Finger-woven bracelets
There’s a brand new obsession sweeping the Wearable Art forum at Wet Canvas: finger-woven bracelets as taught by Robin Atkins. At first I said, “Oh, those are nice, but I’m not really interested.” Next I thought, “Well, maybe I should learn about the technique so that I can speak somewhat intelligently about it on Bead Arts.” And now…?
And now?
Well, I ordered a bunch of cord and am happily culling my larger-holed beads!
My first attempt came during the late-season nor’easter that we had two weekends ago, when I wasn’t going to be going anywhere for proper supplies. I just pulled out some embroidery floss and used that to get the basic idea. The biggest problem I encountered was that the beads I wanted to use had teeny tiny holes, so I couldn’t weave them on properly: I had to go back and sew them on afterwards, which kind of defeats the whole purpose! Also, embroidery floss stretches, so no matter how tightly you pack your weaving, it’s going to end up stretched and sagging at some point.
So I did what any explorer would do under the circumstances: I learned from my experiment, cut it apart, and ordered some high-quality materials to work with! The cords that I ordered are from Jewels in Fiber, which has a glorious array of non-stretching nylon cord. To learn this technique, you’ve got several options. Robin Atkin’s original article on finger-weaving appeared in Bead & Button magazine issue #11. More recently, a similar technique was published in BeadDreams 2003. Probably the easiest way to learn it is to get Robin’s book called Beaded Treasures, available on her website.
handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media
April 27th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Hey Cyndi,
Way back in the dark ages when I was studying fiber arts in college, we did finger weaving and off-loom weaving. BUT…we never put beads with our stuff! Those are SO cool…the beads really dress up what used to be a sort of blah thing.
Thanks for sharing those.
bc
April 27th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Now that I have the right cords, it’s going much better and I’m able to add the beads *as* I weave rather than afterwards! Just wait till you see some of the work my friend Gladys has done…stay tuned
April 28th, 2007 at 1:31 am
I remember doing similar bracelets in the past, but these looks much fuller and have more movement than the ones I used to make. Robin is a great gal, I think that I’ll have to check out her technique book.
Thanks for bringing it up, Cyndi! The wetcanvas thread was fun.
April 28th, 2007 at 8:57 am
This technique allows you to make them as full or as sparse as you like…I mean the *real* technique of adding as you go rather than the “sew ‘em on afterwards” technique shown here. Lots of people do seem to fill it out a bit after finishing weaving by sewing on some extras, including seed bead stacks, that wouldn’t weave on properly