About Face

I haven't made a single beaded bead since my last post. Since last weekend. Not that I'm done forever or anything, I'm just saying.

I did finally finish this necklace that's been hanging around since forever, at least that's what it feels like.

I think I like this finishing thing. I just may do more of it. Makes me feel virtuous, smug, accomplished and purposeful.

And since Puget Sound Bead Festival class registration is going live quite soon now, I decided that it was time to get the class kits listed in my Etsy shop, since they want the instructors to handle supplies, which is fine by me!

They've already listed the classes and the times, mine being an interesting schedule.

I'm teaching all day Sunday, and Friday night and Saturday night (these are 7-10pm classes). I've never taught at a show where the classes run so late (8:30 is the latest with which I've had experience), but I understand why they've chosen that (I think): so that there is a two-hour break between classes - most show seem to provide a one-hour break. This makes the actual eating between classes a less rushed affair, which means that the show days are less hectic, but they're also longer.

I'm guessing that there are plenty of night owl beaders for whom this will be an ideal class time!

It's great for me, as it gives me the opportunity to play tourist during the day, which has not been the case at previous shows. I've already been checking Tacoma web sites, and I'm looking forward to exploring - and some fabulous weather!

I created a new section in my shop, and have listed everything, although I do not yet have all the colourways up that I intend to have available.

Each of these links to the listing in my shop:

The rivoli flower listing doesn't have a single picture in the exact colours that I intend to have available, so I'd better get cracking there.

I already have two colourways for this necklace, but I'm thinking of another, something more towards my own personal palette: somewhere in the sludge/murk/oilslick area of the colour wheel.

I've always used fresh water pearls for this bracelet, but I'm having a really hard time finding pearls in the right size of a decent quality and not out-of-this-world exorbitant in terms of price, and I'm having serious thoughts about using either shell pearls (with which I have no experience) or very baroque pearls or perhaps those they call "tadpole" pearls. Guess I'll have to try and see how they work out; I'm pretty sure I can find ones to my specifications (price, size, quality).

When I made this pendant, I got a really good deal on bulk buys of these donuts, and once again, I'm a little stuck for variety. I'm pretty sure I can find dyed mother of pearl donuts, which I think would work nicely, but suitable stone and glass donuts are proving somewhat elusive. I do still have some time though.

The work situation seems to be on the upswing, slightly.

It turns out that there's more work than they thought (resource management not appearing to be the strongest suit here) in the project on which we're just getting started, which is a Good Thing. It's an integration project (our company was bought by another company a year or so ago, and we all think it's important that the software originating in both companies can talk to each other), and they'll need people at both ends, so there's the opportunity to get some broader experience, always useful in the job security game.

Sometimes I think I may be a little adolescent in my reaction to new music, or perhaps it's the O.C.D. in me that I indulge: I play it incessantly (there's often a song on an album that I'll put on repeat, and let it play three or five or twelve times before going on to the the rest of the album) for weeks or months, almost to the exclusion of all else in my music library, until it loses its compulsive grip on me and I once again play variety.

My latest obsession is The Magnetic Fields; the best words I can find to describe them are droll and eclectic, although the music industry seems to put them in the Alternative Rock area - I'm not arguing the classification, but it's so broad that it's almost meaningless, except (for me) as a primary filter. I mean, it includes Regina Spektor and Green Day and Nerf Herder and Nellie McKay, all of which I listen to, but none of which is much like the other.

Anyway, the driving force of the band has the oddest voice for a lead singer of a rock band (he's not the lead singer), and their lyrics and instrumentation are just so unexpected that I'm completely delighted and captivated.

I started with their album Realism, which was reviewed on Fresh Air a few weeks ago, and have graduated to 69 Love Songs and i. So far, but I want more.