Calling all beaders....you whoooooo

At least there are beads on it: Veil Cap, meant to go with an ornate 1930's-style coat as an eventual hall costume.

(getting new pic eventually; can be found @blog below)

The hat was first finished in 2003, then altered over the years. The veil and the hand-beaded buttons holding it in place are new. 2nd try on the veil: turns out the all-bead version was too stiff, so I backtracked and used embroidery floss.

Very happy with it now.

Lovely pieces GreenDragon.

Will I get to see this piece at the Con, Filigree? I'll bring my goodies--not that I've made much this year. between work and the writing related jobs I've picked up, there is very little time for anything else. One day, I'll be able to work from home. One day.

I'm still working on trying to set up funding and time to go.

Better pics here:http://www.cranehanabooks.com/blog/2015/02/12/why-hall-costumes/

Does anyone make their own polymer beads?
I've recently been making some simple canes to use in the hair pieces I've been making, it is lots of fun.

roseangel, my mom works with polymer clay. My friend Sage Bray is a wizard at it. She runs a magazine called Polymer Arts. Wonderful stuff!

http://www.thepolymerarts.com/

I've only played with polymer intermittently, starting in 1991.I've seen some amazing examples, though.

Filigree said:

Yep. I can see that.

Spillage: it's worse when you do it to yourself by sneezing when your hand is too close to a paper plate *full* of iridescent tan #14s the same general color as the carpet. And the SO and the family animal hang back, going, "Nope, wasn't us."

That required a vacuum cleaner, a big bucket of water, and an actual gold-panning screen. Because those damn iridescents were $12 a tube, and I needed every one of them.

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I use a vacuum cleaner hose covered with pantyhose. Collects them all!

To keep from the paper plate disaster - I bead on a ceramic dish. Heavy, more cat-resistant It also keeps my colors separated (I'm OCD enough that this is needed)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/M00239-MORE...921?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ec3821199

Filigree said:

The latest big project: 'Rain Gloves'

#8, #11 seed beads in iridescent gray, faux 'opal' glass cabs, pressed glass double-hole beads in black iris, smoky clear gray in various shapes, 8mm iridescent pale blue 'rice' beads, 15mm gray-purple luster discs for buttons on underside. Model's hands slightly blurred with Painter filter to focus on beadwork.

Probably about 45 hours of working time, done as a proof of concept. I will probably not make these for sale because of the number of measurements involved. But I am thinking of entering them in a show as soon as I can make some understated wire glove forms.

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Those are stunning, Filigree!

Finally got my beaded shawl pics up.

Yowza, that's lovely. I know just enough about netting and loom-woven beadwork to guess how long that took. +10

Filigree said:

Yowza, that's lovely. I know just enough about netting and loom-woven beadwork to guess how long that took. +10

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No loomwork at all - this is all peyote and netting.

This is actually my second time doing this. The first time I used Nymo, and the netting kept falling apart. It was too heavy for the piece (2.5 pounds) even doubled once I finished. So I took ALL the netting apart, saving just the dragons and the leading edge. I redid it with 6lb test braided fishing line (clear). MUCH better.

That is stunning! I've never thought about a beaded shawl. So beautiful!

When it was falling apart, I heartily wished I had never thought of it, either! I shoved it in a bag and put it away for a year, until I talked to a friend at work, who did fishing. He told me of braided fishing line. I'd never heard of it. And 6lb is almost as thin as Nymo... I was so excited! The first time took me most of a summer. The second round took me from Christmas to the first week of February!

PS - the not-finishing thing - I hate it. I don't like starting a new project unless I've finished the last one. The unfinished project niggles at my brain and makes me unhappy and unaccomplished. So to put it away for so long was a horrible thing for my psyche. I don't give up easily!

That is gorgeous!

*swats muse back into her hole.

You know I don't have time for something like that before June right?

*sighs

Guess I'm calculating how many beads I'll have to order**

**Oh and I'll probably not make anything like that. The muse knows I have too much on my plate as it is. She just likes ideas to play with for a while. I've also got too many things to finish before starting on my next beading project. I'm thinking a big loom piece. Maybe...

I have no idea how many beads are in it, but I know how much it weighs - 2.5 pounds. I thought it would be more

The crystals at each 'point' of the netting were the real b$$$$. Expensive little buggers.

I bet they were. From experience I know how heavy beads can be. A beaded vest I did for a dance regalia weighed in at about ten pounds! Netting would be lighter but still heavy.

Shadowflame, you up for a panel/demo thingy on beadwork at LepreCon? Not hot glass, they'd never let us do that.

Shadowflame, I have too many muses. They have coffee klatches and start fighting over my few remaining conscious moments. I have my writing muse (the newcomer), my photography muse (usually only bothers me after a trip when I take lots of photos), my beading muse (most active, historically), and the currently somnolent digital painting muse. Sigh.

My damn Muses egg each other on. It would be entertaining if I weren't the sucker caught in the middle.

I'm afraid to use fishing line - I've seen how it degrades. When I repair/rebuild this freakin' vest, I'll use thin steel/nylon cable to anchor all the points where the poly cording is shredding.

I'll bring it to the con.
http://www.cranehanabooks.com/blog/tag/green-bead-vest/

Filigree said:

Shadowflame, you up for a panel/demo thingy on beadwork at LepreCon? Not hot glass, they'd never let us do that.

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Hmmm... I hadn't thought of that. But yea, I'd be up for a demo. hmmm what technique? Should I go with something simple or off the wall complex? (I've got some ideas with using a variety of stitches for freeform stuff.) You can see an example here.
Or maybe fringework.

Oh and to muses.
The writing one of course, then beading one, the lampworking one, the knitting/crochet one, I'm tossing the painting/drawing ones together and I do have a gardening one that's poking me that I really need to get my seeds started for spring. lol

Well, I might have a new writing opportunity with a small beading magazine. I'll have to weigh my options on this one as it's not a paid gig but a trade for advertising. (I don't have a proper website set up yet!)

But at least I'd have a publishing credit to my name on the beadwork side of things.

Cool! If you can handle the workload, I'd say take it. If you plan on teaching or selling kits, it's good advertising.

Turns out I'm not doing any panels at LepreCon. My finances and workload are too crazy right now, so I bowed out. It'll be as much as I can do to attend one day - so I hope I'll meet up with the other attending AWers there.

Not sure I'm even doing the art show. It's been 20 years since I was last there, and even then, the pricing trends were too low for my work.

I think I can handle it. Esp since the plan is to ditch the dayjob SOON! I'm trying to pick up a lower stress part time job and dedicate more time to freelance work. Hopefully then I'll have beading time again and able to work on tutorials along with more actual writing time.

And can't wait to meet up at LepreCon. I'll bring my pretties with me!

Okay so the first article is written, I've got to do a few samples and pull out my UFOs. Then photograph and do a head shot this weekend. EEEP!

Then I'm going to design at least 3-4 simple pieces to wear to Leprecon! Gods I need more TIME! lol

Who am I kidding. Very little I do is SIMPLE. lol

I'm trying to be good today at the dayjob but then suddenly, brain says "hey here's a GREAT idea using one of those obscure techniques that you've learned that could possibly work if you did...."

Sent a half frantic email to a friend who might understand what I'm talking about. I hope she doesn't think I'm insane.