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The Mighty Melon

I spent a weekend plus a few days in October in Fort Collins, Colorado visiting one of my daughters and attending the party celebrating her recent wedding. While there (well, really the first thing I did after I arrived), I visited the Bead Cache, a wonderful bead store just eight blocks from my daughter's home. How's that for serendipity? I bought the beads I used in The Mighty Melon, as well as a few - quite a few - other beads. Then I spent the entire Sunday creating the beads which I've used here. A super time!!

For anyone who's planning to visit Houston, Texas, you must include a trip to my hometown shop, SuzaBeads in Sugar Land. Nancy has every color of Delicas, an incredible selection of 15/0s, Japanese seed beads, vintage German beads, Czech beads, just about everything you'll ever want to pursue your beading passion.

The Watermelon, a large focal bead.

Delicas (MC=main color), 10/0 Twisted Hex Beads (CC=Contrast color), 4mm faceted rounds (facet), Charlottes (Chars), Silamide or Nymo

Work a Pentabead with TEN Twisted Hex beads in the column. Needle down and through a Hex bead in the first row of the column.

Strand A: one Char, one facet, five Chars, one facet, five Chars, one facet, one Char.
Strand B: five Chars, one facet, five Chars, one facet, five Chars.

*Load Strand A and go through the last Hex in the column. Load Strand B and go through the other side of the same top bead. Needle to and through the next Twisted Hex at the top of the next column of Hex beads.** Repeat from * to ** four more times.

The Melon Ball

Delicas (MC=main color), 10/0 Twisted Hex Beads (CC=Contrast color), 4mm faceted rounds, Charlottes (Chars), Silamide or Nymo

Work a Pentabead with five Twisted Hex beads in the column. Needle down and through a Hex bead in the first row of the column.

Strand A: three Chars, one facet, three Chars.
Strand B: one Char, one facet, three Chars, one facet, one Char.

Cantelope

Delicas (MC=main color), 10/0 Twisted Hex Beads (CC=Contrast color), 4mm faceted rounds, Charlottes (Chars), 11/0 Seed Beads, Silamide or Nymo

p> Make a Two/Three Basic Bead starting with either 8 or 10 Delicas,using Delicas and Twisted Hex beads (6 Twisted Hex in the column). The bead shown began with 8 Delicas.

*Needle to a single Delica at the top of a column of Hex beads.

Strand A: five Chars, one 11/0 seed bead, one 4mm facet one 11/0, and five Chars.
Strand B: five Chars, one 11/0 seed bead, through the Strand A facet bead, one 11/0 and five Chars.

Load Strand A on your needle and go through the single Delica at the bottom of the NEXT column of Hex beads. Load Strand A and go to the single Delica at the top of the next column of Hex beads. Continue with zigzag placement of Strand A embellishment until you return to where you began (4 strands if beginning with 8 beads, otherwise 5 strands).

Needle to the single Delica at the top of the next column. Work Strand B going through the facet bead which you placed in the first round of embellishment. Work around in the same zigzag pattern until you have 4 columns of embellishment (5, if you began with 10 beads).

Another Cantelope

Delicas (MC=main color), 10/0 Twisted Hex Beads (CC=Contrast color), Charlottes (Chars), 11/0 Seed Beads, Silamide or Nymo

Make a Two/Three Basic Bead starting with either 8 or 10 Delicas, using Delicas and Twisted Hex beads (6 Twisted Hex in the column). The bead shown began with 8 Delicas.

*Needle to and through the third Hex bead in the column. Place a Hex bead on your needle and go back through the third Hex placing the new bead on top of the bead in the column. Place a Hex bead on top of the 4th Hex bead in the column as above.

The embellishment is 5 Chars, through a Hex bead, 1 Char, one 11/0, 1 Char between the two Hex beads, and 5 Chars to finish the strand. **Place one char, one 11/0, and one Char on the needle and go through the Hex bead on top of the 3rd bead in the column. Place 5 Chars on the needle and go through the single Delica bead at the top of the column. Place 5 chars on the needle and come back through the Hex bead on top of the 3rd bead.*** Place one char, one 11/0, and one Char on the needle and go through the Hex bead on top of the 4th bead in the column. Repeat from ** to *** taking the needle through the single Delica at the bottom of the column.

Needle to the 3rd Hex bead in the next column and repeat from * to ***. Repeat embellishment until all Twisted Hex columns (4 in the bead shown) have been embellished.

Melon Blossom

Delicas (MC=main color), 10/0 Twisted Hex Beads (CC=Contrast color), Charlottes (Chars), 11/0 Seed Beads, Silamide or Nymo

Make a Two/Three Basic Bead starting with either 10 Delicas, using Delicas and Twisted Hex beads working until there are five Hex beads in the column.

Strand: three Chars, one 11/0, three Chars

Needle through a single Delica at the top of a Delica bead column. Load one Strand on the needle and go through the second two-Delica element in the next column of Delica beads. Load one Strand and to through the single Delica at the top of the next Delica column. Repeat around. When you return to whence you began, you will go through a two-bead element below the first Strand. Continue around in a virtual spiral (moving down each row and following the same pattern as above) until you have four rows of embellishment.

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