And here's what happened shortly before blogging tonight:
It's probably a good thing that Fe (our third cat) doesn't hang out with the boys. I don't think my desk could hold another cat!
And now Pixel's back on my lap. I sense a trend.
When I first mentioned the Waltz rope and Polka Dot beaded beads (the second link is for the instructions on how to make them), I said I had "flat variations that start with the same step as the others." I haven't had too much time to work on those variations, except for a different way to start them out.
Tonight I was going to work on one of those variations but spent some time playing around with one of the samples I made. Due to my fiddling, I came up with two more variations!
One of them is going to take more work, but I was able to flush out the other one and make a pair of earrings:
It's a little hard to tell, but there's a crystal tucked away in there:
That bit of blue is the crystal. The Super Duos I use are called Crystal Heliotrope, and some of the crystals have bits of blue that match the crystal.
I had a particular name in mind after I figured out what I was doing. When I showed the first earring to Steve, he said, "You could call it 'Captive Crystal'." I said, "I was thinking 'Hobo Sack' because of how it's gathered up." He said, "Oh, yeah, 'Hobo Sack' sounds really romantic."
He's no fun anymore.
I'd like to try making these with black Super Duos to see if the crystal inside shows through better. When you're making something for the first time, it's really hard to see what you're doing if everything is black. I learned that the hard way while teaching a class on tubular peyote with my students using black peanut beads. Oops! It was hard enough with these shiny Crystal Heliotropes.
The hardest part about making these earrings is stitching up the last part. I put the crystal on a headpin before the last step, and the headpin kept falling out. I'll have to experiment with putting the crystal in first, stitching it up, then putting the headpin in. I'm leery of that, though, because the crystal's hole could be anywhere.
Even within this one technique there are a few variations. The components can be hung like "hobo sacks" or upside down like diamonds. They can be stacked for longer earrings (although Steve didn't like that they moved around and wouldn't always be lined up), and they can probably be strung on beading wire for a bracelet or necklace.
I foresee a lot more experimentation in my future!
One final thing: I picked up two spools of the "new and improved" Fireline. The one thing I don't like so far is that the spools are smaller, so they don't snap into the lid of my beading Caboodle. That's minor (although I love when people ask, "How did you do that?!?"); the most important thing is how it works for beading. I am going to work with nothing else until I'm confident enough to write a review. It might be this Friday, but it may end up being next Friday.
Okay... one more really and truly final thing.
This just happened:
He's stopped, fortunately, but if he does this a lot, it may deter me from having a clean desk. :)
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