Sparkling Water Lily - New Beading Tutorial

Lately there are so many new shapes of beads coming to the market one after another, that I can hardly keep up!  I recently ordered some SuperUno beads, gum drops, two-hole lentil beads and twisted daggers, which I am yet to play with, but there are already new shaped beads that I need to get my hands on, like pellets, Bibo, Pip beads... I guess that the more there are, the merrier! I love experimenting new designs and possibilities with the new bead shapes... It gives my beading creativity a boost! 

My latest project - Sparkling Water Lily -  is made with Starman's Czechmate two-hole triangle beads, Swarovski crystal bicone beads and Japanese seed beads.  

It is a dimensional beaded component, that can be used as a pendant, as a connector beaded bead or for an elegant ring. 

Another design with these beautiful triangle beads is in the works and I hope to be able to finish it as soon as I get more of these beautiful triangles in other colors. 

The tutorial for the 3 design options of Sparkling Water Lily, is available in both my Etsy and my Artfire shops.

A Necklace Made with
Sparkling Water Lily Beaded Connector Beads

Sparkling Water Lily Pendant

Sparkling Water Lily Ring 

Lacy Clover Ribbon Jewelry Set

This is my newest project - Lacy Clover Ribbon - a design of a bracelet, 2 options for a necklace and matching earrings. I love the delicate clover shape that the drop beads create, and the whole design reminds me of lace ribbons. The jewelry are made with Twin beads (or Superduo beads), fire polished beads (or Swarovski crystal rounds, as in the silver set) and with Japanese drop and seed beads. A tutorial for this beading project is available in my shops.

I love working with those two-hole beads, but once again I experienced the downside of them - if you miss catching a bead with a blocked hole - you're in trouble! Luckily, in this project, it was easy to unpick the work instead of having to break the blocked bead, as I was forced to do in my previous Twin beads project. I wanted to start beading the design idea right away and I didn't want to select from a pile of beads before starting to bead, so the solution I found was to get myself used to stinging the needle in both holes of the bead to check if they're open before stringing it, and this somewhat-strange method seemed to have saved me a lot of time and and frustration... Try it! :)

Also, I am happy to tell that my Layered Loops Bracelet is included (and appears on the cover!)in the recently published Stitch Workshop: Herringbone Stitch by Kalmbach Publishing (click on the link to go to Amazon and preview the book). This reminds me that it has been quite a while since I beaded something in herringbone stitch... maybe it's time again... I love this stitch!