Designs By Onye

Biography

Adornment is a natural product of what happens when beads are strung or woven together. Though I have spent the last few years creating geometric bead art that was not inherently wearable, jewelry-making is foundational to my origin story as an artist. Beaded-beads are larger, more ornate beads, constructed by weaving smaller beads together, usually glass seed beads. I discovered the joy in creating them as I was in the process of solving the problem of making them entirely self-supporting and not require a core bead as a base-form at the start. My process for creating geometric beaded-beads often begins with a few triangle-weave stitches, seed beads and thin monofilament, but no needle. Some BBs are as simple as a tiny stellated icosahedron, others approach the complexity of my Anemone Ball pieces. The repeated layering gives them solidity, weight, longevity and strength, and allows me to explore manifold expressions of shapes in various sizes.

Looks

About the look

Platonic Crown Jewels

Crystal beads (Czech, Austrian, Asian), size 15 seed beads, sterling silver 16-gauge wire, 14-gauge steel wire, 6lb monofilament.

2025

A head-dress featuring the 5 Platonic Solids, expressed as 9 beaded-beads, which were woven with vintage crystal beads, size 15 seed beads, 6lb monofilament. I combined the techniques of triangle weave, netting, spherical pentagon stitch, and CRAW (cubic right-angle weave). There are two beaded-beads representing each platonic solid, with the exception of the Icosahedron, which is the centered bead in the crown. The beaded-beads are anchored with sterling silver wire to a flattened-spiral steel wire band. The crown can be tied onto the head with the silver ribbon at the ends of the steel wire band. The Platonic solids were my first connection to three-dimensional geometry. I am continually enamored with using them as the primary building blocks for my artwork. This is my first time attempting to create any type of crown or head-dress using geometric beaded-beads as the focal point of expression. I am exhilarated with this result!