Hair Comb: Autumn Fall Colors 2011

This morning I began on a smaller project that I've been having in my mind for a while, ever since I saw the fall colors for this autumn; pink, turquoise and light yellow.
I decided on going a little crazy and use ALL the colors in different shades and make a hair comb using wire and crochet.

For beads I used some 11/0 seed beads in the different colors, some pearls and some Czech glass roundel beads, 28gauge black coated copper wire, 24gauge black coated wire and of course a silver-plated comb which is about 4x5cm (40x50mm - I don't know it in inches, sorry).

For this design, I first made the pieces I wanted to crochet and then I wired them around the holes in the comb in the order I wanted them. Then I began building some little "towers" or whatever we can call them lol.
What I wanted mainly with these towers is that I wanted to be able to twist the crochet ropes around them to bunch 'em up in a nice way.
Also also used some transparent crafting glue here and there, just to make sure the design will forever remain (unless you drive over it with a truck of course :D ).

Personally, I don't really use accessories to decorate my hair and I'm not sure I'm gonna use this either. It was just a fun project which gives some variation to the bead-weaving I'm normally doing. But yeh, if I get any personal requests in the future about more hair combs I won't hesitate.

Stretchy Montee Rings

I looked this morning at the bead channels I'm subscribed to on YouTube and noticed that Off the Beaded Path had put out a new video featuring a ring, embellished with some montees. I wanted to try this one out since I have stacked up on a couple of montees since this spring.
After I made my first ring, I felt that I just HAD to make a second one. The ring is really pretty, and it goes really, really fast to create and are a perfect gift, now when the holidays are slowly beginning to sneak up.
To go directly to the video, click here.

The supplies you need are a couple of montees; mainly size 3.2mm, but for my second one I used a 6.2mm. You'll also need 10 4mm pearls and about 10 11/0's and a few 8/0's. And some beading thread and a stretching cord. I found my Stretch Magic laying around in a box, lol.

The best thing I find about this ring is that it uses the stretch cord; means it will fit most sizes of fingers, and is therefore a really great gift if you don't know what size the person you're giving the ring to has.

Bangles

I'm feeling a bit better now, and I managed to take my time to caress my shinies (lol) and figure out what I wanted to try next.

After reading the post from "Beads For Brains:365" blog about this cute little peyote bangle I really, I mean REALLY wanted to give it a shot. I've always had some sort of weakness towards bangles - ever since I were little.
The pattern is designed by Viki - FDEkszer and can be purchased from her Etzy store for a very reasonable price. She also have a lot of other patterns, so I highly recommend to take a look.
To be honest, I've always been a tad bit against buying patterns online but... I... Wanted it! After all; Rules are meant to be broken.
The pattern itself calls for 11/0 cylinder beads, for mine I used Matsuno seed beads instead since I haven't really been stacking up on Delicas at the moment... You'll also need about 40 3mm beads - again I changed mine to 4mm since I'm all out of 3mm'ers, but it works just as nice.

Finally I also got to use some of my crystal lined hot pink seed beads for something. The color is very bright and clear so I've been a bit scared of using it to just anything, but this I love. I also decided on using up some of those czech fire polished glass beads in capri blue that I bought a while ago. I love the capri blue color since it's so radiant, and I like the crystal lined hot pink, didn't know what to combine them with. I bought about 20 grams of crystal lined copper seed beads and hey, they look really good with the capri blue beads, it almost gives it an antique Egyptian look to it.

One of the most fun part with this project is that I got to practice my peyote stitching a lot more. I also learned how to the peyote stitch in a REALLY FAST way. You can read about it at the "Wild Sally Road" blog here. You HAVE to read it.