Pod Cast Bead Work --Kate McKinnon's Fabulous New Experiment

I have been following Kate McKinnon's work on

Contemporarygeometricbeadwork.com

and have made this little pod cast bead.  You can use this bead to start as many bracelets as you like and be sure of the fit.

Use a temporary thread to add the first row. Then continue building with a new thread

Unzip the bracelet from the pod cast bead after at least 6 rows

Here you can see the bead and the bracelet separated

Continue on and finish the way you want

 Finished and ready to wear

And now on to the next one...

Just what have I been doing?

Yes, I am still making things.  Here are a few I have made recently:

I took a course in metalsmithing.  I learned to saw, anneal, solder, and file, file, file metal. The pendant is silver soldered onto copper that I heat treated to colourize.  There are two band rings, one silver and the other copper.  Also a Russian wedding ring in copper with three interlocking rings.  And a silver spinner ring.  I have to say that I don't like sawing at all and broke many blades to complete these, but I did enjoy everything else.

Then I decided to do a little bead embroidery.  This cuff fastens with 2 magnetic clasps.

After that I did some bead crochet.  This necklace uses 2 different sizes of beads randomly strung.  The clasp is 2 dragon heads.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

I have neglected my blog for a long time, but have continued to make things.  Here are some things I have made since the last time I blogged:

 A little micro macrame.  from Angel Wings pattern in MacrameSchool's Youtube channel

A little bead embroidery.  from techniques learned in Myra Wood's Craftsy class

A little tatting.  from patterns in Marilee Rockley's Craftsy class

A little beading.  inspired by Kate McKinnon's 'Geometric Beadwork'

And some more beading.  from a pattern in Diane Fitzgerald's 'Shaped Beadwork and Beyond'

Thoughts on Freeform Beading

I do love those lovely shiny tiny beads.  I also am a fan of things asymmetrical.

I started doing freeform work in crochet, but have also expanded into freeform beading.  I think it was only natural that this would happen.

Hope you enjoy looking at my work!