Queen of the Sea Necklace

Been ages since my last post and I had been quite busy the past weeks (months!). Although I was also busy making projects, tried to squeeze in the time as much as I can.

Made this necklace which is called Queen of the Sea. It's a pattern by Jenny Van.

I remember the first necklace I attempted to make was also a design by Jenny Van. I like her designs.

This was quite tricky for me. When I finished it the arcs twisted and wouldn't lay flat.

I ended up reinforcing the joints and pulling them tighter. It has to be tight and firm or else it would flop and twist. That seemed to do the trick.

Been Away

Responded to a comment today about my bugle bracelet and I realized that I haven't posted anything in almost a year now! 

I took a little break from beading because I had to concentrate on work, had been so busy with that for a few months. I was working on a couple of projects but I didn't have the time to document the process :-( 

Now I'm a bit distracted (sheepish) with other fiber arts too. I guess I was just looking for something that I can do even while I'm in bed, that wouldn't necessitate me going over to my beading nook anymore. 

I dabbled a bit with loom knitting for a while and now I'm doing some Tunisian crochet. This is technically a beading blog though, so I'm not sure you guys will be interested in what I'm doing now. 

But I will be going back to beading soon. I still have a stash of all sorts of things that I really want to put to good use, and besides I also really want to get into soutache. I also haven't even tried the new beads available out there now, like the Duos and such. I'm so out of the loop! 

Trying New Things : Soutache

Happy new year everyone!

I've sadly neglected this blog for far too long. I had been busy with work and really wasn't able to do much crafting until the last few days.

I have been fascinated with soutache. It looks so lovely. Somehow it always looks intricate and fancy and oh so pretty. So after doing some research on what soutache braid to get, I bought some from beading.pl. They are an online store in Poland but you can email any questions and they'll reply in English. They were so helpful too! Me being a complete newbie in soutache, haven't even seen the braid in real life before, and yet I was soon able to get my soutache stash soon.

And here is my initial attempt:

I realized that my tension was too loose and this made the piece kind of soft. I also used Fireline initially and realized that this is probably one of the few instances that Fireline isn't quite the best option. I think it's because Fireline tends to be stiff when it gets "folded" and sticks out in the wrong places along the shaping stitches. Just my two cents though. I don't consider myself a soutache expert, of course.

Then I tried Nymo and this drapes quite nicely. I never liked Nymo for my usual beadweaving but I have to say it seems to be perfect for soutache.

My succeeding attempts:

Still not even. It sure takes a lot of getting used to especially when joining to make the "lollipop," or even just shaping the braid to create a gentle curve.

At any rate, I was able to work on better tension and this doodle seems to be better coordinated:

Then I got all excited and did embellishment already without adding any backing yet.

More soutache adventures to come!

By the way the soutache braid I got from beading.pl is composed of viscose and is the Pega brand. It's nice and does not fray too much. Although I haven't tried any other kinds of braid yet (rayon or polyester), I think this viscose kind is just great.