Brick Stitch Beaded Ring with Tutorial and Links

A beading we will go!

I found this fairly easy tutorial on about.com for making a cute beaded ring at http://beadwork.about.com/library/weekly/aa110298.htm

This also uses a video by beadaholique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsZADmxvH24

Beaded ring with a blue center bead

It took  me a few hours, but more experienced beaders should be able to do these in 1-2-3. Anyway, you need to know brick stitch, which, when you watch a good video, is not really that hard. The most difficult part for me was doing the increase in rows. I'm linking to the tutorial here from beadaholique, but will also try explaining in my own way how to make the ring.

Tutorial (Sort of)

First, create the band:

Do a brick stitch base row; to do this, pick up 2 beads and tie them in a knot, leaving a 6 inch tail (I'm really bad at knots, so I did it as if I was going to tie shoelaces, but put the string under a second time, then pulled. I thought I would mess it up, but I pulled tight and forced the beads to sit side by side, then held them firmly with my fingers).
Now, go back down the second bead (if your string is coming out from the top, then go down the bead next to it, then back up the bead next to it. Make sure you pull tight. The beads must be sitting next to each other. If you're having a problem with them, see if you may have went up/down the beads the wrong way (I just pull out the thread, go the other direction and see if the beads won't fight me). Moving along...

Take 2 more beads, and go down the bead next to you (where the "working thread" is coming out of. This is the thread you are using, not the tail end). Go back up both beads next to the one where the working thread is exiting from.

Repeat this process until the ring is about 3/4 length around your finger. Remember, pick up 2 beads, go down the upper most bead next to you, and up both beads next to that one.
When you reach the length, you need to do an increase brick stitch. Here's where the video tutorial was pivotal for me. The next row will have 3 beads, then 4, then 5. To do the next row, pick up 2 beads, but instead of going down the bead next to it, you go under the string/loop between the beads and then up and through the bead closest to you. Follow the video here to do the increases, first 3 beads, then 4, then 5 beads.

When you're done, you need to add the outer edges of the ring. After doing an increase, you will do the same stitch you did for the band, but only for 5 rows, as per the about.com tutorial. Weave back down and do the other side in the same way.

You can now choose your bead. From here the tutorial is pretty straightforward I think; thread the focal bead through the middle bead of the row which has 5 beads. The rest is just weaving through the top and bottom, connecting both sides, and going through the band to reinforce it.

There are a lot of possibilities using this pattern. I was surprisingly happy with my result.

Itty bitty ring

Enjoy!

-meowser ッ

Right Angle Weave Gray Pearl Set

Viola! My very first beaded set!

I created a ring and earrings off the same pattern (or tried to).

A note about the pattern: when you go over the ring again with the seed beads, it tightens up the ring and makes it smaller, so give yourself more length to work with (my ring only fits my pinky finger).

For the earrings, I made a larger unit on the bottom and tapered it towards the top. I went back down, trying to follow the "V" pattern, and weaved back up and created a loop to hold the earring wires. The "V" shape shifted a bit in the pictures.

I know it's no where near professional quality, but I was happy that I managed to finish my first set!

Feedback? Thoughts?

-meowser ッ

First Peyote Stitch Ring

It's been awhile, but finally, a new piece of jewelry! I tried my hand at peyote stitch, which I look forward to learning more of. I tried to  make a pattern by eye, so it looks a bit funky, but whatever; it was more about practicing the stitch  ッ

I am not using delica beads, but some kind of seed beads which are not evenly cut, so it's not as neat as it should be.

Some weird looking "V"

On the finger. The "V" doesn't look any better...

Well, that's my first peyote stitch piece. I look forward to making more soon (and not as funky looking).

Thanks for passing by!

-meowser ッ

Jewelry Making - Silver Wire Wrapped Ring with Green Beads

Hello Hello!

It's been awhile since my last post, but I have made some headway in jewelry making, especially with all the pinspirations that I've seen over the last few months. I bought a steel bench block and a hammer so I could start hammering some of my wire pieces. I also obtained more wire in different gauges so I could practice the wire wrapping within the ring. And yes, there is a kitty in the background  ^^.

The ring is adjustable, and the hammered end has hardened it and helped it keep its shape.

This is just the start for me with hammering and wire wrapping.  I can't wait to try so many other wire wrapping tutorials I've seen!

-meowser

Silver Wire Wrapped Spiral Ring

Hello again! Here we go, playing with wire. I would love to do some casting, soldering, etc. but I don't have the equipment (or space, or money), so I'm sticking with wire for now to create these little accessories. I'm using 20 gauge artistic silver wire, along with round nose pliers, flat nose pliers, and side cutters. 

And today I have....(drum roll)... a wire wrapped spiral ring! See?

My spirals are not perfect, but nothing is. Don't judge!

Here's the rear view (hehehe, rear).

As you can see, it doesn't really stand up well (I mean hello, it has spirals!). So don't mind that it keeps falling to the side.

Looks a little sad here  : (

On the finger, so shiny!

I give it a thumbs up  ^^

I'm not going to try to sell this yet, but if you have feedback, ideas, comments, let me know.