Playing with beads

Strained my arm, elbow, neck, wrist  etc crocheting orders, a 20 hour day after a week of 12 hour days was enough to call for a long break.. thankfully it was at the start of warmer weather here so yarn item orders was at a stand still .. 

After making 1000's of masks I decided to put the cloth on the back burner for a bit and pull out my beads instead.. been too long.. I still plan on being able to get things set up so I can more easily jump between  crafts or more likely combine crafts.. but spring time means yard work is a must..so my craft room progress is on the slow side, still happening though so all is good :) 

I pulled out my little bracelet sized beading loom, decided to get one a bit bigger.. this was my first project on it...

First off just like yarn, the type of beads you use really matter.. 

for this project I went with some that are on the not so uniform in size.. while many had to be tossed as they were just to misshaped, you can see how much the size varies in this photo.. both are from the same tube of size 11 beads.. 

there is a place for these beads in my opinion in creating unique items, I normally use them when sewing on to fabric or buttons as I like the "boho" vibe they give projects, kind of a old world feel..

 

When working on a loom project plan on extra time for sorting through the beads though.. in this case a lot of extra time.. while I do like how the over all project came out I wasn't happy with the amount of wasted beads for the silver lined ones.. of course I picked those to be the main color before I realized just how misshaped they were... very glad I got them on a 50% off sale lol.. the other types were no where near as bad.. to be fair the price was really low even before the half off...  think it was $3.99 for a huge tube ( from hobby lobby ) . . and will work really well with a sewn on project.. I do like the over all look, however I doubt I will buy them again, patience is absolute must when using these.. 

I used nymo sized D .. jumped between needles... using an big eye needles for the main weaving and an inch long one for the weaving in of the warps and tails 

 weaving in the ends took even more patience.. I did set it down more than once lol .. next step will be to add it on to the front of a bag.. I have yet to create.. over all happy with it.. 

Since I finished the weaving of this one I have made well over a dozen bracelets, some are completely done but most are waiting for the gluing of the warps and ties to be added.. that will require setting up outside so I want a bunch to do at once, I am working on the color charts for them... will have the written out instructions as well as lettered chart.. still working out how I want them laid out.. 

I really like the written patterns for larger pieces.. earrings are easy enough to just use a chart but some of what I have in mind definitely need it written out..