Super Hero Powers

Updated per Helen's request. These are Teresa's photos. I am told my cuffs should arrive today, just in time, they are needed!





I'm needing super hero powers desperately and am quite convinced when my Teresa Sullivan commissioned flame cuffs arrive in a day or two, they will afford me just that.



Aren't they amazing? I hesitated to ask, but in the end I did, if she could scatter a few crystals amidst the netting. The netting is made up of brown iris and hematite charlottes, interspersed with light metallic gold crystal. Do you see the highlights?

I was totally enamored of Kate's red flame cuffs when I met their acquaintance (and Teresa's) at this years Seed Bead Summit. I wore them during my craft tub interview (I declined the tub sitting) and was convinced all was possible while wearing them.

This is especially good at the moment as I continue to struggle my way through the Adobe Illustrator learning curve. I don't want to give the wrong impression, illustrator is a program with huge huge capability. But with that comes huge huge amounts of things to know and the need to unlearn what I knew with my previous drawing package. Who knew for instance when you want to rotate around a circle that you don't drag the center of the object to the new center, you need to option drag it? And then the next time you want to do that same thing you need to remember it's option drag, not command drag, not control drag, but option drag.

But with help from the many bead illustrators who have gone before me I did accomplish a complete set of illustrations for the Victoria earrings.



As I explore the best way to work I understand that each illustrator builds up their own set of tools, their own workflow, their own way of communicating the beads that are woven into a design.

While talking to Florence today she told me that she draws the entire project in it's finished stage and then subtracts beads to get down to the first step. I've been drawing beads in one way or another for the better part of fifteen years and I've always drawn row one, row two....It's going to take some time to determine if this will be a better process for me, but I was struck with how I had never even contemplated that approach. I remain grateful for each of the illustrators who are willing to share with me their time and describe their process. I am a big believer in sharing what you know and I am moved by the people in my life who are willing to do that.