the last of the pip beads... for now

A while ago, before I became ill, I showed you some brooches I'd made from Pip beads, well I made a couple more that I didn't get round to showing you.

This is a clear rivoli (the crystal in the middle), surrounded by bronze coloured seed beads and Delicas, and the pip beads (the petals) are a green/purple iris, which means the light bounces around them and changes the colour.

This is actually much bigger than life size, I like to make my photos extra large so people can actually see them.  Some bloggers use small photos in their posts, I find them hard enough to see on a computer screen, let alone on my tablet or even my phone!

Finally, I used another rivoli as a centre, surrounded it with navy and blue beads and added the same pip beads as above, but the other way round.  They are plain silver on the back and I rather like them that way round.

I can't quite make out what's reflected in these and I've only just noticed there is a reflection.  Better make sure I don't take photos of shiny stuff in the nude!

More pip beads

Following on from the pip bead class I took, I was inspired to use the 3 rivolis (sparkly bit in the centre, doesn't have a hole) I'd bought for more pip bead jewellery.  I knew I had some blue pip beads at home, so that was where I started.

I have load of blue seed beads so it was pretty easy to match these beautiful pips with some dark blue delicas and seed beads.  This one isn't going to be a brooch.

Instead I added a jump ring to the back so I can make it into a necklace.

I then made these little flowers.  6 of the pip beads fit perfectly together in a circle to form a bloom and I added a little clear seed bead in the centre of each.  I think I'll make a couple more of them and use them to flank the main flower.  

I'm afraid this isn't the last you'll see of pip bead flowers, I used all three rivolis...


I'd also like to say that I've had the most hectic couple of weeks at work, including working into the evening, so I haven't been visiting many blogs and I don't think I've commented on any.  I hope to catch up at some point soon, so don't think I've abandoned you!

Pip beads

Looking for my Grow Your Blog Post?

It's here.

Last Saturday saw the first bead class of the year at The Bead Shop Nottingham where me and my lovely mum took a class in using pip beads to bevel a rivoli.

The rivoli is the sparkling stone in the middle, it's a crystal one from Swarovski and for this project we used 10mm rivolis. The pip beads are the petal shaped beads around the outside.  We made the bezel with delicas, size 15/0s, size 11/0s and size 8/0s so there was a lot of bead choices to make before we could begin.

The ring was created with peyote stitch picking up various beads for each round, the whole tube was the tightened around the rivoli.  That was the hard part, it takes a lot of time, effort and patience to get the rivoli in place before pulling the rows tight!  The petals are deliberately wavy, I could have used size 9/0s in place of the 8/0s to make the petals lie flat, but I like the texture this creates.

I've finished it off with a brooch bar to wear on my cardigans.

I bought some more rivolis and I already had some different colours of pip beads.  I've been beading away already so expect to see some more of these coming up very soon!

I usually like to vary my posts and so wouldn't come back to beading for a couple of weeks, I also usually like to post every two days.  My mental health is not great right now and crafting is taking a back seat, so I'm going to be posting twice a week and expect quite a lot of beading.  Hopefully normal service will be resumed soon.