Reflections

This morning as I was playing, making mandalas (making them is as good for meditation as coloring them), my mind focused on a friend who we know won't be with us much longer. As I put the finishing touches on this mandala, all I saw was angels and hearts. Here's to you, my friend. May the angels welcome you and give you peace.

I made another one from the same base. I see many paths, some dark some light, some twisted and curved all connected to or surrounded by other objects and I thought about how our lives were connected, as improbable as it was and thanked God for her presence in our lives all these years.

I'm in the process of making and publishing coloring pages and have many made up by now, but I haven't decided whether I'll share these two with the public. Right now they're my personal reflections of the past nearly four decades.

January is Regroup Month

My beadwork is still defying me. I've put aside the chenille stitch I was working on. Sometimes it went smoothely, and other times I couldn't make heads or tails of it.

I finally got the base for an open 3D heart to work. Now to just finish it. My hands don't seem too delighted to manage needle and thread (something I've been doing since I was four years old.

On the other hand, I'm getting better at making coloring mandalas. This is Tulip Cross made with a different technique than I've used with previous mandalas. It's a little more structured than some of my first ones.

I started downloading free mandalas to color, finally looked at one and thought to myself "I can do this". Then I started playing around making them and I have more fun making them than coloring. It's relaxing and fun.

I've been going through my Bead Patterns Boutique shop cleaning up some errors in listings. I started the shop while I was recovering from hip surgery 8 years ago. Obviously, my brain was still foggy.  All this time, I've never noticed I left out some crucial information. I don't know how I managed to sell anything. 

I'm trying to get a schedule set up to allot time to all my endeavors, but I've been so lax in that respect for so long that's a real chore.

Chenille Stitch Progress

The new year is starting out fairly well for me in spite of the storms keeping me practically house bound. I've made some progress with the Chenille stitch tutorial.

In order for the stitch to make sense to me, there has to be a design in it.  That's just me. The stitch is beautiful just worked with two sizes of beads of the same color. 
I've made a few swatches in order to test bead sizes etc. Here are two.  for the one on the right, I used size 11 throughout. I thought to create a little texture, but I wasn't happy with it.  The one on the left I used size 11 and 15. I like it much better.

I was still having trouble remembering which turn to use on the left (there are 2) and seeing the logical placement of beads that is now very clear to me.

I'm still working on the tutorial. I have all the illustrations done and enlarged to meet Hub Pages standards (I think). Now I'm just trying to string words together in sentences that are comprehendible. 

I hope to find a filter to take pictures of this gleaming, glittery bracelet when I'm finished.

I'll let you know when I get the tutorial posted to Hub Pages.

Joining the New Stress Relieve Rage

I decided to take a stab at coloring again. I haven't colored in many many years, but all the hoopla I've been seeing on facebook prompted me to download some free pages and just see if it was as therapeutic as everyone claimed.

The past 10 or so years, I have rarely used a pen or pencil. Everything was done on the computer. After I retired 8 years ago I wrote nothing in longhand except a grocery list (which I had trouble reading). It had gotten to the point holding a writing utensil was awkward and my hand would cramp in a very short time. I doubted I'd be able to color, but I had some colored pencils that I'd bought for my granddaughter five or six years ago and with the free pages trying wouldn't cost me anything.  

It wasn't long before I discovered that my fingers were much more limber and what hindered coloring more than anything was my eyes would get tired, but it was relaxing and I wasn't stressing as much over the trials of retired life.

As I was looking through some of the pages I'd downloaded, I did a double take when I realized, at least one of them was made with the kaleidoscope effect in a photo shop program.

I'd made a few snowflake brushes, so I had an idea of how the effect worked. I decided I'd try making my own coloring pages. I've spent most of the morning squiggling and adjusting and have found it just as relaxing as coloring. The picture shows four of the designs I've created and I'm getting a much better idea of how to make the initial "squiggle".

While I'm more at ease at the computer, I still need to keep coloring so I wan't forget how to hold a pencil.

I hope all of you are enjoying the holidays and are not in the path of these winter storms.

Flat Chenille Stitch

I had mentioned in a previous post the similarities between Pondo (African Circle stitch) and Chenille stitch.  Jean Powers posted a basic tutorial by Diana Balogh in Beading Daily.  It looked fairly simple except some of the turns were a bit complex. I spent several hours trying to bead the sample on the left from that tutorial and kept getting lost on the turns.  My solution, of course, was to make my own illustrations, breaking down the parts that confused me into different steps. 

While I was at it, my muse plunked some designs into my head so I made some graphs of those.  The heart on the right is the result of one of those.  I can't tell if the slight irregularity is a result of uneven tension (I know I got the start row too tight) or if the beads aren't as uniform as the yellow ones on the left.  I suspect it's a little of both.

Now that I've got the illustrations drawn and have sort of mastered the stitch, I hope to have an illustrated tutorial posted to my Hub Pages within the week.  Writing the accompanying article will be the hard part.

Wow! The year's nearly over.  Christmas this weekend.  I hope all of you stay safe on the highway if you're traveling, and that you have a very Merry Christmas. . .or whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year.

How Do You Make an Oval Round?

Well, I really don't know. I guess you just follow your muse and let her do what she wants with the beads.

I showed you my partially bezeled flat oval bead in my Monday Ramble. I've now finished both sides and as I had thought, there's not much of the bead showing on the second side. What really blew me away was the shape. Yes, this is two sides of the same bead/cab. 

Maybe I'll come up with a really cool bail for it soon, but right now my eyes are very tired of looking at those transparent peridot superduos (which are almost invisible on side 2) and tiny, shiny, size 15 gold beads, so I'm going to lay this aside for a while.

Organizing the office and learning flat Chenille stitch are the next things on the docket.

Another Monday Ramble

From the first nasty winter cold spell/storm until the trees begin to leaf out in the spring, it seems that I go through what I call my winter blues.  It's a mild depression that saps my energy, inspiration and motivation to do anything other than what's necessary to stay alive.

I've attributed it to the weather, but really we don't have long stretches of bad weather or cloudy skies, so I reasoned that can't be the entire cause.

I was thinking this morning and once again remembered my ex-husband's parents both died during the month of December.  I loved them dearly and they were two of the best friends I ever had. BUT

December also is the month of joyous celebrations. There's Christmas when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and it is also the month one of my Daughters-in-law, who has been a wonderful addition to our family, was born and to top it off, it's the month she was born into our family when she married my son. 

My mother passed away during the month of January that is also the month she gave birth to me and my youngest daughter gave birth to her daughter.  It's also the beginning of a new year and we all look forward with hope to the coming year being better than the year before.

I'm writing this as a reminder to myself that during these months that usually bring me down I must look for the positive side of things.  I don't know how well it will work, but this is me fighting for normalcy.

On another note, I promised myself that when I finished making Christmas ornaments I would clear up and organize my bead space. So much for promises. In the initial phase of clean-up, wouldn't you know, I found a large 25mm X 30mm X 2mm bead. I thought "I should bezel that using some superduo beads".  Since it's flat it can be reversible and the two sides can be different. As you can see in the picture, one side seems to be fine, but the other side isn't going as I'd hoped. By the time I get it cinched in there won't be much of the bead showing, but I haven't given up yet.

2015 Christmas Ornaments

I've finally finished this year's Christmas ornaments. Unlike past years, I only designed one new one this year. 

The Holly Wreath ornament is this year's new ornament and it will be on sale the rest of this month at my BeadPatternsBoutique shop. Check out my On Sale now category for it and other designs in my Shuffle Sale.


The Drum, Christmas Angel and Twin Snowflake are all from previous years. I've modified each angel and snowflake by changing colors here and there, so they all look a little different from the pattern (because I'm averse to doing the same thing twice).

My granddaughter will be hosting Thanksgiving this year. I hope it's a great success. I love family gatherings, but I'm reluctant to host them. I get exhausted just attending.

Now on to tedious everyday happenings.  It's time to start learning the flat chenille stitch I mentioned in my last blog. , , and then there's the matter of keeping my vehicle running. I've been saying for a year if I have to put it in the shop one more time I'm just going to get rid of it.  Maybe it's time to make good on that threat.

Which Stitch?

As you may know from my previous blogs, I'm obsessed with learning bead stitches.  Keeps things from getting dull, don't you think?

I first learned Pondo stitch as the modern modified stitch also known as African Circle Stitch. When I finally mastered it I went to work creating designs.  Pondo Ripples was my first design. Independence day was coming up, so I made it in red white and blue, but it works up nicely in any combination of colors you desire. 

You can find the pattern for Pondo Ripples on sale now in my BeadPatternsBoutique Shuffle sale.

Delft Blue Tile is the same stitch. As with any other stitch, the color placement creates the design.

When I first started learning this stitch someone mentioned that it looked like Chenille stitch.  I love tubular chenille for ropes but have never been able to figure out how to make the turn on flat chenille.

Recently, Jean Cox of Beading Daily posted instructions for flat chenille stitch. It is much more straight-forward that African Circle stitch and looks so nearly like it, you'd have to examine it closely to see it's different.  You'll need to scroll down a bit to get to the tutorial.

That,s my next stitch to learn. . .after I finish Christmas Ornaments. Only one more drum and one snowflake and I'll be finished!

Shuffle Sale

http://www.beadpatternsboutique.com/index.php?cat=40&shop=25

I decided to try to breath some life into my pattern shop at BPB in November. I have a lot of older patterns that don't get much attention, so I've compiled a list of patterns that did well when first published, patterns that never received much attention, my all time best sellers, and some new patterns. I'm calling this a shuffle sale because the items will change at random times during the month.

There are 21 items on the list. All items listed will be marked down bu 10%.There are five categories: bracelets, necklaces, earrings, rings and Christmas ornaments. There will be five items on sale at all times, (one from each category) but I may change one, two or all of them on any given day. The patterns will cycle through the sale at random and may reappear at some point during the sale. You'll never know how long any given item will be on sale, or when/whether it will reappear, so bookmark my On Sale category of my catalog and check it often.

You'll find there are various bead stitches and the complexity of the patterns go from simple to a little more time consuming.  Great items for gifts, ornaments or something special for yourself! 

The pattern for the ring shown is on sale as I write this. There are variations to the ring that change its shape, so it's almost like getting 3 patterns in one.

I made this pattern shortly after I wrote my blog post on the comparison between twin beads and super duo beads. I decided to try mixing the two brands of beads, and found that they could be used together if the twins were culled very well. 

Don't forget to bookmark my BeadPatternsBoutiaque On Sale Now page and check often for new listings. 

Monday Ramble

My Christmas ornament beading has temporarily come to a halt. Due to problems with hand-eye coordination, depth perception and other frustrations, I put the beadwork aside for a day or so.

I decided to try a little crochet instead. I found a beautiful pattern and a small scrap of sport weight yarn and attempted to make a swatch of the pattern.

I ran into a few problems. The first one: I haven't crocheted in so long I'm not able to hold the thread properly to maintain steady tension, so my stitches aren't even. With practice, I'm getting better and holding the work is becoming more natural. The second problem is: although I've been crocheting for 70 years and reading word patterns since I learned to read, I've never crocheted from a computer generated diagram. The pattern didn't come with a symbol legend and some of the symbols were unclear to me.

I went so far as to download a free crochet stitch program in order to find and decipher the symbols. I'm not too old to learn. No, I'll probably never make crochet patterns with it, but it was a great help.

I discovered that although bead weaving and crochet are both needlework, they each require different hand muscles, different ways to hold the project and a different approach to deciphering the pattern.  I feel that I need to go back to some of the handwork I grew up doing in order to keep my brain, and consequently my hand-eye coordination from deteriorating any further.

Now it's time to get back to the Christmas ornaments. Second angel is in the works. One more angel, three drums and one snowflake to go.

Christmas Ornaments 2015

I've finished 10 of the 17 Christmas ornaments I need to make this year. Five wreaths and five twin snowflakes. 
I made the wreaths first then the snowflakes.  On the fourth snowflake, I noticed that all of them had a stained glass effect due to matte transparent, transparent and opaque beads being used in each ornament.  It wasn't planned at all. I was sifting through my bead stash and that's just how things came up. Since nine of them were stained glass, I deliberately made the tenth one the same way. 

Now I have to decide which ornaments to make for the youngest group.  I haven't come up with any inspiration for that type of ornaments yet this year, so I'll have to choose from the 2009 collection or the 2010 collection. I need to go back through my notes and see who has what.

Everyone thought I was stressing over nothing when I was having such a hard time getting the wreath pattern to work, but what they didn't understand is how slow I am at brick stitch, so the last phase of ornaments not only contains more ornaments than the first two, but it will take me longer.  I just have to keep calm and breathe.

Exploring Other Needlework Crafts

This weekend I just couldn't stay focused on beading and getting Christmas ornaments finished.  
First I found a free kindle book on Tunisian Crochet.  This is a stitch I learned as a girl known only to me as afghan stitch and I only learned the single and double crochet version.  I never thought of it as  crochet that could have various stitches just like regular crochet until I started looking through that book.
I did some research on the internet and came up with this site, Tunisian Crochet by Stitch Diva. I then remembered that I'd seen beaded Tunisian crochet and started looking for pictures.  I found several, but they weren't free to copy. I finally found a pattern for the necklace above.
Not a complicated pattern but I thought about trying it. Then I remembered you have to string the beads onto the crochet thread first. . .not my forte so I gave that up. 
Next I found an adult coloring book for free and downloaded it.  

I've spent Sunday and Monday telling myself to put the colored pencils down and get back to beading.  When I've finished the 17 ornaments for this year, maybe I'll get back to learning the intricacies of Tunisian crochet. 

A Look Back

I've had quite a bit of trouble getting on a schedule, communicating and creating for a long while now (ever since my first cataract surgery).  Lately, I've been pretty depressed thinking about my current productivity, so I decided to take a look back to see what I've accomplished. 

The picture above is of a bracelet made two years ago with Pondo (African Circle Stitch) and is a new stitch I'd just learned.  Learning new things usually keeps me going as I get bored and my inspiration lags continually using a stitch I'm familiar with.

Not long after that, as stated in the post linked above, I learned Authentic African Pondo. This is a much simpler stitch, but challenging and new to me, never the less.

Going back through my previous blogs and social media posts has shown me that I've slowed down but have still accomplished something worthwhile. 

Both of these patterns are available in my Craftsy Store, along with many other patterns featuring a wide variety of stitches.

On to New Things

I've had to put the tutorial for Mirror Mirror on hold. Either the design will need to be simplified, or my illustrating skills will have to improve before I can finish it.

It's time to start Christmas ornaments. Those of you who know me know I make beaded ornaments for the younger ones of the three generations that come after me.  This year there are a total of 17.  I'll try to get the five youngest ones a brick stitch "toy" made, the next age group will get a beaded star I think and the oldest five will get my new Holly Wreath.

This is a 3-D design, quite sturdy and very "blingy".  After struggling with my last design for a whole frustrating month, I was delighted with the ease with which this one came together. Only took me a week and a half, most of which was spent on the tutorial.

The pattern has been uploaded to all three of my pattern shops. 

BeadPatternsBoutique

The Bead Coop

Craftsy

Lebre Office

YaHOO!  I'm excited! This morning I was looking for a user forum for Open Office.  I wanted to be able to change the default line color. In the latest update of Open Office the default line color had been changed from black to gray. It got really tedious having to change the line color of each little line I drew as a thread path.  It HAD to be changed. I couldn't see it and thought if I couldn't see it my customers couldn't either. And of course, I couldn't be sure it went where I wanted it to.

Right under the search results for Open Office official site was an article on why you should ditch Open Office for Libre Office. I thought I could always delete it if it wasn't any better than Open Office, so I downloaded it.

YAY! Default line color is black, it has the ability to rotate an object to any orientation I want without having to guess at the angle degree, AND it will open all my Open Office files!!

So far I'm one happy illustrator. It'll only help with the line color in the tutorial I'm working on right now, but this is going to be much less frustrating!

Monday Musings

This morning while surfing for inspiration and eye candy. I came across this beaded bead by Gwen Fisher.

I've been a fan of Gwen's for many years and envy her ability to use mathematics as a base for her many beaded beads. 

This tutorial isn't a free one, but it's worth the small price as it includes some variations to the basic bead.

On another note, I haven't given up on the Mirror Mirror tutorial. This time it isn't just ripping out what I've beaded, it's erasing two whole rounds of embellishments on the tutorial. Strange how I could draw two rounds without noticing the discrepancy. However on the third round I found that there was a gap between the start bead and the last one. 

Well, OK then. That had me scratching my head and thinking the sore shoulders and back from sitting too long at the computer were all in vain, but upon careful inspection I discovered I hadn't done a very good job of rendering a 3-D drawing of the bead. Perspective was a little off, so I'm starting over on the 12 or 16 illustrations.  I think the second time around will be easier. . .I hope.

Mirror Mirror Update

Mirror Mirror tutorial is coming along slowly.  I've tried to do a step by step pictorial, but found that when I got to the embellishment part I just couldn't get a good tight shot and it was confusing to me. What would it be to a customer?  So I did a little rethinking about illustrating and came up with a way to illustrate it, but it's taking a long time.  

I'll have to add pictures of the finished round at intervals, but I think it will be comprehensible when I finish.

I thought seriously about getting a "bamboo pen" type stylus for drawing the thread path, but from what I can gather, they only work on a computer with an interactive screen. I have an old, refurbished laptop. 

In the meantime, here's a free tutorial from Mikki Ferrugiaro. Crystal Corners features tila beads and crystals. It's a versatile design that can be used in many ways, only limited by your imagination.

It's Monday. . .Again

Where did the week go?  Today's been a relatively productive day in spite of everything.  I've finished mowing the yard and worked on Mirror Mirror a little bit.

I gave up on illustrating the tutorial and took step by step pictures to make a pictorial.  I spend most of the morning editing the pictures for the first seven steps and finishing up the peyote on the second side of the pearl.

I'd bragged about not doing so much frog stitch on this project. Bragged too soon.  When I got to the next round I found the two rounds before it wouldn't work.  There just wasn't anywhere to go from there.  It's frustrating, but I like it so much I won't be giving up yet.

I've abandoned the purple and gold one in spite of the fact the colors are my favorite.  It's so sparkly and shiny I can't see it. Maybe by the next post I'll have a finished piece to show you.

Progress

Still not a great picture, but I'm making progress. The last row I've worked needs some tweaking, but you can see the Czech beads give a whole different look from the Japanese ones.  Both colors of the size 15's are Japanese beads.  I still need a round or two or maybe even three.  I'm getting slower and slower, but on this one I'm not ripping out as much as I have on some of my more recent ones. 

Yard work and a back that doesn't want to hold me upright in a chair for very long are slowing down my beading and tutorial making, but I'm very thankful to still be somewhat productive.

Have a great weekend everyone!