Florence Turnour's Blog

I'm beading again (la la la). I thought I'd share this pendant in turquoise and brown. The lighter roundels are probably chrisocola. I'm wearing it today!

Here's another picture of my new design. In the process of making this, I had a few (dozen) other ideas that I'd like to try, and I'm moving on.

Have you been following along as I log my progress toward a new design using herringbone with two different sizes of seed beads? I just finished my sixth piece in this effort. Here are the first four: http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/09/start-of-new-idea.html http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/10/start-of-new-idea-2.html http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/10/start-of-new-idea-3.html http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/10/start-of-new-idea-4.html http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/10/start-of-new-idea-5.html And (drumroll...) here's number 6. I'm liking how this one came out! Hey, Gwen ?!

Announcing beAd Infinitum 's first Design Team! Show your beAd Infinitum creations with links to our site in exchange for FREE PATTERNS! Call for Applications to Join beAd Infinitum's first Design Team beAd Infinitum is looking for a design team of 3 or 4 talented beaders to make and publicly display jewelry on the internet using our patterns. Term: We are looking for a 4- or 6-month commitment, beginning November 2010. During a design team member’s term, beAd Infinitum provides the team members with two patterns of his or her choice the first month, and a pattern of his or her choice each subsequent month of the term. credit and a link to the design team member’s blog, web site, and/or Etsy site on each gallery page featuring the team member’s work. a 50% discount on additional beAd Infinitum products during the term. this nifty design team banner to display on his or her blog. The design team members each commit to creating at least two beautiful pieces of jewel...

Back on track, I decided to repeat my attempt at try number 3, except with more beads, so the circle is larger. It came out nicely, and I like the effect of the herringbone decoration. I also like the color in this one. It wants a rivoli in the center! To go with that idea, I need to start with the rivoli and work outwards. So I didn't finish embellishing this one, or figuring out how to give it some structure (it is quite floppy). Shortly after Laura McCabe published that beautiful rivoli necklace pattern in Beadwork Magazine, we started seeing rivolis everywhere. We wondered if our Fringe Method technique would be a good way to capture a rivoli. In one of the rare occasions that Gwen and I were together in the same room, we quickly came up with the Rivoli Sunflower design, in which we modify the Fringe Method technique to accommodate the acute angles of the rivoli. Rivoli Sunflowers In my next attempt at a new design, I'm going to start with a rivoli captured by t...

OK, I don't know what happened on this one. I was planning to try to make a flower shape and it started looking like it could be a cube. I couldn't keep myself on task, and ended up following through with that thought, and all of a sudden, I had this small symmetric boulder. I'm not sure it deserved its own post, but to make an honest log of my efforts toward a new design, I guess it has to be here. Here are my tries so far:

In this incarnation, I planned to doodle around a decorative right angle weave square. I planned to keep the herringbone decorations from getting too ruffled or twisted. I switched to smaller herringbone embellishments because I was trying not to cover up all the larger beads in the array. As I started embellishing, I saw a petal shape emerging. I'd love to design a flower, so I squished the thing together to make the petals poke up. I started to make a leaf, but then decided to turn it into a bail instead. I'll work on leaves after I have the flower under control. For a flower, I'd not need all the beads in the RAW array, however, and I think in the resulting design, all of these larger beads clutter the edges. I need more petals; I'd really like another row of petals behind the first staggered so they stick out between the front ones. We'll see if I can figure out how to do that in the next go round. I just looked at my first design, and I'm not sure they...

So I had a good stare at the herringbone weave project that I shared in this post: http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/09/start-of-new-idea.html I decided that I didn't like the contrast between the color of the large and small beads in the herringbone weave, and that I didn't like that the outer edge ruffled. So on my second attempt, I changed the colors, and I eliminated the outer edge. In an attempt to be lazy, I also used only four core beads this time. This had an effect that I should have predicted: the seed bead path, which was one long path in the five sided version, is two separate paths in the four sided version. The two paths each encircle a pair core beads that lie across the center from one another. The look is interesting. Without the outer edge, this piece does not hold its form as well as the five sided version. It would need more structural stability to make a good pendant, but with all those 8/0's hanging around, there are plenty of places to a...

We now have kits for the Kepler's Star weave in Periwinkle and Silver. We have also restocked the Blue Velvet Rosebud  and matching Four of Spades beaded bead kits. That Blue Velvet might be my favorite color scheme ever. Rosebud Four of Spade Happy Beading!