Flamingo

This summer, we have a fresh spin on our Farmer's Market series. When we welcomed our new photography and graphics guru, Claire, to the BSDC team we discovered something fun: Claire sells her artwork at her local Farmer's Market! The gears started turning...what if, instead of being inspired by photos of fruits and veggies, we took Claire's artwork as inspiration? It is a fun one-off that we could not resist. So say hello to Claire, her artwork (find her paintings here!), and four new samples for Farmer's Market, each one inspired by a painting of Claire's.


Flamingo was a bright pop of color that Alley couldn't resist! Echoing the ripples in the water, the feathers of the flamingo, and the lush leaves, Alley took Claire's brushstrokes and turned them into beadwork! As always, Alley's work leaves us speechless! Combining laddering, macramé, and tassel-making, this is a signature Alley piece from end to end.

This four-wrap bracelet consists of three large sections and one small section. The 3 large sections are 8" each because she did not want the transitions to line up when worn.  The pink section is about 3 - 3½".
From the button end, start with a section just like Alley's Sea Crowns project, but this time we're using single strands of 1.5mm leather. Bring your leather and Fine C-Lon through the shank of your button, as you would to start most projects. Add a third single strand of leather. Macramé over all three with the C-Lon to secure, and add a drop of GS Hypo Cement. Secure all three strands just below the button using a Transitions bead. Thread C-Lon through the transition and macramé, adding the beads to the middle strand. Then add the macramé and beads to the side strands using the different colors of C-Lon and 8/0s like the Sea Crowns project. Braid them! Use a Transitions crimp bead to hide the transition ending the Sea Crowns section and reducing your leather strands to two, and begin laddering with Fine C-Lon. In the first of these next two laddered sections, Alley alternated 5mm Czech Rondelles and 8/0 Miyuki Seed Beads. From here, she used another Transitions crimp, and laddered rows of 8/s, anding with another Transitions. From here she creates a diamond shape, laddering 6/0s with Regular C-Lon to taper outward and back in, and also wrapping 6/0s around the edge of her leather to make a pretty edge. A final Transitions bead ends the laddering, and a button loop is created with more Regular C-Lon used to Macramé each side of the loop and to close the loop. Overhand knots are tied in the leather at the ends. Alley made the tassel by wrapping the Regular C-Lon around a piece of cardboard. She tied off the top tightly with a small piece of C-Lon and then added GS Hypo to the distressed end cap and pushed the top of the the tassel in. When dry, trim the ends of the tassel to make them even., and attach to your bracelet with a jump ring.

Find ingredient quantities for Flamingo listed above for easy shopping, and find our other samples here.

Please join us as our worldwide community gathers on Facebook and YouTube at 10:30am Pacific Time on June 30, 2021. It’s so much fun to go live with us and bead together! After the live broadcast the video will be available above.

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