Designing for Efficiency - Dream Keeper

I suppose we always mean to be efficient, but sometimes it takes some extra thought.  Most projects I make from 3 to 5 samples and improve things as I go.

Dream Keeper however has kept me fascinated far longer, and I'm approaching about 20, many of which I've gifted to good friends.  They are the perfect place to tuck a little message.  I often take a photo of the message before I close it inside and give it along with the gift. The message is drawn by you on a piece of shrink plastic so you'll be able to personalize each ring you make.  It also adds a nice structure to the ring.

Casey

Christine

Pat

This week I spent lots and lots of time getting together everything I've learned into a neat little package of directions and beads so you can share in the fun. If you are as enamored as I am you can find them here or click on the link beneath your favorite.

Now usually I would never urge you to use thread longer then a wingspan, however.....in this case I wanted to try hard to make the entire ring with one length of thread.  So I have sorted out the exact amount which will accomplish this with a minimum of angst.  After the thread is doubled the first stitch is taken 2 feet from the tail and the two tail threads are then reserved for closing the bottom of the ring and creating the band.

The rest of the thread makes the ring which is woven in ERAW (embellished right angle weave).  ERAW has the advantage of using less thread, another efficiency I wanted to build in.

I changed up the legend so that it is listed row by row, first for the ERAW bead and second for the embellishment bead, then the top, then the bottom, then the band, and then the band embellishments.  I hope this will make it easier and faster to bead as well.

I'm also beading with a size 13 needle to insure I don't have a bead I can't get through which of course slows the whole process down.

I'm not always about speed but in the case of this ring I have so many more color ideas and so many people in need of a ring I want to make them as fast as I can.  I've built in a lot of efficiency, but it is still beadwork with little tiny beads!

Dream Keeper - Christine

I really know her as Chris, but I liked Christine her real name...it seems fitting for this vibrant pair of Dream Keepers.  One closed with the pretty new astral pink and the other with a copper crystal.

At a recent class at Creative Castle, Chris made a similar color way, using an apricot bead where I used the dark matte raspberry.  The gold is also new to me, a very vintagey looking gold.

This is the last pair I will make before doing the rest of the work to release them on the website.  After that I hope to release new colors at least monthly...I just have so many ideas for this ring.  It is a really fun place to play with color!

Good news bad news is that Mark is busy installing lights and adding water to our fountain which is a center piece of the back yard and has been waiting it's turn for attention after the hot tub deck.  This is the week, but, the weather report is predicting 3 days of rain starting to night...so there is hope yet that there will be dream keeper kits soon.

I'm going to Blanches!

I don't recall the exact year that I started going, but I think it was pre 2001 which means I've been at Beads by Blanche at least ten times and maybe twelve. Have you been?  It's a lovely store.  Packed with all kinds of beady goodness.  It really is rather a feat the amount of excellent beads, crystals, findings, tools and books that this place holds.

That along with a beautiful classroom and lovely people, and the fact I get to go in the fall so I have my dose of New England weather.  Although there has already been more then a good dose with last weeks major storm.  My hostess is still without power, but the store, with the exception of having suffered through some computer issues, escaped major damage.

I'm teaching the brand spanking new Vienna, and fortunately the directions are done, because they were hard and I may have given up designing with CRAW if I knew how hard!

I'm also teaching a really pretty rendition of  Dancing Lights, first done for an Alaskan cruise last year, and Cassandra, another brand new design with oval pearl studded medallions which can be a bracelet, pendant, earrings or all three!

So if you need some artistic relief from the weather woes of the East Coast, consider joining the fun.  CRAW (cubic right angle weave) knowledge is a pre-requisite, but Heather Collin has prepared an excellent video you can view here, so don't let that stop you! and if you can't come this time, still have a look at Heather's video.  It is so well done, and you get to listen to her charming South African accent as well!

Dream Keeper

It's true the Dream Keeper Vessel ring has me mesmerized and I just can't get there fast enough.  I know that I've promised and I'm trying hard, but I often forget the time and effort involved in getting something new released.

And I know there are those of you waiting....Lisa J....the directions are done and I will receive proof feedback tomorrow.  Mark has started to prepare the web listing, descriptions have been written, pricing calculated, photos taken, names given, supply lists made, and supplies ordered...and we are still not quite ready, and that is for the first two colorways.

Mark points out that we will be gone for a week, and maybe we ought to wait, I point out Lisa is waiting.

I am more enamored of this design and it's potential for fun, for color play, for gifting, for adorning our fingers, for capturing our dreams, then any design in a long time and I so want to make it available for you.  I'll continue to try but there are a couple of other projects demanding my attention.

Stay tuned, don't give up, it is going to happen....see

Each set of colors will be named for a woman who I hold dear in my life, and there are lots...turquoise gold is called Pat, grey and cyclamen opal is called Casey.  The colors coordinate but are inverse of one another.  One has a top of crystals and the other a top of pearls.  You'll be able to order one, pearl or crystal, or both for a little less.  I am pretty sure that their really doable nature will want you wanting to gift several.  I have so many color ideas and so many women I hold dear I think there will be many to choose from over time.

L.O.V.E. Beads

My grand daughters middle name is Love and so her newest alphabet bracelet uses those four letters, and is studded with Tierra Cast Rubber Ducks and a few Swarovski crystals....pretty darn cute.  She is a jewelry girl and loves her bracelets.  Next up I have a necklace planned with a sweet Swarovski heart at it's center.

 I also had to call on rusty sewing skills to make her a tutu to wear with her Elmo Halloween costume.  It's been awhile since I've sewed, but a tutu proved not too difficult and I can see she may need a pink and purple princess tutu in her future.

And while I had needle and thread in hand I decided to sew some darling little Michelle Goldstein beads that I collected some years back onto a soft hooded denim jacket.  Impractical?  We're talking to the Grandma who knitted a cashmere sweater and leggings for a one year old, so practical is not a strong suit here.

Michelle's beads are the perfect little girl beads, big girls too of course, but I love the pretty little feminine shapes for embellishing on a little one's jacket.

My plan is to have it turned inside out for washing and hope the glass survives, and if not, well it was cute while it lasted, darn cute!

Pacific Morning Glory

The second  colorway in the series of Pacific Morning Glory, the piece I will teach this year at Beading by the Bay.  We are already full, but there is a waiting list you can join and there is always next year!  Usually the second saturday in September we open the retreat for the few spots left.

The first of these is a bold fuchsia and bronze

This time I went soft lavender and the palest of greens.  Of course tied together with the beautiful metallic bronze with a touch of green.

I love the structure of this design.  One of my first forays into cubic raw, two bands, studded by crystals, hold between them the central focal point.  Given the clasp can be changed from one side to the other, the piece really called out to be reversible, and so it is. In this example the colors are pale and the contrast is not high, so the change from side to side is subtle, but still a nice change of pace between the two sides. This is a back view to help you see how the focal is captured.

The next one I am aiming for a high contrast, perhaps black and silver, although I haven't decided yet.  I have to wait until the mood strikes.  I may want to do a blue one as well, maybe montana and crystal cal?  I predict this is going to be a fun one to do!  It remains exclusive for the retreat until a few months after, but then who knows where it might show up.

Embellished Right Angle Weave

or ERAW.....I used to call it wrong angle weave, but I've since decided it's not wrong and I don't want to give the wrong impression, so ERAW is what I'll call it.

What is it?  If you've done single needle right angle weave correctly one of the things you learned was to never cross the intersection.  You shared a side bead of a previous unit, one time exiting the top and traveling counter clockwise and one time exiting the bottom and traveling clockwise.  Alternating every other stitch and never crossing the intersection.  And then, if you're embellishing.....you exited one of those horizontal beads, picked up a bead and passed through the next horizontal bead.....crossing the intersection you just worked so hard not to cross.

What if instead you picked up that embellishment bead at the same time you wove the right angle weave?

There are a number of advantages to this approach.  Of course it only works when your  intent is to place a bead in the space, but with the Dream Keeper Vessel ring that is exactly my intent.  

• First I can travel in the same direction every time, less confusing to some. 
• Second it is faster
• Third it uses less thread
• Fourth it leaves more room in the holes, sometimes a good thing when additional thread paths are required

I've played with the concept and I can make a structural piece by pulling tight, popping the embellishment bead to the front of the space or I can keep it fluid by not pulling tight and letting the embellishment bead float in the space with little tension.  Both approaches have their use.  

In the Dream Keeper Vessel ring I've used this concept to make the most time efficient design.  I'm busy writing directions for the new ERAW approach, stay tuned, I'll let you know when it's ready!  Kits to follow.