plaidstt

Plaid Beads
Courtesy Of
Anne Ricketts

Ok, for those of you asking about how I do my plaids, I've made up a little tutorial for ya!

#1 Make a base bead (usually white) and add a fairly thick straight stringer of transparent color around the center. Melt stripes into the bead after each step.

#2 I then use a thin stringer of an opaque colors on top of the fat transparent and go around the center.

#3 I then place in 4 (or 6 if you put the lines together close) going from hole-to-hole in 4 equal spaces around the bead. I use either opaque or transparent.

#4 I then go around the bead on each side of the 1st large line around the center of the bead with thin stringer in either transparent or opaque.

I usually use 2 opaques and 2 transparents or really whatever would look good! This is an excellent practice for stringer control!! Trust me!! Here's an example of some recent plaids I did. As you can see there are endless color combos that you can play with!

Helpful Hints;
When I do the hole-to-hole lines I heat up the bead at the hole just enough for the stringer to stick and then go across to the other hole and melt off. I use a small carving tool with a flat end to pat down the ends of the stringers but you could use a pick or graphite tool, anything that can tuck down the ends.