Time Flies and so do Beads!

When I looked at how long it has been since my last post, I couldn't believe it. In Dec of 2008, I took a part-time position as the Assistant Minister at Unity Church of Palm Harbor, Florida and have been so busy, I seem to have lost track of 1-1/2 years of blogging. I never quit beading or designing though, so now I'm planning to restart the blog and post monthly.


In my profile I stated that I teach a weekly class of beaders where I live. Each month we start a new project and work on it throughout the month. We have everything from beginners to advanced students, so it's really a challenge to get ideas and patterns for all ranges. The wonderful thing that happened in the group is that now the more advanced beaders are helping the beginner and intermediate ones and everyone keeps up with the work.

Last week we did Loop de Loop earrings and started with a 10mm Split ring and brick stitched 9 size 11 beads on it. Then added 2 more rows of 11's and two rows of Size 8's. The last row needs an odd number of beads to make the loops come out even. See the diagram of the fifth row and the start of the loops. You start at one edge with Size 11's and string on as many as needed (20 to 25) to make the loops as large as you want. Then go into the center bead. Then go to the next bead to the left and then back to the right (follow the arrows in the diagram). Add an ear wire and enjoy.


















Tip for today - Sometimes you can use split rings in places where you might use open jump rings and this eliminates threads slipping through the opening.