Beads, Beads, Beads .....

Ooops! How times flies. The last couple of days have just flown by. We received a card from Borders books to say the book DH ordered for me was in and sooooooo we just had to go into Glasgow didn't we? Needless to say a short trip ended up a whole day. I love Borders books .... their new Hot Chocolate is yummy! ..... and I am sure they love Norman and I. DH got some new Mac books and I got some new craft books. The Complete Natural Dyeing Guide was the one Norman ordered for me. I had been saying that I should really use natural dyes with the rust experiments. No sooner said than the book arrived (he's so kind). I wish I hadn't cleared the garden of the marigolds etc I could have used them. Oh! well it was brown bin day (garden refuge) and I took the opportunity of tidying up the garden.

I couldn't resist Felt to Stitch either, yummy. In the sale section there was a huge book on Fairies which Norman found and will be a great source of inspiration.

In response to a question about how I made the Angelina fibre beads I thought I would put together a little tutorial on how I make beads in various media.

Tyvek beads:

First of all I paint a sheet of light tyvek. You can buy A4 (8 1/2" x 11") sheets of tyvek in three weghts Light, Medium and Heavy. I have only painted one side of the sheet. As you will see later when the tyvek is heated it curls up and the white from the reverse shows through. If you didn't want to see the white just paint both sides. The reverse isan't complete white with this sheet as the paint has gone through to the back of the sheet in some places - you still get the white though.
I then take my rotary cutter and ruler and cut a long triangle. The base of the triangle is the size of the finished bead. (Scissors would do the job but since I use a rotary cutter in my quilting I find it easier.)I then take a metal knitting needle. The gauge of the needle will be the size of the hole of the bead. (I hope that makes sense). A wooden BBQ stick would do the job. Wooden would probably be better actually since we are going to be heating this with a heat gun. However it just gets heated for a little while and not long enough for the needle to get hot - it's never been a problem for me but it's wise to keep an eye out in case it does get hot.
Once the tyvek is wrapped around nice and tightly heat with a heat gun. Moving the heat gun around the "bead" and you will see it shrink and curl up - wondeful! When working with heat tools, heat gun, mini clover iron, hot stencil cutter and the like I always work on baking parchment since it doesn't burn.Voila! Here are some beads I made earlier - years ago actually! Although the basic bead I showed you was just the tyvek you can make them really nice by wrapping some coloured wires around the bead before you start heating it. Once heated the wire gets embedded into the tyvek.