Monday, December 17, 2012

Frost Pattern...


It has been a relatively mild winter so far, but there have been a couple of mornings when everything is covered over in a patchwork of crystalline frost.  I'm no lover of the cold, but I appreciate the networks of wintry iciness.  I like the seemingly random geometric patterns and the idea that they grow one frozen water molecule at a time.
When I opened the latest Lucky Mag, I saw these very Nordic Whistler Print Bandeau headbands by L. Erickson.  Being that my head is shaved, this isn't a very practical fashion accessory for me, but I still liked them.  The pattern on it reminded me of the frost I had seen earlier in the day and I knew that I wanted to make something with this wintry motif.

Since we've opened the store, I've been familiarizing myself with seed beads and various stitches.  I'm new to this form of jewelry-making and am slowly adding to my knowledge of the craft.  When I thought about the frost growing, one molecule at a time, it made me think of peyote stitch.  The pattern develops slowly and one bead at a time.

I didn't have a pattern to follow for this graphic snowflake design, so I winged it and graphed it out myself.  I have never done anything like this before, so it took a couple of tries to figure it out.  I thought it might be as simple as drawing a bunch of circles on a piece of scratch paper and figuring out the pattern that way, but I quickly learned that it was hard to spatially plan without a more consistent grid.  I didn't have any peyote stitch graph paper, so I found a piece of regular graph paper and meticulously drew out the staggered pattern of the stitch.  It was a learning process, but I think I created something similar and captures the vibe of the original print without copying it exactly.  It was a really helpful exercise to wrap my brain around the stitch conceptually.  It's unfinished, but I'm quite pleased with it so far.

5 comments:

Sharon Driscoll said...

Great pattern interpretation.

Anonymous said...

Good job!

Karin Slaton said...

Andrew, this is fantastic! I love your analogy of frost appearing one molecule at a time and the art of beadweaving. Lovely to think about!

Anonymous said...

Intricate and amazing. I love how you just figured it out- in your own way with graph paper...! Very cool ;))

Erika said...

Great pattern! I know I have seen a link for peyote graphs, even 2 beaded peyote. If I can put my finger on in I will forward to you! I find it very gratifying to make up my own designs & my friends have loved them :) I'm curious what thread you are using in this snowflake pattern?