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Monday, August 26, 2013

ABC's of Creativity - Q is Quills

Quills from porcupines have long been used by First Nation artisans for embellishing textiles and everyday objects. They were one of the major decorative elements before the introduction of glass beads with the arrival of Europeans.

They continue to be used by today in the traditional method. Here is a look at the steps for this beautiful technique.
Porcupine in nature (from Wikipedia Commons)
Once the quills have been removed they need to be cleaned and sorted. They can be used in their natural color or they can be dyed.
Sorted dyed quills
To work with the quills they need to be soaked in water to soften them. They are also flatten before inserting them in the design.
Soaked quills ready for design
Here is the backside of the project. You can see the ends of the quill have be inserted into medallion like a staple.
First quill of the design
 The ends of the quills will be trimmed close to the medallion.
One end of quill trimmed
Continue to add quills to fill in the design.
Second quill in place
Front of medallion with two quills in place
Trimming ends as they are added
Front of the medallion showing one egg almost finished
Starting the second egg
Two eggs completed
 To create texture you can add more quills into the design in a woven fashion.
Using various colored quills to fashion a nest for the eggs
Here is finished medallion. The quillworked is stitched to a fabric back, which has been embellished with beads.
Completed medallion (worked by Naomi Smith)
Maria took these pictures during her class with Naomi Smith, First Nations bead artisan and teacher.

For more information on tradional quillwork check these websites - Nativetech, Crazy Cow and Wikipedia.

Quills can also be used as you would use a bugle bead. Here is set of earring fringed with quills.
From Bellaonline.
Happy Beading!

Friday, August 16, 2013

Bead Fest Philadelphia 2013

With only one week until Bead Fest Philadelphia, Aug 23 -25, Maria is enjoying her last weekend in Ukraine. Once home she will be heading to Philadelphia to set up for Bead Fest.

Booth @ Bead Fest 2012
Along with over 350 other vendors Maria will her kits and patterns so you can create your own one-of-kind jewelry. Rypan Designs will be booth #103.

She will have the kits for the netted collar that appeared in the latest issue of Beadwork.
As seen in Aug/Sep 2013 issue of Beadwork

In addition to the many kits and patterns Maria has 4 books with a variety of projects in each. My personal favorite is Assorted Beadweaving, Lessons #2.
The image below is a customer appreciation pass for Bead Fest. Save the image, print it out, fill it in and bring it to the show. You will get weekend pass for only $5 (value $15).
Customer Appreciation Pass Form
Stop by the booth and say hello.

Happy Beading!

Monday, August 12, 2013

ABC's of Creativity - P is Peyote Stitch

Peyote stitch, also know as mosiac or gourd stitch, is a very structural stitch. The beads are generally worked one bead at a time in a very tight formation. They line up like bricks or tiles.

Here is a great tutorial video by Leslie Rogalski. Leslie shows you in step by step with detailed drawings and beads how to do even-count flat peyote.


Here is geometric patterned flat peyote stitched bracelet designed by Marilyn Gardiner.
Southwest Charm Bracelet, beaded by J. Woolverton

Also on Marilyn site a wonderful free tutorial for a beginner's flat peyote stitch bracelet.

Once you have master basic flat peyote you can take a small strip of flat peyote and zip the ends together to make a tube. For instructions check out Pamela Kearn's pattern in the Jun/July 2013 issue of Beadwork for this wonderful use of peyote tube, Boho Bangle.

Circular peyote let you create shape beyond just a strip of beadwork. Triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons and more can be created based on the number and placement of increases. Two great resources for learning how to do these shapes are Diane Fitzgerald's Shaped Beadwork and Jean Power's Geometric Beadwork.

If you take some of the shapes and stitch them together you can make 3D objects. Diane's Moorish Tile Beads combines squares and triangles.
Moorish Tile beads, beaded by Toronto beading students during class (2011)

Jean's Geometric stars uses squares that are distorted by increasing on every round.
Geometric stars, beaded by J. Woolverton

So we have looked at basic flat peyote, peyote tubes, circular peyote and peyote shapes stitched together. Next is tubular peyote stitch. This is different than our peyote tube as it is worked in rounds. Here is tutorial video by Melissa Shippee.


Melissa is showing a very thin tube. You can also use tubular peyote to bezel a crystal or cabochon. The tube would need to be large enough to go around the crystal or stone. Using smaller beads will pull the tube tighter and hold the crystal in the tube.
delicas and size 15 seed beads are used to bezel this crystal, beaded by J. Woolverton

This project was finished with some peyote stitched petals.
Zinniz Flower, designed by Jean Power, beaded by J. Woolverton

If you work tubular peyote off of a peyote stitched shape you can make a vessel or box. Julia Pretl's Little bead boxes is the resource for learning how to do this kind of project.

Here is my very first little box. I have since made at least one of every box in book.
beaded by J. Woolverton

Another resource is Melinda Barta's Mastering Peyote Stitch.

Here are the leaves that I stitched and used to work with this beautiful owl for a blog hop.
beaded by J. Woolverton

I hope that you will try peyote stitch in one of its many forms.

Happy Beading!

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Beading in Crimea

Maria has been having a fabulous time in Crimea. She has been enjoying the sun and the sea, while trying to avoid the jellyfish in the Black Sea.

While there in Evpatoria she was able to share her love on beadwork both young and old at the Lesia Ukrainka Library. 

Since publishing this post this morning I received these details from Maria.

The beading workshop was organized by Fr. Bohdan Kostecky, pastor of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) Mother of Perpetual Help for parishioner and others. It's an 8 year old parish which is now building a church.  The workshops were held in a local library. 

When Maria arrived there were girls sitting at the tables ready to bead. She couldn't get the materials out fast enough. First session was at 1:30 pm and the kids kept coming. They started off with Ladders ("Lantsuzhky" translate to "chains") using various sized of beads - larger crow and acrylic, smaller beads. Maria showed older girls how to do the Picots.  Then they made Daisies using the round 6mm beads at the other end of the table. Ladders and daisies were made using stretch cord for instant gratification. One thing flowed into the next.
teaching ladder stitch
Fr. Bohdan Kostecky checking the instructions while the children create
Promptly at 3pm more ladies arrived to learn how to do netting. They were overwhelmed and surprised at first when Maria asked them to chose which color combo they'd like to work on. Took a few moments to get them going and then of course, it was easy. Everyone got a fair bit done. 
teaching basic netting
Best of all, the "BBC" (Baba told baba) network worked overtime and the news spread about the wonderful experience. Father got a few calls of disappointment from people who missed it because the newspaper did not give the address of the library. Someone from the city office took the workshop and was saying they wanted something like this on a larger scale. A neighbour expressed disappointment at not knowing about this event as the priest daughter walked by bedecked in all her accessories.
everyone enjoying their new skill
On the positive side, next week there will be a donation made by participants for the Church Building Fund in lieu of a kit and workshop fee as Maria donated her time and the materials for the good of the church so it can offer the learning experience, a cultural experience for parishioners and community at large.

Maria with Fr. Bohdan's daughters after class wearing their beautiful creations
To see more pictures check Maria's Facebook album.

Happy Beading!