[madhen]

I am trying to work my way through a huge stash of beads, so I started making a beaded bookmark, using seed beads. It is slow going, but has a lot of promise for interesting bookmarks down the road. My current one is just a single colour, with a border, but I am starting to work on a pattern for the next one, which will be wider and a bit more elaborate.

Here is the progress on my first, simple, bookmark so far:

 

[Palooka]

How neat and creative!

 

[mauimagic]

Looks really good MH!! What do you string the beads on?

 

[HappyMama]

It looks so pretty, love the colors. You are so creative and motivated, thanks for the inspiration.

 

[Debbie-cat]

Looks great madhen!

 

[madhen]

MM, along with my bead stash, I have a bunch of bead string (Silamide) in different colours. I also have regular sewing thread, and I am trying that on my second project, because I loop through the same beads so many times, there is pretty much no chance the beads would fall off if a strand broke.

Here is the second one, although I think I'll end up keeping it, because the border beads appear to be just a teeny bit bigger than the interior beads, and it is throwing the look off.

 

[mauimagic]

Actually MH - that is a great look - makes me want to rub my fingers over the beads.

I've never done beading like this - so if you are adding the beads across the work, does anything keep the beads together on the vertical or are they loose?

 

[madhen]

You typically add only two beads at a time, and you are constantly working the thread through the previous row, so you end up with a very tightly bound product. Basically, you work in little circles of four beads at a time (two on the row you are working on and the two in the row below), if you can picture it. You can take a pair of scissors to it afterward and cut straight through, and typically, if you've done it right, you still won't be able to easily remove any beads from the work.

 

[mauimagic]

I get it - mahalo! Are you using a wire thin flexible needle?

 

[madhen]

Yes, I'm using a size 12 beading needle.

 

[MTS04]

Wow, awesome. Looks great and it looks like a lot of work.

 

[frugalfranny]

Both of them look great MH. Pretty TEDIOUS stuff!!

 

[mauimagic]

I don't think that my eyes could handle this type of work anymore!!

 

[madhen]

It does get tedious and you do get eye strain. That is part of what takes so long - you have to take a lot of breaks!!

 

[Momto5RN]

thats very nice

 

[mauimagic]

But then again it's a good break from all the strenuous work you do outside.

 

[Trishagirl]

very nice work madhen!!!! I want to do some beadwork for my bible clasp we have a bead store in town. I'll have to go take a look! I like lots of diff colors.

 

[tervsforme]

These are lovely! I love bead work. I would like to try it, however I have so much fabric and quilting stuff, I am afraid to start another craft, I'll never get anything done!

 

[madhen]

Reworked it a bit. This is about 1/3 done. I'm still trying to decide if I want to put a beaded fringe or something that can hang over the book when the cover is closed.

 

[tervsforme]

That looks great! You are so talented!