New Friends and Beads

I love making new friends!  A year ago I met Lyn Belisle through Etsy where I have my jewelry shop online. http://lifeofacrazybeader.blogspot.com/2012/07/friendships.html  Lyn sells these cute, little Earthshard faces -- https://www.etsy.com/shop/EarthShards?ref=top_trail -- that she makes with clay using molds that she takes from old tombstones.  I have used several of her faces in my jewelry.

On Thursday this past week, I ordered some beautiful Czech glass beads from SilverLiningBeads -- https://www.etsy.com/shop/SilverLiningBeads on Etsy.  Aimee, the shop owner lives here in Dallas so she asked if I'd like to meet her instead of having her mail the beads to me.  On Friday, we met at the Starbucks in the Northpark Mall.  Aimee and I sat and chatted for over an hour, talking about beads, bead shops, bead classes and our families.  We have since exchanged emails and we plan to meet for lunch very soon.

What fun it is to make new friends!

Learning New Beading Techniques

I have decided to try something different with the beads – bead weaving.  For some reason I have never been interested in this until I saw this ad for bracelets (that I have yet to make) using some bead weaving techniques.  I think these bracelets are so beautiful, so I paid for the instructions.  I rarely do that.  After reading the instructions, I decided I had better go back to the beginning and actually learn the bead weaving stitches and learn to follow a pattern.

I bought a beginners book and I made my first project.  The even-count peyote stitch was suggested as a good stitch to learn first.  Here is a photo of my first bracelet.  Well, actually this isn’t my first bead weaving project. 

I discovered that what I learned when I lived in Sarasota, was bead weaving!  A friend taught me how to make some peyote beads and another stitch called a spiral. 

This is a photo of a necklace I made with some bead weaving techniques.  I used a needle and Fireline (fishing line) to make this necklace.

I plan to make many more bead weaving projects.  It is a bit tedious and time consuming, but I do enjoy it.

You can find these items for sale on our NeeNee & CheeChee’s Beaded Things website -- www.neeneeandcheechee.etsy.com.

 

Flat Even Count Peyote Stitch Bracelet - DONE!

It only took me a week after I got the correct beads and the mastering of reading the pattern and the flat even count peyote stitch.  But, I FINALLY finished my bracelet!  Now I can't wait to try the flat odd-count peyote stitch bracelet.

Flat Even-Count Peyote Stitch - Mastered!

Well, maybe my flat even-count peyote stitch isn't "mastered", but I finally have the hang of it!  When we were in Tulsa over the weekend, I wanted to go to one of the bead stores that I like.  I asked about cylinder seed beads, as that is what I was supposed to be using in this peyote stitch.  I bought the correct kind of beads, read the tutorials from the author of the book I'm using and it all fell into place!  This is now FUN!