Ongoing Challenge No. 60
Polka Dots
By Lilli Berry
Beads by Marcia Brown
April’s challenge for the Dragons is Polka Dots. The ubiquitous playful and bold–yet simple–pattern of equally sized and spaced filled circles on a solid color background has been around since the middle ages. In more modern times, in the mid 20th century Minnie Mouse’s iconic red and white polka-dot dress, and the Itsy-Bitsy Teenie-Weenie Yellow Polka-dot Bikini helped make the pattern of polka dots very popular, whimsical and ever present. There was even a Batman villain (Polka Dot Man) dressed–and armed with–the dots!
Dots are literally the foundation building blocks (circles) of sooo many decorated glass beads and baubles. Once you master (or at least feel comfortable with) your dot placements, there is no limit to creating the plethora of dot-based designs: dot-to-stripes, implosion flowers, dot-to-pleats, chrysanthemums (layered flowers), hobnail, dots-to-triangles, bubble dots, python motif, stacked dots, and countless more.
To create dots, some like to pull stringers relative in size of the desired dots, and others like to use the regular rod size to deliver the dots. Both have their pluses and minuses, so test both methods to see which works for you. The Dot Queen Kristina Logan discusses this, and other great info, in her demo “How I Make a Bead“.
On YouTube, Michael “Fig” Mangiafico, demonstrates how to easily place dots on the opposite hard to reach side of the bead. There are many other videos on dots there too. Please share your glass dot photos in comments, below this post on our members Facebook page. We love to see what you are creating!
Happy Torching!