BeadCreator Software

Delica beads with over 1,000 colors in the popular size 11/0 beads are the beader's palette.  Ironically, my first project, where I discovered Delicas, I was making a black and white version of Steam Boat Willie.

I learned a lot with this project.  First I started with regular craft beads, (I was a novice and did not know any better).  This project took much longer because I actually tried to use the craft beads, and found them to be too misshapen to fit together to make a tight weave.  This picture is actually six panels that were done each individually on an Indian Loom.  Then when they were all finished, I sewed each panel together.  The time consuming part was redoing the individual panels over and over!  I finally gave up on the craft beads and went to my local bead store and paid four times as much for "better" beads.  But I found these too were misshapen!  

So very frustrated, I looked on the internet and found Delicas!  Much to my amazement they were actually uniform in size and worked beautifully for my project.  Back went the expensive bead store beads and I've never looked back!  LOL

For my first few projects I modified cross stitch patterns.   But I soon wanted to put more of a personal touch into my bead artwork.  I researched and decided to try BeadCreator software.

My first BeadCreator project was a birthday gift for my father.  He is an avid fisherman - and has everything fishing he could ever need - so I decided to do a picture of a Large Mouth Bass.  I found some free clip art and used that to create a pattern with BeadCreator.

Here is the print I used to create the pattern - I placed it on the bottom of my loom to give reference as I worked on the project.

Here is the finished picture.

My next project was a Valentine's Day gift for my hubbie.  He loves the mountains, Grandfather Mountain in particular.      He could stand on top of that mountain and take photos for hours.  I used one of his photos to create a pattern using BeadCreator.

Here is the finished artwork.

Since I have been so pleased with the software, I decided to carry it in my online store.  Several customers have purchased the software and are sharing their experiences with me.  Laurie is one.  She recently turned a photo of a friend's dog into a beaded picture for a Christmas gift.  Here you can see the photo she used with the pattern.

Isn't that just the cutest picture? 

Here is a close up of the artwork so you can see the detail in the piece.  It is amazing and I'm sure her friend was thrilled to have such a thoughtful and personalized gift!

It is very satisfying to be able to fully customize a bead pattern for our own needs, I know from personal experience!  If you are looking for a good software program, I recommend this one.

More looming projects to come.....  (yes I could not resist!)

Happy Beading!

Betsy

to Bead or Knot to Bead

Tuesday's Treat :)

This is the second in a series of blog posts that I'm doing to highlight Red Panda Beads customers who sell their creations.  These posts will be on Tuesdays - not every Tuesday - so when they are posted, it will be a Treat!  This post is featuring Barbara Zaner aka to Bead or Knot to Bead!

Barbara is a newer Red Panda customer.  But she is an avid beader, as you can tell from her website!  :)  Her specialty is Bead Crocheting.  

Here is Barb's bio:

From my earliest memories, my love of nature and its splendor inspired me to become a science teacher.  I wanted to covey that passion to my students hoping that they would come to love and respect nature and the environment, as I do.  After teaching Biology and Earth Science for 33 years on Long Island, I retired to the foothills of Tucson, AZ where I have magnificent views and can enjoy the rich array of plants and animals that are able to survive in the dry, arid desert (quite a change from the near coastal home we had back east).

Flowers, butterflies, animals and landscapes are the inspiration for my beadwork.  Unable to draw, I can capture the colors and shapes with my beadwork.  Pictured below is one of my original creations, the Bottle Brush design which I have used for several necklaces and even a bracelet.

Despite the necklace’s prickly appearance, it is soft and supple, almost sensuous in its feel.

The spiral pieces, shown in the gallery, were inspired by the beautiful sea shells found at Jones Beach.  One piece was inspired by peas in a pod, another by a scoop of sherbet, and yet another by an ear of Indian corn with all its wonderful varieties of color.  You are invited to take a few minutes and look at my pieces in the hope they serve to inspire memories for you, too.

An orphaned baby squirrel floating in our pool led me to one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  The squirrel was taken to a wildlife rehab center where I saw a chance to give back to the environment and practice what I had been teaching.  For the past 10 years, my husband and I have been dedicated volunteers, helping return hundreds of birds and small mammals back to nature.  This is who I am.

Barb has an amazing repertoire!

Bead Crochet Bracelets


These bead crochet bracelets are made from seed beads and come in a wide variety of colors and patterns. They roll on, have no clasp and fit wrist sizes up to 7.75". They are made with a very strong button-hole weight polyester thread and will endure humidity, body oils, etc. Shown is a small sample of my inventory. Please contact me directly for a complete update on what's in stock. Custom orders are a welcome challenge.

Spiral Bead Crochet Bracelets

These hand crocheted bracelets are highlighted with a ridge of Czech beads or Fresh Water Pearls. These bracelets are a new design that I've developed over the past few months. They are clasp-free, just roll on and fit most wrists up to size 7.75 inches. They come in a variety of colors and color combinations. I will design one to suit your needs.

Fire Polished Bead Crochet Bracelets

Using 3 or 4 mm Fire Polished Beads creates a thicker and bolder bracelet than one done with seed beads. These have no clasp and just roll over your hand. Only a small selection of my wide variety of colors and styles are shown here. Please contact me for my current inventory or place a custom order.

Bottle Brush Crochet Bracelets

An experiment with Czech mini-daggers that is soft and supple — almost sensuous in feel. Many other colors can be made to order. 

Pinch Bead Bracelets


These triangular Czech beads fit together and form a smooth reptilian texture. The pictures don't do them justice. A wide variety of colors are available, just contact me for my current inventory.

LMA Wrist Wraps


LMA Wrist Wraps are more than a bracelet. LMA beads are new from the Czech Republic and form a delicious addition to your wrist. They are adjustable and close with a SS lobster claw clasp. More than a dozen colors are available, just contact me to check my current inventory.

She also does Necklaces......


Bead Crochet Ropes


 These ropes are usually made with Japanese seed beads, because they are a very uniform and produce a nice even quality rope. I have also experimented with Czech pinch beads and 3 mm fire polished beads. These ropes can be used alone as chokers or necklaces. They can also serve to display your favorite pendant.

Spiral Bead Crochet Necklaces


These one-of-a-kind hand crocheted necklaces are made with Japanese seed beads and fresh water pearls or Czech glass drops to create the swirl effect. They can be monochromatic or very colorful depending on your needs. Any of the necklaces can custom sized. 

Bead Crochet Necklaces with Focal Bead


These are unique, crocheted necklaces made with Japanese seed beads, silver bead caps and clasp. The focal beads can be a semiprecious stone, but usually a beautiful handmade, one-of-a-kind lamp work bead from a local artist. One special necklace features carved rabbits in domestic ivory. Any necklace can be sized to order.

Bottle Brush Bead Crochet Necklaces


These necklaces were inspired by the Bottle Brush flowers native to Arizona.

Garland Bead Crochet Necklaces


My first necklace in this original design was made with an assortment of Czech pink drop beads. It reminded me of a garland of roses. Since then I created several other necklaces using different colors and combinations. One of my favorite necklaces is shown as the icon and is called "Indian Corn".

Kumihimo Japanese Braiding


Kumihimo is the name for the ancient art of Japanese braiding. Assorted fibers, yarn, threads and even ribbon can be woven into wonderful braids. The process is labor intensive.

Barb's latest creations with Red Panda beads have used the DBM 10/0 Miyuki Mixes.

Barb is truly a fascinating bead artist.  Check out her site!  She also does purse charms and even has a cancer awareness line.  The hardest thing will be picking just one item that you must have!  :)  I'm having a tough time deciding!

Happy Beading

Betsy

Beads at Christmas

I am a confirmed beadaholic! :)  Now I find that I view everything, even Christmas, from a beaded viewpoint.  How to incorporate beads into Christmas?  Aside from designing and giving beaded gifts, beads can be used for decorations.  

One of the hottest sellers this holiday season has been the BeadSmith Snowflake wire forms.  They come in four sizes, ranging from 3.75 inches to 9 inches.  The possibilities are limitless for decorating!  And they can be an inexpensive gift with a personal touch.  

Kathy has been busy making her snowflake forms.

She added 12mm Twisted Bugle beads and says that the sparkle is much more stunning in person.

Here you can see another of her ornaments on the tree.  This one she added beads between the bugle beads to create more texture.

I like the way the lights set off the sparkles in this snowflake.  These snowflakes are great for decorating wreaths and can adorn windows as sun catchers all winter long.    Thanks so much Kathy for sharing!  :)

Another way to decorate with beads is to add embellishments to plain glass ornaments.  This adds a richness and beauty with a personal touch.  These are also nice gifts that can be cherished for many years to come.  You can even design your ornament, so that the beaded portion can be removed and added to another glass ornament in case the original one breaks.  You can find patterns in books, magazines or even on the internet.  They can be very elaborate and ornate, or they can be very simple.  The ornament below was done my by sister, Linda. She modified the pattern to adapt to her preferred Delica size 10/0.

  This was her first attempt at a beaded ornament.  I have to admit that I have been rather "persuasive" in getting her into beading.  LOL  I think this ornament is beautiful and am very proud of the fact that she was brave enough to not only modify the pattern, but then to send me the photo and allow me to add it to this blog!  Thanks Linda!

It's never too early to start thinking about Christmas... I have seen some ideas for beaded garland that I think I am going to have to try for next Christmas............

Happy Beading (oops) Holidays and Happy New Year!

Betsy 

Lady Voodoo Beading

Tuesday's Treat :)

This is the first in a series of blog posts that I'm doing to highlight Red Panda Beads customers who sell their creations.  These posts will be on Tuesdays - not every Tuesday - so when they are posted, it will be a Treat!  This first post is featuring Tammy aka Lady Voodoo Beading!

Tammy is a 3rd grade teacher in Florida.  She has always been into arts and crafts, but it wasn't until she was home on maternity leave that she discovered beads.  She saw a friend's I.D. Badge Lanyard that her friend's daughter had made out of glass beads and Tammy was hooked!  She started out making them and selling them to her teacher friends.  It snowballed first into all jewelry..... Check out these beaded beads.....

 

Tammy ran across Julia Pretl's book "Little Bead Boxes" and now seed beads are her favorite obsession of all time!  

Currently she focuses on making 3-D objects with Delicas, or covering small items with seed beads.

I must say this is my favorite!  I love the tri-color theme and the coordination of colors with the flowers.  It is so tiny and yet so elegant!

I am a curious person by nature and could not resist the urge to ask, "why Lady Voodoo?".   Turns out her hubbie is a computer gamer with the tag, Voodoo, after the character in Top Gun.  She liked the sound and since she's his Lady, 

Lady Voodoo just seemed too cool to pass up.  :)

 Now you know the inside scoop on Lady Voodoo Beading!  Check out her website.

Happy Beading!

Betsy

Red Panda Beads "Warehouse"

Four years ago I never would have dreamed in my wildest imagination that I'd be here today.  I did not even know how to blog then!  I have certainly come a long way on this beaded path!  LOL  

I started selling a few beads online in April 2007.  At first it was just a fun venture some evenings and weekends.  I was able to gradually add more and more beads and other related items in my "store".  It was not long before I needed a dedicated space ~ so we converted our living room into my bead office.

Now I have out grown this small space.  I know you should take before and after photos - but the before was sooooo cluttered.  Unofficially I began using our dining room as an overflow area for items like packing materials and bulkier stock items.  This year we made it official, removing the dining room furniture and installing 6 foot metal shelving.

This is a much more efficient use of this space!

Now I can store boxes and labels with ease and see exactly how much I have in inventory and know when to order more!  

Much easier to access the bubble mailers and various sizes of baggies when they are organized!

Now the Bead Soups have their own individualized compartments.

The bead mats have a new home too, on top of one of the wire racks.

And it is much easier to store the bulky beads while transitioning them to their formal and final filing home.

 So much easier to work with.

This is the view from my computer chair in my office.  I am so grateful that I have an understanding and supportive husband.  How many husbands would allow their living and dining rooms to be over taken with beads?  

Happy Beading!

Betsy

Red Panda Beads Hoodie

Cindy is a Red Panda Beads customer.  She specializes in making beaded hoodies.  She decorates them with Swarovski crystals and Delica beads.  

After seeing her work, I asked her if she would be interested in doing my logo in beads on a jacket for me.  I was thrilled when she said she'd love to!

First I picked the beads that I wanted to use.  For the red in my logo I chose one of the newest Delica colors DB1804.  I also chose a white satin and opaque black.

I wanted a beige or tan jacket so that my logo would stand out.  Instead of a hoodie, Cindy found a great Sport Savvy jacket.  Here is the finished "hoodie".

She did an excellent job translating my logo into beads.  I am very happy with the work.

You can see her attention to detail.  She really captured the spirit of my logo.  I wear this jacket with pride.

She even added these "Don't Worry Bead Happy" zipper pulls to the jacket.  What a nice and sweet touch!

Cindy is a very talented bead artist and I am very grateful that she was willing to do my logo in beads!

Happy Beading!

Betsy 

Creativity

What inspires you to create?  Is it a life changing event, such as a wedding, graduation or even a death?  Does nature inspire you?  For me the inspiration is beads.  There was no secret there!  LOL  

This past weekend I was restocking inventory when they smallest of the Miyuki Square beads, SBS, 1.8mm beads caught my eye.  

The silver lined beads just seemed so Christmasy I knew I had to create something!

So knowing that I wanted to use these Christmas colors, I pondered the best way to show off these little beauties.  Since they are cubes, they fit best together in square or rectangular shapes.  What Christmas items are shaped as squares?  Christmas presents, of course!

Now the next problem, how to create a bow out of beads.  I did not want to try to tackle bows made with square beads, so I decided to try other Miyuki beads to assemble my bows.    I experimented with my design.

Here is my first attempt.  The bow really overpowers the gift, so I decided to make the gift larger and tweak the bow a bit.  Here I used size a 8/0 Rocaille for the center of the bow and used 6mm bugle beads for the loops with 4 15/0 Rocailles curving the loops.  I used gold, but did not like the effect.  So I switched to silver.  I also wanted to add some pattern to the gift wrap.

I switched to an 8/0 Rocaille bead for the center of the bow.  I added one 15/0 Rocaille as a spacer between the bugle bead and the 8/0 Rocaille center of the bow.  I also switched out the 15/0 Rocailles on the loop for 3 size 11/0 Rocailles to give more body to the bow. I brought both bugle beads to the single spacer 15/0 Rocaille bead and ran my Fireline through the tiny bead each time to bring the loop tighter in the bow.  I used 20 of 15/0 Rocaille beads for the top loop to attach the earring wires.

Here are the finished earrings.  I really like how cute they turned out!

Then I got to thinking that I could do them in other colors, not just green and red.  Then I thought, why do they have the be Christmas presents?  Why not make a few Hanukkah presents as well?

 It never hurts to experiment with beads, you never know what you'll end up with, and at worst, you might have to undo a little bit of bead work.  Experimenting will broaden your beading repertoire ~ I know, it certainly has given me more confidence and opened new possibilities for me!  

Happy Beading!

Betsy