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Bead stringing tutorials

Sunlit Seas

One of the first beading techniques that most people learn is how to string.  After moving on to bead weaving, bead embroidery, and mixed media techniques, some of us forget about that thrill that we got when we first learned how to string a pleasing necklace.  We forget how exciting it was to learn how to finish off a piece with a polished-looking closure.  Never forget the basics!

African Trade Beads

Here is a link to a master list of the stringing projects with tutorials that I've posted over the years.  Maybe you can find something fun that you'll enjoy stringing up for the new season!

Rock Candy

Making your beading designs unique - part one

Making your beading designs unique - part two

Making your beading designs unique - part three

Copyright 2017 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

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Waves - a beaded necklace tutorial

Unfortunately, I do not have any step-out photos for this necklace.  I actually made it a long time ago, back before I was keeping a blog with tutorials.  But the theory behind making a necklace like this is simple enough, so I'll share with you how it came to be.

"Waves" features a lovely four-holed fused glass pendant by Jeanne Kent of New Terra Artifacts.  It also contains Chinese turquoise, green onxy, amazonite, sodalite, fresh water pearls, crystals, seed beads, and my own lampworked glass beads.  My glass beads provide the structure for the design.  I mentally spaced out the large-holed beads and created the necklace straps in several passes. You will find all the beautiful beads that you need at Beadaholique or your favorite local bead store.

The first pass went from the clasp down through one outside hole, across the bottom to the next hole, and back up through that one, creating a second necklace strand up towards the staring point.  A third pass wove back and forth between the two strands, attaching them and adding more bulk to the almost finished first half.  The lampwork beads were particularly helpful since they had holes big enough to accomodate many thread passes.

A second set of strands was stitched on the other side.  After both halves looked fairly balanced (balanced but not identical), I began adding peyote stitched ruffles to each side and to the bottom.  These ruffles helped fill in gaps and make the entire design more coherent.

This post contains an affiliate link: Beadaholique

Copyright 2017 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

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Earrings tutorials

Dutch spiral

I have needed to update my earrings tutorial page for awhile now!  Here they all are in one place, and you can find this post easily through the Tutorials tab at the top of the blog page.





Dutch spiral



Single earring for summer



Simple and fast



Right angle weave



Blue hearts and wire



Leftover beads



Chain and pearl



Chainmaille



Hanukkah 



Shank buttons and beads



Hammered wire and beads



Chain drop with pearls



Simple polymer clay beads



Chainmaille and beads



Pompoms



Simple lampwork beads



Pink bubbles



Leaves

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Book review: Jewelry Made with Wire and Fiber

Perhaps you remember Nealay Patel from the beautiful projects in his book Jewelry Designs with Knitted Wire (here's my review).  There are so many things to like about Nealay's design aesthetic and his work, so you will be as happy as I am to learn that he has written a brand new book, bringing wire, fiber, and beads together into gorgeous new projects!  Enter Jewelry Made with Wire and Fiber.

If you've been beading for any length of time, you probably already have most of the tools and materials needed to work through these projects.  But here's the best part: although these projects are all very easy to make, they are BIG on style! You might need to add a mandrel or a jig to your tool kit, and perhaps you'll need to find some of the flat and round fiber cords that Nealay uses, but resources are listed, so don't worry.

Nealay gave me permission to share a few of the projects with you so that you'll be able to see how pretty they are.  See that bracelet up above?  The body of it is made from round fiber cord!  Isn't that great?  It's called the Aura bracelet.  And below you'll see a pair of earrings, called the Picasso earrings, that are made from the flat fiber cord.

Just in case you're still worried that these will be too complicated to make, here's an example of how Nealay lays out the instructions: super-clear photos with the steps carefully explained:

So whatcha waiting for?  Fifteen stylish and easy projects that will open a whole new world of design possibilities are waiting for you!

Bead making tutorials

Happy Spring!  It's always nice to try something new at the beginning of a new season.  I have a list of resources and my own tutorials at the link, which may help you decide what to try next...  Beadweaving?  Lampwork?  Metal?

Try one, try them all!

Copyright 2017 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.