Arts&Cooking&Crafts

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Pattern name--Scorpion Tracks.

This is a gift for my aunt, whose work involves scorpions. Ladder stitch.

Twisted hematite black 6mm bugle beads, nickel 15/0, nickel 11/0, nickel 8/0, 2mm dark blue-grey bicone crystal, 4mm dark blue-grey bicone crystal, 10mm black clay pearl, two wire and wood scorpion findings. Toggle clasp.

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Final finished product of the DNA! This was a gift for my molecular biology professor, so it reads SHARON, with a stop codon for the O (the one that codes for pyrrolysine, though, so hopefully that’s better than just STOP). Inside each red cube is a gold 15/0, to represent the phosphate. Purple=C, green=A, silver=T, gold=G.

Purple-lined purple 11/0, green-lined green 11/0, gold-lined yellow 11/0, silver 11/0, translucent red 15/0, translucent blue 15/0, gold 15/0, blue-black 3mm bugle beads.

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Playing around a little! Metallic olive green Superduos, silver-lined lime green delicas and gold-lined 15/0 seed beads. I’m not sure what this stitch is--I was just messing around.

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Finished DNA strand. I realized too late that I made a mistake and made A into a pyrimidine instead of a purine, so it’s nonsense instead of coding. Whoops! I’m remaking it. If it had worked, it would have read MA. Gift for a friend!

Anyhow, made with blue and red 15/0, shiny black 2mm bugles, purple-lined purple 11/8, gold-lined yellow 11/0, green-lined green 11/0, and silver 11/0. Pattern my own creation.

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Three pictures this time, but only two projects:

One, a gift for a friend. This is an icosahedron, pattern by Gwen Fisher. The new place I’m getting beads from doesn’t label by color, so I’m just going to list: Gold 15/0, gold 8/0, purple 11/0, purple 6mm FirePolish, and blue-purple 3mm magatama beads.

The second one is all of my attempts at making the new pattern for the DNA. The weird curled-up one at the top is the pattern I finally ended up going with.

The third is the project as it finally begins! I’m making seven six-rung DNA ladders, one for each of my team members in my Molecular class, and one heavy-duty not-yet-completely-planned-out one for my teacher. Blue and red 15/0 for the sugar-phosphate backbone, gold 11/0 for base G, purple 11/0 for C, green 11/0 for T and silver 11/0 for A. Black 2mm bugle beads to represent hydrogen bonds.

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So! Very often I make beaded gifts for teachers. This year, I’m taking Organic Chemistry and Molecular Biology. I decided to make a model molecule and a strand of DNA for each teacher, respectively.

The model molecule will be modified CRAW and use seed beads, crystals, and hex beads. The DNA molecule is a work in progress!

See, although I love love love Gwen Fisher’s DNA pattern, I have a few issues with it. First, and most bratty, it’s a little boring. Second, it doesn’t display the major and minor grooves in DNA. Third, the DNA molecules don’t have the sugar-phosphate backbone that real DNA molecules have.

So I’m stupidly making my own pattern, hallelujah! You see some of my notes above. In the progress shot, you’ll note part of the molecule- note the cube and tetrahedron (I’m testing them out.) More importantly, though, you can see the first base pair I’ve created for the DNA strand. Still rough and kind of gross, of course. It is an unholy combination of SRAW, herringbone, and Albion stitch. That’s just the base pairs, of course; I still have to figure out how to model the rest.

Pray for me.

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Two of my personal favorites! The pattern is from Gwen Fisher, whose website is here. 

These are a cube and a dodecahedron. They both use the same kinds of seed beads: 15°, 11°, and 8°. The cube uses copper 11s and pink 15s and translucent gold 8s. The dodecahedron uses Aqua-Oxblood 8s, clear red 11s, and pink 15s. The dodecahedron features drop beads. The main beads forming the structure are 6mm FP in the cube and 6mm stone beads for the dodecahedron.

I had a lot of fun making these!

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Not the best picture, but ah well.

Another gift, this time for my mother. Cluster stitch necklace. The pattern was found in Stitching with Two-Hole Shaped Beads.

Copper 8° and 11° seed beads, I-don’t-remember-what-color tiles. Plum-colored 15° seed beads. I finished it with a copper toggle clasp that you can’t see from this angle.

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Gifts for a teacher. I bought the pattern for the bracelet and then modified it to make matching earrings.

Unfortunately, I don’t recall the stitch or the names of the colored beads, but I’ll do my best.

Dark blue 2-hole tiles, translucent rainbow 2mm FirePolish, 15° purple seed beads, silver SuperDuos, 10° blue translucent seed beads, 8° purple seed beads.