And CUT!

It's off the loom!!!! And it feels lovely in my hands. Yesterday I finished weaving the photo bracelet that was on the other side of the loom. I then had the boring (self-inflicted) task of reweaving those pesky warp ends. Yes, once again I ignored my own advise! When will I learn to weave them in as I go??? Anyway, I finished weaving in the ends today and cut it (and the two bracelets) off the loom.

I haven't looked at or touched the other panel since I finished weaving But they were quickly dealt with. Once I get into a rhythm it's easy and not as boring! So here are the panels side by side after being cut from the looms. I think I made a mistake - the row number doesn't seem to tally. If you exclude the 3 rows (of bead soup) I added to form the base, it seems the panel on the right I short by 1-2 rows. The extra will just have to form part of the base. I'll align them properly once I'm joining the sides.



As mentioned before, the plan was to weave it as one large piece. However, my large loom wasn't free. So the solution to this little dilemma is to join the bottom of the panels.

The method is the same as hiding the warps so is easy. I've already made a start. I will try and post a video on Tuesday. Fingers crossed I get a chance to record it in silence. If not I'll just remove the sound. Hopefully it will be clear nonetheless.

Here are the two bracelets I had on the back of the loom. The black and white is awaiting edging and some extensions before the clasp is attached. The photo bracelet is also awaiting edging then the clasp. I'm hoping I can complete both by the weekend. I've enjoyed having multiple projects on the loom. I'll definitely be using that feature again!



I ordered the beads for the Nelson Mandela bracelet. I'll have to do some editing to move the face to the centre rather than what will be the back. Then I can make a start. I'm thinking I should also try and make a start on the violin project too. Perhaps I can try seed beads instead of delicas. I'll see what I have in my stash.

Meanwhile happy beading, weaving, reading and a good start to the week.

Back on track

As mentioned previously, I wasn't happy with the colour of the neck area. It was standing out too much, and not quite right. I should have changed it as I wove those rows, but fear wouldn't let me. Hindsight is a great thing!

I started frog stitching it this week. For those who don't know, frog stitch (rippit!) is undoing. Someone told me a method for undoing without taking out all the rows after the section you intend to undo. I removed two rows, and wove the first again with the new colour choice. The difference was instantaneous! It looked better after just the one row!. It's subtle but you can see it nonetheless.

I undid the remaining rows and rewove them all. It was a very good decision to change the colour. It's definitely looking better. Of course I'd still love to hear your opinion on that! I did some more weaving today, and one of the faces is almost complete. I've been looking at it up close all day, so I'll reserve judgement till tomorrow. Sorry about the photo. It's dark so I can't get a great one.

I am seriously considering lining the purse. The plan was to reweave the warps along the top edge, and join the bottom of the panels using the warps. If I go ahead with lining it (I strongly dislike sewing!), I can skip reweaving the warps along the top edge. I'll also have to get thinking about the handle and fringe.

On another note, I have a project for which I want include loom bead weaving as one of the techniques I'll leave the rest to your imagination :)

Happy beading and have a good weekend.

To frog or not to frog

It's been one of 'those weeks'. The type where life gets in the way. On top of that, my beading mojo did a disappearing act on me! So I was left with no motivation, despite working on something nice and exciting. I normally force myself to work on the project and find it comes back. This time i just couldnt! I managed to pull myself out of the funk on Tuesday. I was all set up and ready to go (it takes about 5 minutes for me to lay out the beads), but children got in the way. By the time I thought about starting, it was too late to get any decent weaving time in! So, I (dishearteningly) spent another 5 minutes putting the beads away. The next day was a work day so any chance of doing something was out the window.

It came to Thursday and I was DETERMINED I would do some looming. I set myself up (5 minutes once again!), then took the children outside for a while. As soon as I got the chance, I made a start! The excitement was starting to build as I'm now coming up to the face.

Now, I have done a little bit of (on-loom) editing while weaving the upper rows of the hand. There was one particular colour used below, which I felt didn't work. So I removed it in the last rows of the hand, and it seems to look ok. I thoughts about editing the neck colour as well, but ran scared. I find the colour stands out too much against the surrounding area. I'm debating whether to undo all those lines and use a softer colour....if it were you, what would you do?!



Today, I spent the morning having my hair done. I did some crochet and now my thumb is sore. So I can't (shouldn't) do any looming today. That would just aggravate it. I can wear thumb support but it's difficult to work with it on. I'll just finish my book and prepare for the coming week - the face(s) appearing, WOO!!

The next time, you'll be seeing whether I decided to go reverse and change the neck colour, or left it and moved on! Enjoy the remainder of your weekend and happy reading :)

Two needle method for beading on the loom

As you probably know, the usual method of bead looming is to tie a length of weft to the edge warp then load your beads, and pass through them from the top. That's how I started, and the only way I knew. Until someone introduced me to the two needle method. 

In this branch, there are two methods. In one, the needles move in opposite directions. In the other, they move in the same direction. Since discovering these, I use then (mainly the former) 99.999% of the time. That obviously tells you I prefer them! I can work with a longer length of thread, skip beads less often (not that I did much previously), and seem to add new thread less often. 

The latter method, where the needles move in the same direction, is very useful when you're working an area of the same colour. You just load one half of the weft with beads and go on your merry way. This advantage is best seen with wider pieces. I used it in one of my previous portraits for the background. I got tired of counting, and loading using the bead spinner then having to remove some!

So on that note, here is my second video. I try and explain the first of the two methods, including a few close up pictures. I hope it's clear enough and gets your interest. I don't think these methods are talked about much, at least not as far as I've seen.



If you have questions, contact me through the blog. 

I mentioned the bead spinner above. I had the lightbulb moment (I'm sure I'm not the first) when I was working on that background. Imagine counting out 150+ beads of one colour, a shiny white. Yes, you can see the concentration wondering! So, if you have a bead spinner and are working in one colour, think about dustin off those cobwebs :)

Lastly, I found a way to work on the Mirrix in a horizontal position. Just pull out the legs and place the clips behind the loom. Bobs your uncle! I'll edit this tomorrow and post the photo. 

In the meantime, stay well and happy reading.

Getting to the good part!

The plan for yesterday included looming in the afternoon or evening. By the time I was done with shopping, cooking, washing and getting a packed lunch ready, it was too late to get in a decent amount. I was also tired - more probe to mistakes and redoing rows several times over!

With the purse on the loom (Mirrix), I'm working with 37 colours. The setup looks like below. It takes about 3-4 minutes to get all the colours laid out in order (lowest to highest DB number), and put away when I'm finished. I have been using this setup for a while, and it works for me. 5 colours in each row numbered from 1 to 9 then A and up. I've used it enough to memorise which letter or number is at the start of each row. I don't need to count very often I'm so used to it.

When I first worked with two mats worth of colours, I stuck a piece of paper to the wall in front. It just had the start number/letter for each row, serving as a reminder. The getting out/putting away can be tiresome, so I need to think of a way to store them so they're ready to be used without too much faffing around! I'll have to think about that a bit more.



I have done two things with this. The first, and new, is to loom from the bottom up. I didn't reverse the rows in the word chart so I'm reading from the bottom up! I haven't confused any rows yet so that's good. But I think I prefer to work top down. I guess that's what I'm used to. The second is I worked those first rows with a single needle (usual method of looming). I normally use the two-needle method regardless of whether I'm working on a bracelet or wider piece. The needles travel in opposite directions.

There is another where the needless travel in the same direction. That is very useful for areas of solid colour. You can load beads onto one half of the weft, and use the other end to pass through to secure them. The advantage is being able to use a longer length of thread without fear of it becoming tangled. I also seem to add thread less often. it's better seen so I'll try and show it in my next YouTube video.

On that note, here is the progress. That's a hand appearing on the left! The excitement starts now! There's one colour I need more of, so don't know how much I'll be able to loom tomorrow. I'm getting more on Wednesday so can continue soon.

Till next time, happy beading :)

Saved warp thread

I my last blog post, I talked about two projects that I rally want to loom, and how I couldn't choose which to do first. Someone then suggested I could get them both on the loom. There are two options for this. Firstly, I could loom one, then advance the completed weaving and then loom the other. secondly, I could warp as usual and push the warping bar all the way down. Then I would be free to use both sides of the loom simultaneously. The latter sounded more like what would be the suitable method.

Now, the two projects are 152 and 162 beads wide. I don't want to jump in at the deep end, as it's crucial for me to get them absolutely right. With that in mind, I decided to try out this way of using the loom before proceeding with the portrait and purse. I warped as usual, then pushed the warping bar as far down as I could. It doesn't quite fit underneath the loom so it juts out slightly at an angle.

I encountered no problems in warping and moving the warping bar. I then loomed two rows at top and bottom of the warps for the (two) projects that would go on the back. There was no need to do this for the front project, as the coil was enough to space the warps. I did add a line of beads on the front of the bottom bar, but found I couldn't quite place the warps in it once I had moved the warping bar downwards. However, this can be very effective in spacing the warps towards the bottom of the loom, if you don't have the bottom spring kit. Thank you to the person who suggested it to me (you know who you are).



As you can see I am able to work on three projects at the same time. Without the extra warping bar kit, a substantial amount of warping thread is used for warping. This is one way to reduce this warp wastage, as long as the warp colour chosen matches what you plan to loom. So, a little forward planning helps. As I often like to (or inevitably) work on several projects, this makes things easier for me - I don't have to keep swapping looms to work on each, and my thread doesn't go to waste.





So, I think this could be something I use again in the future if I have multiple projects that can fit on the Mirrix at the same time. For now, I have the two bracelets at the back, and the front of a photo purse to complete. Some warp cutting is necessary for the bracelet on the left, but I may leave that till the front project is all loomed. I'll make up my mind as I go along.

I'm off to nurse my cold and get some sleep. Hopefully I can do some more tomorrow evening. The purse (front) takes some time to set everything up - more than 26 colours need to be laid out on bead mats, in a particular order. It's a little boring but needs must! Sweet beady dreams!

Everything needs trying at least once

I cut the blue bracelet off the Mirrix the other day, and wanted to try using the shedding device with the next looming. I think that was a little too ambitious for the first try. Before I began, I watched YouTube video on setting up the loom for bead weaving with a shedding device. The warping was easy enough, and is now embedded in my mind.

I thought it was all systems go! Unfortunately one of the sheds was not defined. I did follow instructions to place the second lot of heddles to the right of the first lot of heddles, but it wasn't working! Through sheer frustration, I removed the second lot of heddles and started again. I continued attaching the heddles the next day, and sat back happy. I went to check the sheds and NO!!! It wasn't working!! I removed all heddles and cut the warps off! I warped for 9 beads wide and stopped for lunch. I read through the sheet that came with the loom, as well as the PDF from the Mirrix site. There was an AHA! moment. I'd rotated the shedding device the wrong way after attaching the first set of heddles! I also used the trick of passing the spring bar through the warps. I set the heddles and when I checked the sheds...THEY WORKED! I worked the first row as in traditional looming, then proceeded with working with the shedding device. I think this needs LOTS and LOTS of practice to get the hang of. It seemed ok with one or two rows before going pear-shaped!

I found it difficult to get the beads between the warps, and then get them to stay put as I pushed them down towards the V formed by the shed. I seem to have misplaced some, as you can see in the photo above. I find it too time consuming and difficult to work with. And the warp threads show more when you use the shedding device - theyre doubled. All this is most likely due to my not doing it properly. I think for next time (yes I like to punish myself), I may use larger beads to get the basics down. In the meantime, there is another bracelet in browns, gold and white, on the loom. Much faster :)