Farfalle beads

I was going to show some other photos today, but yesterday's cold and a stubborn headache in combination with a pretty much sun-less day means I'm too tired to edit the pics. Instead I'm continuing my quest of uploading old pics so I can clean up the harddrive a bit.

I like exciting new bead shapes as a seedbeader. Like Miyuki's Tila or PreciosaOrnela's new Twin bead (haven't got my hands on any of the latter yet). These are farfalle beads, which have been around for a couple of years by now. PreciosaOrnela (formerly Jablonex), who made them first, calls these peanut-/bowtie-shaped little beads farfalle, "'butterfly", while Matsuno calls their version peanut beads and Miyuki named theirs berry beads.

They look great just strung, but you can actually use this bead shape in bead weaving too (I've mostly seen it in off-loom designs, but if it works in that, it should work in looms as well).  I first learned about that at the B&B blog section Maggie's Musings. She showed samples of RAW, peyote and herringbone stitched with farfalles -- and offered some tips based on her experience. You can find that blog post here.

So far I've only tried to make chains of single rows of RAW, as you can see below. But just that can be nice enough, seeing how the bead shape in itself has an attractive shape that draws the eye to it.

One reason I haven't done much with these is that I've only got two small bags of farfalles in two colours. Most of my bronze-lined beads were used in a strung necklace and bracelet I made ages ago. I will add a better pic of the set, but this is the only one I have right now.

I like to think I've come some way since making that... Both in terms of photography and jewellery making.

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PS! If you're looking for inspiration for your own project, go to PreciosaOrnela and Miyuki for some jewellery ideas.  PreciosaOrnela have some free projects here, where you'll find a nice farfalle bracelet.