New 3D Rectangle Pendant (Aiko vs. Delica)

I'm hooked on the three dimensional geometric shapes lately. This is my new design of 3D rectangle and beaded bail. I used Delica (red) and Aiko (all the other colors) beads.

Until not long ago I have used regular seed beads for this kind of works, but then I started to work with Japanese Miyuki Delica beads. The result is much better, because these beads are more uniformed and allow you to make clean lines. You can see the big difference of the two kinds used to make these 3D stars.

BUT then, thanks to a very dear friend, I discovered another kind of uniformed beads. She has sent me some of her favorite Japanese Toho's Aiko beads as a gift (and some more exciting things :)) to try them out.
What can I say? She is right - the Aikos are even better than the Delicas! They are much uniformed and have a larger hole, which makes it easy to pass the needle several times, without worrying about breaking the tiny beads.
Thank you so much my dear friend, I really enjoyed using the beads ! And I hope you like what I made with them! :)

Etsy Bead Weaver's June Challeng – Anything Goes

This is the first time I enter the Team Challenge. The theme for June was "Anything Goes". There are 37 entries for this challenge and they are all so beautiful! I am amazed to see how much talent there is in this group! The voting starts on June 7 and lasts until the 14th. So you might want to visit the Etsy Bead Weavers blog and look closely at all those wonderful creations. You can also vote for your favorite. I can already tell you it will be hard to pick just one as a favorite !.

As I said, this is the first time I enter the challenge. The necklace I made is the 3D Gold Trapezes Necklace. I came up with this design by accident, or shall I say by mistake. I started to bead a 3D square for another design that I had in mind, but I mistakenly didn't string the right number of beads required for a square and ended up with a trapeze. I decided to go along with that and made four more of them. Each one of the trapezes took me about an hour to finish, and another hour to put them all together to make a necklace. It was quite fun to make! :)

New Work with Triangle Beads

I like to work with Japanese triangle beads. They give the bead woven piece a nice and interesting texture. This is my last item I made using some to surround a nice glass bead to make a pendant.

I am now in the very beginning of my first embroidered work, and I can tell you that it is fun, although a bit difficult to me. I do a lot of unpicking while working, because I am not used to work with the backing material, and often bring my needle up in the wrong place… It's a bit annoying (but of course there is no other way to practice on this…) so I decided to take a breake and write a new post.. :)

Beaded 3D Hoop

Freeform Beaded Necklace

I used Japanese seed beads and Czech glass beads for the freeform beaded part, and leather cords and metal wire for the closing.
I worked in Peyote, Square, Herringbone and RAW stitches.
It was fun making it.. :)