Bead Me Up, Scotty. NOW!

Okay, I know you have all been waiting for the free kit comment contest and I do apologize. It's not quite ready. I need to attach the clasp and take pictures, not to mention putting together the instructions and the kits. Due to extenuating circumstances, that I don't really want to go into on the world wide web, our life was turned a bit upside down today. And things will get better, but today necessitated things other than blogging. I will finish the bracelet this weekend, and we will have the contest next week.

In the meantime, I'll give you a topic to discuss amongst yourselves --- the challenges of color theory for artists who work with tiny bits of glass held together with thread, or more commonly, "Why Don't These Colors Work? They Looked Fine When I Held the Tubes Together in the Store!" The Bead Goddess Margie Deeb, has covered this topic numerous times, as have several other beaders, including Pam. If you are at all serious about beadweaving, you must learn color theory with glass beads, and sometimes even relearn color theory, especially if you have had any type of art training. When working with glass, you must learn to deal with light reflection and refraction, you must learn to deal with transparency, with matte, with gloss -- it's a whole different ball game.

Your challenge: pick some seed beads you like -- different shades of the same color, contrasts, coordinates, mixes, whatever. Work a small piece, it doesn't matter what stitch, BUT do one piece with white thread, one with gray, one with black and one that blends. Now see which colors work well with each other and with which thread, and which colors make you want to gag! I think you'll be surprised. And then . . . .

let the rest of us know how it went. Click on "comments", type your comment. If you have a Google ID, type it in, if not click on "other" and if you really don't want us to know who your are, click on "anonymous".

Have a great weekend. We are celebrating N's 19th birthday, which is Monday. When she was born, it gave a whole new meaning to "Labor Day"!! It's hard to believe it was 19 years ago. I will be back on Tuesday morning, bright and early.

Good Day Sunshine . . . .

I wasn't going to post today as I have much to do in the way of preparing for class this evening, but I'm sitting here waiting for multiple sets of instructions to finish printing. I'm watching them because inevitably, my ink jet cartridges will run out somewhere near the end. But this time, I am prepared! I went and had cartridges refilled last night! Ah, the marvels of modern technology.

I bet you're wondering when we're going to get to the beading part, aren't you? Very soon, I promise we will get there soon. This is all new to me, but comments will help. So . . . . .

Let me know what you would like to discuss in the way of beading. Just click on the little link below that says "comments" and type away. Ask me questions, give me suggestions, share a beading tip. But for now, I'm off to get some packaging of kits finished. ¡Adiós amigos!