Where did the time go?

The weather has been very nice lately and I've been outside - starved for some sunshine and warmth! It is only a bit warm directly in the sun or if you are really working out there, but I don't turn into a popsicle in just 5 minutes, so outside a bit everyday to absorb some vitamin D...

Dale and his daughter came down and stacked ALL the wood. He want to get another trailer load for me and then he'll be happy! Yeah, me too...

I will be beading hat bands for the next Black Powder Shoot on April 23, 24 and 25. I have been perusing the internet for patterns, whole or in pieces parts that I can put together to make my own, or just ideas to make my own. I have two patterns, one head band and working on my second.



The beading is finished on the one above, but I need the leather ends and ties. This will be good for young girl or teenager with the purple-ish beads. The pattern will be made again in rust, charcoal, gray and white - I think that would appeal to a rough mountain man a lot better!

The next pattern is put together from pieces-parts of many patterns. The background color on the pattern is blue and the beads used are a turquoise.



I am much further along than what the picture shows. I'd like to get it done in the next 2 days, but we'll see how my back handles sitting hunched over for long periods of time. The beading process is meditative as long as I don't have to let a cat in or let a cat out or the dog, or a cat/cat fight or a dog/cat chase ... it does give my back a break when I have to get up, but I don't want to get up every five minutes - 1/2 to 1 hour is good!!



You can see the beginning of the pattern above and compare it to the pic of the beaded work. I make my patterns using an excel spreadsheet with the color fill function! I make the cells 1 pixel wide by 10 pixels high - makes a near perfect square. I then use the fill function to get the colors in place - much easier than graph paper and colored pencils!!!

There are 15 beads (length) to the inch, so that tells you how many beads I'm using to get 18-10 inches of hat band!

The pattern making / "putting pattern together" takes quite a bit of time. I'm never sure I have things just where I want them, or should this go there, or maybe change colors there ... I can drive myself nuts with this "maybe" and "what-if" thing. I need to just do what comes up first. I want my work to be very nice and professional, but do I really need to agonize over the placement of every bead when I'm dealing with 3,300 beads!!!!

Back to beading, I need inventory ... and I need it now!!! I will keep you posted as I progress with more hat bands or whatever else I do.

Hugs