October 22, 2009

Designing Woes

Finally - a successful test piece with larger sized beads!

It started with this, an idea for more pattern space on one side of a flat caterpillar bracelet. Eight months of trials and a new graphing model later I had what I wanted. Using 15's or Delicas(TM) on one side and 11's on the other side gave me what I wanted.

However, I have a lot of people who prefer to bead crochet with a base of 8/0 beads. After my workshop in Fall River I went searching for beads that had the same size relationship. From what I knew it seemed that 10/0 Delicas(TM) would work. But I didn't have any in any color in that size.

So I ordered some. Needed 5 colors to test things out - ordered 20 colors. Who can resist things like metallic bronze or gold flashed ruby? Six Plano containers of 8/0 seed beads - not enough .... I added 100 grams of an 8/0 mix to that order also.
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The beads came in and I started to put them away in flip-top containers. I used the last 4 that I had. Eight years ago I bought 1,500 flip-tops and I guess I used them all. At the time it seemed like an endless supply of bead containers. A friend pointed out that, as an addiction, it was less than one a day!

So, I ordered 100 more containers. All this to just test out a bead crocheted sample of what I thought would work.
What should have been an evening's job took a month to complete. Good thing I'm not on a deadline with this project. I have the proof that what I thought would happen, does ... a couple more crocheted samples and I need to think about pulling an e-book together with the technique and designs.
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Upshot of the whole thing is that I now know that I have more than 1,500 tubes of seed beads from sizes 24/0 through 6/0. Let's not count the accent bead and gemstone stock.
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A walk in the Woods

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Yesterday was warmer and the sun was out. The hard frosts have done the bugs in and cut down the undergrowth. There is still a lot of Fall leaf color and I took half an hour to walk in my woods and kick the ankle deep leaves.
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I'm going to enjoy the changing seasons in this very small patch of old growth forest.


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