On Staying Focu-- Ooooh, Shiny!

This was sort-kinda a productive weekend in that I was busy making stuff and there are more beads sewn to each other today than there were on Friday, but I started a boatload and finished nothing, which leaves me with this nagging feeling of duty-beading (I have all this stuff which I have to finish before I can do anything else), which is just not a place I like to be when it comes to things I started making because it was fun and I was in the mood, as opposed to real duty-beading which generally covers class samples and inventory for shows.

And I think I can hear a mouse in the ductwork. This is a new experience for me.

I succumbed here because of the class I'm teaching next weekend; I convinced myself that it would be valuable to my students to have samples which are variations of the class project.

I just really really wanted to bezel a cab, truth be told.

I usually work with 14mm rivolis because it seems that they just lend themselves well to the bead counts for the way I bezel them (peyote as well as RAW) as opposed to some of the other sizes (16mm) that just don't so much. For me. Unthinkingly, I bought five 12mm rivolis in five different colours which I started making into a multi-coloured necklace which I fortunately never finished, since it's really ugly and needs to be cut up and (in the Steampunk vernacular) repurposed.

Good news #1: I developed another way to capture a 12mm rivoli. It'll make a stunning earring. Look out, those who bought one of my Earring Kit of the Month subscriptions!

Good news #2: The back is pretty too.

Good news #3: it really looks nice with this huge thing (27mm) which for some reason utterly mystifying to me they call a stone (even though it is clearly not something either mined or found on a riverbed or under dirt or any of the usual places one might find a stone) instead of a rivoli: it's also round, it's also foiled, and it's also pointy back and front, but perhaps the faceting is slightly different. Once can only speculate (and see, one has).

Bad News: It's also not finished (see the wiggly thread above right where I ripped out some stuff).

Cool thing: If you look carefully at the honking big thing, you can see that the beadwork capturing it is reflected in the shiny.

In the sort of good news department, I started redoing the flower thingie with different bead counts, and even though it's also Not Finished, Dammit, I think this one will work. The petals are comfortably curved, not straining at their joins.

And lookie: it's also reversible!

For our New Year's Day spinning event/get-together/meeting/spin-in/eat-a-thon I made a fabulous dessert (well, I thought so): Pink Peppercorn Pavlova with Strawberries, Vanilla Cream and Basil Syrup, but I though the strawberries with their very bright flavour somewhat overpowered the delicacy of the other flavours. (And don't close your mind to the notion of a sweet basil syrup. Think about it: basil has a mint-like flavour. There's really no good reason for it not to be a dessert flavour. I had basil sorbet at Chikalicious [I highly recommend this experience. Sit at the counter] in NYC in June, and it was wonderful).

Last night I made it with pears instead. I roasted some cubed, ripe pears instead of simply quartering strawberries, and pureed a few more to replace the strawberry coulis. I think it was the right choice, although the strawberries are much prettier than the pears: the puree browned substantially, even though I tried to exclude all air, and both the puree as well as the cubes should have been sweetened more.

Still, I though the pears a more appropriate compliment flavour-wise, but this may mean that I'll have to make this dessert again. Oh gosh darn it, what a hardship. (Subtext: yum!)