Virginia’s Angie Wiggins gets lost in the swirl of a bead. She puts blends and cane scraps on a base bead and does a bit of rock and roll to make a swirled bicone bead. It’s hard to explain but fun to master. (See a video here.)
Angie enjoys putting her own spin on this pendant. Tiny dots in companion colors track the swirls. She has a background in embroidery and loves to add her signature surface embellishments. Now it’s definitely her swirl.
Today’s end-of-the-year video treat comes from Ohio’s Carissa Nichols.
There’s nothing quite so soothing as her way of taking bits of scrap and creating a swirled lentil or bicone bead.
In this tiny tutorial from StudioMojo, Carissa helps you get the hang of the body movements required for a creative and meditative trick.
These sorbet colored lentil swirls from Athens’ Klio Tsaliki are the result of lots of experiments with Premo frost, Premo white, alcohol markers and regular markers.
The sweet pale colors are perfect for summer. For other seasons, see what Klio has done using Premo gold.
Watching the swirls of pattern materialize is addictive. If you’re looking for an easy and fun diversion in clay, this might just what you need.
If you’ve never made a bicone-shaped bead, you’re in for a treat. Desiree McCrory’s step-by-step is one of the best explanations. It’s like riding a bike and once you get it, you’ll take off.
Laura Timmins’new polymer Ocean Yoko necklace sends us back to the beach with its wavy bicone beads, spiraled shells and starfish strung on cord that she hand twists from embroidery thread.
It’s as if she cast a net and strung up everything she caught.
Yoko is a new addition to Laura’s Swirl Stone line for galleries which, as you might guess, are mostly located on the seashores.
Check out the matching earrings. What inspires you this season?
The polymer spirals in Silvia Ortiz de la Torre’s necklace caught my eye and wouldn’t let go. The colors blend beautifully.
The textures and patterns of the adjacent beads tease us to examine them too. There’s a lot happening here. Could I make a biconal that intruiging?
If you’d like to try, consult Desiree McCrorey and Laura Timmins. Let’s hope you have a lot happening in your studio this weekend!
The retro bling from PurpleCactus isn’t in traditional holiday colors but their polymer baubles suggest a cheery approach to the season. North Carolina’s Amber Edison and Laurence Abensour have teamed up to produce a line of small pendants and rings that really hit the spot.
Is the texture on this bicone bead a new trick or an optical illusion? Whatever…I find myself mesmerized.
Here’s an earlier PCD post on the duo and links to their Etsy and Flickr sites.
