Purple Petal Palette Pickle

After months and months of thinking I'd magically "find" the time to get my full line of kits and tutorials on my Creative Pursuits shop and on my Etsy shop, I finally decided to get organized and just do it.  I made a chart and scheduled a handful of tasks each week.  If I can keep up with it, it'll take me until September to get it all done.  (I hate to say it, but I'm already a little bit behind after only one week.)

The first designs I decided to do are Ever-Evolving Spiral and its offshoot, Let's Shag, Baby because they are among my newest designs and weren't on my site at all.  I have the website shop pages up (see the links if you're interested), and I'm hopeful that in the next few days the Etsy listings will be up.

While I was doing that I remembered that I owed you a blog post.  When I posted about the Ever-Evolving Spiral that only used the first thickness to match a top (click here to catch up), I said, "Recently I bought a whole bunch of beads to match a top that needed the perfect jewelry, but that turned out to be more difficult than I thought it was going to be.  I'll show you that and give you a new tongue twister on Tuesday."  Um, that was about 10 months ago.  Oh, dear.  Now, I never did say which Tuesday, did I?  Today's Tuesday!  I think that counts for something.

Anyway - here's the tongue twister: Purple Petal Palette Pickle.  It really is a bit tricky to say.  Try it.  I'll wait...

Here's the top I was talking about:

It's very loose, soft, and flowing, and the fabric is thin, which is nice for warm days.  I like the 3/4 length sleeves, but I'm not fond of the elastic.  That may have to go at some point.  The deep scoop neck is perfect for a full Ever-Evolving Spiral necklace, but the colors turned out to be hard to match.

When I bought the beads, I thought I had a perfect combination:  permanent finish metallic lavender 8/0 seed beads, white 11/0 seed beads, opaque amethyst luster SuperDuos, and matte crystal AB Rizos.  I started stitching, and it was awful.  The white seed beads took over the whole piece.  I started experimenting with purples, but they were all too harsh for what I wanted.  None of them were "soft and flowing."  I had been looking only in my 11/0 rounds because I like those best for spirals, but I was desperate so I looked in my Delicas.  They're cylinder beads that are great for peyote but can be a little blocky in a spiral.  I found the perfect color, though, so I decided to live with a little blockiness.

After all that, it still didn't look quite right.  The core was too "Hey!  Don't ignore me!"  For a project like this, I wanted the core to blend in.  Soft and flowing...

I tried a bead that I've been having problems finding again, and it was perfect.

Here's my trial piece:

You should be able to click on it to see a large version.  At the left you can see the white seed beads and the different purples I tried.  At the almost-halfway point you can see the change to the blockier Delicas, and the core changes about 2/3 of the way in.

Here's a closer-up picture of the core change:

I know... It's subtle, but I really like the final result.

Since I had less than a hundred of that core bead left (8/0 Matte Crystal AB - #131FR for those following along), I needed to hunt them down.  Not only did I want them for this project, but I wanted to make this into kits for both designs.  Also, I love this color for spiral cores.  It doesn't detract from the other colors, helping them to look their best.  I found them (whew!) and was even able to get a few large bags, so I should be set for a while.

Here are the finished pieces:

I like Ever-Evolving Spiral for necklaces and Let's Shag, Baby for bracelets.  Rizos can be kinda pricey, so there's no sense spending a lot of money just so a bunch of them can hang out in my hair.  My hair is unappreciative of pricey beads.

So, how does it look with the top?

Not too bad!  I've had a lot of compliments on it.  I did change the name from "Purple Petal" to "Lilac Blossom" because it was more soft and flowing.  When I wore this to Steve's work picnic, my friend Kat (who works for the same company) said it looked like lilac blossoms.  I guess I picked the right name!

And here I am in the top and necklace:

I'm wearing the bracelet, too, but I couldn't figure out how to show it in the picture without it looking stupid.  Also in this picture you can see my new haircut and my new glasses.  In case you're wondering, yes, my glasses are purple.  They even have a bit of fanciness and bling on the temples.  The most important thing about them, though, is that they're not making me want to tear my eyes out of their sockets, which is a huge step above my first pair of new glasses.

I do wish I had made the necklace an inch or two longer.  There's still a lot of my chest showing with this neckline.  One of these days I'll remake it.  Yeah, I don't think so, either.  It took me nearly 10 months to get to this blog, and I have a huge backlog of not-already-done things that need doing as well as a few things that need fixing.  Not to mention that chart of website and Etsy tasks that need doing.

So that's my purple petal palette pickle.  If you'd like to make your own Lilac Blossom necklace and bracelet, please check out my shop pages: Ever-Evolving Spiral and Let's Shag, Baby.  If you get the tutorial for Ever-Evolving Spiral, you will not need the one for Let's Shag, Baby.  It's the same technique but slimmed down for just the one thickness.

If you get the tutorial and choose your own colors, I'd love to see them!  E-mail pictures of your final pieces (perhaps with you wearing them?) to traci@creative-pursuits.biz, and I'll feature you in a blog post!  It won't take me 10 months to post it.  I promise.

You can always tell when I don't choose the colors

The Bead&Button Show is just about to start, so that means I'm busy making kits for the Meet the Teachers reception and my classes!  I don't have as many to make as I did for the Art Glass and Bead Show, but there is still some work to be done.

For a few years I've had kits for my Double Decker Daisy (DDD) bracelet design.  When I first started kitting it, I kinda went crazy.  I started with six different colorways and added three more later.  I don't ever have very many of one colorway.  I've ranted many times about how difficult it is to find kit materials in bulk, so I won't subject you to that again.  Suffice it to say, I usually only have a few kits of each colorway.

I designed DDD to use daggers to mimic the petals of a daisy.  When Pips came on the scene, I knew they'd work perfectly without changing the design at all.  You may have seen this picture before, so please bear with me:

Daggers are on the top, and Pips are on the bottom.  I think they're both so cute.

I've been meaning to make a few kits using Pips but have been putting it off.  I had so many kits to make for the Art Glass and Bead Show for newer designs that I didn't want to spend any more money for an older design.

However, because I put a sample out of the bracelet using Pips, we've been asked if we have kits with Pips, so I can't put it off any longer.  (The "we" here includes my husband, Steve.  He's invaluable at these shows!)

I went to Knot Just Beads, my favorite local bead store to get some Pips and ended up coming home with a lot more!  The lovely color above wasn't available, but there were some pretty purple Pips.  (Say that ten times fast!)  That's a no-brainer, of course.  I mean, look at this blog.  If I don't come home with some purple, something's wrong.

But I saw the brightest orange I've ever seen and asked Kim (the owner of KJB) what she thought.  I've talked about color before and how hard it is for me to work outside my comfort zone.  (See this post for a fire-inspired version of "It's Got Legs").  I'm happiest with purples, blues, greens, grays, black, and white.  I can work with pink and red, but I seem to lean towards cool, muted colors.

Yellow, orange, and brown are challenging, to put it mildly.  Steve likes those colors, and he usually helps out.  But Steve wasn't with me when Kim said the orange would be a good idea, so I was completely at a loss as to what to put with it.  It took quite a while, with me wandering around the store an awful lot saying, "I am physically incapable of choosing oranges and browns", but we (Kim, really) came up with something nice (as nice as orange and brown can be, that is).

I stitched up the new samples (including some samples I hadn't stitched yet) yesterday, and it was extremely obvious which colorway I did not choose:

Yes, there are some yellows in there (I wanted to have colors close to actual daisies), but that orange just jumps out at me.  This picture really doesn't do the brightness justice.  Let's try a close-up version:

Oh, yeah.  That's the stuff.

In this picture you can see the 15/0 seed beads a bit better.  They're the little ones next to the brown center beads.  I've used this color before (borrowed from a friend at the suggestion of another friend), and I was really impressed by them.  They're Permanent Finish Galvanized (PF562F - Matte Saffron).  If you get a chance, pick up this color or another PF.  I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Are there any colors you have difficulties working with?  Comment and let me know!

Perfectly matched Ever-Evolving Spiral

I hope you're not sick of the Ever-Evolving Spiral I keep blogging about.  I'm not!  I'm playing with colors and the different thicknesses, and I don't think I can ever get bored of it.

Recently I bought a whole bunch of beads to match a top that needed the perfect jewelry, but that turned out to be more difficult than I thought it was going to be.  I'll show you that and give you a new tongue twister on Tuesday.

I got so frustrated with that project that I thought I'd take a shot at matching another top of mine that needed a necklace:

The sleeves are really long, so I don't need a bracelet.  The neckline is a V, but it's not very deep, so I wanted something that would be thin.  I decided to stitch an Ever-Evolving Spiral using just the first thickness.

I went searching for beads to match, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had the perfect gray, purple, and blue-green/teal/whatever it is (let's call it teal).  I didn't have a good pink for the little spots of it on the top, but that's okay.

Here's the resulting necklace:

I didn't have the perfect color for the core, but a lavender does the job nicely.  Most of the spirals have purple in them, but after every ten I put a splash of the teal.  I got lucky with both the purple and teal beads, finding them in the last few months at various bead society events.

Okay, so we know it's a pretty necklace, but how does it match the top?

Wait, is the necklace there or isn't it?  :)

And here it is on me:

I think it's a great accessory - it complements the top but doesn't overpower the neckline.  I think it'll be versatile, too.  I'm wearing a solid lavender sweater today with a round scoopy neckline.  I'm going to wear the necklace even though there are those spots of teal.

Well, we have my mother's dog while they're on vacation, and she's making noises at me.  I don't know what she wants (it's probably water - I really wish she'd drink on her own), and she's blocking my screen, so I should go.  Come back Tuesday to see that color dilemma and how I solved it!

Owl earrings

Today's post will be short, as I'm still recovering from the weekend.

In preparing for the Art Glass and Bead Show, I bought a lot of supplies. When I ordered from Goody Beads, not only did I save money, I also got these cute lampwork owl beads for free:



I usually prefer to make earrings with components of the same color. A few times I've mixed colors up, and I've been surprised at how cute the results were.
 
So tonight I made a pair of earrings with the green and blue owls using the "filler" beads that were in between each of the owls:



I'll save the black owl for a bracelet or necklace. If you'd like to make your own adorable owl earrings, you can purchase these beads here.  They're not free, but they're on sale!

Official brick stitch earring samples

This is going back to the hands-on program I'm running for the Loose Bead Society at our March program.  I've talked about it here, here, and here if you've missed it.

The beads for the kits have come in, and I made two samples for pictures - purple (because it's me) and green (because St. Patrick's Day is coming up):

While they're pretty, I wish there was more of a contrast in the middle section between the 8/0s and the Rizos.  When we picked out the colors, we scrutinized and scrutinized and discussed matte vs. translucent and dark vs. light, and we thought we came up with good choices.  I know I've discussed this here before about how difficult it is to choose colors in general and online.  You think things are going to look one way, then you start stitching with them, and it looks different than what you had planned.

Here are piles of the greens that are in the middle section:

The Rizos are a lot lighter "on paper" (literally in this case), but when stitched they blend into the much darker 8/0s.  Don't get me wrong, the end result is very pretty, but it's not the contrast I wanted.

The pictures don't really do the earrings justice - there is a lot of texture and movement, and I hope folks will be happy with them.

Up next - I write the instructions, the kits are made, we have table captain training, and then the program!  Lots to do!

Before I go, I'd like to show you what Steve brought home last night:

These are the Bead&Button Show 2014 "Purple Lupine Ottoman" commemorative beads made by Amy Waldman-Smith!  Since he works in the building, he was able to purchase them and bring them home.  He's so sweet!  I told him I wanted one, but he brought two home.  I think I'm going to make a necklace and a bracelet.  I absolutely love these - not just because they're purple (but that is a contributing factor, of course), but because of the clean lines and raised dots.  I can't wait to work with them!

If you'd like to order your own, click here, but don't delay, because these will sell out fast!

Keyboard innards jewelry

Before I get started on the keyboard innards, I have an announcement!  The Bead&Button Show class catalog has shipped!  My Cobblestone Path class is on Friday night (June 6th) and is smack-dab in the middle of page 114:

I'm so excited!  Registration starts at noon CST on January 7th, 2014.  If you might be interested in taking my class, please e-mail me at traci@creative-pursuits.biz if you have any questions.

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Now for the innards...

When I read and reviewed Recycled Crafts: Crafts Made Using Recycled Materials, I got inspired to do something with keys from a computer keyboard.  The book showed making keyboard necklaces and word magnets, but my ideas were for making earrings with the keys turned backward - either with beads or with the little figures I have leftover from my My Milwaukee: A Triptych bracelet.  Unfortunately, I had taken a number of keyboards and other electronic devices to the electronic recycling center before deciding to do this, and we could only find one keyboard in the house that was not in use.  It was a newer one, and the keys are too short for me to do what I want.

However, I found something much, much more interesting:

I said, "What on earth are these things, and why are they so cool?"  Steve said that keys on modern keyboards press into silicone sheets (shown on the right) to press the two layers of circuit boards (shown on the left) together to tell the computer what key has been pressed, and that's why the keys are shorter than they used to be.

Well, I flat out fell in love with the silicone sheet.  It's stretchy, and I like pushing in the nubs.  I decided that I must make jewelry with them.

Here's the silicone layer close up:

Because of the layout of the keyboard, the nubs are understandably somewhat far apart.  There are also holes in various places.  It takes a little bit of planning to determine what you want to cut, and it takes a lot of patience to actually cut it, since the sheet is stretchy.  It likes to move around on me.  Until I can find modern keyboards at Goodwill or somewhere like that, this is my only silicone sheet, and I need to be judicious with it.  I got a whole box full of keyboards from my mother's basement, but those are all old and have no magic silicone sheets.

I knew I'd need to stitch the sheet onto something so it wouldn't just flap about in the breeze, so I trotted off to Knot Just Beads to get some Ultrasuede.  I wanted bright colors so they'd show through the silicone, and I chose pink and light blue.  I also picked up a brass cuff and a tube of mixed purple seed beads that Kim said would look nice against the blue.  I'd been eying those purple beads for a few months, and I was glad to have an excuse to buy them.  She didn't have to suggest it twice.

I was a little nervous working with the silicone sheet for the first time on something large like a bracelet.  I didn't know if it would work at all, so I started out with earrings.  I cut out circles of silicone with a nub in the center because I like things that are symmetrical and because the nubs were too far apart to have more than one on each circle.  I had some metal blanks with a hole at the top, so I sandwiched one of those in between layers of pink Ultrasuede and the silicone.  So I had Ultrasuede, metal blank, Ultrasuede, silicone.  I stitched a beaded whip stitch like I did on my Milwaukee bracelet (you can see how that looks "in action" here), and it went together pretty well.  I did have to make sure the silicone stayed where I put it - it tended to want to pull away on the edge that still needed to be stitched - but that wasn't too bad for the earrings.

I stitched a loop where the hole of the metal blank was, and when I was done I realized that it wouldn't hang correctly from an earring wire.  I twisted the loop of the earring wire, and that worked just fine!

Here are my finished earrings:

Oh, geez.  I made boobs.  I really didn't plan on them being boobs, but with the pink and the nubs in the middle...  Accidental boobs.  Oh, well!  I'm definitely not taking them apart, so I have them up on Etsy celebrating the fact that they look like boobs.

Now that I'm afraid to make more silicone jewelry with the pink Ultrasuede, I turned to the blue and the brass cuff.  I wanted to do the same type of technique but also to incorporate mini petals stitched around a few of the nubs to look like flowers.  I cut the silicone sheet at a diagonal (at Steve's suggestion), and stitched the flowers and a few rings of seed beads around some of the nubs before I stitched the layers together.  I had the silicone-shifting thing a lot more on this bracelet than I did on the earrings.  If I do this again, I'll cut the silicone a bit bigger and trim if I need to.  Better to trim than to not have enough.  As it is, I was able to stretch the silicone enough to make it work.

Here's the final bracelet:

I think it's very cute, and I hope it finds a good home.  I've listed it on Etsy, too.  Update!  My bracelet did find a good home with my Aunt Nancy.  She saw it at my show in Waukegan on December 7 and adored it.  Thanks, Aunt Nancy!

After the holiday selling season, I'll be working more with both the silicone sheet I have left, the circuit board sheets, and maybe even the keys.

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Speaking of the holiday selling season,  I have two more shows:

Cookie sale and craft show
December 7, 2013
9a - 2p
St. John's United Church of Christ
1520 N McAree Rd, Waukegan, Illinois

I have done this show a number of times, and it's always a lot of fun!  There will be many different kinds of cookies, sweets, and other goodies as well as a number of vendors.  I'll be there with my finished jewelry, vinyl decals, and magnets.


Weihnachtsmarkt
December 14, 2013
10a - 3p
German Immersion School
3778 N. 82nd Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

This will be my third time at this Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market).  There will be many vendors selling a number of different items, and there's a lot of hustle and bustle up and down the school's halls.  I'll be there with my finished jewelry, vinyl decals, and magnets.


If you can, come by either show and say hi!

Future project: Lion Brand's Fall Crochet-Along

A while ago I signed up to receive the "Weekly Stitch" e-mails from Lion Brand Yarn.  They give excerpts of some articles (one that was really funny was about school subjects being related to yarn and knitting called A-B-C-K-2-P-2 by Franklin Habit).  There are sales, and they always highlight some of their free patterns available on their website.  Also, there are links to what's on their blog, the Lion Brand Notebook.  There's more to the e-mails than that, but you get the idea.

It was in one of these e-mails that I first read about the Crochet-Alongs that Lion Brand holds.  Now, I'm not really one for group crochetings or knittings or readings or anything where I have to go along with the crowd, but I took a look at the projects.  One was a shrug - nah... I'm not fond of shrugs.  Another was a top-down jacket.  That one had potential, but it was striped (horizontally - ugh!) and only went to the waist.  The sleeves were to the elbow which is a nice length.  The third one... it was also a jacket, but it was long, had sleeves just past the elbows, and had pockets.  It looked loose, whereas the other jacket looked kind of rigid.  It looked like there were stripes, but they were more subtle than the other jacket, and stripes can be omitted.  The texture of the jacket would give visual interest, so a solid or variegated yarn would work just fine.

In short, I was enamored with this jacket and would make it no matter what.  It was just a matter of when.  I voted (along with over 20,000 other people), and the one I liked loved won!

 Isn't it purdy?

Click on the picture to be taken to the announcement post with all the relevant links and stuff.

Still, I wasn't sure if I was keen on doing a Crochet-Along.  When would I be able to afford the yarn, and would I have the time?

My birthday is this week, and in the mail came a Michaels gift card from Steve's parents that would more than cover the cost of the yarn.  Thanks, Mama and Papa!

The pattern calls for the new Unique yarn in a number of colors along with some stripes of Vanna's Choice yarn.  Some people asked about what yarn to use if they don't want stripes, and they recommended using Vanna's Choice.  Unique is a chunky yarn, and Vanna's Choice is a worsted weight - slightly thinner than Unique.  What I found interesting is that the pattern calls for different weights of yarns to be used in different rows.  That's typically not done.  I decided to use all Vanna's Choice, so the resulting jacket should be a little lacier, which is exactly what I want.  Perfect for chilly Loose Bead Society meetings or movie theaters.

Yes, the Vanna from Vanna's Choice is Vanna White from Wheel of Fortune.  She is quite the knitter and crocheter and has books of patterns as well as yarns named after her.  I have her Vanna's Afghans A to Z: 52 Crochet Favorites.  I haven't made anything from it yet, but there's one in there with cats on it, so it's only a matter of time.

The last thing I needed was a partner in crime.  Mom and John were over on Sunday, and I told them about the Crochet-Along and showed them the picture.  I thought it would be neat if Mom and I could crochet the same jacket at the same time.  She's going to be in the hospital for three weeks pretty soon for cancer treatment, and I thought it would be fun for us to Skype and show our progress.  It took some convincing because Mom has never crocheted a sweater before, but she gave in after only a little guilt-tripping.  So she couldn't back out, I showed her the yarns recommended for crocheting it without the stripes, and once she picked one, we ordered it from the JoAnn website to be shipped here (since she won't be home this week for medical procedures, either).  Hopefully the yarn will come before she goes in the hospital.  She'll be in Chicago, and I'm in Milwaukee, so I won't be able to just run it over.


Now that I've gotten Mom roped in I needed to get my own yarn.  JoAnn's had a sale on Vanna's Choice for $2.99 a skein (normally $3.99).  I saw a Michaels ad online that had it on sale for the same price.  They unfortunately don't have online ordering, so I called a store near last night's chilly Loose Bead Society meeting, but they only had 5 skeins of the color I wanted.  Other stores in the area have it, and I was pleased that there's no dye lot, meaning I can get the yarn from any store at any time, and it should all match.

Dye lot is a funny thing.  You would think that they would determine that "3R 1G 4B" would be the formula for a particular color and that would be the color forever and ever (amen).  However, I have seen some vast differences in colors for the same yarn (I can't say "exact same yarn" like I want to because it bugs Steve. :::grin:::).  I've seen this in scrapbook paper and beads, too.  What you need to do is buy at least as much as you need for your project at the same time to make sure it all matches.  If you're at the store buying the yarn, check the dye lot on each skein before throwing it into the cart.  Better safe than ACK! There's a big dark stripe right over my BOOBS!  How did that HAPPEN?!?

Update: See the end of the post for more on dye lots.

I went to Michaels last night after the chilly Loose Bead Society meeting with my friend Amy (who drove), and the yarn was not on sale.  I was perplexed, but Amy checked it out while I was in the hook aisle trying to find the elusive "O" hook (one bigger than the "N" hook the pattern calls for because I crochet tightly).  Turns out there is no "O" hook, so I'll have to use the "P" hook I think I already have.  The sale starts next week, so I bought 1 (one) skein using my 40% off coupon.  That will keep me busy for a little bit, and I'll either buy more next week when it's on sale or keep getting one at a time using 40% off coupons to save 40 cents or so on each skein off of next week's sale price.  Anything to milk that gift card!

Are you ready to see the color?  It's going to be a HUGE surprise...

Purple Mist!

I looked at other colors.  Really, I did.  I wanted a variegated yarn, so that limited the choices.  I decided I don't want anything too dark (I have a lot of that) or too bright (which just doesn't work for me), so the choices were even more limited.  Browns and tangerines are right out (shudder), so I was left with Denim Mist, Rose Mist, Seaspray Mist (light green), and Purple Mist.  It had to be purple.  Of course.

If I do it again I'll choose a different color.  Really... I will!

Mom chose Vanilla Twist:

That should be pretty!

When I was looking at the yarn in the store it looked positively rope-like to me.  Much thicker than I expected a worsted weight to be.  Later, I realized that the last few projects I've knitted (including the train baby hat) have been with sock (super fine) yarn.  Worsted weight is marked as a "4", and the sock yarn is marked as a "1".

Here are the two yarns next to each other:

I'm going to have quite an adjustment to make when I start working on the jacket!

As for the time I was concerned about having, my summer season is winding down.  I have a few more farmers markets to go to, but those don't need any more preparation at this point.  I've decided that daytime should be spent on the business (writing blogs and designing and bookkeeping and stuff like that) and at night I can knit or crochet or do nothing.  We'll see how that works out.

Now that I'm in, I will be posting periodic updates to my progress.  I may wait until Mom gets her yarn.  If anyone else wants to join in, I'd love to post pictures of your progress, too!  E-mail me at traci@creative-pursuits.biz and let me know you'll be crocheting along.

If you're on Ravelry (my name is taotte there - look me up!), there's a group for discussions and updates on this Crochet-Along.  It can be found here.  I'll be bopping in there from time to time to see how other folks are doing.

Yes, I'm aware I still have that damnable hooded cardigan to finish, but that will take forever.  Yes, I'm aware that it will take forever if I never knit on it, but that's a topic for another day.

Update:  I knew it was too good to be true.  There is a dye lot on the Purple Mist Vanna's Choice yarn.

Steve and I had to drop off my car at an auto body shop because some nimrod scraped along the driver's side while I was blissfully unaware in the grocery store.  Both doors have scratches and minor dents, and it's quite possible that it'll rust if it's not fixed.  I'm doing all the follow-up stuff to get it reported, and hopefully the culprit will be found (there's a tape at the grocery store) and will pay up so I will get my $500 deductible back.  Anyway - we were near another Michaels store, so I thought we'd use the 40% off coupon on Steve's phone to get another skein of yarn.  I was quite surprised (and dismayed) that there were dye lots listed on all of the skeins there (except for the two that were missing labels, of course).  There were 4-5 dye lots represented, and some had a more bold variegation than others.  I tried to remember what I had at home, and we picked one of the bold ones.

There is a very slight difference - the one on the bottom is a little bolder - but I don't think it'll be too noticeable.  The problem is that they only had about five skeins of this dye lot or others that looked close enough.  I'm going to need 16 skeins total.  My dreams of picking up a skein here and there as I needed it have unraveled like a badly crocheted sweater.  The only thing I can do is to go back next week when the yarn is on sale and pick up as many skeins as look right and hope that I can find more later.  I'll keep you posted!

Butterscotch and green luster (Kits rant #2)

You may know that I am busily getting ready to submit classes for the 2014 Bead&Button Show.  The submissions are due Friday, and I still have a few things to stitch.  Steve said I should call this post "Stitch 'n Bitch", but I didn't want it to get confused with Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook, their other books, and their groups.  I haven't read any of the books yet, but they look like an awful lot of fun.

A few weeks ago my blog post was about my struggles in getting all the beads I need for kits.  I said that I had to order from five different places to get what I wanted.  One concern was price, but another concern was color.

Hold on... a package was just delivered.  Yes!  It's my final order from my purchases a few weeks ago.  That was fast considering it came all the way from the Czech Republic!  Excuse me while I open it to see if I'm going to bitch about the color of one type of bead or two.  This box is more secure than Fort Knox.

Huh, this is interesting.  Okay - I'm going to bitch about the color of two types of beads.  I'll cover the original one then get back to the Czech order.

Butterscotch.  Sounds tasty, doesn't it?  The original color scheme of my Cobblestone Path (that I showed in my post from a few weeks ago) has 6mm faceted round fire polish beads in a Butterscotch color.  I'm not able to buy in bulk where I originally got those beads, so I have been looking for them online.  I found what I thought were the same beads on only one website (called two-tone crystal and tan).  They didn't have anything else I needed, so I had to get a few other things to get up to the $25 minimum.  Not a huge deal - I'll use those to make jewelry to sell (as opposed to putting them in kits).

So here's the original color:

Here's the picture from the website of the two tone crystal and tan:

 

 
It's a bit hard to tell the color, but it looked really close.  I could see a bit of crystal in there, which made sense since they're called "two tone crystal and tan", but it seemed that the color would be mostly tan with just a little bit of crystal.  Not ideal, but I was willing to live with it.

However, here's what I got:

The color is very close, but look at all of the beads that are mostly crystal with hardly any tan in them.  I think that would completely change the look of the piece.  I wouldn't mind some crystal in the beads, but since the rest of the beads in the design are opaque I don't want there to be a lot of translucency in the largest beads.  I think it'll look weird.  Steve liked them, but I wasn't happy.  I kept envisioning what it would look like stitched up and didn't like it.  I'm sure the beads will work for something, but not for this.

I looked at the website more and found some 8mm two tone tan.  The picture looked too much like the crystal and tan one, though, and I couldn't find any of the same color in the 6mm size.  There was also a Butterscotch that I was curious about, but there wasn't a picture.  I called them and asked if there was a two tone tan in 6mm, but we realized that the item numbers were nearly identical (the only change was the code for size), and she agreed that the picture looked a lot like the 6mm size.  She said there's not too much of a call for tan beads so they don't have a lot of choices.  Just my luck to fall in love with a color that's hard to find!

I asked about the Butterscotch, and she was kind enough to e-mail me a picture, not just of the Butterscotch but showing them with the two tone crystal and tan:

They're a little darker, but the color is solidly matte (not solid, but I like the variations) with no crystal peeking out.  Steve and I discussed it, and we decided to not return the first ones (I'll do something with them, and we'd have to pay to ship them back which seems like a waste of money) and to get the Butterscotch for my kits (plus some extra black 6mm for more kits of that colorway).  They came yesterday, and I like them a lot better.

Here's a picture with all three of the colors side by side.  The original ones are in the middle so you can compare them with each of the new ones.

I'm pleased that I chose to not try using the crystal and tan ones and that I asked to see the Butterscotch ones.  Those stick closer to what my vision is for the piece.

Now for the green luster.

My original color scheme uses green luster Super Duos.  I really like them because they're opaque, matte, and have the slightest variation in color.  I needed more to make a second sample, but the store has been out of them.  I stopped by a different store because I was in the area, and while they didn't have "green luster", they had "opaque baby blue".  Wait a minute!  Blue isn't green, Traci!  Yeah, I know, but look:

The ones on the left are green luster, and the ones on the right are "opaque baby blue".  Yes, they have a slight bluish tint, but since I needed to stitch up my sample, they're close enough.  They look pretty good, too!

Today's package from the Czech Republic included 100 grams of Chalk White Green Lustre.  Here's the picture on the website:

My "Huh, this is interesting." from above is what I found when I looked at the Chalk White Green Lustre that was delivered.  There's some purple in some of the beads, which is not shown in the above picture.  I thought at first that some purple Super Duos made it into the bag (which happens occasionally), but the other side of the bead is the right color.  Sometimes it occurs on the side, sometimes on the end, sometimes on the front/back.  It's not on every bead, though, and it doesn't seem all that distracting.

Here - you can judge for yourself:

This time the original green luster is on the right side.  I purposefully put a purple one right in the middle of the "new color" pile.  You can see hints of purple in a few other beads.  Steve would say that I'm going to say this because it's purple, but I kind of like it.  It's just a touch, and it doesn't clash with any of the other colors in my Cobblestone Path design.

On a side note: if you want to pour beads from the original bag into a reclosable bag, don't do it over your example, especially before you take pictures.  Beads will go everywhere, and you'll have a hard time picking them out of the "original color" pile and will have to use new ones out of the tube to get an accurate color example.  On the plus side, since I had a hard time picking the new color out of the pile of the original color, I think I succeeded in finding a good source!

Now that all my beads are here, do I put aside the one I'm 2/3 done with and stitch a new one with the new colors to take a picture of for the class submission?  No, I don't think so.  Time is ticking away, and the one I'm working on is very, very close to what the kit colors will be.  (Steve is breathing a sigh of relief right now, I'm sure.)

Since this blog should actually have a point, I'll say that it's very important to have patience and a bit of flexibility when ordering online.  If I had my heart set on that exact color of 6mm bead or the Super Duos, I'd drive myself even more crazy trying to find them, or I'd spend a lot more than I want to get enough for kits.  I'm looking forward to making test pieces out of each of the color schemes to see how well I did.  Hopefully I'll get that done and posted next week!

WYSI (not necessarily) WYG

WYSI-who, now?

My non-geeky readers may never have heard of the term "WYSIWIG" (pronounced WIZ-EE-WIG):  What You See Is What You Get.  There's a Wikipedia entry for it, of course.  There must be a Wikipedia entry for everything.  Yes, yes there is.  Really, now.  But back to WYSIWIG.  The definition given on Wikipedia is:

The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content (text and graphics) displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, which might be a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.

This is huge for programmers who create applications in code without seeing what it's going to look like.  You have to compile the program then run it, and if something doesn't look or work right, you have to tweak the program and try again.  Web developers run up against the same thing if they work in straight HTML.

Now my geeky readers are saying, "But, Traci... There are HTML editors that allow websites to be designed while seeing what it's going to look like.  And don't forget what you, yourself, programmed in for many years - Visual Basic.  You designed the screens in a WYSIWYG environment.  Hell, this blog is written in an editor where you can see the pictures along with the text.  Isn't that pretty much WYSIWYG?"

Yes, geeky readers, that is correct.  Not all of it can be done that way in HTML editors, though.  They don't always interpret things correctly, and when you display the page sometimes there's way too much space between paragraphs or not enough.  It works most of the time, and going into the code to tweak is a lot better than writing everything from scratch.

There's a whole bunch of information in that Wikipedia article - history, etymology, problems of implementation, and related acronyms.  Ooh!  A link for comparisons of HTML editors!  brb

Oh, it's just a bunch of charts listing features of quite a big list of editors.  Something for me to look into, though, because the HTML editor I've been using irritates me sometimes.

I should point out here - for those of you who don't know me past the crafts - I was a programmer for many years and now develop the website for my business (Creative Pursuits) and the Loose Bead Society of Greater Milwaukee.  That reminds me... I need to add upcoming show information to my business website!  Lots to do!

Now all my readers must be asking, "What on earth does WYSIwhateveryousaid have to do with beading or scrapbooking or anything that you usually talk about?"

Well, nothing in the very literal sense.  (Also see www.nothing.net.  Check out the recipes.)  But I was reminded of it recently when I went to bead.

On August 26, 2011 I purchased orange Delica seed beads (DB744, Matte Transparent Orange) because I was going to make sushi California rolls out of polymer clay and wanted beads around the edges for the flying fish eggs (Tobiko).  When I went to make them, though, the beads turned out to be too large.  I found orange microbeads that worked perfectly:

I made a bunch of things with these California roll slices.  The rings are available on Etsy if you're interested.

Okay, polymer clay is definitely WYSIWYG, but that's not what I'm here to discuss.  It's those orange Delicas I bought over a year ago.

Orange is not my favorite color.  Orange is possibly my least favorite color.  I'm not fond of yellow, gold, or brown, either.  Those are all colors Steve likes (depending on the shade of orange, he says).  Decorating in our house is always fun.

So what am I going to do with these very bright, nearly glowing beads?  Look at 'em:

Makes my Transitions lenses darken.

They're really only good for one thing.  Halloween.  So I designed a Jack O' Lantern to wrap around the skeleton keys from my "Tubed Key, or Not Tubed Key?" design (that link is to Etsy, not Wikipedia this time).

Now we get to the point of the post.  (finally)  Those glowing orange beads cease to glow when they're on their own.  You can kind of see it around the edges of the pile, but when they're stitched you can really see the difference:

I will admit that I used a black thread (Smoke Fireline, to be exact) which will darken it a little, but even just separating beads from the pile made them look so much darker.  I guess the word "transparent" in the name of the color should have been a clue, huh?

There's another acronym I just found that describes seed bead shopping:  WYSYHYG.  What You See You Hope You Get.  There have been many times that I look at a tube of beads and absolutely love the color, but when I bring them home and start using them I find that they're either too light, too dark, too close to another color, or flat out not the same color as in the store.

You just can't always tell.  Why is there so much of a difference?

Part of it is the lighting in the store.  Most of them use florescent lighting, and colors won't look the same as they will outside in sunlight or the lighting in your own home.  Florescent is cheap, so we can't blame them (much).  Many stores don't mind if you take beads over to the window to see better how they look "sans florescent", but that's not foolproof.  Maybe you can take the beads outside if you give them your wallet, phone, or child as collateral.  Don't offer your husband.  If your husband is as great as mine is, they might not give him back!  If the store has an Ott light or other natural light, that's the best way to tell what the true color is.  (OttLite doesn't have a Wikipedia entry.  It says, "Did you mean Otte?"  Since that is my last name, I had to click.  I'm not in there yet.  Darn.)

Another reason, at least for seed beads, is that they're all piled up there in their bags or tubes, and the color seems to magnify.  Beads with a bit of transparent in them are most susceptible to this.  Ask the bead store for a head pin or, better yet, bit of beading thread.  It shouldn't be a problem to string a number of the beads onto the pin or thread to see how they're going to look.  I would do this at the counter so they know you're not trying to steal any beads, and there's less of a chance of losing any.  If you're going to use them with other beads, bring those along and put those on a pin or string, too.  Probably best to use a different string so they don't accidentally mingle.  Put the pins/strings next to each other and see if there's really the contrast you thought there would be.

This isn't just for transparent beads.  I bought two different colors of purple peanut beads for my "Shadowed Diamonds" design.  They look completely different in the tubes, but once you get them out and start using them there's very little difference.  I guess I should have known - the color numbers are only one apart.  Once they're stitched they look fine, but if you accidentally mix the beads up, you have quite a hard time separating them.  I know from experience.  Here's the bracelet:

Huh - they look really similar in this picture, too.  If you're interested in the tutorial, here's the Etsy page for the PDF, and a kit with black/white/gray.  If you're interested in the finished bracelet, I have that, too.  :)  I can't do the purples right now, though.  I'm having a problem finding the beads.  I'll have to find other purples that will look nice and be easier to separate.

Or it could be bling frenzy.  We're so blinded by the shiny objects (Really?  "shiny objects" redirects to "SpongeBob Square Pants: Battle for Bikini Bottom?"  That's ridiculous.  Oh.  It's a video game in which shiny objects are the game's currency.  Still...) that the color isn't easily detectable.  This is a hazard primarily with Swarovski crystals, especially the AB or ABx2.  The light reflects off of those facets, and we lose all control and buy two or three packages of each color we see.

Okay.  That last one isn't completely true.  But the first two are - lighting and grouping.  See what you can do to see how the beads will actually look, and you'll do just fine.

Back to the orange beads.  I wanted to use them all up, so I made a bunch of embellished bead tubes, ala "Tubed Key, or Not Tubed Key?".  I made a necklace and earrings:

I showed this to Kim who is the owner of Knot Just Beads, the store where I taught the "Tubed Key" class this past Saturday.  She loved it and said I needed to design a whole series of holiday patterns for the keys to sell at the Milwaukee Bead Show which is coming up October 7th.  I've already come up with quite a number of patterns and have stitched one of them - an Easter egg - and will be stitching up each of them as examples.

So since I used up all but 10 of my orange Delicas...  I bought another package as well as other colors perfect for holidays and seasons that I didn't already have: red, blue, green, pink, and a few fall colors.  I skipped yellow, though.  A girl's got to have her standards.


This blog post was brought to you by the letter W for Wikipedia.  Whatever did we do without Wikipedia? (Yes, each one of those is a separate Wikipedia link, including the question mark.  "did" and "without" are a little sparse, but there are actual pages for them.  I'm a getting a little loopy now and Steve is verbally poking me to be finished.  Time for bed!)

More RAW with those saucers

A while back I posted a few blogs about saucer beads (see Red and Black part 1 and part 2 if you missed it).  I really liked the look of the bracelet, earrings, and necklace, so I decided to make more sets.  I found that the strands did not have the same number of beads, so there was some adjusting to be done on the necklaces.  Then I dropped three of the purple ones and couldn't find two of them.  I don't know how because they're pretty large, but they're gone.  Surprisingly, I found the one red saucer bead I had lost in a bin I use for displays.  Now I have two of them left and can make simple earrings.

To refresh your memory, here's the red and black set:

The second set I made was with purple saucers and color-lined purple peanut beads:

The third set was with lime green saucers and color-lined pink peanut beads:

I love how the same types of beads (saucers and peanuts) made in the same stitch (right angle weave) have such a different look just by playing with color.  The red and black is classic, the purple set is sophisticated with that bit of shine, and the lime green and pink is playful.  The lime green and pink set sold at the art fair I talked about yesterday.

There is one strand of saucers left - orchid.  I'm going to try them with gunmetal peanut beads and see how that looks.

One more thing for today.  If you look closely you can see a slight variation in the earrings:

One of these things is not like the others

Can you see it?  The red and green ones look slightly more "portrait" than the purple ones do.  I believe it was because on the purple ones I went from the outside of the peanuts that are surrounding the top saucer instead of from the inside.  Fortunately I noticed this before making the second earring.  Something to keep in mind if you're going to try this technique.  I like the longer look rather than the squatter look, but they're still pretty.

That's it for today!  I can't wait until the next Rings 'n Things sale (September 12th in Milwaukee!) so I can get more strands of these beads!  I definitely need another strand of red and lime green.  I passed on dark blue last time - I won't make that mistake again!  I have some gorgeous color-lined blue peanuts that will look fabulous with them....  I'm all twitterpated now.