Making Beaded Snowflakes

At this time of year, I particularly enjoy making snowflakes.  Even though they are a relatively small project for me, they completely take over my beading space when I work on them.  My beading mat fills up with dozens of tiny piles of beads.  

I like to mix many different textures, shapes, sizes and colors.  I mostly use glass beads, but sometimes I add a pearl, shell or gemstone bead.  So far I have used bright colors sparingly, which is why some of my bead piles are so small.
 

It is amazing how many different kinds of white there are.  So far my work has been strictly in cool whites; I haven't even broken into my boxes of warm cream colors yet.  I want to make some ivory snowflakes too, maybe with amber touches.

Each snowflake has been unique - I make up the pattern as I go along.  This takes longer than working from a set pattern.  Sometimes I try something that doesn't work very well and it takes me several tries to get the get a snowflake to look right.  I keep meaning to make copies of some of my favorite snowflakes so far, but it's more fun to try something new.

How about you?  Do you have a favorite winter project?

Picasso Challenge

I've decided to participate in the Etsy Beadweavers Team October Challenge "Inspired by Picasso".  I started out by doing a Google search for Picasso images.  When I found one I liked, I threw that image into the search bar to find more like it (up to that time, I hadn't realized it was possible to search and image that way).  The painting I chose to inspire my beadwork piece is Dance of the Veils, from Picasso's African period.

 I like this painting because of the sense of motion Picasso was able to convey with geometric shapes.  I especially liked the curving triangles with the heavy black outlines and the cross-hatching.  I decided that this outlined, curved triangle was the shape I wanted to feature in my beadwork piece.

I made my first attempts during my recent camping trip.  After I came home, I continued to work on it.  It took me many tries to get the shape to look the way I wanted it to.

Attempt 1:  Not technically feasible

Attempt 2:  Too suggestive

Attempt 3:  Too Rounded

Attempt 4:  Too curly

Finally I managed to make some curving triangles that had just a little bit of curl (I like the 3-D curl, attempt 4 just had a bit too much curl).  I sewed my new triangles together into a bracelet.

Now I need to attach a clasp that won't detract from the bracelet.  I like the clean lines that the triangles make.  I don't want to attach the clasp to the tips of the triangles because I think that will obscure their pointiness (is that a word?).  I will probably attach the clasp to the long side of the two ending triangles.

So if you were going to do a Picasso-inspired project, which painting or period would you choose?  Or would you want to choose a different artist all together?

Finally Finished!

Have you ever had one of those projects that seemed to take forever? 
Me too!  I wrote about my summer project and how I was having trouble finishing it.  All your encouraging comments helped me focus on getting it finished.

Yesterday, I pulled my kitchen table outside onto my deck.  I worked in pleasantly warm sunshine, filtered by my leafy grape vine.  I finally finished my project and this morning I listed it.

Thank you everyone for your encouragement.  It meant a lot to me.

Has anyone ever encouraged you when you were stuck?

Example of Netted Beadwork

This is an example of a necklace I made using netting, one of the first techniques I learned.

In this technique I string a group of beads, then "pass through" one of the beads in the string again. This creates a loop. As I keep building up the loops, they become a lattice.