Beading Arts

This is one of my favorite pieces.  I made it years ago, and it was inspired by my Mother, who has the greenest of green thumbs I've ever known!  I wrote a tutorial to show you the basic steps of how it was conceived and put together.  It combines bead embroidery, beadweaving, and a little bit of stringing.   Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Gaea Emerging Wool roving, seed beads, pearls, aventurine, jade, copper  In making Gaea Emerging , I developed a two-layered solution to the problem of stitched-on embellishments getting lost in the texture of the wool roving when felted wool is used as a background. The centerpiece of Gaea Emerging is a CopprClay pendant that I made, fired, and patinated. The organic feel of the piece led to the name.  There are some step-out photos and basic instructions at the link.  Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

I took a short detour from bead embroidery for my most recent piece.  Recently I showed you a bead embroidered piece of salvage ( Davy Jones's Lock ) that I stitched as a souvenir from our trip to Bermuda.  Here is the other piece of salvage that I got in the Dockyard...a bolt from a ship.  I just love the colors of the patina on both this one and the lock from the last piece.  The bolt is enlarged to show the details of the stitching...it is only about 2 1/4 inch long.    This piece may look a little bit complicated, but it's really quite easy.  I stitched a center band of size 6/0 seed beads using right angle weave.  From there I added size 8/0 seed beads between each stitch at the bottom of the band and larger disks between each stitch at the top.  Those beads became the anchor points for diagonal stitches going in both directions to form an X through the central drop beads (light turquoise).  At the top, I stitched a simple pe...

Not available for sale...sorry! We went to Bermuda not too long ago with friends, partly to celebrate big-number anniversaries and partly to celebrate big-number birthdays.  It was a glorious week: beautiful weather, pink sand beaches, no agenda.  Loved it loved it loved it! Each time I go to a significant place, I like to find at least one item that I can use in a "souvenir piece" that I make and keep.  Funny enough, I just showed you one last week that has taken me years to get around to turning into a pendant, my Petroglyph pin/pendant .   So when I found this piece of salvage, I fell in love, even though it was a bit bigger and heavier than I usually use.  It's a metal keyhole, probably from someone's trunk, that's about 2 1/2 inches high, and covered with a lovely patina in front and deep deep corrosion in the back.  There was no flat back to this one! It was so deeply rounded in the back that I pulled out a trick that I develo...

Earlier this month, I showed you some beadwoven bails that I was working on to top off and embellish my bead embroidered pendants.  Well, I found another one that I like very much in Diane Fitzgerald's book  Shaped Beadwork .  On page 33, Diane shows a double-layered triangle with an opening in the middle.  Instead of stitching the whole thing together around the edges, I stitched only the top edge.  Since the two layers are joined in the middle around the opening, that forms a nice little tube along the top for your necklace strap to go through. I found through experimentation that the size of the entire triangle needs to be enlarged from Diane's instructions.  It's simple to do this, just adding as many more rounds as you like.  An alternative, which is what I did in the sample shown here, is to just peyote stitch increases along the top edge of one layer, and then zip it to the other side.  That keeps the entire bail smaller, but...

Image via flickr Here is a guest post from Resin Obsession !  They have all the materials you need for your resin projects.  The links throughout the tutorial are not affilate links, and I have not been paid to share this project with you.   We’ve all seen Pandora beads. Trendy and stylish, these unique beads can be customized on bracelets or necklaces for endless combinations. They are beautiful and fun to collect. But did you know you can create your own? There’s something very satisfying about creating your own beautiful jewelry, and even more so when you get compliments on it! Here, we will give you all the details you need to know about making your own Pandora-style beads with resin. This project is also appropriate for beginners. New to making beads? Head over to our tutorials to learn more about how to make your own beads and other must-knows for beginners! Tools you will need for this project: Mixing cups Rubber gloves Stirring...

You know that most of the time, I like to just stitch a square stitch loop onto the back of my bead embroidered pendants, like the one shown below: If it's set down low enough, it doesn't show on the front, and if you want it to show, you can set it up higher or even weave it off of the edging brick stitch row on your piece.  Instructions for stitching these can be found in chapter 3 of my e-book Every Bead Has a Story .  But today, I want to look at some other forms of bails! While I was on vacation recently, I took along just enough beads to stitch up these triangular (and one cylindrical) bails.  Here are some sources for the instructions for these fancier bails: How to make beaded beads with brick stitch Shaped Beadwork  by Diane Fitzgerald (book review and link) Page 20 - triangle Page 25 - elongated triangle Update : Page 33 - an open-centered triangle Shaped Beadwork and Beyond  by Diane Fitzgerald (book review and link) Page 40 and...

Blossoms of the Moonlit Waves This is one of my favorite necklaces EV-AH, and I got to rock it out for Mother's Day!  It took a monstrously long time to make it, mostly because I wasn't sure what components I was going to need.  It was one of the bead embroidered necklace projects that moved me in the direction of working with components rather than as a solid collar style in the first place.  My e-book Some Assembly Required follows that journey, featuring another piece. If you've never tried making a large necklace without a solid foundation and a plan first, maybe it's time! The original tutorial for Blossoms of the Moonlit Waves is at the link.

The only thing constant in life is change   ~ attributed in various forms to Greek thinker Heraclitus of Ephesus I have fought against it for a few years now, but at last it is (past) time for me to make a change.  I have had a website since 1997 and have been blogging tutorials, artist profiles, book reviews, and art business tips since 2005, as well as writing magazine articles and e-books, making projects for my friends' books and for suppliers, and enjoying almost every minute of it. But now, I am ready to shift my focus to doing my own work, just because I want to do it and not because I think it will make a good blog post.  That doesn't mean that I will not be posting anymore, but it will probably be much less frequently, and may or may not include any instructions. I am leaving you a huge archive full of projects, tips, and inspiration.  Beginners, I have always had a special place in my heart for you.  My goal has been to cater primarily to you...

Embellished right angle weave rope necklace I made a list a little while ago of the rope-style beaded necklaces that I stitched over the summer and early fall.  Looking at my archives, I realized that I had forgotten about two previously stitched styles: the right angle weave necklace shown above, and the Viking's double shown below.  I am adding them to the master list for the future! Viking's Double rope necklace Copyright 2010, 2018 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.

Part one of this tutorial was posted last Monday and covered the construction of the main body of the necklace.  Just to remind you, this post is sponsored by Solid Oak , from whom I have received the products in order to create this project for you.  5. Make two tassels on large round jump rings, using leftover links from the small-sized crystal chains. Also add one of the chain dangles from your findings pack, folding it in half.  Stagger the lengths as shown.  Attach the tassels to the outside of each of the jump rings from step 3 and close them. 6. Cut the neck chain in half.  You can shorten it if you wish, but I like to leave extra length to make it adjustable.  Add a lobster clasp from your findings pack to one end with a small oval jump ring. Add a dangle, if you'd like, to the other end.  This helps to give the piece a finished look.  I used a leftover link from the medium-sized ruby crystal chain and a few links fr...

Garnet Skies Cyndi Lavin, 2018 I was contacted by the good people at Solid Oak Inc  to find out if I would like to have a look at their products.  They have multiple lines of jewelry making charms, kits, fibers, and metal components at very reasonable prices.  We decided that Solid Oak would sponsor a tutorial here on Beading Arts using their Estrella line of sparkly components.  I was psyched!  I've been looking at the colors and styles for Fall into Winter this year, and the multi-strand boho inspired look still seems to be going pretty strong, but with a slightly more sophisticated polish.  Jewelry makers can easily create that look using the Estrella line.  With the products listed below, I made the set shown above. These pieces can easily be altered to suit yourself by choosing the different colors of Estrella crystal chain and the different charms.  However, if you are a beginner jewelry maker and would like to follow along, I...

Are you familiar with Rita Sova's wonderful bead patterns ?  I've come across Rita's designs many times before, but this time I fell hook, line, and sinker!  Since my recent foray into stitching Russian leaves in all kinds of patterns and colors, my eye has just naturally homed in on any new ones that I see as I'm scrolling through Pinterest.  Well...there was this wonderful piano keys pattern, but without any credits or a link!!!!  Thanks to the magic of google and the Lightshot app, I was finally able to track it down to Rita.  So, here is my rendition of piano keys earrings .  You can get the tutorial at the link above for just a few dollars.  Enjoy! My previous post on bead weaving Russian leaves

Jeweled Fall crown tutorial Personalized stamped bracelet video tutorial Floral stamped mandala pendant video tutorial How to choose the right earrings for your face shape This post contains affiliate links: Beadaholique

I came across this really pretty stitch that I found on MyPicot , called the Honeycomb Stitch.  It takes about 7 rows to complete the entire pattern, but you can then choose to add another few rows without actually having to do an entire additional repeat.  I thought that 10 or 12 rows made a wonderful width for a scarf and am thinking about using this pattern again for something else in the future.  As you can see in the photo below, I used two very similar colors of yarn for this scarf.  If you want the pattern to really stand out, use multiple colors like the sample on MyPicot shows.  I recommend printing out the diagram provided.  Since each row is slightly different, it is much easier to follow the diagram than written out instructions.  I found the that I caught on to the pattern very quickly this way. On each long edge, I finished it with single crochet.

Vermont in Autumn Bracelet video tutorial (peyote and brick stitch) Cornucopia Swirl Necklace video tutorial (cellini spiral) Happy Haunts Bracelet with video tutorial (loom stitching) Royal Vortex Necklace video tutorial (cellini spiral) Fright Night Choker video tutorial (RAW stitch) This post contains affiliate links: Beadaholique