I Need More Time

My head's been exploding lately.

This week has produced pages and pages of sketches and notes for beaded things I want to make, and as usual, I was rather too optimistic about how much I could accomplish in a single weekend. It wasn't nothing, but it wasn't a bajillion pieces either.

Remember this?

I thought it might be interesting to Add Stuff.

It's kinda interesting, but I didn't enjoy making it that much (it was tedious adding twenty-four little herringbone spikes), and I'm not all that thrilled with the way it looks. It looks messier than I'd anticipated, too organic really. I suppose I was hoping for something that looked more architected and less like random growth (even though each outgrowth is exactly the same as every other one).

As a nice counterpoint to the frustration of realising ideas, my brother sent me a picture that his hospital superintendent (who is married to someone with whom I went to primary school) sent him.

Looks like a green crepe paper wood nymph or seaweed-wearing mer-creature or something. I think I must have been about eleven or so.

The first iteration of the next idea that I tried to bead was so bad that I didn't even finish it or weave in the ends.

Instead it was deconstructed into separate components.

One set reusable, the other destined for landfill.

I love cutting things up.

Meanwhile I worked on the second iteration which is better, but the finish on the seed beads wasn't ideal for this application, and there was too little contrast (I don't think you can actually see that I've used two different seed beads) between the seed beads.

Usually I like silver-lined, especially matte silver-lined seed beads in herringbone stitch, as it emphasises the herringbone-ness very nicely. As you can see above, it makes peyote stitch look very bitty, not unified or uniform enough, but the pendant itself has most of what I wanted.

The last iteration used most of the same seed beads as the first, but in different places and in different proportions and although I think it could be better served by colour contrast rather than mostly a difference in finish, I think this is acceptable.

What you may not be able to see is that it's largely hollow with pointy peyote bits, a bit like the arches in Gothic cathedrals.

I did Something to my camera when I was in Australia, probably related to beach sand, as it makes a grinding noise every time I switch it on and the lens cover irises open and the lens extends. Also my rechargeable batteries seem to have turned into princesses, as they absolutely refuse to hold a charge for more than a couple of days.

My camera is about five or six years old and of course has been replaced by a number of newer models whose chief disadvantage is that they don't have the view-screen that folds out so that you can position yourself when using the self-timer for self-portraits; not that I use it a lot but I do use it sometimes and I hate to buy a newer-better-costlier camera that doesn't have a feature that I really like in the current one.