Man Alive

Not sure what that means exactly but it is one of my husband's mid Western expressions that I find endearing. Usually said with exasperation at the difficulty of a task. Which would certainly be the case for me today. Yesterday consisted of spending the day with an adorable 14 month old. Today we are staying at a friends home in Saratoga while they are traveling. I brought along the IMAC, and the drawing tablet in preparation for spending days illustrating. And I am. But the tablet was rendered useless by forgetting to bring along the tablet pen. However beads can still be drawn and I'll 'pencil' in the thread path when I get home. But back to Man Alive.....this maybe the hardest bit of bead work to draw, the gradual curve and turned corner that I use to make triangles and ellipses.

I really like triangles and ellipses and the actual beading is done at right angles which of course would be easy to draw, but due to the properties of right angle weave, and the size of beads I've used what you really get is a curve. The inside edge beads scootch and the outside edge beads spread apart and a true rotation won't work....you need to manually drag beads around and rotate them until you achieve the right angles. Not easy stuff. I think a lunch break is in order!