Thursday, May 5, 2011

Welcome May Gray

I wondered where you'd been. The last several days have been bright sunshine and hot temperatures, decidedly unlike our weather fondly referred to as May Gray. It's followed by June Gloom. At the moment I welcome the coolness of the day, with early morning fog giving way to perfect, not too hot temperatures.

I'm beading of course, with 'En Pointe' progressing daily. It's a lot of beading this one. Beading which requires you to pay attention to placement, but also fairly repetitive. I love the result, the little points which undulate and the beautiful little seam, optionally done in 2 mm crystal. It's a design where I have to consider teachability and lovability together. Will people love it enough to want to make the 21 required components? Is there enough to keep it interesting?

I have one complete 'En Pointe' but I wasn't entirely happy with it's centerpiece, so I'm in re-design mode. Even with deadlines it's hard to let a piece slip away from you before you're entirely happy with the result. These pieces live on at my teaching venues and I need to love them.



It's fussier then it looks, creating that lip of internal color.



Standing up that little line at the join. I don't mean fussy in a bad way. I like to be able to have something to offer the accomplished beader. Something that makes them say, that was clever.

As always I have some options to share. It will be easy enough to change up, do it size 11's, make it a bracelet, in fact I want to do that option next, size 11's and a bracelet. And I have an idea for a beaded bauble using the same shape in combination with a diamond.

In the meantime I would like to finish this one, take some stunning photos and wear it out for it's marketing debut before sending it off to the Beading Frenzy.

Do you do that, a marketing review? It's often where I can first tell how others respond to a piece. I have a simple pair of earrings for the next book. Everytime I wear them they get multiple comments, from beaders, from store clerks from friends and acquaintances. I like them, but it wasn't the piece of beadwork I expected to get the most comments on. Funny.

En Pointe is coming Susan, really it is.

3 comments:

kate mckinnon said...

I thought these were size 11's- what are you using? 10s?

Marcia DeCoster said...

15's! Not for the faint of heart.

Mariposa said...

15's???!! As if I had not fallen in love with it already! This is FAB!