a Bead Cave & Bits of Creativity

I spent last weekend at a bead cave

(read that as an adult women's slumber party with beads!)

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I was to teach other members how to do wire wrapped bead charms and a bottle cap bracelet.

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The day before the cave I was in a Dollar General store and ran across these unique key chains with large plastic drop beads. The light bulb went on.....

A bottle cap key ring might be quicker to do to learn the technique - voila, they came out fantastic..... .

I have an instruction set for sale on www.bead-patterns.com if anyone has an inclination to apply it to making a key ring - it's here.

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My sample is on the right; next is Helen's Angel
key ring and Crystal's Beadtrekers ring.
They are lightweight and have a nice muted
sound to them. Didn't they come out awesome?



I had fun exploring what happens when you increase and decrease bead sizes in even count peyote. Crystal came down for the cave from outside Phoenix AZ and taught us how to make a shell bracelet. As I had just grabbed beads, not planned the beads to bring, I had to improvise.

However I like the way it came out. I think I might make another shell-type bracelet using some colors from Mother Nature's palette. The large Nopal Cactus is blooming outside my beadroom window and the orange I used in the original bracelet is close to the bloom color - now to add some yellow, green and deep purple.....

I seem to be in a rut with this hot colorway. I've designed a bead crochet wedge that is a dimensional elongated triangle. I have hopes that it will pull up into a large circle once I've crocheted it. I can see how it should look and this is my second try at getting it to do what I see in my mind - red center circle, yellow sides and a parallel row of red drops around the outer edges. We'll see what happens this time as sometimes it take multiple revisions to get to the end product.

A Bead Cave is great for fostering creativity. Besides renewing old friendships you learn a lot, make new beading friends and eat very well. Electa & Pam were wonderful hostesses in a beautiful desert setting.