A while back Mar asked me what kind of beadwork I was talking about making in another thread. Well, when I was looking for my old family photos I found what I still have left of photos of my beadwork I used to make. We're talking about I made these back in the late '80s & early '90s. Back when my eyesight was perfect for tiny up close beads.
These necklaces are made like loom beaded, but they are not. They are sewn together entirely with very thin thread, beading needle & size 10, 12, and 14 seed beads. I created this style of sewing the beads together to resemble loom beading even farther back to 1974 when I was 19 yrs. old. I wanted to make my sister a beaded hatband in a Native American design. I had just enough money to buy the beads, thread & needle. I couldn't afford the loom & didn't want to make one, so I just started sewing them together. That hatband was a very crude version & over the years I perfected my tension of the thread to make a smoother design. :twirl:
There was at one time some books out with a style of sewing the beads together similar to mine, but it was done sewing each individual bead down. I started mine by putting all the beads necessary for the first two lines on the thread & sewing down two beads at a time. Once at the end of the row, I picked up the next line of beads for the design & sewed two at a time again. With my style it feels like beaded material & can actually be cut and some color that doesn't look right replaced with a better choice. My son told me once I was too much of a perfectionist. He had watched me many times almost finish a necklace only to cut it in half just to change a bead or two that kept annoying me.
Most of these necklaces are my own design & I will note when it is and isn't mine. Hope you like it Mar & everyone. The pictures went through the flood & these are all I have left. I only have 2 of the necklaces I made left. Some I sold & others I gave as gifts. The ones I gave as gifts pleased me more than any I ever got paid for.
This first one is of a buffalo skull I created made with size 12 & 14 seed beads. It is also the design I chose for my skull tattoo on my left shoulder.
This is my design of a white buffalo.
My version of the Thunderbird. I used this one for the Thunderbird tattoo on my right shoulder. This one is size 10 beads. I still have this necklace.
This one of the End of the Trail I copied from a picture, not my own design.
The hearts in a circle I used from a pattern in a book of beaded necklaces. I made this one for my Mom for her birthday one year.
I still have this necklace and it is one of my designs of a Kachina Eagle Dancer. It had a hard life riding all over the U.S. in a 18 wheeler hanging from the sun visor & shows the wear & tear. You can see that it does not unravel easily even when chunks are missing on it.
My son, husband & I all graduated from the same high school & the town was called Hamlin. So of course the football team was called: The Pipers (Pied Piper of Hamlin) and I made this necklace when my son played for a short bit.
This necklace is a version I made for my Mother-in-Law for Christmas one year. It is in a circular design and that was interesting to create. The earrings I made for a then sister-in-law.
I made hubby a belt buckle one year for Christmas with my Thunderbird design. He still has it & still uses it...umm...when he could still get his belt around his middle.
And I also used to make my own purses out of leather. I made this silhouette design for my purse in honor of my Dad who was an old time cowboy and died when I was 12 yrs. old. I still have it, but the purse went through the flood & I just keep for the memories now.
Some earrings I created also.