Blizzard!

It is cold and yucky and starting to snow. I thought Spring was here! The weatherman says we are in for a blizzard that will rage from 1 PM today through 7PM tomorrow night. 

Weather like this can be very depressing or occasionally inspiring. Who hasn't looked out at softly falling snow and enjoyed the beauty of the snowflakes? 

On one one such day during the winter months I designed the bead weaving pattern called snowflakes. Here is a bracelet made in the snowflake pattern. I chose the red color to cheer up the dark dreary days of winter as well as to contrast with the white snowflakes. 

Do colors influence your mood?

Bead Weaving Patterns

Ever wonder where all the bead weaving patterns come from? Do you ever see one in a magazine and think - I could do that? Well you can! When I first started bead weaving I used a piece of graph paper and some colored pencils and started drawing. It was a very time consuming process and I kept thinking, "there must be a better way". 

Then I thought of the computer and set up a graph using my graphics program and again painted in the colors. This worked better but didn't allow me to keep track of the beads I used, sizes, etc. 

I went to an online site for beaders and asked if there was a program that would help me design patterns. Someone recommended The Bead Cellar's Pattern Designer so I purchased it. It runs on your PC and is very easy to use. Now all my patterns are organized and I can see which beads and how many I need to make the pattern again.

These are some of the patterns I've made using the Pattern Designer. If you are looking for good bead designing software I would highly recommend this product.

Bead Weaving

One of my favorite techniques is bead weaving. I love to design patterns and weave the tiny little seed beads into a "fabric". Here is one of my woven amulet bags with chain accents and Swarovksi crystals for bling.