It’s a knotty kind of thing….

As you can probably already tell, I am absolutely 200% horrid at going in any kind of order when it comes to writing about things. Last post I was mentioning Dutch Spiral… this post is to be short (maybe) and sweet, but mostly to the point…KNOTS.

I am a Nymo beader, die hard. I’ve use mono-filament twice and hated it both times.. I have more problems trying to keep the projects together on it than anything else. That being said I have never used Fireline as I am much to cheap to pay that much for something I am not sure I’ll like when I know I have something that I already love. From my research you either are pro mono-filament or anti mono-filament. I have met beaders that use both but still they tend to preference one or the other.

The reasons I like Nymo are simple. I feel that for its thickness which is very small and fits through seed beads size tiny(15) very well; Size B Nymo holds a fair amount of weight. That being said I have learned through-out trial and failure (Beadworks falling apart) you can never, ever tie enough knots.. I average about three on tie on and four or more depending on the weight of the piece at tie off. I might be a wee bit over board but better safe than sorry, if one fails another is there to back it up.

As for the type of knot I use, just a simple loop around one of the strings that is already in the weaving with a few woop-dees through the circle before I pull it tight( ß- doesn’t make any sense I know… its late). So say in a piece of peyote you want to make a knot, I usually go down through the work four or five lines. Then make a loop on the nymo between the beads. Before pulling that loop snug I reinforce it with two or three more stitches through the loop, and then pull tight. and repeat two or three maybe even four other times.

 Beading, even more so Bead-Weaving is a craft that holds a fair amount of weight. For instance the purple Dutch spiral necklace featured below is not something you can’t  forget around your neck. It probably weighs 1-3 pounds (notice I don’t have a scale handy.. anywhere, this is like cooking a pinch of this splash of that who needs measuring spoons just glug it in!) making something like that stay together takes a good bit of fiddle-y-ness and knots.

Below is a update on my unnamed third Dutch Spiral Pancake formerly called warty and weird because of how it looked when it started out. It needs a new name anyone have any ideas?

I Sell On Etsy

Crazy Little Thing Called Beading

Silly Little Thing Called Love…or Beads

Hi all!

Today has been long and I am just now settling down to write. Who knows if this will actually be just a one day entry or a multiple day posting but I will try and squeeze it all out tonight. Thankfully work will not be in need of my attendance until the afternoon so I might just get it done and out to you.

My current bead stitch obsession is Dutch Spiral…. I’ve read about it for a couple of years and never really been interested until I found a YouTube video that made it look not so impossible, and really rather friendly, not to mention how easy it is to make Dutch Spiral your own. Its amazing just how customizable this stitch is.  I LOVE IT.

Now throughout this post I want to include some pictures, I think it only fair to warn you at this stage in my blogging I am not one who can invest in a high priced camera to take beautiful photos. Instead I have my old, slightly (very) water damaged Iphone 4. Which takes…. Okay photographs. However it does struggle with beads because they are sparkly and reflect light.

Warnings aside I wanted to share some pictures/experiences with Dutch Spiral:

What is Dutch spiral:

It’s a mix of tubular peyote and what I like to call “swags” of beads.

The peyote is pretty simple as long as you know any kind of peyote stitches… then you just go in a half circle with it.

The “swag” part is where Dutch spiral becomes super easy to customize because you can do almost anything in the world with it, just with the same beads as normal make them loopy or tight giving you a whole different effect, and then there are accent beads which can alter a piece in even more ways. The point is every Dutch spiral piece that you create can be completely different looking then the one before.

The first pancake:

My first attempt at Dutch Spiral went great; The color pattern was a match to my ‘Flora Bracelet’ currently for sale in my Etsy shop and I was really just kind of playing around with the stitch. I must say when I attempted it I assumed it would be much harder, but in fact it turned out quite well. That being said I have to take out about sixteen lines of it, and have yet to finish the project because I at some point lost a bead on my peyote core inner spiral, a good reason to never bead when tired.

MY second attempt a Dutch spiral was a much more effective result. It was rather quick completion the entire necklace clasp and all within about 14 hours which seems like a very long time for any one my necklace. But in the world of bead weaving that’s a stone’s throw.

 By the third attempt I am already comfortable with some embellishments on different parts.

All in all I find it a great stitch with a abundance of uses.

As always 

JB

I Sell On Etsy

Why Hello There

To Bead or not to Bead; Why to Bead of course!

Hello all, I am Jessie Bradach.

I am just starting in the wonderful world of selling my craft, which is very…. Very part time.

My craft of choice as you can probably tell is beading. I also tend to be very exclusive with a subcategory of beading called bead weaving. This relationship is somewhat new only on its second or third year of obsession. But the embers burn bright with love for my hobby (and elephant as you might have guessed)  Being that I work full time I can not devote every second of my day to beading, but boy if I could I would numb bum and all.

So instead dear readers I promise you the following: 

A soulful promise to try and stick with blogging

A look at almost every piece and even some failures along the way

Perhaps even a few tutorials as I go along. 

And even maybe a few stories here and there.

With love and unending enthusiasm

                                                              JB

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ElephantBeader