the twisted peyote, as you can see, and trying a triangular shape this time. :)

This pendant was finished long time ago, and a long time it had to wait for being presented here. ;) Poor pendant has been waiting for long enough it seems, but I wanted to show it when the pattern would be ready. I failed, I haven't even started writing the tutorial yet, but the pendant doesn't deserve to wait for longer. ;)

It is made with Delica cylinder beads and Toho seed beads in three sizes. Three tiny fire polished beads are added too. The pendant is 5 cm (2") long without the bail.

And now I'd like to say good bye for now, I'm leaving for a short vacation in two days. I can't wait to do some beading along with Julia! Should be fun! I'll see you again in February then!

Take care, all of you! :)

Another beaded pendant

Yep, another pendant that was finished more than a month ago, but still wasn't shown here... Unusual in shape, but I can't say I'm very pleased with it. It's just one of these pieces, which are worn once and then completely forgotten, thrown into a box with the rest of my beaded pendants. I actually realized that I have lots of those... almost too many. And yet I wouldn't be able to part with any of them, even if I'm not going to wear them anymore. ;)

This piece was made with Toho, Delica and fire polished beads, with a big Swarovski rivoli in the center. The pendant is 4,3 cm (1,69") wide and 5,5 cm (2,16") long without the bail.

Next time - some triangles. So see you until then! :)

Twisted Star - beaded pendant

I know I neglected the blog a little... it's not though that I don't do any beading, I still have a few things to show, so I'll try to force myself to publish them soon. :)

Decided to start with another twisted peyote experiment, this time it is something that is supposed to resemble a star. Does it really? Maybe a bit. Maybe it's more like a starfish, but who cares. ;) I actually like the design and could be that soon I will be able to publish a tutorial how to make it. It's not really difficult to make, but it takes a lot of time and attention. It's probably the amount of time required that stops me from writing the tutorial... why do so many other things want or need to be made too? Or I just should stop being so extremely lazy. ;P

Anyway, this is the star. Made with Miyuki Delica and Toho seed beads, with a Swarovski rivoli in the middle. The piece is quite big actually, it measures almost 7cm (2,75") at the widest point. It's very light though. It certainly makes a pendant that is really noticeable. ;)

Thank you all for watching and visiting this blog. :)

I hope you'll have a nice weekend and see you some other day! :)

Edit: the tutorial is already available here. :)

Cosmic Magma - crystal pendant

I caught some daylight today! It means that I didn't have to wait until tomorrow to take some pictures. So please let me show you one of my latest creations. It's a pendant (yeah... another one... boooring... ;) ), with a beautiful red magma crystal by Swarovski, surrounded by seed beads. I think I bought this crystal light years ago... I guess it has been waiting for long enough. :)

The shape of the pendant is determined by the shape of the glass. "Cosmic" crystal wasn't very symmetrical so I didn't even try to make a symmetrical pendant either. It is double sided though, with the back side being almost the same.

The pendant is 5cm (2") long without the bail and 4 cm (1,57") wide at the widest point.

And this is how it looks like:

This is the back side:

And this one is catching the daylight... :)

Until next time, my friends, have a great weekend! :)