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.