Saturday, February 2, 2013

Cubic Right Angle Weave

Cubic Right Angle weave lends itself beautifully to angles and curves and since that is often my design aesthetic, it is a perfect go to stitch.

But....it can be a challenging one.

This pair of earrings, while they have simple lines present a few challenges in the various joins.  The middle cube of 3 mm crystals has a join off of 4 of it's faces.



Add to that the top ring is done with size 15 cubic raw and then must be joined.  When  joining it is important not to twist the cubes....well not so important visually unless you happen to want to embellish on one of those edges as I did.

Should you not get the join right, when you place the 2 mm crystal in each space, they will not meet up at the end point (ask me how I know?)

I decided on a little visual aid to make sure the join was correct.  On the first bead of the first side wall on every cube I placed a slightly contrasting size 15 bead.  To make the join correct, I needed to match up this bead when doing the join.  Since it was a side wall, the hole is vertically placed along one edge of the circle, making it a perfect place to put an embellishment bead.

Problem solving is one of the necessities of good design.  One that as time goes on in my design career I work harder at. I find there are structural design challenges as well as aesthetic.  I really like the 3 beads between the two crystals at the tip of the ellipse.  A subtle design element, but one that I think lends a completeness to the design.

Have you overcome any recent design challenges, either aesthetic or structural.  Does it give you a sense of satisfaction?

3 comments:

Cynthia Newcomer Daniel said...

I do get a lot of satisfaction out of overcoming issues like that - as you say, sometimes it's the little things that aren't even seen that are the biggest.

Unknown said...

I love how different CRAW can look, depending on embellishment and bead type. I did recently have a design challenge. I didn't solve the problem, but I'm ok with that, because I did learn from the situation.

Unknown said...

I had a huge structural challenge that used the new spike beads to create a curve much like a candy cane. Attaching the curves to a base was difficult too, but now that it is finished I am able to re-order the steps to make it easier to assemble. It gave me great satisfaction to complete it and was honored by my peers as People's Choice. Pictures will be shared soon. I wanted Perry see it in person first.
Thanks for your transparency about your design process, it is very encouraging to us beginner designers.