Life, and all that comes with it

I started my Gee's Bend bracelet and didn't get very far. My sister called and then my son came in frozen and it was suppertime and then... movie time. Well, I didn't get back to it, instead I started something that I can do mindlessly while I am on the phone or 'watching' a movie...another project for my class, I think that it is easy enough for a beginner, 6/0 seed bead with 11/0 trim and varied glass beads for decoration... The glass bead is part of the clasp.  I like doing this kind of beadwork. I sit by the pool and watch my son and his friends play and make bracelets one after another. This necklace is 22 inches without the clasp. It is kind of rough, but I was holding the phone with one shoulder.

Usually I do three or four different necklaces of one style that I am going to teach, one with the beads that the class will use, one piece with smaller beads that will show a more delicate look, and then one with something totally different like triangles, just to show you can use the same pattern as something different. The first is usually just a quick project that I think about and just do, Sometimes I actually sit down and sketch out whatever it is that I am going to teach, but really, I usually just do whatever pops into my mind, then sketch it out and label it. Kind of backwards I suppose, but really this is how I work.  I don't like to feel constrained to one design, if I don't like what I am working on (unless it is something specifically asked for) I will just change in midstream and do what feels or looks right. Not many times have I changed what I am working on after it is finished.

Well the snow is all melted (except the snowmen and a few drifts  and in the back of my truck) the official count was 10 inches, but it may have been a bit more at our house, it is hard to measure when it comes down the way it did. I'm hoping for another snow day, but doubt it will come anytime soon. Think we already got our share, plus,  this winter. This is selfish of me I know, I like having my son home, and I like the opportunity to bead or paint if I want to. The idea of not going anywhere is really nice, but then life catches up and you have to emerge from the den and get on with worldly duties.

The Gee's Bend will wait another day, because I really want to make it exactly the way it was designed, not how I might change it... and I will have to sit down and look at the instructions and diagram of "blocks". It looks like fun, and while I don't use tile beads often, these are really pretty. I prefer to work in 11/0 and 15/0 seeds and 11/0 triangles. I love the look of the triangles in  flat ribbons of peyote stitch. I don't use them to weave, but I think they would look really cool probably. I am really stingy with all the triangles that I get and haven't tried yet.  I am stingy because we don't have a good bead outlet near where I live and have to buy when I go to Dallas or order on line, which I prefer buying while I can see the beads... like fabric, I want to fondle it before I buy it :)