Geebs Jewels

Knitting: European or Continental?

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:55:00 +0000

Lili who is Portuguese commented on my post about Portuguese knitting.

I've always called my way "European" but after receiving Lili's comment, I did some searching and my way is more often called "continental".

So to clear up any confusion, I found this video that shows the "continental" way of knitting that I was first taught.

Swoopy ring tutorial

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:55:00 +0000

I finally finished writing this tutorial for my swoopy ring. I was going to open an Etsy store and sell it there, but that seems like a lot of trouble since I might never get around to writing another tutorial. Besides, I've learned everything I know about making jewellery from generous folks on the web, so it's way past time that I should give something back.

All I ask is that you don't open a factory and start mass producing these rings. If you want to do that, email me and we'll talk.

Click here to download the Swoopy Ring Tutorial.

Kumibeado and Portuguese knitting

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:20:00 +0000

I made two of these today! I made the gold and purple one last night and it's a bit too short for a bracelet, but I might do something else with it. I haven't finished the blue and white one, it was mostly an experiment so it will go into the UFO box I suppose.

So how easy was it?

Pretty easy. I posted a kumihimo video the other day and while you're watching it, look at the related videos and you'll see one where the same gal adds beads. That's really all there is to it.

The blue and white example in the picture and the whitish one were both made with size 8/0 seed beads and heavy duty sewing thread. The gold and purple one is size 6/0 seed beads strung on embroidery thread.

I'll try to work up a better tut for this. In the meantime, "Gypsy" over at Gypsy's Ramblings coined the word "kumibeado" so please slide over there and give her props for being the first to describe it on the internet. And while I'm at it, I want to once again thank Gammie for telling my "yes you can" and nudging me in the right direction. It's still not my "thing" but it was fun while it lasted.

Then today, as if I don't have enough things to learn, I stumbled across this video on YouTube. Portuguese knitting. Who knew. I've always done it the European way but I think the Portuguese way is even faster and probably less strain. A Google search for the term "portuguese knitting" turns up a number of links. There are also a number of videos on YouTube. Check this one out.

Kumihimo is not my thing, really.

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:05:00 +0000

So here I am, another day and another attempt at kumihimo and beads. This one turned out much better. I used 3 seed beads to each pearl and everything seems to be lined up better. I also started with the two pearl thread side by side and they spiral nicely around the piece.

Now I'll have to try with 4 threads of pearls and see how that turns out.

Why am I doing this if Kumihimo is not my thing? Well, I'm writing a tutorial for a wire ring that I make and the whole writing process is taxing my brain, so I need a diversion and kumihimo is it because it is easy to do and very portable.

Another thing I'm not good at is making beaded beads so I gave that a try last evening. No pictures - some failures are not worth documenting - but I'm determined to master beaded beads, so I intend to try again tonight.

In the meantime, here's a picture of my latest effort.

Another attempt - better results

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:08:00 +0000

After Gammie commented on my failure with kumihimo and beads, I just had to try again.

Originally, I was trying to run a thin thread alongside the thicker thread and that didn't work so well. Following Gammie's suggestion, I strung my beads onto Fireline and didn't add any thicker threads.

The picture shows two examples. The one on the left is all size 10/0 seed beads - 8 different colours. I started it using one bead at a time and then to speed it up, I started adding 3 beads at a time and I like it better.

The gold and pearl example uses two threads with pearls and 6 threads of size 10/0 seed beads. I moved 5 seed beads every time and it turned out quite well I thought.

Neither example is ready for prime time. I keep forgetting where I am and messing up the pattern, but I now know I can make it work so one of these days I'll set it up properly and make a bracelet.

A good idea but it didn't work

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:40:00 +0000

After my renewed interest in kumihimo yesterday, I tried some ideas I had for adding beads. I have tons of seed beads and wanted to use some in braids. My seed beads are small, size 10/0 so they won't fit over embroidery thread, so I thought I could run the beads along on a separate thread.

Having tried several samples, I don't think this is such a great idea, so I'll move along to something else.

It's a major hassle to get the beads to sit right on the cord when I used a separate thread for the beads. I haven't tried using larger beads and putting them on one of the main threads, but others do it that way and seem happy with the results so I won't argue with them LOL

In case you want to know how they do it, here's a video. I won't be showing my messy work, I don't want to waste the digitals on taking a picture.

What I learned today

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:38:00 +0000

It's been a long time since I added anything to this blog but since I'm in learning mode, I thought I'd use it to post some new ideas.

Kumihimo

I tried kumihimo a couple of years ago, but gave up because I couldn't get the tension right using those small foam disks. I got my disks at Michael's and they came with some of that plastic cord.

If you do a Google search for kumihimo, you can find lots of places that sell the disks. The kind I have show up as the first item on this page for Weir Dolls.

So, back to my big discovery.

As I mentioned, I gave up because I couldn't get even tension and my cords all looked raggedy. Then I was cleaning out some crafting drawers and found all these unfinished cords and realized that I have at least 4 of these disks.

What if I stacked two of them? Would that hold the thread better?

Yup. With two disks stacked one on top of the other so the slots line up, I can get even tension using 6 strand embroidery cotton.

I'm going to try with 3 or 4 disks and different size yarn to see what effects I can produce.

I want to add some seed beads, I bet if I used 3 disks, I could get away with having the seed beads on Fireline in one or two slots and 6 strand embroidery cotton in the other slots.

I'm off to try that.

But here's a video, in case you haven't seen or tried kumihimo.

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:08:00 +0000

My latest free-form bracelet. I really like this one, think I'll keep it for myself.

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:20:00 +0000

my podcast

Is this bright enough?

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 23:15:00 +0000

I've been trying to get out of my comfort zone in terms of color, so here it is!
The yellow background is loomed and will make a nice credit card holder, and the freeform piece will fit nicely on the front of it. Then I'll have to come up with a funky strap and some fringe..........

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:03:00 +0000

Another free-form project. This one is a slider - in other words, the free-form piece will slide right off the necklace and you can replace the necklace with a different one. I'm going to get off this "fall colors" kick and start with some brighter colors for my next project.
I was hoping that the C-Lon cord that I ordered would be here for the weekend so I could do some more macrame, but alas, the doorbell didn't ring so I'm off to find some cool colored beads to work with.

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 19:15:00 +0000

I've spent the past few days learning free-form micro-macrame. I only have one spool of the cord used, so I ended up re-using the same cord on several practice projects. The one in the picture turned out the most pleasing and far surpasses my earlier attempts.
I don't know if I'll ever get around to attaching a chain to this project, but I enjoyed doing it.
I have more cord on order and should get it later this week. I'll post more projects as they become available.

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 21:15:00 +0000

I'm calling this one "snow white" - all white and clear or clear silver-lined beads. This is my favorite so far.

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:18:00 +0000

This is for Allison. The base is a pretty deep purple but you can barely see it in the the picture. I hope she likes it.

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:27:00 +0000

Two new bracelets today. Sean tells me that I need to learn more about color theory and when I look at Margie Deebs book "The Beader's Guide to Color" I can see what he means.
So far, I've just been grabbing whatever bead soup that's laying around. My next project, I'm going to try to apply some principles of color.
We'll see.

Second free-form bracelet

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 18:04:00 +0000

Another free-form bracelet. When I first looked at free-form, it looked hard to do, but I'm finding it rather relaxing. Just pick up a bead, stick it somewhere. Often the beads don't go where originally intended but slide off to one side or the other and always end up in the right place.

My first free-form project

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:49:00 +0000

I don't know why it took me so long to try peyote - and now I know I've been spelling it wrong - now that I have tried it, I realize how versatile it is and how fast it goes compared to square stitch of herringbone.
I have wanted to try free-form for quite a while, and now I see that peyote is the best stitch for it.

Finished project and a free pattern

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 23:58:00 +0000

The picture doesn't do this bracelet justice. It's made with silver-lined beads and they are really bright and shiny in real life.

The pattern is free - just right-click on it and then save it to your hard drive. It's not a whole pattern, just the graph for the design on the bracelet, keep repeating until the bracelet is long enough to fit your arm. I made a buttonhole and beaded bead for a button, any kind of clasp would do.

If you want the word chart, contact me and I'll email it to you. Sorry I don't have a pattern for the beaded bead or making the buttonhole.

Learning Peyotte

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:07:00 +0000

The past few days, I've been learning peyotte. I tried peyotte early on, but it doesn't work well with round seed beads so I gave it up. Lately, the seed beads I've been buying are more like cylinder beads so I thought I'd give it a try.

I made the abstract pattern in BeadTool and it worked pretty well.

I had some problems with tension though and it started out really limp and fluid but later, I noticed my tension changed and it got very tight and stiff. I re-beaded the whole bracelet with tighter tension, but I don't like it that way, so I may just rip it apart and start over and try to make the tension even but looser.

Learning to blog

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:40:00 +0000

I'm testing MarsEdit for making posts without going to the webpage. We'll see how this goes. MarsEdit has gotten really good reviews, so I will probably buy it.

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:41:00 +0000

I made a chain for this rock that I beaded around and want to add some color. These looked like the right color but when I poured them out and took a picture of them, I can see they're all wrong.

Then I poured out a few of this color and voila! what a difference.

Now I just have to decide how to embellish and I'm on my way.

Beading around a rock

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 13:42:00 +0000

The other day, the kids and I went to the Science Centre and I picked these rocks from a big bin on the counter.

I beaded around a couple of them to make pendants. Now I need to decide what to use for a chain.

Some hints about Fireline

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:05:00 +0000

I use 6# Fireline for almost all my beading. The only exception is when I put fringe on an amulet bag and want fluid movement of the fringe.

Many people complain that Fireline likes to knot and they get frustrated. At least some of the frustration is in misunderstanding what a knot is.

Fireline doesn't "knot", but it does kink and the kinks can get caught up in each other and you have what looks like a knot but really isn't.

The one thing you for sure don't want to do is tug on the mess from each end. All that will do is solidify the kinks and make them harder to open up.

You also don't want to start threading your needle through the mess in the hopes of undoing it.

So how do you deal with this mess? By preventing it from happening in the first place. Every time you exit some beads and before you pick up the next beads, run the length of the Fireline through your hand. The friction of running through your hand will create enough heat to straighten the Fireline.

Also when pulling the Fireline through your work, hold you fingers - the ones that aren't holding the work - so that the Fireline runs between them before it gets to the beads. This accomplishes two things. First, it will eliminate most kinks before they get to the beads and if there is a mess in the making, you'll catch it before it gets too close to your work.

If a mess happens - and we all get them - the first thing to do is stick your needle into a pin cushion and set the work down a distance away so that the mess is free between the needle and the work. Remember I said this is not a "knot" but just a bunch of kinks.

Examine the mess and you will see loops. The trick is to grasp a loop and gently push toward the "root" of the loop. You will see the loop back itself out through the mess and then you can go on to another loop. Usually it only takes a couple of loops to unravel the whole mess.

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 22:16:00 +0000

This is how I spent my day. Brandon saw some of the other medallions that I made and asked me to make him a black one. The beads are all jet black although they look kind of rusty in this photo.

Photo bucket

margaret@mopdah.com (Margaret) — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 20:56:00 +0000

Today I made a "photo bucket" for taking pictures of my bead projects. There are lots of tutorials for making a light tent and so on, but I don't have the table space for a set up like that. So what did I do?

The first thing was to cut a hole in the lid of an ice cream pail. The hole is just large enough so the lens of the camera will fit through it.

Here's a view of the pail with the lid on.

Then I cut a circle of Vellux to fit in the bottom of the bucket.

Here's the finished project. The lens of the camera fits down through the hole I cut in the top and since the camera is resting on the lid and not being held by my shakey hands, there is no need for a tripod. For light, I just set the bucket near a window and there is enough light. At night I will probably set a couple of small lamps near the bucket and experiment until I get the right amount of light.

This is the first picture I took using my new photo bucket. I only needed to crop it in Photoshop and reduce the size.

Pretty proud of myself.