Tila, Tila, Twin!

Now that I have a brand new work space with brand new beads, I wanted to experiment with some fresh designs. Of course, I cannot abandon my beloved Tila beads but I wanted to play with the *NEW* Czech Twin Beads. In my Tila obsessed mind, I thought that they would be a perfect fit for one another.

Coming up with a design was not quite as easy as I thought. While I love the shape and colors of the Twin Beads, they are not as uniform as Miyuki beads, which I primarily use. I knew I wanted to use Tilas in combination with Twin Beads but I wasn't quite sure how to make them fit together without awkward spaces. Miyuki seed beads seemed to be my best option. At first, I attempted size 8/0, but they were too large. Next, I tried size 11/0 and they worked perfectly!

Once I squared away the sizes, I had to come up with a color scheme (my favorite part!). For this bracelet, I used a combination that I have never tried before - mustard Tilas, AB bronze Twin Beads, and vermilion galvanized Miyuki seed beads. I must digress - the seed beads are such a wonderful color! I can envision using them in so many future designs.

At first I was unsure about the color combination because it was out of my comfort zone, however, a friend assured me it looked Aztec. That made me happy.


I'm a huge fan of the ladder stitch for two reasons:

1) it's easy
2) it is nice and symmetrical (I value symmetry)

So, this bracelet was created using the ladder stitch. I treated the Tilas as an individual unit and stacked a unit of Twin Beads/seed beads above it. I repeated stacking the units until I reached my desired length. And, of course, I finished the piece off with a hand-stiched Tila toggle. Easy as pie!

My Tray Runneth Over

Over the last three days, I have finished more projects than I have in the last three weeks...all at the expense of my dearly departed wisdom teeth. I expected to be out of commission for the duration of the weekend, so I made sure to stock up on "couch project" supplies (seen left). I consider a "couch project" to be anything that I can half pay attention to while I watch inane television to dull the pain in my jaw. I use Miyuki beads so much that I could practically stitch them together in my sleep. Therefore, most of my bead store booty consisted of cubes, rounds and Tilas.


This bracelet follows a similar pattern to one of the Tila bracelets I featured in a previous post. I used 4mm matte lilac cubes and surrounded them with matte merlot-colored bugles. I lined the large cubes and bugles with 1.8mm matte iris cubes. To finish the bracelet, I used the square stitch for the toggle....easy as pie!

In addition to this project, I finished three pairs of earrings, two PMC pieces, a diagonal stitched Tila bracelet, and a freshwater pearl memory wire bracelet that I am donating for a charity auction. Over the next few days, I expect to update my blog frequently...it's not like I have anything better to do! I guess you win some, you lose some - I can't eat solid foods but I can make a million pieces of jewelry with my new found down-time!

Summer Vacation

This summer, I have found myself outside more often than I have been seated at my workbench...I'm almost excited for winter so I can hibernate with my beads! I did, however, find a little bit of time to make this neat little cuff!

I love black and white checkerboard patterns. I made this one with Miyuki Tilas (my favorite!), stitching the beads together using a simple ladder stitch. It took about 1.5 tubes of each color of Tilas to finish this bracelet.


On the bracelet, I left out a little window for a toggle to fit though. I made toggle using 1.8mm Miyuki cube beads paired with the Tilas. It was attached using a few of the matte black cube beads. And there you have a very easy closure! The finished product fits like a glove and is very comfortable to wear.

I probably should rename this blog to tilabeads.blogspot.com! I think I am their biggest cheerleader!

Love at First Sight

One of the advantages of living two blocks away from the local bead store is being able to peruse all of the new inventory as it is received. I'll never forget the day I first laid eyes on the new Miyuki Tila beads...I loved everything about them! They come in a variety of finishes including matte, AB, and opaque and the neutral colors will work with nearly anything you can come up with. Pictured left are the Tila beads in Antique Ivory Pearl Ceylon.

I'm an equally enthusiastic fan of the 1.8 and 4 mm Miyuki cube beads. For a spell, I was including them in virtually all of my stitched designs. The first Tila design I came up incorporated all three of my favorites: a "ribbon" of silver 4 mm cubes are surrounded by 1.8 mm blue matte cubes. A row of Tilas on either side finish the piece.


This has easily become my favorite and most worn bracelet in my collection. To attach all of the layers, I used a ladder stitch - one of the easiest (in my opinion). I began with one Tila bead - shown here in Matte Oyster Luster - stitched the two cubes on top of it (one cube for each hole of the Tila bead), pulled the thread through one 4 mm Miyuki cube, and repeated the process for the other half of the unit. It's not at all difficult once you get the hang of it and you end up with a great finished product.

****

This is my most recent design. I just completed it this evening and, I must say, I love wearing it! After some experimenting, I have found that the 3 mm Toho bugle bead works very well with the shape and size of the Tila. A unit of two bugle beads with a 15/0 Miyuki seed bead at each end is roughly the same size as a Tila. Again, I used the ladder stitch to combine the units.

****

It's safe to say that I have purchased nearly every color of Tila, so more designs will follow. I'm off to a good start and can't wait to find more ways to incorporate this wonderfully versatile bead in my designs!