Sneakin' a peak

Ever since I put the finishing touches on the red necklace (pics are coming soon!) I have not jumped into my next big project like I thought I wanted to. I had planned something larger and more showy with what turned out to be my Pluto necklace (tutorial to make this is in the works, and it will be free) which for all the planning for and pinning over I did while wrapped up in the red necklace turned out to be so much... smaller then I had imagined. It had no turtle. I was kinda bummed over that, but on the plus side, I still have a turtle, I guess.

I have wanted to join some kind of beading competition for a while. Nothing big, but something to kind of steer me in new directions. I get bored beading something that only I am excited over. Whenever I would find a small competition or contest, a lot of the time the theme called for materials that I did not have on hand or that I could not make work with what I do have. My stash is so very limited right now.

I am happy to report that I have found one with a loose enough theme that I can  actually play along! Joining the group that is hosting it on the other hand, is going to be a bit of work.

This is currently what is on my beading mat:

Just a quick teaser of the materials. I do not have a specific picture of what I want this to look like, so I am just playing with combinations of this and that.

Anyone else working on something pretty? I would love to hear about it!

Until next time, happy beading . :)

Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear.

There is magic in sitting down with someone to work on beading. When the both of you are working on 2 wildly different projects, it is nice to watch what is developing across the table. Sometimes you get to see something with a fresh set of eyes. That bead soup that you have been dumping crap into for the past year and a half suddenly looks exciting and new in someone else's hands. Sometimes that person can show you something you never saw in styles you would never go for even in your wildest dreams. That person can get you thinking "What if..."

Weekends around here are lazy crafting days. Oftentimes, my best friend stays the weekend and we work on the beading thing together. The last few weekends I have watched her interests in beading grow tenfold, and it is incredible to watch. I have a very set style. I love my symmetry, I love my bold colors, my pops and flashes of sparkle. I exist in this realm for right now because being new to beading, I want to concentrate more on technique then on making fantastical experiments. Not saying I will be here forever, but for now it is where I am comfortable.

What really kicked my brain into overdrive is her styles. Right off the starting line she delved into the chaos of free form peyote. This is not a bad thing. I want to clearly state now that I do not dislike free form peyote. I have seen some free form peyote that just struck me dumb on first sight. I see it as kind of painting with beads, if that makes any sense. I can tell you honestly, I do not think I am capable of free form yet. I doubt I will ever be. I had no interest in even trying it until I watched her sit down with bead soup and made this wonderful, textural strip of so very random free form. Every few rows I had to see it, to touch it. Bury it in the bead soup and marvel at how it just disappears into the soup like it isn't even there. I would have never done anything like that on my own. I would not have thought to. Now I look at that bead soup and I wonder what else could come out of it. This all came from watching someone else's design process.

The same thing happened last weekend when she started working on another bracelet. she described to me what she was going to do and I did not fully grasp what she was getting at until she put it in front of my face. Now my brain is going a mile a minute with all the things that could be done in that style. I have ideas that fit into my style that all came from watching her work. I have drawn out 5 different ideas in my notebook, and I can't wait to finish up the project that I could not wait to start last weekend, because there is a shiny new idea on the horizon that I would not have had if not for her. 

As always, Thank you Dee. Thanks for everything. <3

Please, please forgive the cat hair. It is ingrained into every facet of my life, including my bead mats. Sometimes I worry it is working it's way into my DNA

Norwegian rocket boots.

Sometimes I feel like I exist in this yawning chasm solidly on the outside of the beading community. I have yet to make any beading friends, swap techniques, or make any connections with people that know the business of selling hand beaded jewelry. I struggle to even find online beading communities because I have been spoiled by the mother of all crafting sites, and not a single beading site that I have checked out thus far holds a candle to the intuitive usability of Ravelry. I adore that site. It is devoted to fiber arts, but it is a mecca of crafting. I really would love to see a site like Ravelry for beading. It is just so coherent, and finding your niche there is so very simple. Just an hour or two poking at that site you will be butt cheek deep in projects, ideas, pictures, resources, and most importantly; community.

This blog is about beading. I know I have mentioned knitting a few posts, but just so we understand each other, I am not about to post a guide to Kitchener stitching or how to work cables without a cable needle, but there are a few things that I miss about knitting. Ravelry is one of the things i miss dearly. Bear with me while I rant a bit. Or not.

I know there are forums for beading. Ravelry's are better. The way the forums are set up allows for people to create specialized groups, created around themes that interest you. Want to talk to a bunch of knitters and crocheters that like a certain TV show? Create a group. Only interested in talking about knitting curtains out of cobweb weight? Create a group. People will either join because they share in the interest, or they won't, but while you are talking about how to make that swag hang just so, there is not a bunch of white noise about knitting dog sweaters to plow through. I miss that kind of approach to the community because the setup is what you make out of it.

And it is not just the forums that immerse you so deeply in that site. The projects page is just wonderful. It is they type of thing you would expect to pay a monthly fee just to have access to it, but it is completely free. There is no limit to how many pictures you upload, you do not pay for them (never have had to as far as I am aware) and the whole page is arrange-able so you can showcase your projects the way you choose to. The whole site is this carefully constructed spider web of databases filled to the brim with project photos, patterns, suppliers. you want an idea of what this pattern looks like in a bunch of different colors with or without modifications? Anyone on the site that has done that pattern and tagged it as that pattern are added into an easily browesable gallery with just that project. Need ideas of what to do with a certain yarn? You can search for that yarn, in your colorway, and any project with that yarn and colorway tagged gets put into a gallery that you can go through. This kind of site would be such an incredible tool. I could write a tiny novel on all the facets and features of this site, and still not be able to convey just how helpful it is.

Not only is it friendly to the fiber artist using it, but it is also a great way to help promote responsible uses of copyrights. If you design something, release the pattern and 10 people make it, the project page that the user makes for the item makes it so easy for them to enter the name of the project, select the right design form a list, and bang! The project points to the pattern used, the pattern gives all the pertinent details. It is painless on the user's end to link up to that database full of that project.

If there were a way to apply this sort of format to beading, I think it would provide a great environment for beaders. I would love a Ravelry type site for beading. It is such a giant world out there, some organization would be such a haven. If I am over looking a site, please let me know. I would love to see it. And yes, I am aware that this post has nothing to do with the title.

It's Finished! -And now for something completely different...

The red necklace is done. Once I get the finished photos done, I will post the reveal. The name has changed. The entire time I was working on it I was insistent that the name be "Apples" or some reference to apples. I really want to make an apple necklace, for...reasons, but this necklace is not it. A friend of mine had posted a picture of the work in progress to his face book page, and someone had replies with "Melisandre's new necklace." I could not get that out of my head. I have now renamed the necklace, and on the reveal I will delve into that. But it is finished. This beautiful albatross is no longer hanging 'round my neck. Well it is, I have been wearing the necklace all day,  but you know what I mean. It is done.

Now I have this little guy sitting on my beading mat. 

And he has some very complimentary friends.

Isn't he cute??

So anyways, down to work.

This was the first thing I ended up with. I really liked it right off the bat, but thought it needed a little something else:

So I added a lot. Toying with how to frame the bead, left out the dagger so I could play around with thread paths.

After stringing another it started to look pretty clunky. After this pic I went back to try and add the daggers at the bottom points in between the geode beads, and it just looked bad. I settled on a modified version of the first incarnation with the dagger drops. 

Please forgive the change in lighting. The image below is the finished rope. I like it. I took a bunch of photos of the assembly, and plan to make the photo tutorial available when I post the finished pictures. Thinking about naming it the Pluto stitch.

And that damn turtle, well, he never did make it into this necklace.

Oh well, Another time.

Until next time, I wish you happy beading.

:)