Bead Journal Project for June 2011

It's that time again...I've completed another month for The Bead Journal Project 2011.  As you know I am not doing bead embroidery, which is the norm, because it hurts my hands to do that type of beading anymore.  I am learning at least one new beadweaving stitch a month and creating jewelry pieces.  This month I tackled tubular netting.

I really had a lot of fun with this stitch.  I have admired it for so long in other people's work, but had no clue on how to do it.  I finally found a link on how to do it, and I am ashamed to say that I can't remember where I found it. :(  I did one monochromatic necklace and bracelet in pinks first.  I was happy with the way it turned out, but it just wasn't, oh I don't know...enough of something.  I wanted something that stands out a little more.  Maybe a little more "fancy".  I'll show you the pink one last because I really want to talk about the 2nd set I made first.

I chose 3 different colors of 4mm Druks for the core.  I had a little bit of a problem ordering these at first.  For the pink set the packaging for the core beads said 3mm (bought from a local store).  Therefore, for the 2nd one I also ordered 3mm.  Then they came in the mail...They were NOT the same size.  I measured them both on the ruler and they both look like 3mm when measured, but the pink must have been a large 3mm and the browns a small 3mm or something because the 3mm Druks I ordered were so small that I could only do a 3 bead net instead of a 5 bead net.  That just wouldn't do.  How can 2 different 3mm beads be so different in size???  Crazy.  BUT, since I ordered the Druks from Artbeads.com, they have a very simple return/exchange policy.  It was pretty painless, and the replacement order was processed and shipped pretty quickly after they received the old beads in.

Back to the tubular netting set.  I chose 3 different colors of core beads.  One is a gorgeous tortoise shell looking bead, one is a brown sparkly luster bead and the 3rd is a brown matte.  Then I used 3 different colors of accent beads for the intersections of the net.  I used a bronze seed bead, a Miyuki rainbow matte rose/green metallic cube and a Toho orange/rust hex.  The cube says rose/green, but it is really just a light colored metallic that is very pretty.  The seed bead for the net is an 11/0 in medium brown lined amber Toho.  I started and ripped apart the necklace 3 or 4 times before I decided on a pattern I liked.  I took each of the core beads and matched them up with one of the accent beads and used the same throughout.  The beads make a wrap-around diamond pattern that is really hard to see in the photos.  Just know there is a pattern with rhyme and reason to it! lol

I really struggled with what to call it, too.  (again)  You know how I am about naming my pieces.  I'm a little weird that way.  I think I like "Noble Luster".  It is very sparkly, and the colors just appear to be stately to me.  Sara says it reminds her of Fall, but to me it was a little more than that.  For this set I created a necklace, 18" long, a bracelet 9" long (but it's not truly 9" around.  Since it's a fat bracelet, the inside circumference is actually smaller than 9" and fits an average wrist very well). And a set of little dangly earrings with 14k gold plated ear wires.

Here is the necklace...

And the bracelet...

And the earrings...

And the whole set together...

You can click on the images to get a larger view.  The camera never picks up the sparkliness of the beads, you know?  I find that frustrating.

Here are photos of the original tubular netting project I did that I embellished with a dragonfly pendant.  It's pretty, but it lacked some "oomph".  That's why I wanted to do another set that was a little more dynamic.  But it's still pretty if you ask me.  Here's the bracelet...

And here's the necklace...

By the way.  This little necklace form that I got from JoAnn's to display my jewelry was one of my best purchases.  I highly recommend getting one.  It was less than $8.

Bead Journal Project for June, 2011...done!  I can't wait to see what I do for next month!

Oh, and one more thing.  In my post with the little flower chain stitch, I forgot to give credit to the writer of the tutorial.  If you would like to do that stitch, visit Inspirational Beading.