The Bead Spot

My husband and I have had some marathon TV sessions over the last couple of days, catching up on season 2 of Netflix's Ozark and giving Hulu's Light as a Feather a shot. We still have a couple of episodes of Light as a Feather to go, and I'm really enjoying it. It puts me in a Halloween kind of mood. While we're watching, I've been beading. So far, I've made one and a half pairs of feather earrings, and I can't be sure, but I think I might be getting a little faster at it. Or maybe it just seems that way because binge watching seems to make the time go faster. Once I get the second pair of earrings completely finished, I will list them and a couple of bracelets in my Etsy store in hopes of getting a few holiday sales. Fingers crossed. Do you binge watch while beading? What shows do you like?

Over the past few weeks, when I've been away from this blog, I've been struggling to get decent photos of my beadwork for my Etsy shop . I haven't had much luck. I tried the tips for setting up an indoor home studio that I mentioned back in October last week and the week before. I searched for a full-spectrum light bulb. I bought poster board to reflect light back. I tried different ways to diffuse the light. All of that experimenting, and this was the best I could do: I debated whether I should post those on Etsy, and I decided to give it a try. However, the colors are wrong and the earrings are out of focus. They look better in the photos I took before and featured in my October post. Is it the black background? Do I need a different item to diffuse the light? Sooner or later, I hope, I'll get the hang of this. Until then, I have a lot of work to do. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising pro...

Six or seven years ago, my mom, who does beadwork, too, commented that the size 11 Delica seed beads I like to use were way too small for her to see. She works mostly in seed beads, too, but she sticks with size 10s as much as possible. It made no sense to me that one size would make that big of a difference. But now I get it. The last time I did a marathon of seed beading, I realized that I couldn't see the beads well enough to work if I had my glasses on. It seems my distance vision has gotten bad enough that my glasses are too strong to see tiny items (such as words on a page or seed beads in an earring) very well at all. Because I like to watch TV while I do beadwork, I chose shows that I could mostly listen to. I wore my glasses, but pushed them up on top of my head while I stitched beads together, then dropped them back down on my nose if I thought I needed to watch something on the TV screen. I hope my vision doesn't get much worse than it is now, but I'm ...

Teeny, tiny, little shiny seed beads can be so hard to photograph. I know to use the macro setting for small objects. After taking scores of photos by the light of my living room lamp, I've come to realize that taking photos outdoors on a sunny day will result in better, more true color. (If you scroll back through my previous posts and you spot a photo with an orange hue, it was probably shot in my living room.) I've read about, watched videos on and visited web pages that cover framing. And yet somehow, my photos still seem to often be off balance. But I'm a firm believer in the power of practicing tasks you want to get better at doing. So this past Sunday, I hauled a small table out onto my back patio, got a black handkerchief I bought specifically to serve as a background, and tried to get some photos of a pair of feather earrings I made.  Three versions (of many) that I took of feather earrings I made. The two on the left are too blurry. Only the one on the...

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 be...

This past weekend, I took my daughter to visit some of her cousins, and I loaded up my beadwork, planning to make some pumpkin earrings for Halloween. Since I wasn't home and couldn't use my  Beader's Canvas  software, I took graph paper and a pencil to use for mapping out the pumpkin. After about 20 minutes of marking and shifting so that the pumpkin didn't look lopsided, I finally had a jack-o-lantern face I was happy with. Jack-o-lantern sketch for brick stitch. So I started beading in brick stitch. It didn't take me long to realize I'd need to go back to the drawing board, though, as the pumpkin I'd sketched would wind up being way too wide to wear as earrings.  In retrospect, I should've known that having 20 beads across would be too wide, even with seed beads, but at the time, the thought never crossed my mind. That's probably my greatest challenge in working with seed beads — I often over- or underestimate how much space ...

Ten years ago, I took an introductory drawing class with the idea of being able to use the skills later at my job, which called for me to occasionally create a graphic or illustration. I really enjoyed the class, and I learned a lot about creating depth and perspective with shadows. I did some drawing in the months that followed, but eventually, my drawing journal wound up in a drawer amid my craft supplies, and there it's sat for the past eight or nine years. Until this past weekend, that is. An itch to draw again has been following me around over the past few months. I'll see a lamp post or desk or flowers in a vase, and think, "How would I draw that? What would I need to do to show the light? How could I show the reflection on the side?" etc. So on Saturday, I took out my journal, grabbed a charcoal pencil, and attempted to draw my daughter from a photo. I learned two things as I sketched: (1) At the time I drew the stuff that was already in my journal, I...

"What We Want, What We Need." Artist Jeffrey Gibson (born 1972) at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas For the first time since our daughter was born, my husband and I went to an art museum earlier this month, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas. It was a trip I've wanted to make ever since the museum opened its doors back in 2011. Though the collection was smaller than I thought it would be, the trip still did not disappoint. One of my favorite works was a beaded punching bag sculpture titled "What We Want, What We Need" by Choctaw artist Jeffrey Gibson. According to the Crystal Bridges website , "in this work, seemingly contradictory positions are blended equally and harmoniously, demonstrating Gibson’s philosophy that varied cultural influences generate new ideas and creations." The museum also has on show an exhibit of blown glass by Dale Chihuly, an artist I first learned about while taking...

Time management and crafts (Image by Gratisography/Ryan McGuire/ FreeRangeStock.com )  Do bad time management practices negatively affect your crafts hobby? It does mine. For instance, this week, I took a few days off work to burn some use-it-or-lose-it paid time off I've accrued at work. My plan for those days was to finally cross off a whole lot of tasks that have long been on my to-do list before I begin another crafts project. Here is the list of what I didn't get done: Clear clothes that don't fit out of my daughter's closet. Get rid of toys she hasn't played with in a long time. Gather up the clothes that don't fit me. Take all of that in to a resale shop. Finally finish organizing my crafts supplies. I did manage to get some important things done, and some not-so-important things, during my few days off. But, everything above that didn't get done makes me feel like my house is cluttered, and that makes it hard for me to tackle so...

1st snowman attempt using Beader's Canvas My daughter liked the jack-o-lantern necklace I made for her so much that I've wanted to create another glow-in-the-dark necklace for her for winter, and what better project, I thought, than a snowman? On Sunday, I tried to map out a snowman's head on Beader's Canvas , and after having done so, I no longer think that it will make a good necklace. I think a full snowman, using the glow-in-the-dark pony beads I have, would be too big, but if I create only a snowman head, I'm not sure people will get that it's a snowman instead of just some guy with a top had and a very red nose. I might still try it, but I think that ultimately, the project will just be a wall hanging.

Daisy chain bracelets in fall oranges and browns. (And a blue bracelet I made in 2015) Ah, fall. I love the colors, especially when you can look across several mountains and see varying shades of reds and oranges. That's the view I get when I drive to my parents' home or when my husband, daughter, and I go visit his family. In my own backyard, fall colors never last long. One day the leaves are gorgeous, the next they're the same color as the inside of cereal box. Looking for a simple project to do last week, I had my mind on this season and pumpkins. (Yes, I am a pumpkin spice fan.) I chose Czech seed beads in two shades of orange, chocolate brown, and off-white pearl, and then I cranked out a few daisy chain bracelets while I listened to the "Undisclosed " podcast. I might not get much fall color in my backyard, but at least I'll have it in my craft box. What seasons do you most like to create crafts for? Let me know in the comments section bel...

Seed bead bracelet in progress Lately, I've had a lot of job stress that's made me wish more and more that I had the courage to throw caution to the wind, turn in my notice, and turn my crafts into a business. Here are the biggest reasons why I love making crafts: Reason 1: It's calming ... Eventually When I am in the "what am I going to make phase?" my stress level goes up as I struggle to think of something new to try or to create a new pattern for an old project. But once I know what I'm making and can settle in and work on it, I feel a calmness I don't normally feel during waking hours. It's a peaceful, relaxing way to spend an hour or two ... Eventually. Reason 2: Completing a project feels good Recently, my grandma asked me to make earrings for a woman at her doctor's office. The woman had requested some, knowing that my grandma knows a few people who make authentic Native American jewelry, but she wasn't specific beyo...

Glow-in-the-dark pony beads* I've had my eye on glow in the dark beads for more than a year. After getting an Amazon gift card for my birthday in July, I finally got them. Yay! That's the good news. The bad news is that they're bigger than I expected. I knew what size they were -- pony -- when I bought them, but because I work mostly with size 10 and 11 beads, I didn't realize just how big pony beads are by comparison, which is too big to create the patterns I had in mind for a bracelet for a child my daughter's age. So, rather than make bracelets, I think I'll use the patterns for necklace charms and wall decor. Hopefully little girls will still like them. *I tried to have a little fun with my new glow-in-the-dark beads by getting photos of them, but alas, my smartphone camera is not good enough to truly capture them aglow.

Round beaded earrings. My grandma called a few weeks ago to ask if I had any round earrings. She was asking on behalf of a woman who works in her doctor's office who likes Native American crafts. I told her I had some but no longer do. She told me her next appointment isn't for six months or so, so I've got plenty of time to make some for her to take to show the woman. I made round earrings once before, and they took a long, long time. On the day I started them, I invited a niece and nephew over to keep my daughter entertained. I foolishly thought I could knock out a pair or two over the two hours the kids played together. Instead, I got just one only half finished. I loved the way they turned out, though. So I plan to have some for my grandma to take the next time she goes to the doctor. My other project in the pipeline is an "N" for my daughter's bedroom door. On a recent trip through Target, my daughter got very excited when she saw wooden let...

I had no idea so much time had passed since the last time I blogged here. But then, it's been at least August since I've tackled any beading projects, so it's not like I've much to say. Back in August, I made some feather earrings like the ones I made last year, and I started bracelet that ultimately, I unraveled because I had messed up in the middle. I thought I was able to mask it, but once it was complete, I realized I didn't do as well as I had thought. That's about it in a nutshell. My hope, though, is to get back regular beadwork and blog posts.

Boxes on the mantel, bags of beads in my desk drawer, tote bags with projects in progress, a bolt of fabric behind the door. My beads and beading supplies are pretty scattered around the house these days. After I recently spent 20 minutes looking for my flush cutters, I said to myself, "It's time. It's time to go through all of this stuff and get it all organized once again." The last time I went through it all was right after my daughter was born. She'll be 4 next month, so yes, it's definitely time. I wish I was more naturally organized. You know, one of those people who put everything back where they got it. (A have to give a shout-out to my hubby on this. His alphabetizing and categorizing skills could leave any librarian envious).

Now that I'm a mom and my daughter is at an age when she wants to play outside often, I imagine my summers will be filled with more pools and outdoor activities than I've become accustomed to in adulthood. Growing up, I spent summers swimming at the lake and playing softball with my siblings in the front yard. As an adult, I've spent so much time in air conditioning that just the 10-second walk to my car when I head out the door to go to work prompts me to whine about the summer heat as if it could -- literally -- melt me. But, as I write this, I'm seated at a picnic table watching my daughter and her cousin run through the sprayground at a local park. I have ideas for bead projects, but beading isn't generally thought of as an outdoor activity. But I think that over the next few years, I may be learning how to make it into one.

Earlier this week, I bought this handy little gadget at Big Lots . My aunt, who also does beadwork, was using one when my daughter and I dropped by for a visit a few days earlier. I've tried several types of lamps to get decent lighting for beadwork and other craft projects, but each had its own shortcoming. Moving the living room lamp, for instance, left the rest of the room too dark. A lamp I had that could be clamped to a table came apart, and the flexible flashlight I bought worked great but was too easy to knock over. This headlamp, though, gives off enough light and can be adjusted to shine just where I need it without making the rest of the room dark or running the risk of knocking it over into a pile of beads. I love it. I don't know why it never occurred to me to look for something like this sooner.

I'm still working on sorting my beads . With the holidays and craziness at work, I haven't been able to work on it as much as I'd like, but I can just about see the bottom of the bowl. Ahh, I'm so ready to move on to the next project. :) I just hope I don't trip when I'm carrying the box.

Happy New Year's Eve! It's been years since I've made resolutions, because without fail, I will break at least one of them before the first day is up. But I've decided to make one this year: To learn to sew. There are lots of things I'd like to be able to make: clothes for my daughter, dolls, quilts. But I have yet to even fire up the sewing machine my mom gave me back in July. So I'm making a resolution this year to relearn how to sew and read patterns. My first project will be a bag my sister-in-law* gave me for my birthday. She also recommended Tilly and the Buttons as a great resource for learning. What craft-related resolutions do you have for this year? *My sister-in-law sews and knits everything from quilts to toys. Her website is Knottygnome.com .