Freeform Beading is one of the most relaxing, enjoyable beading methods I know. Once the beaded base is established, you're free to add all the fun little extra beads including your focal, if you want a focal, or Swarovski crystals, vintage beads, beaded flowers, or just about any type of bead or bit of beadwork you can think of.

Freeform Peyote Stitch Beading is also great for those of you for whom following a pattern is a challenge, artistically or visually. I have trouble with both the visual and the artistic aspect. Perhaps if it were easier for me visually, I wouldn't get so fidgety. Color, texture, balance, scale and fun are the most important aspects of freeform beading, and this week I'll begin a freeform project just to show one in action, from picking the beads (well, they are picked, but I'll show you the choices) through each of the steps to the finished bracelet. I'll do that by posting periodic here in the Beadwork Blog.

I will also return to an older project, one I began as a Freeform Beading experiment using beads and colors that are Not My Usual Bead Color Palette and are very different from my normal color choices and in shapes I do not normally incorporate into my beading. The colors are maroon, mustard and charcoal, the focal beads are handmade in Greece from a company called The Mykonos Beads and are from their collection of Raku finish beads. Since my last post about this project, I also found some wool bass in the same shades as the three I'm using, and will incorporate those, too. This will be a fun, interesting project in working outside the usual parameters for me! I hope you enjoy following along. Oh, and please, feel free to offer any comments along the way. Later today or Tuesday I'll post a better picture of the Not My Usual project, so you can get a better look at the colors involved.

Here's this week's Top Ten Free Bead Patterns for you to bead, to use to teach beading to others, to teach yourself a new beading stitch or beadwork technique, and to share with other beaders just for fun!

A review of the tutorial DVD Photo Transfer Polymer Clay Beads and Cabochons by Matthew Nix. This DVD covers a particular method for applying photo transfers to polymer clay to create your own custom beads and pendants, and has a separate section on how to create wire wraps for your polymer clay creations.

While this DVD does not rank high on my list of polymer clay tutorial material, unless you have extensive experience with polymer clay and photo transfer materials, I can recommend the material found on the About.com Jewelry Making site. Guide Tammy Powley has created an excellent Polymer Clay section on her site.

Leslie Shepherd, About.com Guide to Miniatures has a lot of helpful tutorials on polymer clay, too, including the articles found in her Miniatures Projects section on her site.

As soon, I'll be adding some basic instructions for using polymer clay, rollers, molds and a variety of colorants, including inks, dyes, rubber stamping inks, glitter, and other additions to make your own custom polymer clay beads.

Here's a list of some Great Gift Ideas for any beading Mom.

Does your mom bead? If she does, then are you giving her something bead-related, and are you beading a gift for her, too? I figure that for those beaders whose Mom's don't bead, they are fervently working away right now on something marvelous for Mom, since we who bead tend to want to gift our loved one's with our beadwork. And our loved one's (most of them, there's the occasional strange person) usually are begging for beadwork, anyway, so it works out nicely.

So, what are you beading? What are you buying? Let us know!

Take your time and have a look around Sig's site, check her patterns, books, and other fun things. Purchase a kit, a pattern, or a book, as Sig is one of the finest bead pattern deisngers in the beading world. She offers wonderful kits, and her patterns are not to be missed.

Before you head out, loaded down with your purchases, do take a few minutes to spend enjoying the latest installment of Sig's occasional series of beading, bead world, bead pattern design, beading book authorship, and the life of the professional and hobbyist beader in general, in her terrific parody series titled The Cracked Bead. Click on the little red box with the word "new" in the left-hand navigation bar, the second link from the top, to reach the page on Sig's site. The link is titled "Chapter 6, the Cracked Bead" and will take you right to the main Introduction Page to the series of The Cracked Bead so that you can read the story behind the articles and the introduction to each individual entry.

The individual columns are in PDF form, so you'll need to have the Adobe reader installed on your computer to access the entries, but Sig has thoughtfully provided a link for you so that you may install it right at her Web site.

Chapters to date include the following:

• Chapter One: I Want to Become a Millionaire by Beading and designing!!
• Chapter Two: You Wish You Could Have My Talent!
• Chapter Three: If It's Not Free, I'm Not Gonna Buy It
• Chapter Four: I Didn't Get What I Paid For
• Chapter Five: A Field Guide to the Genus and Species of Bead Class Students
• Chapter Six: Chapter 6, How to Design Creatively Rich, Artistically Perfect, and Phenomenally Yummy (C.R.A.P.P.Y.) Patterns

If these don't leave you with tears of laughter streaming down your face, then there may be no hope for your beady sense of humor.
of course, it could be that you are new enough to the world of beading that none of this makes sense to you yet. Don't worry - handle enough beads, do enough beadwork, hand around enough beaders, and it will all come together very soon. And, it'll leave you laughing in retrospect, as certain things mentioned the columns begin to make sense all of a sudden.

New beader or long-timer, you'll find that you identify with more than you might think as you read these insightful, articulate and incredibly amusing columns, or, to quote Sig herself, "a commentary from the warped mind of Sig."

Enjoy, and be sure to come back here and post your comments. I'd love to read what others think of this wonderfully funny, fresh, and politically-incorrect journal from Sigrid Wynne-Evans, one who should know. Or perhaps I should say, one who should know better!

Here's this week's Top Ten Free Bead Patterns. Enjoy!

Are there any new beadwork-related topics you'd like to see in the Beadwork Forum? There's space for a few more, and I've been thinking of adding a section for bead making, one for bead storage and organization, and possibly even one about beading books. I'm pretty excited about the Beading Books folder idea, as I see it as a place where beaders could post their "desert island picks" and suggestions for the best beading books to own, where we could go to discuss new beading books, classic beading books, the beading books you feel are indispensable, or other books unrelated to beadwork or beading that have otherwise inspired you in your creativity.

Feel free to drop me a note with your suggestions to beadwork.guide@about.com or post your ideas below in the "Comments" section.

The weekly Top Ten Free Bead Patterns listing is now in a new format, complete with a picture of each project. Check it out!

This space, seed bead, and sanity-saving storage unit, the Bead Pavilion Storage Unit and Shelves comes to us from the fine folks at Sova Enterprises, home of Bead-Patterns.com and makers of the perfectly portable Bead N' Go Tray Sets for stress-free travel with beads, and one of my personal Favorite-Beading-Tools-Ever, the Versa-Loom, a beading loom that allows you to weave beads into a finished piece without any loose warp ends to weave in or to otherwise need to finish.

Regarding the Bead Pavilion Bead Storage Unit and Shelves, you simply need to know that this is the finest seed-and-small-bead storage system I have yet to discover, bar none. It's been available for a while and I am remiss in having not reviewed it sooner, but since many of us are on Spring-cleaning binges, now is a good time to consider a change in bead storage, and this is the system I strongly recommend for its versatility, ease of use and other features. Read the review for additional details, and please, if you happen to be fortunate enough to already own your own Bead Pavilion Storage Unit and Shelves leave your comments here and share your thoughts with other beaders.

Here's this week's Top Ten Free Bead Patterns for you to share, bead and enjoy.