MaryLou's time2cre8

I don't usually take in-progress shots of my beadweaving. I've never really thought about why I don't do that until today, and it occurred to me that it's because I do most of my beadweaving at night while I'm watching TV. It's too dark for me to get a decent photo, and I'm so focused on the beadweaving itself that it just never crosses my mind to take pictures.

I thought it would be nice, though, to create a little visual diary of some of my projects. I began creating a freeform bracelet for the Etsy BeadWeavers current challenge, Stormy Weather. It all begins with beads... lots and lots of beads, in lots and lots of sizes... there they are all laid out on my beading cloth.

From what I've read, it appears that lots of my fellow beadweavers sit at a table while they're beading. They have these wonderful workspaces, with Ott lamps to shine down on their works in progress and all their tools at hand. Me? Nope.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I have the workspace. I have a whole room dedicated to my arts and crafts. I never work in that room. Never. Well, unless I need the sewing machine for something. It's really just a storage room, despite the fact that it has great natural light, lots of shelves and drawers, and a HUGE work table.

Nope, I choose to do beadweaving while I'm sitting on my sofa watching TV. I have a little halogen light that shines down on my work. My work surface? It's a cutting board. It fits nicely against the arm of the couch and my left knee, and I sit there twisted into a pseudo-pretzel shape and happily beadweave. Every once in awhile my needle gets caught in the beading fabric and goes zinging across the room. My husband has grown accustomed to these flying bits of shrapnel. I can't imagine how many beads are floating around down there under the sofa cushions and in the lining underneath. I might just have to flip that sofa over someday and retrieve all those beads. I could create a Sofa Bracelet! :-)

Okay, so back to the work in progress. This bracelet, which is quickly asserting itself into cuff size (which, to me, just means it's wider than a bracelet) is for the Stormy Weather challenge. I have so many dark-colored beads, because those are the ones I'm always attracted to, but I decided to step out of my comfort zone and create this piece... Tropical Storm.

All the colors of the tropics (with heavy leaning on turquoise, orange, yellow, and green) assembled into a wild freeform cuff. I'm pretty happy with the way it's going so far, although I've noticed that it's getting wider and wider and wider as I go. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose. It's the nature of freeform to take on a life of its own.

It's about halfway finished right now. I'm sure I can finish in time for the March 5 listing deadline. But just in case, keep your fingers crossed for me!