Lots of Bead Ball Objects

Candie, from whom I first got the tutorial on how to make beaded beads, had warned that making them was addictive. So true! Weeks later I am still fascinated by them and I recently went out to stock up on more beads. There is a wonderful bead shop in Dublin, so aptly named "Crown Jewels", where I found a few sachets of reduced price beads. However, I found that it was actually cheaper to buy some ready-made necklaces in another place, where they were selling jewellery for € 3.00 apiece. So I also bought a couple of necklaces there and took them apart. If you want, this is a mini jewellery-before-and-after:

I experimented with different sizes of beads in one "ball". The effect is in the shape. If you start out with five big beads, then use twenty small beads and work in five big beads again for the top, you end up with a barrel-shaped beaded object such as the one on the left. This really lends itself to a pendant. So I made a necklace from black beads, attached tassels in the form of simple chains to the bottom and strung the bead barrel onto it. Here it is:

If you do the opposite, i.e. start with five small beads, then use twenty large beads and work in five small beads for the end, the result is a domed bead (see left). I really love that shape. This one I fashioned into a key ring. I simply attached a bit of chain and then put a ring onto it. It's a real "hand-pleaser", I can tell you...

My daughter had been on to me that she wanted one of those bead balls. I made a really large one for her, using beads in only one size. That way you can make a regular shaped round ball. For the fun of it, I popped a glass marble into it. It sits loosely in the middle and rattles if you shake the ball.

There is no end to experimenting. With the bead stash diminishing, I didn't have enough beads to do another one in just one colour or size - so I mixed the beads and came up with this blingy number - which I am using on one of my corsages. The whole process of making these beads is almost mathematical - with a bit of thought and applied logic you can create lovely patterns on them. If you want a "star" in the middle, then you need to start out with five beads in one colour and afterwards switch to another colour or size. If you want to have the rim stand out, you work in a different colour bead every second time after you have finished the first five beads. Sounds difficult when explaining but it is really quite logical.

Next I might experiment with using more beads in these objects... 

Best,


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