For those of you who would like to see all the steps on video, I uploaded a video to our YouTube channel.

We had a nice time Deconstructing live on Facebook last night as well, and I think I’ll plan to do a live beadalong each Saturday afternoon or something sensible for most time zones. If you are on Facebook, you can watch last night’s Deconstruction and then the Stitch in the Ditch round as well by clicking the link above to visit our page.

There are a variety of platforms, so it doesn’t have to be Facebook only, but this one was.

If you have any questions after watching the video or the Facebook Live session, put them into these comments and I’ll be sure to answer today.

Next, I’ll show you how to use the Spine and the Wave to make things. And of course how to use the little PodCast bead to start many other forms. Can you even stand it that almost 20″ of Spine comes off of a little bead that can sit on a dime?

A few shots of possibilities for the Wave section as a bracelet or set of chain links using Geometric Capture. To capture any space and hold it, just choose the number of sides and run a few rounds of beads around that edge. Instant geometric forms. Fill them in, (maybe with solid hot colours or stripes or spirals?) and you have an instant bracelet or a set of geometric chain links in some spectacular piece.

Just THINK of the chains you could make with this tactic, and then make some and show us! These are new ideas, and we welcome you, and still have time to feature a few new photos in this section.

You could join these finished sections with single loops, or hinge them together, or some clever tactic that let them be assembled and reassembled. Have fun!

above, just a few of the many things the single Wave section can assemble to make – play with it, and see what yours wants to be

Hello, all! For those of you on Facebook, I’m doing another live question and answer session, and today’s topic is the Casting Spine, and how to use it to create new pieces.

Join us if you can. I’m close to releasing the pattern for the Exploding Set– our BeadALong brought three great new ideas to the table (this is how the collective mind works) and I am incorporating them.

I also have a new Exploding Set to film for YouTube. In this case, I am only filming the Deconstruction, because we know how to put them together now from the first video. Here it is, if you haven’t seen it and want to catch up on how a 24-Point PodCast Bead goes together, and then how work grows on top of it and is neatly removed.

The goal for the live sessions is to have a regular weekly Q&A class, teaching all of the new techniques from our updated Basics section. CGB Team members will participate, and answer in the comments, and I can answer live on the video.

This process helps us finalize and test our new starts as we finish editing our pages. Each class will be supported by a video, accessible to all on YouTube.

Next week, how to cast any Rick-Rack bangle to size with no loose bead start, even asymmetrically or from THIN AIR. I have four new techniques to show you, and you can see Ingrid playing with one below – casting out loops, like fishing line, and then reeling them in at another point.

Like the peaks in the Helix Bangle in CGB, Volume 1, these cast out loops are just little peyote starts,each  nicely anchored. The herringbone increases that will define them as peaks can go in any position on the loop- in the center, or off-center. Then the piece can be built attached to what anchored it, and can be removed or be a new part of that piece.

Also like the Helix Bangle, when you cast out a loop for a peyote start, remember to throw out the beads for two rounds at once. (This requires a bit of know-how re peyote starts, and we’ll show you how it’s done in the video to go with the chat session.)

Books soon!

In the meantime, bead these tools with us, if you want to hit the ground running with the patterns. These ideas, the ones we are teaching now, are the ideas that changed our thinking, our starts, and our ideas about how to make architectural beadwork.

Greetings, all. Much to tell this week, as we head into one of the busiest times in the history of the CGB project. If you’re interested in the timeline of the new books or in the reprinting of the old books (June) this update will fill you in.

If you received this update in your email, it is because you subscribe to the Book Blog. All replies to the email will post as public comments to the blog. Please direct communication to kate@katemckinnon.com.

BatCycle: Beadwork and colour design Emma Malan, architecture Claudia Furthner

For those of you who are new to us, welcome. CGB is unusual. We’re an open-source research team (not a business enterprise). We’ve been on a whirlwind tour of discovery since 2010, and we’re about to wrap up our work with: an open-source technical manual, a huge Pattern Book to teach how to make our designs, and an academic textbook.

If you’re on our list for a first edition of the Pattern Book, and you aren’t interested in the process, don’t feel that you have to wait for us! At any time, if you are impatient for the books, just email your receipt for the pre-order to kate@katemckinnon.com, and receive a refund. We don’t mind a bit, and there is a long wait list of bead nerds who are hoping that there will be a few pre-order bundles left over. The book will go for sale again officially as soon as we actually go to press.

We’re very accessible, too. We schedule time online, answering questions or just beng helpful, and we’re reachable on our Facebook page, or over the email. A couple of weeks ago I also started a Live BeadALong online on Facebook on Friday evenings, and for an hour or so I answer questions and do demos. This evening, I’m going to try to cross-post the session, so I should be able to give a link to watch later for those who don’t use social media.

Take a look at what we are still working on for the books. It’s exciting stuff, and almost finished.

INCREASE PATTERNS and TERMINOLOGY

I’m working this month and next with Julia Pretl and Diane Fitzgerald to refine and standardize an open-source illustrated key to describe corners, peaks, valleys, and all of the increases and decreases we use to create them. I’m so appreciative for this joint effort, and plan to include it in all of our books.

This is why I’ve let Volumes I and II run out of print – I wanted to update their Basics sections to include the new starts, and this new beautiful key.

SPINE AND PODCAST STARTS

When Joy Davison discovered the Spine for us last fall, we realized that had we had found a real secret – the specific boundary in our materials between the smallest (and least stable) line and a strong, useful live line that can birth other forms. The turning point turned out to be just one odd move; a Stitch-In-The-Ditch (SITD) pass that put wave information into three flat rows of peyote stitch.

The tail of this piece is just the Spine, lively, energetic.

If you’ve made one, you know how it works – the SITD goes up and down, in and out, and it transforms a loose collection of single units in three unstable lines into a solid four-line wave with a central core and three live lines.

This idea of giving wave information to matter to create a new form or to harness energy is elemental science, and it matches what we see in biology, materials science, and physics.

The Spine and the PodCast are the best ways we know to start anything, and so all of our patterns are being converted to use them to start. Starting from loose beads is like starting a fire by rubbing sticks. It’s good to know how, but from a practical standpoint it’s better and faster not to have to. Even MRAW (our original start from Volume I) takes too much time, and too much counting.

The Exploding PodCast Set is the best way for people to get the best Spine possible. And we can load it up with all manner of thing. Right now, we’re working open-source to get the best two basic sets, and then we’ll start the new book and the new Basics section with those explosions.

BRIDGES MATH CONFERENCE

This summer, we’re also taking a team of nine to the Bridges Math Conference in Linz, Austria, and right now we are finalizing our submissions for their fashion show. I’m so proud to say that 16 of our pieces have already been accepted into the show gallery, and will be published in the conference proceedings.

This is wonderful for us, because the way the work overlaps with math and science is what we are all about. And this is the first time architectural beadwork will have made a real showing at that gathering, so we’re extra-happy about it.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BEAD WITH US FOR THE FASHION SHOW, WE NEED YOU! (everyone who contributes will be credited)

OPTIONS:

1)  NOVA SCOTIA RETREAT  (email Sam about this:  karensamnorgard@mac.com)

Join the late June retreat in Nova Scotia with the wonderful Sam Norgard, professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Sam is art-directing several of our submissions, and you can take part in the retreat and join. I’ll be participating too, but perhaps not in person (we are moving to DC at that time). Sam is an amazing artist. Her colour sense will knock your socks off, and she is one of the best craftspeople I know.

NOVA SCOTIA CGB FASHION SHOW BEADING RETREAT
Arrive June 23. Leave June 30, 7 nights
5 people in Sunset Cottage, 6 in Yellow Door House

There are nearby Airbnb’s hotels etc. for anyone wishing 

Cost is $1450 and includes 7nights accommodation, breakfast and lunch, snacks.
Dinners are not included.

The studio will be open from 9 am – 9 pm.
A $500 non-refundable deposit will hold your seat. 

 

Below, an incredible Power Puff – Beadwork and colour design by Sam,
architecture by Jean Power.  

2)  BEAD WHERE YOU ARE

We’ll have a couple of big pieces (like a dress covered in butterflies) that we will be asking for help with.

More info on this soon. This week, we are sketching/writing.

Hugs to all, and back into it I go. See you tonight if you are BeadALonging with us on Facebook.

The CGB Team worked hard this summer to get our new forms, stitches, lines and starts vetted, meeting with colleagues, learning more about hyperbolic surfaces, and traveling to the Bridges math/art conference in Linz, Austria to speak with a group of attendees to whom geometry is a serious business. We walked our work in their fashion show, which was fun and got a lot of notice from people who love math. Here is a post from Fibonacci Susan on the show, with more pictures.

Above, from top left:  a sampling of the fashion show entries from CGB: Kate McKinnon wearing a piece beaded by Karen Beningfield and a team of beaders from Cape Town, South Africa, Nico Williams also walking a piece by Karen Beningfield, Franklin Martin, Jr., walking the Cycle Hat by Sam Norgard and a team from SCAD, Ingrid Wangsvik walking the Talon neckpiece by Franklin Martin Jr., and Claudia Furthner walking a giant set of geometric wings in crochet and beads.

I even attended an engineered materials conference in Lisbon, Spain, to get a sense of where morphing surfaces are at, and this week I met with a metamaterials team from Sandia Labs. There is a lot of interest in our beaded surfaces; as pixels or units, beads make good 3D models.

All of this really went well. The best part is that our discoveries overlap many disciplines, and the only limit to how well we will be able to share the work is how well we can communicate  it.

In a simple example, the HyparBlanket (a net of joined Warped Squares first made on team by Ingrid Wangsvik and now being explored by CGB team member Nico Williams) has also been discovered in some of these labs. A team at Georgia Tech invented a foldable origami surface that they named Morph, and it features a topological “eggbox” form that collapses into a flat zig-zag. Of course this is exactly what the HyparBlanket does, but ours is the only eggbox we have seen made of hyperbolic paraboloids (hypars) which is what mathematicians, topologists, architects and origamists call Warped Squares.

Here is the first one we did on team, designed and beaded by the amazing Ingrid Wangsvik in 2017 after one of our group research retreats in Boston. It also folds down into a simple zig-zag line, just like the Georgia Tech piece.

Coincidentally, speaking of HyparBlankets, the Fluevog company, who just awarded Nico Williams a developing artist grant of $10,000 (congrats, Nico!) chose to feature a HyparBlanket he is working on now on their brochures announcing his award.

You can see how interested all of these parties would be to know their shared family tree with the materials science people, and how the mat-sci teams should really also come and look at our beadwork. It’s happening.

Here is a shot of the new one Nico is working on now; he expects it will be 15-17 squares in each direction. Big!

Both Nico and Franklin Martin Jr. are on their way to DC right now; we are beading together for a week, and doing a global BeadAlong starting Saturday morning at 10 am. More on this soon, in a new post. If you use Facebook, you can watch and participate live, if not, you can catch up with the videos on the next day.

Julia Pretl is coming over too, and we will work again on our communal technical section. As soon as we have that done, we have a Pattern Book. Won’t be long now, thanks all!

More soon.

Hello all!

If you use Facebook, please consider joining the CGB Team this morning as we prepare for the release of our new books by beginning to teach the PodCast Bead and the Exploding Sets as they will be presented in the text.  Books soon!

We’ll start today at 10 am Eastern Time (US) and chat for a few hours, demo different PodCasts and help you decide what size to make if you would like to try an Exploding PodCast Set to make several bangles and tools.

If you don’t use Facebook, or can’t join live, don’t worry, we will post the video demonstrations here the following day, or if we can, the same afternoon, and we will answer questions in this comment thread as well as on social media. Please keep questions in this thread to technical issues! Any reply to this post from your email will post as a public comment, so if you are just trying to get in touch with the team, email me at kate@katemckinnon.com and we will be back with you soon.

We will be doing this for the next four days, and hope you can bead along with us. Back with you this afternoon, or see you in the chat today!

This is what we made today, in Step 1 of our new Exploding PodCast Set. Please consider making one, and joining us!

If you jump ahead in this week’s demonstration, you may not make exactly what we do, and it will be hard for the team to give you individual assistance , so if you want our guidance as we go along, please bead with us, and don’t move ahead?

If you would like to see a different one (the first one I showed online) built from start to finish, it’s here. This week, we are specifically making bangles to size, and this one was mostly an exploration of tools.

Today we will use the Hexagon Increase to build on top of our tiny PodCast Bead, and we will make an open, energetic HyperLoop that we call the Wave section of this project.

The Hexagon Increase is a slower increase than the 2-bead Herringbone Increase we used to build the Pod. It covers three rounds of work, so it’s a cycle, and the rounds are what CGB calls Increase, Point, and Fill.

Julia Pretl uses different words to talk about them, and in our first book, we only showed this cycle in a decrease, to make pyramids. So this section is a good example of why we are all getting together, so our words can be the same.

Here are photos of both CGB’s and Julia’s approach to the 3-round cycle. We are showing a decrease, and she is showing an increase. I show these photos just for your information, to help you follow the discussion in the video.

Basically, if you place a two-bead increase (just as we did to make the Pod) and in the next round you SPLIT that increase with a single bead, and then in the third step you place plain peyote in the gaps on either side of that splitter bead, you are ready to repeat the cycle, with Increase, Splitter or Point bead, and then an ordinary peyote Fill Round.

In today’s demo, I will place a section like that on top of my tiny PodCast Bead starter, and show you how to build yours, and what your options are. Join in, or check in later today for a YouTube video, or at the end of the week for our finished printed pattern.

Here are the two examples of our two different ways to discuss the cycle:

Above, Julia Pretl describing a Hexagon Increase cycle, and below, CGB showing a Hexagon Decrease cycle to make a Pyramid. You can really make anything with the technique, it doesn’t have to LOOK like hexagons.

Here is a link to the video of the steps to complete the six rounds of the Wave section of our Exploding PodCast Set. The stitch we are using is the Hexagon Increase, and we are doing it for six rounds. This is two complete cycles of the increase progression.

Tomorrow we’ll demonstrate how to add a Rick-Rack bangle, TO SIZE, to the growing Exploding Set.  On Tuesday, we will add two Casting Spines, and then Deconstruct the set. Thanks to the thousands of people who are beading with us – this is fun.

The video was uploaded this early evening, but is still processing as of this posting. It shouldn’t be long. See you tomorrow!

In Step 1 of our Exploding PodCast Set demo, we built the tiny 3-round PodCast Bead that supports the creation of all of these pieces.  If you want to make this, the how-to video link is here. I made several, but you only need one. Choose your closest size, S (20 bead center) M (22), L (24)  or XL (26).

In Step 2, we placed six rounds of Hexagon Increase to create a HyperLoop bangle start that we call The Wave. The video link is here. The Wave section can grow up to be many beautiful things, but we are building ours to be a HyperBangle.

Today, we’ll be beginning Step 3 of the Set, a Rick-Rack Bangle. I chose to make my Wave sections in warm colours and my Rick-Racks in cool blues for this demo, but of course use any colours you like.

One of the nice things about building pieces from a Pod is that they come off very supple. If you are a super-tight beader, you may have a surprise when you see that your pieces, once Deconstructed, can fold and ripple in ways they never did before.

See you soon for this third demo! We will be live on Facebook again at 10 am Eastern time (US) but if you are not a FB user, just check in here for the YouTube video version at the end of the day. It will be an easy demo, as Rick-Rack is very simple once you get started – each round is the same count and same stitches.

We’ll build 12 rounds on our demo, and then end our thread in preparation for building Step 4, the Casting Spines.

We had so many great Rick-Rack ideas today while we were workshopping the PodCast Set that we decided to take two days to work on the video, so we’ll be back with you tomorrow with that one. These are long days! And we love them.

In the meantime, if you use Facebook and you want to catch up with any of the live sessions, and my videos showing how to do the first two rounds of the Rick-Rack on top of the Wave section, please click here.

Thank you to those of you who are beading with us, it’s excellent. We continue to learn about these magnificent Sets each time we make them.

Below is a Rick-Rack from Daria Tittenberger, cast from a 12-Point PodCast Bead.

Here is the YouTube video of Rounds 1 and 2 of the Rick-Rack Bangle start on the Exploding PodCast Set. If you subscribe to our YouTube channel, it will email you when the next one posts.

Here is a link to the channel, so you can see all of the videos available.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMJSR_xARmMwr13blnymhJw

In between videos posted in this week’s exploration, we are working with thousands of people online, and using this as a sizing experiment, hearing questions, seeing genius developing all around us as people GET what they can do with this. It’s like a rolling wave.

Some people are just beady magicians, and they get it right away. It was a slower path for me to understand the universe of possibilities here, but we have a good shower of them for you, in the books. Thanks for your patience as we test our math and finalize our illustrations and animations.

WE HAVE SOME SURPRISES COMING.

Enjoy the video!

Two new videos posted today in the Exploding PodCast Set exploration – do you subscribe to our YouTube channel?

Greetings, explorers!

I’m finishing the Casting Spine video for the Exploding PodCast Set today, and I’ll upload it as soon as I’m done. I have several different PodCast Sets going right now so we can have some fun Deconstructing this Saturday at noon Eastern Time on YouTube Live.

If you’d like to see a beautiful Deconstruction from this last week when Franklin Martin and Nico Williams were here, don’t miss this one on YouTube.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO PREFER TO WORK FROM PRINTED PATTERNS: hang tight! That is why we are doing this huge size test – to make sure our pattern is the best it can be. We will publish the full pattern for this Exploding Set for free (here on the blog and in full video on YouTube) as soon as we are done with this exploration. 

We’re trying YouTube this time for our live session as we found the Facebook platform to be a bit difficult, and the video quality is poor compared to what the camera can give. Most importantly, though, not everyone uses Facebook. So we’re switching platforms from here on out.

If you subscribe to the channel, it will email you when new videos post. Here is a link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMJSR_xARmMwr13blnymhJw

For those of you who didn’t see the Facebook broadcasts and want to catch up with Rounds 3-5 of the Rick-Rack Bangle portion, below are links to edited clips of just those parts.

The Rick-Rack is 6 beads per side for each size group, and you should bead at least 6 rounds, but no more than 12. This will give us a broad experiment in sizing that will help us finalize our printed pattern for the books. 12 rounds is enough to experiment with pattern – have a peek at this Rick-Rack beauty from Ursula Raymann.

Ursula would have had 12 live rounds, but she stopped with a Splitter bead at the points. You can always finish a Rick-Rack with a point, but for the Exploding Set, we are doing the two-bead increase at every round, including the one you stop at.

The next section, the Spine, is very simple – just six rounds of plain peyote (and remember this is flat, or turn-around peyote – we are not making a connected circle, but a long line).

As there are a few things to know about making Spines, we’ll add a full video of the creation of that section today for those of you who are new to the idea. The most important things to remember are to use a long enough thread to go for 3 or 6 rounds (no inbetween thread changes) and to be sure and do the turn. I have a neat technique or two to show you for that.

See you soon, and click the links below to view any of the videos for Rounds 1-5 of the Rick-Rack Bangle add. After Round 3, all of the rounds build in the same way, so just continue on your own until you have the number of rounds you like between 6-12.

Rick-Rack Bangle Section, Rounds 1-2, video on YouTube

Hello all!

The final video of the Exploding PodCast Set build has been uploaded on YouTube, and as you may have noted, a little extra round-by-round help for those new to Rick-Rack Stitch was uploaded earlier in a separate post here on the blog. Click the link to see it, or scroll back one entry.

Here is the video showing the finish of the Rick-Rack section (I only did 6 rounds, the minimum on this particular Set) and the build of the Spine starts. We’ll do the Stitch-In-The-Ditch on the Spines when they are Deconstructed, and they look like six rounds of silky flat peyote fabric. It’s a piece a’cake if we do it then.

This Saturday at noon Eastern time (US) we will do our first live session on YouTube, and see how it goes. It should be simpler for us all. Have fun, and I will be available all day tomorrow online and here in the blog to answer comments and questions.

There is much more coming from this amazing Exploding Set…..

If you would like to see how to Deconstruct your Exploding PodCast Set, please join us now (or later) at this link, and I’ll be doing one live at noon, and then taking questions, etc.

I will also show how to handle each section after it comes off so it is ready for us.
See you there!

For those of you who want to charge ahead on your pieces ahead of the pattern release, we salute you! Here is a guideline for developing your Wave. The family photo below shows my 12-round Rick-Rack, which fits me perfectly (if I want a taller one I will need to do 7 beads per side instead of 6, or start from a 24-Point Podcast Bead).

You can also see my Wave section in grey, with a red Sizing Band already built onto it. This is the step you will do first for your Wave, to size and stabilize it for the bangle we will build onto it.

Here are the steps (and remember – there is a printed pattern and a final video coming, so if you want our guidance, just wait one week.  : )

When your Wave Section is safely off of your PodCast Bead, it should fit comfortably over your hand. If the size is perfect when you put it on, then finish the “valley” sections of your inner ring with two beads, to hold it open, and treat that space as two-drop peyote from there on out (place two beads in that space in successive rounds).

(click image to open in a new window, larger)

If the fit is loose, choose to fill that valley space with stitches of either 1 bead (regular peyote) or just the thread, which is 0 beads (a decrease). One of these will probably reduce the Wave band to your perfect size.

I chose one bead for my fill round, because my Wave was just *a little bit* too big. Choosing 0, 1 or 2 beads for that inner round is like choosing the S, M or L of your particular PodCast size. You can experiment, and see what you like. It’s only one round, easy to re-do.

Once you’ve found your perfect fit, then complete the first inner round and reinforce the edge by passing your thread completely around it, passing through the innermost two rounds of beads – the round you just added, and the edge round you took off of the PodCast Bead.

When you have reinforced, add more rounds of plain peyote to build the Sizing Band, which should fit you PERFECTLY.

(You are in charge of this fit, so choose wisely on bead placement in your first Inner Round. And yes, you can be creative with staggered choices, size 15 rounds, etc.)

Once the band is stable, why not take a Circular Sizing Spine off of it so you have that in your toolbox as well? Everything you make around that custom-built Spine will fit you, unless you build something that begins to creep inward. REMEMBER TO PLACE DETONATION POINTS SO YOU CAN CUT THE SPINE OFF EASILY! I like to put them every inch or so when they are my only hope.

Below: Sometimes I just take a Spine directly off of the Wave, if it’s perfect, like this. This one is quite easy to snip a bit if necessary, as it sits a bit apart from each increase in the HyperLoop.

After you have built and removed your Circular Casting Spine, you can build the Sizing Band as high as you like – just a few rounds, or tall enough to fold over for a rolled edge. If I know I want to make a rolled edge, I place an Elegant Guide Round or a Stitch-In-The-Ditch round at the start, which will give me something simple to Zip to if I want to fold down a little wall of peyote stitch into a roll.

Once you finish the interior to your liking, then thread up and turn your attention to the Outer Rounds – continue to add Hexagon Increase for as many rounds as you like, and enjoy watching the ruffle build. You will learn to contain it, and to shape it as you go. Try not to bead too tightly.

The photo below  is where I am at on my pink, gold and clear sample. I plan to deepen the ruffle substantially.

If you wonder what that windowed excitement is between my gold section and my pink, it’s an MRAW Band, which I added in clear cylinder beads. I just think the MRAW is so beautiful, and it’s easy to add onto any existing edge. I will upload a video showing how quite soon.

This is the piece that inspired us to add the Wave to this Exploding Set.

It was crafted by Joke Van Biesen, and shown on the runway at the Bridges Conference this summer (2019).

Joke added new increases to her piece (she slipped them in between existing increases, two beads inserted into one space in the peyote fabric) whenever she wanted to add more beads to her outside edge. In this way, she controlled the appearance of her ruffle, and made it more dramatically flared than a simple Hexagon Increase on 20-24 points can make. If you look carefully at my pink bangle above, you will see that I slipped a few extra into my edge too.

MRAW (Modified Right Angle Weave), a CGB-designed Stitch

For those who have asked for a simple tutorial on adding an MRAW Band to an existing edge of peyote – here is a nice excerpt for you from a video I’m building for the Exploding PodCast Set:

One of the most exciting things we are exploring on team right now are spirals. This is one you have seen before- it is an example of the Hexagon Increase on a Spine.

When we realized that the 2/1/1 or Hexagon Increase made hexagonal helical coils, of course we wanted to try making other counts.

Joy Davison created this fabulous square spiral built on a small 24-point PodCast Bead, and this is a short excerpt from a video I am building on Deconstruction – I thought you might like to see it.

What type of increase pattern will YOU try on a Spine or a PodCast? We are so curious to see more, more more of these spirals- and we’d love to see them made straight (as opposed to in the round, for bangles) so we can photograph them and study them that way before they are joined.

Please send us photos of what you make! For reference, here are the pages in CGB, Volume I that show one way to do a Square increase. There are several. Click the photo to open larger. It’s from the Basics Section, which is free to download here on our website.

Hello, all! I’d like to share an excerpt from one of the patterns from our upcoming Technical Section, soon to be released in an open source manner to lead off the publication of the CGB Pattern Book, the Colouring Book (blank graphs and sample colourways for various CGB projects) and the academic textbook that will wrap this phase of the research project.

The books will be available for sale again as soon as we have an expected ship date. It won’t be long now!

This sneak peek is for a 2-Drop PodCast Bead, architecture by Franklin Martin Jr., inspiration Jean Disrud and the original CGB PodCast.

A full pattern (with step-by-step instructions) for a 22-Point  Exploding Set built on this base will be released shortly, so if you’d like a head start (and you know how to make a regular PodCast bead) you can craft this little beauty to five rounds.

Feel free to print and share this simple summary of how to do the job in two-drop. Remember, where you would normally place one bead (the peyote stitch) use two beads. Where you would normally place two beads (on the tip of each point) pick up four beads instead. It’s fun and fast once you get the hang of it.

From this versatile starter, we’ll add 5-12 rounds of 2-Drop Rick-Rack (above, tied into star-form) and a 2-Drop Casting Spine. THEN the fun really begins. Click here to view or download a PDF of this page, or click the image below for a larger view.

More soon!