Tuesday 19 August 2014

The Awesome Spiral Rope

So many of the beaders in the beading community whether a beginner or a pro love the spiral rope! You can totally change the way the design looks by only changing the beads used and the bead count you use.

I am fascinated by this stitch and just totally love it's versatility. You can make a basic spiral rope and wear it with jeans and a t-shirt or bling it up with some tiny crystals or pearls and make it look like you bought it at a designer store. It is such a wonderful stitch and works up pretty quickly too.

If you are reading this blog post and have no idea what on earth i am talking about... Take a look..

This is a Basic Spiral Rope tutorial over on the Operation Tackle That Bead Stash blog which was very kindly made by the very talented Liz Reed at The Crimson Moon and below is a picture of one of the many basic spiral ropes i have made. As you can see you have a lovely contrasting colour scheme of glav silver and gunmetal and it looks fabulous when worn.






















Here is a spiral rope made with 11'0 seed beads and miyuki drop beads that i made for a very dear friend.





















Since buying Jill Wiseman's book Beautiful Beaded Ropes I have learned to play around with spiral rope and make lots of different types. One of the projects in her book is the fabulous 'Falling for You Necklace' which i just had to make. But being on a limited budget i had to improvise and as i didn't have lampwork focals that even slightly matched for this project and colour scheme i made some of the Rings from Nikia Angel's Book Easy Crystal Stitching (another fabulous book that i have made LOADS of projects from, but that is another blog post).

So here is my version of Jill's Wiseman's Falling for You Necklace...


































A spiral rope using 3mm crystal rounds...

















Another using 3mm Rounds in a different colour scheme but longer in length..


This is my most recent spiral rope for which i used 3mm firepolish beads, 4mm czech glass pearls & 11'0 seed beads with an 8'0 seed bead core and it is a whopping 40 inches in length.


































There are so many ways to totally change the look of a spiral rope it really is a under rated stitch.

I would love to find out who 'invented' the original design of the spiral rope, but my searches have not come up with anything of much help. Whoever it was you are a genius!

Happy Beading...

Carol xxx



5 comments:

  1. Gooooooorgeous ropes! I love how you make each one distinct and have such a lovely eye for color combinations!! ((( xxxxx )))

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  2. Good blog entry...I love all your ropes! Jeanne Evans

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  3. Gorgeous work Carol, it's great seeing lots of your spiral ropes in one post! I had the pleasure of seeing your Jill Wiseman necklace in person and it is even more beautiful in the flesh xxx

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  4. Thank you girls. Awww thanks liz. I do love that necklace. I think i am obsessed with ropes hehehe. I love em xxx

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  5. Gorgeous pieces. I love spiral rope too.

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