Design Success

Given that long days were spent in front of the computer for the last several weeks, I used evenings to relax with beads.  I didn't have a new design in mind, in fact I was working a recent design in hopes of making it simpler to weave, thinking about different ways of going about the thread path....

After abandoning the idea, I started playing with the piece in my hand, folding it this way and that as I often do with my beadwork, and then I started stitching  and I ended up with this!

 

A pearl studded component.  And then I made more, and then I arranged them and then I connected them....and I love it!

I could connect them in a circle and make an exceptional pendant, or I could connect them as here into a bracelet, or I could connect them into a choker or I could arrange them staggered and make a really chunky bracelet or choker, or dangle one from the other....

I love it when a component excites me like this.  I love it when I don't start with a vision and something shows up that can be used in a myriad of ways. Although I love to teach, there is often the pressure of having a new class worthy design, and the fear that this time you've run out of ideas.

So having a new design, one where I can't wait to do it in a dozen different colors....Navy and silver, black, silver and mauve, maybe some of the new gemstone colors, it's an excellent feeling.  It's all crystal and pearl, barely a hint of seed beads just to hold it all together.

I know what I'll be shopping for at Bead and Button!  Pearls and more pearls!

Milestones

I celebrated a huge milestone today, I packed up and shipped off the 16 remaining projects for my next book, Beads in Motion.  If you've been reading you've most likely followed the saga of my switching to an Apple Mac and to Adobe Illustrator for drawings.  The learning curve was steep and there are many things I still do not know, but in general I am very happy with my ability to draw beads.

And now I shall go celebrate meeting my deadline with a leisurely couple of hours reading on the veranda prior to taking a victory lap (which comes in the form of dinner out.)

Tomorrow I will turn my attention to Bead and Button readiness....today I need to bask in the glow of accomplishment.

The biggest challenge

So far my biggest challenge has been to illustrate and write the instructions for cubic right angle weave. It turned out to be the perfect stitch for a bracelet band to support these little bejeweled sliding components.  I love the weight of it, and I love the act of stitching it.  It may be the ultimate in meditativeness, developing one cube at a time.  

But I can attest to the fact that illustrating it in two dimensions was no easy feat.  I hope that I did the job effectively enough to communicate it to those wanting to try their hand at it.  I may decide to do a video, we'll see, I haven't done that yet.  

In the meantime I will be one of several featured designers in the Toho booth at Bead and Button.  My time slot is Sunday June 10th I will there from ten to noon.  I've been invited to demo whatever I would like, and I'm thinking cubic raw.  It is one of those stitches which definitely benefits from being seen in person, so if you're curious and you're at the show, consider stopping by.

I'm fortunate that Mark made all of this years kits, and that Liz will be in the classroom to help and that I have lots of plans for seeing dear friends....but for right now, I have two more designs to finish for the book, before I can turn my full attention to Bead and Button preparedness.  

It's cold

In San Diego!  I had to go get woolies on....

These are from a day when I used to knit more, I look forward to getting back to it, but for the time being the illustration continues.

 I am on the home stretch, approaching done actually, but I haven't really let myself fully explore what that will feel like.  One of the reasons is I know that I am going to want to go back and 'improve' a few things.  As my skills progressed and I learned some better tricks, my illustrations got better.  There are some illustrations that I know I am going to want to improve, but for now, the goal is Wednesday and it's looking like I may be on target to succeed!

More peanuts

As is often the case I'm a bit slow to catch the trend, but once discovered I'm having a really good time with peanut beads.

This is the book piece I just completed and it's beauty shot that goes in my notebook with the illustrations supply list and text.  Of course it's just a little snippet, cropped to show you some detail without giving away the piece....

The peanuts have so  much substance!  So much in fact that a gram check, more about that in a minute, reveals that there are only 21 of these metallic peanuts in a gram.

I didn't use to do a gram check....until I had a kit come up short.  You see there are substantially different numbers of beads per gram depending on the material used.  I know, seems obvious now that I say it, but I used to do the math, you know, 9 units wide by 14 rows of right angle weave equals 154 beads, multiply by 20% to account for culling or spilling, and then divide by 120 the average number of size 11's in a gram. Well...a gram check reveals there are about 70 beads in a gram of gold seed beads.  And metal beads, well even less.  So now every kit begins with a gram check of the seeds to be used.  I'm trying to be smart and compile a library, but really there is only so much I can keep track of.

The piece

that almost beat me.....one project at a time I am illustrating and providing text and supplies for each piece in the next book.  The undone pieces all hang on the left bulletin board and the done pieces hang on the right.

I open a new illustrator file...I make all the beads I will use.  I don't start from scratch, I pick a previously used 15, 11, 8, pearl, crystal as the case may be and I color them the appropriate colors.  Then I begin to make an illustration of each step of the process.  When I'm done I take a screen shot of the beads I have used, paste it into a word file and begin the text.  Once the text is written I do the math to determine the quantity of each bead required.  Then I take a photo, print the illustrations, text, supply list and photo, 3 hole punch it and put it in the book.  I move the piece to the right bulletin board. I hope to complete a piece in a day, which is ambitious, but doable.

Sunday afternoon I picked this piece, simple enough really.....but for some crazy reason it was the one that fought me every step of the way.  Wrong beads...no problem I can fix that...forgot two illustrations, had to renumber all the figures...I can fix that....and on and on it went...I alphabetized the beads in the wrong order ...I can fix that, and finally it was done, two days it took, some are just like that.

On I went to the next one...and I messed up and got my filenames mixed up and over wrote them and deleted them and restored them and,  got myself entirely confused and it was gone!  The file I angsted over for two days, gone, poof.  Yes I have a back up, no it didn't help, long story.  Several deep breaths later, and I found the file in the virtual trash can!  Glory be, I'm going to go celebrate now!  The right bulletin board has more projects on it than the left.

Breakfast made beautiful

I've always loved beautiful dish ware.  Many years ago in Santa Cruz I began my collection of Annie Glass and whenever I have the opportunity I pick up a new piece.  This is one of her latest, the beautiful frosted glass which reminds me of sea glass, stenciled with gold graphics.  My children gave me a bread plate with this motif for Christmas and I thought some bowls would be a nice accompaniment.

 It's nice to start the day with beauty, so I decided to serve my yogurt and blueberry breakfast in my new bowl.

 and my coffee in a cup with saucer

I try to be judicious in my purchases.....but my weakness for dish ware, while tamed due to lack of space, still gets occasionally indulged.