Introduction

You can check our main Workshop for the Bargello Pendant and Purse patterns and instructions if you haven't already. The Eagle Shadow idea comes from the many motifs and designs in the Southwest depicting eagles and shamans. This is my interpretation from the hundreds of designs I have seen in jewelry, paintings, sculptures and business cards in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico. It is contemporary and could be anything you would like it to represent.

Color Selection

There are three colors in the piece, the portion on the left, Color 1, should be lighter and the portion on the right, Color 2, should be darker as if it is receding. The outline, Color 3, can be any color that enhances the other 2 colors.

Bead & Color Recommendation: Delica Beads. Delicas give this design a very defining appearance. Color 1 - gold, Color 2 - bronze or darker gold, Color 3 - dark brown.

Bead & Color Recommendation: Size 8 seed beads for a larger pin/pendant. Color 1 - crystal silver lined, Color 2 - gold silver lined, Color 3 - dark amethyst silver lined.

This is a basic form. You could make many variations to this pattern using the same outline but adding more colors in each quadrant, such as 3 shades of dark blue for Color 2 and 3 shades of green for Color 1, with the very middle of the green being almost yellow giving it a luminous appearance. You can make the piece with 3 shades of one color which is always a winner. Experiment and see what happens.

The Loom Pattern

Click here for a clean copy of the loom pattern to send to your printer. Be sure to wait for the entire image to load before printing.

Finishing Touches

On each side of the pattern are lines indicating where you could add strands of beads if you want this piece to be the pendant portion of a necklace. My book is not out yet so I can not give you pages to follow. However, the projects in the Workshop will teach you many of the basics to loom bead weaving. You will also find many easy basic how-to loom weave articles in past issues of Bead & Button, Jewelry Craft, Lapidary Journal and new issues of Beadwork Magazine. Many of them are reviewed in my Magazine section.

To back the loom piece for a pin you can use my crochet book instructions on page 62. To make necklace strands use my Medicine Pouch Jewelry book on page 14-17 and 19. To make the pendant an attachment and hang it on a Why Knot necklace, check my bead stringing book.

Final Comments

The biggest problem in weaving with seed beads in a small piece is all the warp threads have to be strung back into the piece or some of them used as dangles and necklace strands. The more thread woven back into the piece, the more the piece bulks up and loses the clean look it started with. There may be new threads available in the near future that will be thinner and easier to weave back into the piece. Watch for updates in the upcoming Thread section.