Trial and error: My tale of two pumpkins

-
Top pumpkin is how I'd sketched it; the bottom one is the first
one I made with the increase not where I initially planned for
it to be.


How much experimenting do you do when you bead?

I ask because I generally don't like to do much. I want to know when I start a project what each stitch will be. If I accidentally stray from the original plan, aka make an error, I take out stitches and fix it. And when that's done, I move on to another project.

Or that's what I typically do.

This past week, armed with a twice-redrawn pattern for pumpkin earrings, I sat down to string it up in square stitch, a method that I haven't used much. In row three, I made an error as I was trying to do an increase, making the increase closer to the edge than I had sketched it to be.

In the past, I would've backed up to where I had made the mistake and fixed it, but this time, I was curious about how it would look. Maybe my "mistake" would turn out to be better, or maybe it would be worse. So, I completed the pumpkin as it was and made the other side match.

Then I made a second one just as I had sketched it. In the end, the differences between the two were minor, though I do think the "mistake" pumpkin is the better of the two.

But ever since then, my brain has been thinking about other variations for the pumpkin -- adding in a darker orange, or making the pumpkin a little taller, or both, adding black on the edges.

I plan to make them all, making the one that makes me smile the most be the one I turn into an earring set.

Does anyone else work this way? I know it will take me a lot longer to complete a set of earrings like this, but I like that this time, I was thinking beyond the pattern.

A giveaway
I'm hosting a giveaway on Amazon.com. U.S. residents age 18 or older can enter here >>> https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/f3fd415816d48e0c#ts-yt

Contest ends Sept. 28.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Contemporary Loom Beading"

-
My mother-in-law gave my husband and me a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble a while back, and we just got around to spending it last week. With my share, I purchased a beading book that had been on my Amazon wish list for quite a while, " Contemporary Loom Beading: A New Look at a Traditional Stitch ," by Sharon Bateman. Because I've been in the middle of a freelance project I work on twice a year, I haven't been able to do much more than thumb through the book, but I have to say, the  projects within have really piqued my interest. All of the loom work I have done has been basic, flat pieces that I learned to make years ago from my great-aunt . This book, however, features projects that have a little more dimension. For the most part, the loom work is done the same, but the book puts a new spin on what to do with what you create. It also features types of looms I didn't know existed, including one the author created herself . I look forward to putting so...
Read more

Beading Days

-
I've assigned myself beading days, three days a week in which I focus my at-home time creating beaded pieces and striving to develop my creativity. For three other days each week, I plan to work on DIY home projects such as decluttering, painting and redoing my kitchen cabinets. I'm tired of my house being incomplete, but at the same time, I want to stay on track with my beading goals.  For at least the first year or so after my husband and I bought our house, I worked on my home at least once a week. After a schedule change at work, though, that changed. It's not unusual for months to pass between DIY days.  And it's even harder to find the time now that we have a 3-year-old. So I've decided the only way it's going to get done is if I do it. But I don't want to lose sight of my beading goals in the process. I know myself well enough to know that I'll have a tough time sticking with my 3-days-of-beading, 3-days-of-DIY-plan, though. It will take more disc...
Read more

I've got a notion to sew a Halloween costume

-
Image
Now that I'm a mother , I find myself enjoying Halloween more than I ever did as a child. Case in point: Halloween 2015 was less than a week past when I began wondering what my daughter will wear next year. On a trip to Walmart, I sought out the Halloween leftovers and sifted through the costumes hoping to get an awesome costume — one that normally costs out of my price range — at half off. But I know two things about my daughter that made looking through those costumes a waste of time: She has growth spurts every few months. I could buy the next size up, but by next Halloween, she might be two sizes taller — or three even. (She's very tall for her age.) Her tastes come and go quickly. In the week since Halloween, she's already told me that next year she wants to be Wonder Woman, then changed her mind and said, "I think I want to be Sofia the First. " Once I realized the perfect 2016 costume wasn't on the rack, I got ambitious. Despite knowing l...
Read more