April Bead Trends

This post is definitely late, but at least it is still April, right?  I haven't submitted much to magazines lately, but was really excited last fall when I heard that Bead Trends has accepted one of my designs for their April publication:

Seeds Of Spring

The focal for this necklace is made from a seed-beaded bezel surrounding one of my handmade fused glass cabochons with a wrapped wire bail.

I also made some "beaded beads" from peyote-stitched strips of beads stitched around short lengths of copper tubing and then wire-wrapped for decoration. 

As always, thank you to the wonderful folks at Bead Trends for publishing my necklace!  If you are interested, you can find this necklace in my etsy shop.

Keep an eye out for another one of my pieces in May's issue as well!

Learning...

I've been teaching myself bead embroidery and bead weaving, and having a great time.  I finally finished my first big piece, and I definitely learned a lot from the experience:

I used an antique watch face that I got at Vintage Supply Company and some domed discs that I made out of an antique floral tin as the focal pieces, and then designed around them.

Here's what I learned:

- it is really hard to keep your beads looking like a circle as you embroider

- there must be a little bit of a margin between bead rows to allow for said beads to form a circle

- this kind of beading takes a really, really long time

- i'll never make enough to cover the time and materials for a project like this

- i absolutely love the zen state my brain goes into when I am working on this kind of project

- i have an even greater appreciation for seed bead artists

I think I'll stick to the smaller bead weaving projects for now, and incorporate metalworking and wire work with the seed beading techniques into my new pieces.

What new techniques have you been working with?