Raven Star Bangle

My most recent make is a bangle that has been more therapeutic than anything I have ever made before.  As I have previously mentioned, I went into hospital to have a lump removed from my breast.  Unfortunately the wound got infected and my stitches burst, which has been rather difficult.  Luckily I have had the most amazing support from my family and my other half, they have been so superbly strong and marvellous.  All is good now, I'm just healing slowly.

I decided to take advantage of the recuperation time spent off work to make a study in form, eschewing colour and concentrating solely on what I could make the delicas do. 

Rather than make a usual start of an MRAW length that would be the smallest part of the bangle, I decided to push myself and made a zigged MRAW chain that would become both the tips of the horns and the very inside of the wings where the spines were 2mm cubes:

As I decided to do the whole bangle in gunmetal (simply because I had the most beads in that colour), each zig and zag was marked with a tie of white Nymo so that I didn't lose myself when adding in the next row.  It was huge - 174 MRAW units!

Slowly I added rows and rows of gunmetal delicas and it started to change its form, almost looking like a Zig Wing by Kate McKinnon.  Then I turned my attention to the other side and it slowly started to open up, like a flower:

The more rows I added, the more the form became apparent.  It was working!

As it opened and both sides began to have the same number of rows, it really started to lie flat and become, not what I had imagined but what it needed to be.

It is certainly big and takes no prisoners!  I can't imagine that there will be many that actually like it but that is okay, good even.  This bangle is a symbol of strength, and whoever does decide that they like it and wants it then I hope they feel as fierce and as strong as I felt when I was making it.

It is available in my Etsy shop here

EDIT: I just received the most wonderful screenshot from Kate McKinnon - it is being included in Contemporary Geometric Beadwork Volume II and I have contributed the pattern to the Pattern Library so you can make your very own!  I'm so excited!

Vicious Business

I finally finished something!  This is a new bangle based on Contemporary Geometric Beadwork techniques that I call Vicious Business.  It is an evolution of the Pink Pinstripe Ruffle Cuff that I made a couple of years ago.  My lovely friend Johnti Greybeard saw it and said that it would look awesome if the wings joined around horns like the Red Many Horn.  That idea has been slowly cooking in the back of my mind, stewing, forming and reforming until I finally got round to putting needle and thread to beads and this is what happened:

 

I used my favourite red delicas ever - Opaque Cranberry - for the horns and Black Opaque wings with Gunmetal pinstripes (to pay homage to it's originator).

The horns are (small for me) 15 rows high and the wings join at the centre point so they frame the horns in pretty ovals, softening the look - but only a smidgen.

Etsy Shop

So I decided that it was high time I got with the rest of the world and set up a little Etsy shop to sell all the beadwork Mummy and I have made over the years (that we think is good enough to sell, obviously!). 



A few years ago I became disillusioned with craft fairs and utterly fed up with the amount of theft that goes on at many of them.  I've lost so much jewellery that we've spent months on that I just stopped doing them.

We are aiming to graph out patterns eventually but this time spent off work (recuperating from a small operation to remove a lump from my breast - get those boobies checked people!) is best spent setting the shop up and then patterning can come later.

I've not finished listing everything yet though, my photography skills are severely lacking - as you well know from seeing my blog here!

Feedback would be awesome :)