Thursday, May 24, 2012

More peanuts

As is often the case I'm a bit slow to catch the trend, but once discovered I'm having a really good time with peanut beads.

This is the book piece I just completed and it's beauty shot that goes in my notebook with the illustrations supply list and text.  Of course it's just a little snippet, cropped to show you some detail without giving away the piece....


The peanuts have so  much substance!  So much in fact that a gram check, more about that in a minute, reveals that there are only 21 of these metallic peanuts in a gram.

I didn't use to do a gram check....until I had a kit come up short.  You see there are substantially different numbers of beads per gram depending on the material used.  I know, seems obvious now that I say it, but I used to do the math, you know, 9 units wide by 14 rows of right angle weave equals 154 beads, multiply by 20% to account for culling or spilling, and then divide by 120 the average number of size 11's in a gram. Well...a gram check reveals there are about 70 beads in a gram of gold seed beads.  And metal beads, well even less.  So now every kit begins with a gram check of the seeds to be used.  I'm trying to be smart and compile a library, but really there is only so much I can keep track of.

8 comments:

gah-broon said...

That's a very attractive sneak peek! :)))

Cynthia Newcomer Daniel said...

I've just bought my first tube of peanuts . . . love what you did with them!

lynsey said...

Looking Fab Marcia

Marcia DeCoster said...

The thing is, you don't need to do anything but a really simple weave for fabulous results.

Cindy said...

Can't wait to see the entire piece!

Sarah Sequins said...

The sneak peek looks gorgeous! This new book sounds like it's going to be amazing.

Thanks for the lesson on the gram check! I can't even tell you how useful this is to me. :)

Shirley said...

I always learn something new from you! And that is a gorgeous sneak peak!

cw whitedogjewelry said...

Great looking peek, cannot wait to see the new book!