week 28 -Pattern

Focus on life -  Week 28- "Pretty" Patterns

Pattern....  The first thing that comes to my mind when you mention that word is sewing pattern... I haven't sewn anything from a pattern for years... but  I still have some...  The ones I used as a background  for my chainmaille were my mothers ... You can tell by the prices on them how old they are, and they probably aren't particularly pretty.. but the product could be!  The retro one is actually  mine, I've never made it as it takes miles of material!

The necklace covering the top two patterns was bought in Eastern Europe in the 70's, it was a gift from my mother... I was in total awe about how it was made... I took a chainmaille class in 2003 at Series in Red Deer and learned how to do the Byzantine Pattern/weave and discovered that it isn't actually as mind boggling as it looks.

I like Byzantine also know as Idiot's Delight because each unit is a stand alone piece that doesn't flop you can add big links into the middle ... the end... put links between a unit... it's entirely versatile

The bracelets were all made by me and show what a difference gage makes in the final product.  ( I made the glass rings in the middle bracelet)  The necklace with the Carnelian was made for the first bead soup ... It has triangular byzantine elements...

To see how other people interpreted 'pretty pattern'

New look blog

I was cruising around on the Fire Divas site today one of the etsy groups I belong too ... and found a tutorial written by Haley of Envision on how to change the width of my blog
Once I had the blog wider... why not change the colour...

Comments? Or should I go back to the old uninspired blue.... And I finally have visible links... !

Where's Waldo?

Who, & what is Waldo in this story? Well Waldo is a bead... Waldo is a bead made out of something that is then wrapped in Double Helix's silver glass triton. Triton is one of their idiot proof glasses anyone can get this to strike! Well I made a bunch of beads last summer and they flew out of the gallery as soon as they were made into bracelets... so I thought I need to start making stock for next summer.. I don't care if it's - 30 and you can't stand up straight because of the ice.. it's time to start thinking summer!


So I grabbed my stand by 'ivory' and made some beads wrapped in triton... they didn't seem to be as yellow as I remembered from last year.. so I pulled out a rod of Opal Yellow and made one bead with an Opal yellow base that bead is Waldo.... I can't find poor Waldo... Can YOU? It might be the one in the middle ... actually in the photograph there is more of a difference (but I think the difference is that that bead is slightly bigger...) than there is to the naked eye. What I'm wondering is can you use any glass as a base and then wrap it in triton and reduce it and have it come out the same?

I tried effretre's fossil which is quite grey.. it comes out a bit darker but still very yellow... does this glass turn all the opaques yellow?