June update
So I'm still kind of working on my Half Persian Round weave Necklace (originally was going to be a bracelet, but I liked the weave enough that I thought a necklace would be nice) which is essentially done. It lacks a clasp. It now has a matching bracelet, I lucked out and found a less frequented Michael's and picked up the last of the 18g plain round links at that location. I have to of course order more links from LimaBeads.com because most to finish the bracelet. I'm also thinking of ordering one of the WeaveGotMaille bracelet kits to one see how the enameled links/rings work into a pattern and two what is exactly is Box weave.
I graciously received a beading book two years ago at Christmas. It has some jaw droppingly beautiful projects in it and I was amazed at some of the work in the Author's Gallery in the back of the book. The book I received was Sonoko Nozune's book Japanese Beadwork with Sonoko Nozue: 25 Jewelry Designs from a Master Artist (Beadweaving Master Class Series).
My goal was to make a project out of the book and gift it to my Stepmom the following Christmas as a thanks for getting the book for me. I will explain why that hasn't happened.
I recently attempted to start my very first, and so far only project from the book, called "Under the Sea". I think this is the twelfth time I've attempted to start the necklace project from the beginning. This is what I'm hoping that the necklace turns out like:
Please note that the pattern I relate below is not the exact pattern from the book. I'm attempting to relay the pattern in hopes that a more experienced beader who reads my blog might be able to point out where I went wrong. This is not a free pattern from the book. I have a great respect for Nozune-san and if you want to see more of her work or wish to buy the book you can click the link above to Amazon. It is in English, I promise.
The rough instructions from the book are as follows:
3 core beads, DNA Spiral of (5) 15/0 beads, a 3mm crystal bicone and (5) 15/0 beads. One core bead and repeat spiral 172 times. Spiral 2: Another length of thread repeat spiral with different colors, minus core beads. Spiral 3: Another length of thread repeat spiral with different colors. Spiral 4: Another length of thread repeat spiraling with different colors 11/0 instead of 15s with 3mm Round Pearl in place of 3mm crystal bicone.
The first spiral with the core beads if you follow the pattern directly were difficult to achieve. The first rows were a 6/0 core bead, (5) 15/0 beads, a 3mm crystal bicone and (5) 15/0 beads. No matter what stop bead I used the 15/0 beads were slipping into the center whole of the 6/0 core beads in the first row. It didn't seem to matter how tight or loose I was with my thread tension. Two beads at the top of a spiral would slip in, then two beads on the bottom of the next row. I'd stop after each row and adjust and try and push the 15/0 that had slipped into the 6/0 beads with my needle. It seemed like it was getting worse after three or four rows. I then began to undo the work and restart it trying different ways to hold the thread tension. No luck.
I even tried to swap the 6/0 cores for 8/0 Delica cores. The Bore hole/center hole wasn't going to be big enough in the 8/0 Delicas to support or fit the four spirals. {And has anyone else noticed that the black/smoke Beadalon FireLine thread though says its the same diameter as the white/clear/frost but isn't? The black/smoke is always thinner than the standard white.}
So after nearly throwing the project across the room I had an moment of "Why the heck didn't I think of that before?" I had done the DNA stitch a few times before and I knew that 11/0 are least likely to slip into the 6/0 core beads than the 15s. And if they do, they are easier to push/fish out than say the 15/0.
So I started the core and began with Spiral 4 instead of Spiral 1. So far so good I managed to get the core and Spiral 4 done yesterday. I do have some 11/0 slipping in to the the core but that can be fixed. I used two stop beads on either end of the core to keep the tension and not loose any beads. I'm hoping that it will help me when I go back and adjust the FireLine to keep the 11/0 from falling in the black hole.
I'll update this post tonight and add a picture of the progress of both the Under the Sea and the ChainMaille.
I graciously received a beading book two years ago at Christmas. It has some jaw droppingly beautiful projects in it and I was amazed at some of the work in the Author's Gallery in the back of the book. The book I received was Sonoko Nozune's book Japanese Beadwork with Sonoko Nozue: 25 Jewelry Designs from a Master Artist (Beadweaving Master Class Series).
My goal was to make a project out of the book and gift it to my Stepmom the following Christmas as a thanks for getting the book for me. I will explain why that hasn't happened.
I recently attempted to start my very first, and so far only project from the book, called "Under the Sea". I think this is the twelfth time I've attempted to start the necklace project from the beginning. This is what I'm hoping that the necklace turns out like:
Please note that the pattern I relate below is not the exact pattern from the book. I'm attempting to relay the pattern in hopes that a more experienced beader who reads my blog might be able to point out where I went wrong. This is not a free pattern from the book. I have a great respect for Nozune-san and if you want to see more of her work or wish to buy the book you can click the link above to Amazon. It is in English, I promise.
The rough instructions from the book are as follows:
3 core beads, DNA Spiral of (5) 15/0 beads, a 3mm crystal bicone and (5) 15/0 beads. One core bead and repeat spiral 172 times. Spiral 2: Another length of thread repeat spiral with different colors, minus core beads. Spiral 3: Another length of thread repeat spiral with different colors. Spiral 4: Another length of thread repeat spiraling with different colors 11/0 instead of 15s with 3mm Round Pearl in place of 3mm crystal bicone.
The first spiral with the core beads if you follow the pattern directly were difficult to achieve. The first rows were a 6/0 core bead, (5) 15/0 beads, a 3mm crystal bicone and (5) 15/0 beads. No matter what stop bead I used the 15/0 beads were slipping into the center whole of the 6/0 core beads in the first row. It didn't seem to matter how tight or loose I was with my thread tension. Two beads at the top of a spiral would slip in, then two beads on the bottom of the next row. I'd stop after each row and adjust and try and push the 15/0 that had slipped into the 6/0 beads with my needle. It seemed like it was getting worse after three or four rows. I then began to undo the work and restart it trying different ways to hold the thread tension. No luck.
I even tried to swap the 6/0 cores for 8/0 Delica cores. The Bore hole/center hole wasn't going to be big enough in the 8/0 Delicas to support or fit the four spirals. {And has anyone else noticed that the black/smoke Beadalon FireLine thread though says its the same diameter as the white/clear/frost but isn't? The black/smoke is always thinner than the standard white.}
So after nearly throwing the project across the room I had an moment of "Why the heck didn't I think of that before?" I had done the DNA stitch a few times before and I knew that 11/0 are least likely to slip into the 6/0 core beads than the 15s. And if they do, they are easier to push/fish out than say the 15/0.
So I started the core and began with Spiral 4 instead of Spiral 1. So far so good I managed to get the core and Spiral 4 done yesterday. I do have some 11/0 slipping in to the the core but that can be fixed. I used two stop beads on either end of the core to keep the tension and not loose any beads. I'm hoping that it will help me when I go back and adjust the FireLine to keep the 11/0 from falling in the black hole.
I'll update this post tonight and add a picture of the progress of both the Under the Sea and the ChainMaille.