Charm School Week Four: Beadwork

Serenity

Oh, I meant to post this a lot sooner today but my life conspired against my sitting down to write...*sigh

But, here I am, introducing "Serenity" -- my fourth Summer School Charm -- which is a bit ironic since I've felt anything but serene these last two days trying to catch up with everything after vacation. And no, after that great week, I'm not complaining...

I know I said I was going to cover stumpwork this week but I had a bit of a problem when I forgot to take my book to the beach with me. Well, I made do with what I had in the bottom of my travel bag... So, this week's charm is from the book, The Beaded Garden by Diane Fitzgerald. It's such a great book, in fact, my beading friend Dot Lewallen has also been using it for Summer School too!


This week I used the instructions in the book to make these tiny little blue bell flowers. The first two I scrapped because my tension wasn't tight enough -- it's a little challenging to hold those teeny tiny flowers. I used 15/0 seed beads for the final three. The book recommended I use cylinder beads (like delicas) since their uniformity of shape makes the herringbone stitch look like the herringbone pattern...

Unfortunately, I only had 11/0 cylinder beads which made a flower that was too big for what I wanted. So I switched to 15/0 seed beads and I was very happy with the result.


This week I also learned how to use a dremel drill to drill small holes into seashells which allowed me to use this beautiful scallop shell as the backdrop. My husband had to order drill bits small enough and I was delighted to successfully put a hole in a shell--see it??


This was my first power tool in Summer School -- maybe I should call it Summer Shop. Do they even still have "Shop" in High School?

I wanted a more textured look than beads alone could give me so I took apart a few flocked forget-me-knots, removed the stems and stamens, attached a bead and a beaded stem, and added them to the flower arrangement.


Here's what I learned this week:

1. I've been using short, size 11 beading needles for my bead embroidery. I found a longer, smaller size 12 beading needle was much better for bead weaving. You experienced beaders out there probably already knew that!
2. I found that using a thicker beading thread helped to keep friction on the inside of the bead hole which helped to keep the tension tighter. I moved from a size 0 Nymo thread to a size D. (Note: Thanks to Timaree for pointing out that I used size B thread -- I had an unmarked spool and am always confused as to which is smaller B or D -- now we know, it's B...)
   
3. I learned you have to put a lot of pressure on a drill to make the hole -- no pressure, no hole...and definitely wear safety glasses. There were lots of bits of shell flying around!

Forgotten book and all, I'm really pleased with this charm. I think I love the scallop shell the most -- I can see all kinds of beautiful things nestled inside a scallop shell now -- wouldn't it make a cozy bed for a fairy?

Stay tuned for next Tuesday's Charm School where I will be trying my hand at stumpwork.

And thank you for all the kindness about my vacation photos. It's going to take me a few days to get caught up on my blog log. *smile