The Beadwork Projects
Beadwork editors Melinda Barta, Jamie Hogsett, and Dustin Wedekind all created stunning pieces, suitable for an elegant dinner party:

• Melinda used circular one- and two-drop peyote stitch to create a fringy centerpiece for her necklace.
• Jamie dangled green nautilus beads from short lengths of chain in her simple, yet striking necklace.
• Dustin created a beautiful brooch with right-angle weave—and then created a second brooch with nearly all of his remaining beads!

The Beading Daily Projects

Sandi's "Under Construction" Project To make the challenge project even more challenging, contributing editor Sandi Wiseheart and I agreed to split one kit of beads and create a project that was not a necklace, bracelet, or pair of earrings. (More than 300 readers voted on how Sandi should complete her project—stay tuned to see how it came out!)

For my project, I decided to take the funky route with a pin that would be more at home on a denim jacket than a beautiful gown. As soon I saw the beads, I knew that I wanted to create a nature-themed piece. At first, I thought I would make a flower, but in playing around with the beads, I began to imagine a dragonfly pin. I found two scrapbooking tags, one vellum and one metal, that served as the base for the piece. (I love scrapbooking materials, even though I'm not a scrapbooker.)

For the dragonfly's body, I sewed a line of beads to brown moleskin fabric covered with blue tubular wire mesh ribbon I found at Bead Expo. This was the first time I'd ever worked with wire mesh and I really liked it! It was easy to stretch apart and much softer than I expected. To complete the piece, I added wiredworked antennae, dagger wings (sewn to the fabric) and a border of seed beads and chain.

I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille. P.S. I'm a decent photographer, but for some reason, I could not take a good photo of this project. Too dark, blurry, weird camera angles. . .Then late on a Friday afternoon, I found our photographer Ann in her basement studio shooting a project for another magazine. She generously agreed to squeeze me in and came back in about fifteen minutes with this beautiful photo. I had a little teary, makeover show moment in my office. Maybe this little pin could go to a grown-up dinner party. Thanks, Ann!