If you read this blog very much, I'm sure you've noticed that I like to do bead crochet. I also like to design my own patterns, a task which till now I did using Microsoft Powerpoint and lots of copying and pasting. Talk about tedium!
While Powerpoint works for me, I wanted some other method for creating patterns for bead crochet ropes. It's just too much of a pain to develop a design when it means hundreds of clicks to place bead-like shapes over and over again in a software not designed to do that (although I've used Powerpoint for all sorts of projects over the years - it's very versatile!).
A friend of mine awhile back sent me a link to a site called Brunold Software. Damian Brunold is the mind behind the site and the mind behind the software (called DB-BEAD), which provides a pretty nifty way to create bead crochet patterns! It doesn't really come with any instructions, but I found it to be pretty intuitive.
You can see here the tools used to create a design. The design is actually "drawn" by filling in the squares in the second graph (the one with the uneven edges). On the right, you can see the finished rope as you add to the design. There are little arrows in the tool bar at the top that let you spin the rope to see how the design will look.
The only thing I did wrong when I was playing with my first design was to start at the top and design downward. I should have known better, as bead crochet stringing is actually done from the BOTTOM of a chart. I shifted everything around and played for awhile longer, and now I'm busy crocheting the rope I designed.
You'd think that my first attempt at using this software would have made me create a simple design, just to test it out. I got a little carried away, though, and wound up creating this design of graduated diamond shapes that has a 600-bead repeating pattern. Eegads. I only strung three of the repeats, but now that I know the pattern is turning out the way I wanted it to, I'll be busy stringing some more later tonight.
I've been asked quite a lot of late if I'll ever publish any of my bead crochet patterns, and I think I might now that I have a better way of creating them. Thanks to Damian Brunold for his DB-BEAD software! :-)
Can you believe it's Christmas Eve!?!? We were supposed to go visit relatives for Christmas, but we've both managed to come down with colds and have decided not to share them. So we're sitting around the house, drinking lattes and yogurt (not together!), burning scented candles, and watching TV. The excitement is almost more than I can stand. :-)
As my Christmas present to you, to illustrate the reason for the season, I thought I'd give all my beadweaving friends a pattern. I created this design a couple of months ago, but I haven't had a chance to bead one yet. The pattern is for the Ichthus (or Ichthys), the ancient Greek symbol meaning "fish" and the once secret symbol used by Christians. According to tradition, ancient Christians used the fish symbol to mark meeting places and tombs, or to distinguish friends from foes.
The design as shown measures 1.27" (32.4mm) wide and 3.54" (90.12mm) long, so you'll need to add beads to either end to center the design on your bracelet. I'm providing the indexed chart here for you to use.
By printing this pattern, you agree to the following:
- to credit either time2cre8 or MaryLou Holvenstot with this design in any listing, photograph, or posting. Likewise, if you make slight modifications to the design or use this as your inspiration, you must also give credit.
- to sell any work made and sold from the pattern ONLY if you created the piece yourself.
- to NOT resell or distribute this pattern in any way.
The gift of this pattern to you in no way implies purchase or transfer of copyright, which shall remain with time2cre8 / MaryLou Holvenstot. Thank you for supporting your pattern designer's rights!You may share this with your friends by providing them with a link to this blog post.
Before I go, I also want to mention that I listed a brand new bracelet in my Etsy shop, Jeweltone Stripes -- the perfect accessory for a party!
Visit the Bead Art Originals blog to see how you can receive a 20% discount on anything in my Etsy shop from now through December 30!
MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!
aka... MaryLou's Misadventures in Bead Crochet. And it's not so much me that came unstrung as my latest bead crochet project.
It began with a request from a very special customer who wanted to have a bead crochet lariat with a row of pearls in it. The request was for the row of pearls to be in a straight line - if you know anything about bead crochet, you know that it naturally spirals as you crochet, so putting something in a straight line requires a special kind of pattern.
The rope was also to use two shades of 22k gold delicas, beautiful matte finish beads that are very similar in color but have just enough difference to be interesting.
So off we go. I didn't have any bead crochet software, so I used my old standby for making quick graphics - Microsoft Powerpoint. (I've used it for years to do all sorts of things for which it was never intended.) I began laying out the design, and as I played around with some different concepts I thought a pattern of diamonds made from the gold delicas would look nice. I eventually wound up with this:
Looks like a viable pattern, doesn't it? The two shades of gold (which don't have that much contrast), with the dark blue showing where the pearls will go.
The next step in the process, because I know that the spiraling effect of bead crochet can result in some surprises, was to print that out on paper and wrap the pieces around a pencil, lining up the edges of the beads to make sure the pattern didn't go wonky. I was very careful to match up the beads when I made my paper model, and I was so excited to see that everything lined up perfectly!
Having completed those steps and received a big thumbs up from the customer, I proceeded to write out the stringing order for the rope. Bead crochet, you see, requires that you string all the beads for your project before you begin crocheting. And when you string the beads, you don't string them from left to right / top to bottom like you would typically work in other techniques. You string from left to right and from bottom to top. The last bead you string is the first one you crochet, and with a repeating pattern you have to make sure you start at one point in the pattern and end at the same point so you have a continuous design (well, in this case I have to do that because the ends of the rope will be joined in an invisible join).
So I wrote out the stringing pattern (B for bright gold, A for dull gold, X for pearls): B 2A 2B 2A B X 2A 3B 2A 2B 2A 2B 2A B A B 2A B 2A B 2A B 4A B A X A B 3A B 4A B 2A B 2A B 2A B A B 2A 2B 2A B B 2A B X B 2A 2B 2A 2B 2A B A B 2A B 2A B 2A B 4A B 3A B A X A B 4A B 2A B 2A B 2A B A
Fun, right? All of that stuff before the first bead is strung.
But now I have the pattern written out, so I pour out the little piles of delicas onto my beading mat and separate the pearls (the customer purchased them and had them sent to me, but I can't use all of the ones in the strands because some are too large for this project). Thread the needle with my Coats and Clark heavy duty nylon upholstery thread, and I'm off!
See anything wrong with the process so far?
I didn't.
It wasn't until I had completed the 12th repeat of the pattern, having strung 1536 beads, that I happened to notice that the spacing between the pearls in one section of the pattern was UNEVEN. That can't be. There should be the same number of beads between the pearls every time, or they won't wind up in a straight row.
Aaaaaaaaaaaargh.
That was Sunday night. I looked back at the pattern, looked at the beads, looked at the pattern, counted, recounted, and decided I needed a night's sleep and a fresh mind to figure it out. Monday morning dawned with pouring rain, the perfect weather for sitting down and focusing on a problem. I came to realize that I was off by a row -- instead of 33 beads between each of the pearls, I had one instance of 25 beads between the pearls in each repeat of the design. It's an 8-around pattern, so I had to figure out how to alter it to add those 8 beads back into the design so the pearls would line up like little soldiers.
Back to my Microsoft Powerpoint, back to fiddling around with the design, and I finally have it! The pattern is still symmetrical, but it's slightly different now; and this time I know it's going to work.
The unstrung part? Yes, you can take that literally. I had to UNSTRING those 1536 beads I had strung before and sort the two shades of delicas back into their little piles. I'm lucky to have good eyesight, a good task light, and just a touch of OCD. Really. Just a touch.
Now it's time to get back to stringing. One last picture, though. This is a little bracelet I made for that same wonderful customer... this one using rondelles in the pattern (no design in the delicas though). This one presented its own set of challenges, as the holes in these tiny little rondelles (which are only 3mm in diameter) were so small that I had to thread each one like a needle. I couldn't fit any of my beading needles through the holes, and the thread I normally use wouldn't even fit, so I strung these onto 10# Fireline. I have to say that crocheting with the Fireline wasn't too bad, although I still prefer the nylon upholstery thread.
Time for more stringing now. I've done 10 repeats of the pattern so far, with about 140 repeats to go... or as many repeats as I can do before I run out of pearls. :-)
