Fence Snake Necklace

Tubular netting pattern. Great for necklaces.

No it is not a snake! This is the piece that inspired me to start beading seriously.

Pamela Aronoff, a serious and very creative beader, gave me a necklace as a gift. I was so stunned by it, that I thought I wanted to make one myself. Since Pam lives 2 hours north from me, I went looking in local bead stores with my precious necklace in hand, asking if anybody could tell how I could make one. At this point I had not even a beading needle to my name. My local beadstore, the Black Bead, is more of a stringing place. The salesgirls there could not really help me. But they sold me my first batch of supplies: some needles, thread, Check size 11 beads, and a few old copies of Bead&Button magazine, half-price.

But then I discovered The Shepherdess! The real beadstore that actually had a class schedule and a once-a-week beading group going! Oh boy! Cookie, the owner, was great. She herself is an accomplished beader, knitter, quilter, and her metal jewelry is off the wall! Oh, and did I mention? she carves too. She herself did not know about my necklace, but she suggested I come to the beading group and talk to the instructor, Ana Garcia. And here we go. I became a regular at the Shepherdess beading group, took my first beading class from Ana, and realized I love not only the end result but the process of making beaded jewelry itself. I mean I became hooked.

As to the necklace, there is a well-known printed pattern. But we only discovered it after one girl from the beading group, Marie Jennings, kind of reconstructed it herself by just looking at the piece. Her’s started a bit differently than the original, but did she impress me!

So, the pattern is in Bead&Button, issue 87 from October 2008. The name is Web of Silver. However, Pam’s design that you see here is thinner (3 beads instead of 5). But you can figure it out from the pattern at Bead&Button.

Toggle clasp

Had to figure out the toggle clasp on my own though. Took 3 days from my life…

First Beading Class Project

Project from my first beading class with Ana Garcia at Shepherdess in San Diego, CA.

First Efforts

Shower Gift: Baby Blue Bracelet

The first kind of bead work I did was a vast number of African Helix stitch bracelets. The instructions came from a book I took out of the local library, and the African Helix stitch seemed the most approachable out of that book, which was not beginner level. Everything else seemed too complicated. Still, having no experience in beading or even stringing at all, it took me the better part of the day to figure it out. It also took my husband helping me, mostly where I tried to skim over the instructions, omit steps that I judged unnecessary. Follow the instructions to a T! Even when they don’t make sense. Chances are there is nothing wrong with them. Read them like you read your Bible. Really think about them.

After starting and cutting up first maybe 20 samples, with my nerves in shreds and my husband fuming and unable to stand me anymore, I sort of figured it out. The pattern consists of three repeats of two color beads. Now it seems very easy, but then, the number of mistakes and the variety of mistakes I made were astonishing. But the real disaster came when the tread started to run out. I tried not to think what was going to happen when it ended, with my bracelet still a mere 3 inches. I knew nobody who could help. The book was vague. And I knew nobody with a three inch wrist.

You-tube came to rescue. They actually had a video of this nice lady tackling my problem, calm and undisturbed, like she ate rats for breakfast. She explained to me that threads end, happens to everybody. Here are the steps you take. And there was a set of pretty simple instructions.

Anyway, after two days of work, I realized I had to end the bracelet. With a clasp. How, nobody knows. Another problem – no clasp. No nothing. What do I do? I joined the raw edges of the bracelet together, sewing through the accent beads back and forth a few times (so you can really see where it happened) and impatiently rolled it on my wrist. It was too tight, I almost scraped the knuckles to blood. Measure your anatomical features and measure your work accordingly.

I was so excited, that I showed everybody my new bracelet, and actually got a few orders for more. However, nobody seemed very willing to pay me for almost 2 days full labor. Even at minimum wage. And it’s the law in California, otherwise Arnold gets upset and breaks something. I would be comfortable working for the kind of money people were willing to pay me if I lived, say, in Tanzania or a far region of Uzbekistan, where people still barter for the most part. But not in Southern California. Still, on the up side, somebody was considering paying me. Good news. Maybe I should move to Tanzania.

That blue bracelet I ended up giving away at a baby shower, to my friend Victor’s pregnant girlfriend. She was expecting her first baby boy. Victor told me she did not take it off for three days. It means she liked it. I was so touched! The baby is about 3 weeks old now.