Here we are 13 months after my last post and I am proving that I am definitely the worlds worst blogger. I will confess though that 2024 was the absolute craziest year of my life.
A job opportunity in Alberta became a home purchase and a move within 6 weeks. I’m not kidding. It happened that fast. The best part is that we got to move back to our old stomping ground and in our old neighborhood where everything is familiar. I could not be happier. There is still much work to be done in the house but Wow, I’m home!
Ok, on to beading news then. Before the move I had been working on Kite Earrings.
This was a new technique for me so naturally, as I’m learning this, I am also writing a tutorial to make it easier for you to learn how to do this than it was for me. All I had was a graph. So, yes, there is a tutorial and the other discovery was that there are at least two ways to start this. There is the 4 bead start and the 3 bead start. I prefer the 3 bead start so all of my patterns use the 3 bead start. The tutorial I wrote gives you both methods.
The middle bead of the 3 bead start does not show in the graph that accompanies the pattern. It’s something I add as I’m typing it out and I need to thank my friend Maryam at Al Khazneh for telling me about the 3 bead start.
These patterns start at the very center of the wide end. For example, using the above graph, your 3 bead start would be D, (middle bead), D.
Let’s talk about that middle bead for a second. Yes, you can start with (D, D, D) if you like but if you want the wide end of the earring to be the bottom of the earring, that middle bead can be a drop bead! Or a dagger bead! If you are using the earring, wide end up, then just add your charm, drop bead or delica to the narrow tip when you are finished beading. When I am using the wide end up, I’ll use a delica bead as the middle bead in the 3 bead start and it then becomes part of the little loop I bead to attach the ear wire later.
If you haven’t tried beading a Kite earring yet, I think you will enjoy it. It took me a while to figure out how to get past row 3 because that is the first odd count turn and there isn’t much of a thread path available but I did figure it out and I do explain it as clearly as I can in the tutorial. If you have a little quiet time on your hands, this is definitely a technique worth trying. I love it.
What I like best about earrings beaded using this technique is that they are not bendy like a brick stitch earring can be and I love the shape.
~Bead beautiful things~