Busy with Brick Stitch: New Tutorials

Busy Bee

Whew - I have been busy lately! Real work and well - yes, playing with beads too. It's all good. I'm thankful for the job (this week) and always thankful to have lots and lots of beads to play with.

This week I've published two new free tutorials. It's really some ground that I've covered before - circular brick stitch - but Destiny made me do it.

The first tutorial is for the basic circular brick stitch technique with a picot edge.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how I can be making a project like this brick stitch hating my color choices up until I wake up the next morning and say - hey, it's pretty cool. Today, I was hating this until I finished the last stitch - and well - it's ok.  I'm sure I'll like it better in the morning.  I almost always do.

The second tutorial is also brick stitch - this time brick stitch using a top drilled teardrop shape bead. By top drilled, the drill is not from top to bottom - it is across the tip of the teardrop bead. It is very similar to the first tutorial, but there are always some little tricks to dealing with a different shape - thus the need for a separate tutorial.

Oh yeah - I hated my color choices on this one too.  I won't even tell you what it reminded me of. Too crazy.

Anyway, I slept on it - and it has definitely grown on me.  I'm going to make a rope chain for it - although I briefly considered if I could incorporate it into barefoot sandals. It's actually a little too thick to sit comfortably on the foot.

So, anyway... Back to the brick stitch - I'm not sure the technique will work with any top drilled bead. This teardrop bead happens to have wide flat sides which is really useful because you need the edge for the thread to sit on. It's a really pretty strand of beads too - since it has an assortment of gemstones.

Fire Mountain Gems has other similar assortments in different shapes. They are some of my favorite beads from there - and I am tempted to surround each and every shape in the assortments that I own with brick stitched beads. Ah - something to look forward to.

This is the original design that I made with these beads as part of a post on using a bead assortment from Auntie's Beads.

And just because I can - here's a couple more brick stitch pendants using the same technique.

This is a center drilled Sea Opal glass bead with flat top and sides (also from Fire Mountain Gems). The assorted shape strands are on sale right now which tempts me to buy more - but I already have two full strands.  Must resist hoarding...

And this drop bead is also center drilled, but it is round - not flat which makes it a little easier to work with.

In Other News

As of today, I have officially hit my first goal from 500 Likes on my Lisa Yang Jewelry Facebook page!  Yay me! - and more importantly - Yay you! for following me.  Thank you. 

I did say I would do a giveaway when I reached that goal - and I will.  I was hoping it wouldn't be quite so hectic a time, but I will start assembling some jewelry making goodies and let you know how to be eligible as soon as possible.  I'll try to keep it open for a little while so everyone who's contributed can have a chance to win if they are interested.

Follow Me, Follow You

Well, I haven't posted my various links lately, so I guess it's time to do that.  I hope that you will follow in one way or another - both here and at beadwork.about.com.  I'm finally getting caught up and settled so it's getting a little less stressful to manage both blogs.

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