Mini Ionic Polyhedra

This round beaded bead is a Mini Ionic Rhombic Triacontahedron.  It has the symmetry of a dodecahedron with 12 blue 5-stars and 20 purple 3-stars.

It measures 29mm (1 and 1/8 inch) in diameter, suitable to be worn as a pendant. There are a couple of different ways to string this, and the 30 largest holes are big, 3-4 mm wide, wide enough to accommodate a cord or chain.

This ornate cluster is composed of over 700 beads, each one precisely woven into place. This beaded bead is very round and hollow and stiff. It's wonderfully detailed for its size. The shape is like a Buckyball virus.

This round beaded bead is a Mini Ionic Dodecahedron. This piece contains over 350 beads.

It measures 24mm (1 inch) across, suitable to be worn as a pendant. There are a couple of different ways to string this, and the 12 largest holes are big, 4-5 mm wide, wide enough to accommodate a thick cord or chain.

Here you can see a few different Mini Ionic Polyhedra together, including the two above.  If you would like to learn to make your own Ionic Polyhedra, I don't have a tutorial for these exact beaded bead variations, but I explain the technique in the pattern for Ionic Polyhedra, available here: http://www.beadinfinitum.com/Kits/Ionic_Polyhedra.html

Thanks for looking.

Coxeter Beaded Bead in Aqua

Here's the latest piece of my bead mat, a Coxeter Bead. It's a little over an inch wide, quite hollow, and it has big holes for stringing it on cord. The symmetry of this piece makes me think of a virus.

The dominant color is the aqua bugles, and then I added matte blue half tila beads to soften the bright aqua.  The tiny drop beads inside the circles came from a mixed box of beads, and I separated the colors when I wove them into the beaded bead. 

If you'd like to learn to make your own, you're in luck because I wrote a tutorial that explains how to weave a Coxeter Bead.  Thanks for looking!

T4 Bacteriophage Art Object in Beads No.2

A few weeks ago, I showed you my first beaded bacteriophage.  In the process of beading it, I learned that there were many more details known about the structure of the T4 bacteriophage than what I built.  So of course, I had to make another one with more details, bigger and better than the first.  Here you can see the two of them together.

The most significant difference between these two art objects is the capsid, or head. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)

The first phage includes 12 pentagons and 30 hexagons.  It turns out that 30 isn't nearly enough.  So, the second phage shows 12 pentagons and 155 hexagons, making it more representative of real T4 phages as far as I understand it.  There seems to be some debate over the precise arrangement of the hexagons, but I think this is the most recent understanding of the structure. (Correct me if I'm wrong!)  This capsid has about 3500 beads in it, just in case you were wondering. 

For the first phage, I made the sheath like a tube of stacked rings (of beads) because I didn't realize the sheath is actually a spiral.  So, for the second phage, I used a beaded spiral tube instead.  It's not quite the same type of spiral as on a real phage because I opted for artistic aesthetics over scientific accuracy.  Sometimes I worried a bit about these adjustments, but I kept reminding myself that no matter how accurate my representation of a virus, it still wont work.  Like, it's never going to be able to infect a bacteria.  You'd be surprised how many times I had to remind myself...

The second phage also has a  more accurate collar shape with whiskers on its collar. Here you can see how big it is.  The legs are quite springy.

The second phage also has a more elaborate base plate than the first with little fibers that hang down, as if it's getting ready to make its move and insert its DNA into its host bacterium. 

Both of these art objects are for sale in my Etsy shop, gwenbeads.
Small Bacteriophage (No. 1)
Large Bacteriophage (No. 2)


I always enjoy a good beading challenge.  So, I'd like to thank Dr. Mark O. Martin for encouraging me to bead a bacteriophage.  I really knew nothing about these things before he shared a picture with me.  In beading these pieces, I learned lots of fascinating facts about viruses and microbes, but one of the weirdest is about color and electron microscopes. It turns out that electron microscopes take pictures with electrons instead of light.  This way, they can "see" things that are much smaller than visible light waves, like a thousand times smaller!  Think about that... visible light waves are WAY too big to capture images of these viruses.  These virues are TOO SMALL FOR COLOR!  Chew on that.  A consequence of this is that electron micrographs never have natural color.  When you see color images, they are always colored after the fact by people (possibly with the help of a computer). 

In other beading news, I also made a Twisty Bits Necklace.  Ever since I finished writing the Twisty Bits Tutorial, I've been wanting to make this necklace in these colors, mixed metals with gold as the feature.

So here it is, a long beaded bead on a yard of silk cord.  It's for sale.  Click the photos to go to the listing.  Thanks for looking.

Bacteriophage in Beads for the Microbiologist Nerd in You

This beaded object represents a bacteriophage, a type of virus that infects and replicates within a bacterium. It contains a head (capsid), collar, sheath, tail fibers and base plate. This was one of the many images I worked from of a bacteriophage.

My favorite part of this virus is the elongated icosahedral structure of the capsid, exhibiting a tessellation of pentagons and hexagons for the capsomeres.

For years, people have been telling me that some of my beaded beads look like viruses, so with a push from Dr. Mark O. Martin, I finally decided to bead something that really looks like a virus.

This piece measures about 6 inches high and 7 inches across. It's signed on one foot with my custom stamped gold filled tag.

It's made with glass beads, plastic tubes, wire and thread.  The head is hollow and is stiff yet flexible. This model has loops at the end of each leg so you could mount it on a wall. The legs contain wire, which are flexible.

This is original art. This is also an educational model. Think of it as a tactile mind game, a little bit of sparkle to entertain your brain. If you would like to take it home, it's for sale here.   You can also see an even bigger and more detailed T4 bacteriophage in beads.  They are great gifts for the biologist who has everything because they almost certainly don't have one of these.  Thanks for looking.