It is a great day today! Why? Because my first 3D 5-wing ring is done! 3D, 5-wing, what is that? It's eye candy not only beautiful to behold, but pure joy in its creation!
Single frame photos don't quite show off all its wonky angles, undulations; how about a GIF... Interestingly, this is not a static piece of beadwork; those ruffles can fold up and downward, giving the ring even more shapes and presentations. Oh how I love jewels that flex!!
A little back story:
You may not have seen any beadwork on my website here, mostly because I was totally dedicated to chainmaille when this website started. Before chainmaille, I had worked on many other crafts, off-loom beading being one of them. There was an awesome bead shop in my neighborhood. All the jewels and baubles, no, not the kind you buy and wear, but the kind that I learn how to make and create my own pieces, like this Turning Leaves, which is my first beaded bracelet. Was I proud of myself or what?! :-)
For this bracelet, I bought a whole bunch of Delica beads in all my favorite colors, thinking I will find all sorts of projects to work with. Funny thing is, almost all the beadwork after this bracelet were all made with seed beads. So the Delicas were left languishing in my bead drawers for nearly 20 years, until the day I wandered into the world of Contemporary Geometric Beadwork... "In Awe" doesn't begin to describe my reaction! I dived head first into this magical dimension, no, it's not just another world, it's a totally different dimension.
By now, despite my original motivation was to use up the stash of Delicas, I ended up buying more beads! Y'all know how that works, right? Oh silly me...
My experiments started with a few simple triangles, sewn together into tetrahedrons.
Then on to squares, not the flat 2D squares, but "warped" squares, yes! Five of these together make a lovely puffy star!
Then I tried my hand at the coolest toy ever: a beaded kaleidocycle!!!!
To be fair, to get the full effect of this baby, one needs to see it in action. So here you go: Beaded kaleidocycle with pawprints
By now, I know I've reached the point of no return. Several more warped squares in black and white for IBW's Black and White Together Project feel about right.
I've replenished my Delica drawers with more beads, more colors, even a whole cone of Nymo thread. I'm in this for the long haul, can you tell? ;-)
Now, here we are, the 3D 5-wing ring. Actually it started out with just 3 wings following one of the basic projects in the first volume of Contemporary Geometric Beadwork; 3 wings on each side of the MRAW Bellyband, which was on itself crazy fun already!!! After 3 rounds, I got curious, "What would it look like if it's 3 wings on one side, a few more on the other, would it be lopsided? I like lopsided..."; so here we go. That's pretty much how this 5-wing ring came about. No plans, no rules, no limits, go as I feel, kind of freestyle. And I LOVE it! It's a ring; it's a pendant; no, it's a brooch; you name it; it fits perfectly at home!
Off to make more...
