Feels Like Less

You know how you have those weeks: the more time passes, the less you get done? The day job has felt spectacularly unproductive and busy as I've been preparing for Bead and Button, seems like I have almost nothing to show for it.

I should take pictures of the piles of tiny baggies with beads I suppose.

 It seems like forever ago that I did this necklace because there's another one off the disk waiting for a clasp and yet another in progress. I suppose that's a good thing.

This isn't for a class (it was submitted but not accepted) but I felt like making kits anyway, so this is the second colour-way and even though it's not usually where I go, I'm kinda loving it with the funky colour-lined magatamas which add just the right amount of extra pink.

I suppose these few pictures are more or less realistic though, as my evenings this past week have been all grown-up and gong out instead of nose to the grindstone and beading: I saw David Seders who was entertainingly chatty (he usually keeps extemporaneous words to a minimum and just reads) and some Brazilian dance company who were no better than mediocre street performers. Sloppy, graceless, a little dull. They were pretty athletic though, and it was slightly better when two of them were shirtless instead of swaddled in oversize clothing (I'm a sucker for finely-tuned abs, what can I say) but not enough that I wanted to stay for the second half.

Colour Love

So I sold the kumihimo necklace from last post, the one with the whiteness and the silver focal. I'm almost sorry it's gone because I really liked it but if I'm perfectly honest with myself, after the blush of new love wore off, I'd probably not wear it much.

It really suited the person who bought it though, so there's that.

I'm officially in full-on pre-panic mode for Bead and Button. It starts in a little over a month and realistically the only worrisome thing I have to do is bedaub one more sample. And fill kits for classes but somehow, even though it invariably is far more time-consuming than I ever remember into be, I'm not losing sleep over.

To make the whole trip financially worthwhile and at worst a break-even situation, I need to pack [new] kits for Meet the Teachers, but I do have a certain amount of time between classes while I'm there, so I don't have to be completely finished before I leave my driveway at the end of next month.

Speaking of samples and kits, I'm very pleased with the way this one turned out:

It's all my favourite types of colours: just slightly something else. The gold is slightly green, the khaki is slightly pink, the beige is slightly yellow, the bronze a little copper and I'm happy with the way they play together. Originally I'd been planning on something more aggressively green with a more aggressively Not Green contrast, but I think this is probably more appealing overall.

To me at least.

Skimming

Eh, there were taxes to be paid, estate sales to be had, technology to be battled (why are the new and improved versions never an improvement? Why do they remove the useful features and leave them dumbed-down?) and it feels as though I didn't get all that much done.

I made earrings, really simple earrings.

Sometime during the first morning that I wore them, I saw myself in a mirror and panicked at the deep red rash down both sides of my neck - and then calmed down when I realised it was the dye from the stone drops.

I made the third sample for Skella which I'm teaching at Bead and Button. It's a fun project which uses a number of different techniques and my complaint about it is kinda also what I like about it: there's a whole bunch of stuff you have to stitch before you get to the part with the triangle beads, and it seems you're just building structure and laying foundation yadda yadda - and then you're there and it's a bit confusing at first, and then the rhythm hits and its FUN (at least I think it is) and then everything else you have to do firms it up (both in terms of the structure but also the design) and I find it satisfying.

There were also a couple of kumihimo necklaces (as there almost always are) which were given clasps (and one which was not. I'll show you when it's ready).

Colours

Bead and Button this year is not such awful prep since I've taught and kitted two of the classes before, each of which already has four colour-ways, so I don't feel so pressured for them, but there are two more classes I've not kitted (but have taught) before, so it's time for the colour-ways.

 The volcano rivoli with its bronze and copper accents is right up my tree, deep and sultry and I'm not dissatisfied, but I'm utterly head over heels in love with this second colour-way.

The seed beads are two different divine hybrids, and the rivoli is one with the new patina finish and  the mixed metals and laid-back neutrals somehow tweak my core. I'm a little surprised by that actually. There's almost a delicious derelicte feeling to these colours and I don't know why, but I want to marry it.

Sort of.