Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Now we spell LOVE- Letter E by Marcia DeCoster

The final in the four letters you'll need to bead love!

Quick note, many of you are posting your LOVE letters on Facebook and we've  been collecting them up and adding them to collages.  Please do us a favor and post a photo of your E and your LOVE separately.  This gives us less editing work to do so that we can share everyone's beautiful letters with you.  Please try not to include distracting backgrounds or text.  Thank you!

If you've already beaded L, O and V the E will be super easy.  Basically it is the same as L with both a bottom and a top.  The mid-point has 2 cubes, one cube wide.  The letter was purposely designed with an odd number of rows so there would be a mid-point.



Notes: If this is your first letter, you may want to check back on the L post here to see what I say about thread.  Basically I am a double waxed fireline girl because I think it gives the best results in this design.

Supplies:  You'll need small amounts of a main color in size 11º and an even smaller amount for the serif.  Some size 15ºs will come in handy for adding the embellishments.  Make a nice collection of some O beads, 3 and 4 mm crystals, pearls, or fire polish, a few crystal sequins if you have them and whatever else strikes your fancy.

If you're not familiar with CRAW this video from Heather Collin is a good one to watch.  To be successful with the letters you should have a pretty good grasp of cubic right angle weave.  In this project you will be weaving not only a cube on top of a cube but cubes next to cubes as well,  to make a column that is 2-cube wide.


CRAW: Pick up 4 size 11 beads and tie in a circle. These are the floor beads. Pick up 3 beads (side, ceiling and side beads) and pass through the floor bead you are exiting from the opposite side (this forms the first wall) and the next floor bead. Pick up 2 11’s and pass through the side bead from the first wall, the floor bead and the next floor bead (this forms the second wall). Repeat for the third wall, adding 2 beads. Pass through the last floor bead and the side bead from the first wall. Pick up 1 bead and pass through the side bead of the third wall, the floor bead, the side bead of the first wall and the ceiling bead of the first wall.


Make a second CRAW cube attached to the first one by repeating all of the steps above. The ceiling of the first cube will become the floor of the second cube. Turn the two cubes horizontal and weave to exit a ceiling bead on the left of the 2 cubes as shown. (This was previously a side bead, when the work is turned it becomes a ceiling bead of that cube and a floor bead of the cube about to be built.)




When weaving cubes side by side you will be weaving 7 walls. The interior wall between the two cubes is a shared wall. Begin by picking up 3 seed beads and passing through the ceiling you are exiting.


The illustrations below show how the face of the cube has side beads as well as a floor and ceiling. Use the arrows to see in what order to build the walls. See below for how many beads each wall should have.


Wall 1: 3 beads

Wall 2: 2 beads (side is shared with Wall 1)

Wall 3: 2 beads (side bead is shared with Wall 2)

Wall 4: 1 bead (Pass through the shared floor bead and up through the first bead of wall one. Pick up the one ceiling bead and pass through the side bead of wall 3, the shared floor bead again and then through the floor bead for wall 5)

Wall 5: 2 beads (side is shared with Wall 1)

Wall 6: 2 beads (side is shared with Wall 5)

Wall 7: 1 bead (Pass through the floor bead of 7 and the shared side bead from Wall 3. Pick up the one ceiling beading pass through the shared side bead from wall 6, the floor bead from wall 7 and up through shared side bead from Wall 3 and 7, shown as arrow 8 in the illustration)


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With the work turned so that walls 3 and 7 are facing you, pass through the ceiling bead on the left. Repeat these steps an additional 11 times for a total of 13 rows of 2 cubes each.

Turn the work so the cubes you just finished are at the bottom and weave to exit an edge bead on the second row of cubes as shown. Build 4 rows, 2 cubes wide for the bottom of the E.

Weave up to the middle cube, 7th from the bottom.  Bead two cubes here. as shown  Weave up to the top of the E and weave 4 rows, 2 cubes wide the same as the bottom of the E.



Serifs: To add the serifs, in a contrasting size 11º weave to exit an edge bead. Pick up 3 size 11ºs and pass through the edge bead from the opposite side. Weave through a ceiling bead in that cube and pass through the corresponding edge bead on the back of the L. Repeat the 3 bead picot. Pass up through the first and second beads to exit the middle bead of the picot. Pass the thread through the middle picot bead on the front picot and back through the middle picot bead on the back. Weave to the edge bead for the next picot. If I have a lot of thread left I will pass the thread through the middle of the cubes up to the where the next picot needs to be placed.



If you need to stabilize the inside corners of the E you can run thread through the two edge beads on either side of the corners in both the front and the back.


Embellishments: Make yourself a pretty little pile of coordinated accent beads and choose a location on your letter to apply them. Use the working thread or weave in a new thread if necessary. Exiting a seed bead on the base of the letter, pick up an accent bead, a size 11º or 15º turning bead and pass back through the accent bead and an adjacent bead on the base. Repeat until you have a pleasing assortment of beads arranged on your letter.


And now for a a little surprise....I heard mentions more than once that perhaps HOPE would be a good word as well.  Well you have an O and an E and below I will give you some guidelines for creating an H and a P.





To create the H, use directions above to make two,   2 cube wide columns of 13 rows. Weave to exit and edge bead on the 7th row of one of the columns.  Bead 3 one cube wide rows and join to the 7th edge cube of the second column.  Add serifs and embellishments as you did for the LOVE letters.




For the P, use the directions above to make one, 2 cube wide column.  Weave to exit a floor bead on the top cube so that your first wall will be on the edge of the column. Make cubes as follows:  Note:  the first and all interior walls will be size 15's (aqua beads).  Make 4 cubes with 1 bead on each ceiling.  Make 3 cubes with 2 beads on the front and back face ceilings and 1 bead on the edge.  Make 3 cubes with 1 bead on each ceiling.  Join the last cube to the edge of the 5th cube from the top.  Add serifs and embellishments as you did for the love letters.



 



Struggling with the P?  Here is a little write up I did to help out. This is for the 3 cubes which have 2 ceiling beads on the front and back face.

Take it one cube and then one wall at a time. I try to think of picking up sides and ceilings where the front face and back face ceilings are the multiple beads. Start on the interior wall, which is the one with 15's. So Wall One, 3 size 15 beads = 1 side, 1 ceiling, 1 side. Wall Two (front face of the letter), 3 beads = 1 side and 2 ceilings. Wall Three (exterior edge of the letter), 2 beads = 1 side and 1 ceiling. Wall Four (back face of the letter) you only add the ceiling so only 2 beads. Just take it slow, one wall at a time starting with the interior wall of 3 size 15's and you should be able to see what is going on.

Stay tuned for next week where I'll have a few ideas of how to use your LOVE letters!


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Blogpost written by Marcia DeCoster

For a printable version click here.