Bead Weaving in the Keys - textured patterns

Loooove creating textured patterns.  Lately, I have been popping in a larger size bead every so many rows just to make things curvy interesting.  And, with my rings, I have given my brain full access to stream of consciousness designs.  Now, that's just a fancy way of saying I am doing my own thing and loving it!  These items are mostly a mix of peyote and brick stitch.  A couple rings are right angle weave.

After I created the turquoise one, I realized it looked a bit like the design in my bathroom rug, except the rug is more random.  Maybe next design.

The two rings on the right have a right angle weave base.  I added the embellishments after  making the base.

These are all a combo of peyote and brick stitch edges.

Sputniks!!!

I guess you could say I am a curious person.  If I learn something in a class or from a book, my brain starts whirling.  What if I did this?  What if I used that?  I get filled with a driven passion to adapt the techniques or apply them in a new way for me.  So, it was inevitable that once I learned a few patterns from  Anna Elizaeth Draeger's book, I would begin adapting them and making them my own.

In this case, I used a bunch of dagger beads that have been feeling very neglected.  They were up for the experiment and so was I so I used them to create Ms. Draeger's bauble bead and then I embellished them using a technique I learned from another of her patterns.  Here's the result.

I absolutely love how these just stand up on their own like little R2D2's.  I am naming this series "Sputniks".

I liked them so much I created this set next.

Bead Weaving - Fixing a Droop problem

My beading style is very intuitive.  Yes, I take classes and yes I look at videos and books and other people's work, but when it comes right down doing the deed, I like to just sit down with a palette of beads, and needle and thread.  And, off I go.

For this project, I dug through some stash and spread it out on my bead pad.  My beadweaving bead stash has not been refreshed in a while and therefore, I don't have any of the 2-hole dagger beads.  I don't have many 2-holed beads at all for that matter. But, I do have some beautiful one hole dagger beads that I decided to incorporate into this piece.

 I started the pendant by stitching around a winter white wood bead, adding layers before embellishing with the daggers.  Once I put daggers all around, it flopped when I held it up.  I expected it to do that but just figured I would find a way to resolve it.

 First, I stitched some beads in a triangular shape behind the daggers.  This provided some support.  They no longer drooped backwards.  Now, they drooped forward.

My solution to that was to stitch gold size 11's around each dagger to hold the front in place but now it looked boring.   The pretty daggers were obscured by some rather bland gold tone beads.

 Then, I remembered my big supersize stash of sequins!!!.  I chose the silver sequins cause they seemed to pop against the rest of the piece.   I liked the watery, mirror effect too.

Just for good measure, I stitched a row of size 11's around the back as I moved from sequin to sequin.  Now, those babies stayed in place.

For the necklace part, I tried going with just a simple strung strand but surprising as this may sound, I felt it took away  from the pendant.  I had been hankering to do some freeform stitching so I decided to stitch around the beads I had strung.  I like this...for now.  I made it so I could easily detach the strands should I decide on a different arrangement in the future.

Here is the final product.