UFO Spotting - Have You Seen Any?

UFOs are the bane of my existence. No, I don't see flying saucers or little green men. UFO, in this case, stands for UnFinished Objects. UnFinished BEADED objects, to be exact.

My mind is always swirling with new ideas. Some of them are committed to paper, some float around in the vast recesses of my brain for hours, days, months, years. And some of them make their way out of my head and onto my beading board.

The problem is that once on my beading board, there's absolutely no guarantee that these beady bits of inspiration will turn into finished pieces. I have every intent of finishing them when I start them. And I'm happy to say that most of the time what I envisioned in my head translates pretty well for me once I pick up the beads and start to work. But I have a frighteningly large number of pieces that have been relegated to bins to live with other UFOs because I just haven't managed to do the finishing touches -- in most cases, closures, the addition of a "special" focal, or something along those lines.

Pathetic, right?

But I think every beader out there probably practices this bad habit, although maybe not to the extent I do.

Within arm's reach of me right now are at least a dozen UFOs. Yep. A dozen. Maybe more. I'm afraid to count them.

There's the piece you see in the first picture... a bead crochet rope using hematite rondelles with bright gold colored delicas. It was kind of an experiment to see how the rondelles would look if crocheted so they all lined up single file. The experiment was a success, and a happy customer is wearing her own custom version of a delica/rondelle bracelet. But alas, this one sits next to me without a clasp of any kind.

The second picture is another bead crochet rope I made using some gorgeous Czech glass beads with a picasso finish. I love the beads, love the colors, love the pattern (which was also an experiment). But it's also missing its closure.

Then there's a long bead crochet lariat that needs something for the ends... and a shorter bead crochet piece which is going to have a Lisa Peters giant bead focal (that goes with the rope wonderfully) but needs a closure. A freeform peyote heart. A short length of bead crochet rope (bracelet size) using some beautiful raku colored beads that coordinate perfectly with a MakuStudio raku button, but I need to figure out how to put everything together for that one. A whole bag of peyote tubes. Wonder what I was thinking when I made those? Hmmm. Another bead crochet rope with a diamond pattern, using bright coppery beads and silver beads. A necklace using one of Lisa Peters' gorgeous cabochons and some vintage watch parts, exploring my steampunk side - that one could be considered finished, as it's wearable in its current condition, but I just need something else to make it "right".

See what I mean? And those are all pieces I can see and reach without even leaving the chair in which I'm sitting. I shudder to think of all the pieces that are stashed away out of sight...

Ah well. I have discovered that I'm in good company.

Perhaps because I didn't want to feel alone in this plight, I posted a message on my Facebook page while back asking for others to 'fess up about their UFOs. Only two of my beady friends were brave enough to step forward.

Melody Murray (salamanderhouse on Etsy) sent me the picture above, with these comments:

This was going to be a cuff bracelet, with an art deco flavor. It wouldn't cooperate, it wouldn't be what I saw in my head, it tormented me and then it turned into this:

and continued to taunt me until I rolled both of 'em up together and shoved them in the back of a drawer. They still mutter imprecations in my direction every now and then. I don't think either one of them is finished with me...

And my beading buddy and Cosmic Sister, Carol Dean Sharpe (SandFibers) sent me this picture of one of her UFOs, along with this comment:

Okay...this has been waiting for me to do something with it for years. I couldn't decide on what kind of rope to finish it up with and then I got sidetracked. Once I get sidetracked, I sadly seldom return to a project :( It's an LPA [Lisa Peters Art] cab, of course.

I know there's no logic to this reasoning whatsoever, but I feel a little better about my own UFOs knowing that others share in my plight.

Any UFOs hanging around your house? Come on. 'Fess up.

Darn. I have bad knees (too many years of sports) and Carol Dean (SandFibers) caught me and tagged me. :-) So I'm supposed to share seven facts about myself, some random and some weird. I've given this very little thought, so bear with me.

1. I like to wear silly pants. The sillier the better. Not necessarily out in public, but when I'm at home I always have them on. Wal-Mart has a wonderful selection of comfy knit pants (they're in the men's section, but I have long legs and wear lots of men's pants), so I have Sponge Bob, Snoopy, Mr. Potato Head, Pac Man, Scooby Doo, Bullwinkle, and a few others.

2. I type very fast. Actually, I do quite a lot of things fast. The fastest speed, when I was timed (for a job), was 128 words per minute. I also read fast. At one time I could read 1200 words per minute. I'm sure I've slowed down, but I still go through books really quickly. I'm a little obsessed with speed.

3. My favorite thing to drink is milk. It's been my favorite drink since I was little. My second favorite is latte (I have at least two of them a day). Since my husband also likes to drink milk and latte, we go through 6-8 gallons of milk a week between the two of us.

4. My nose has been broken twice. The first time was when I was in high school and was punched in the nose by a fellow student. He had epilepsy, and while I was trying to hold him down during a really bad seizure, he hit me in the nose. The second broken nose was from getting hit with a softball.

5. I love to sing. I used to sing in choir, and at one point I was a voice major. Now I only sing in the car when I'm alone, to my favorite CDs, and usually at the top of my lungs. No one can see me in there, right?

6. My favorite book of all time is Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. That's saying a lot, considering how many books I've read (I currently own more than 3000 books - my husband thinks I should open a library).

7. I've smoked exactly one cigarette in my life. I was four years old. My Mom used to sit at the table and smoke a cigarette while she had a cup of coffee. I thought it was so neat, and I tried to sneak one from her. She caught me and, since she didn't want me to take up a bad habit (she eventually quit a two-pack a day habit herself), she hunted down the oldest, stalest unfiltered Camel she could find and made me smoke the whole thing. Blech. Ptooey. She gave me a really strong cup of coffee to go with it, and it was years before I could bring myself to drink coffee.

Okay, now that's done.

The rules for tagging are:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are the cyberfriends I'm tagging:
1. Anna, of A Rose By Name.
2. Smadar, of Smadar's Treasure.
3. Kim, of Regal Beads.
4. Heidi, of Health Nut Wannabee Mom.
5. Ixela, of Ixela Thoughts.
6. Melody, of Salamander House.
7. Dawn, of Colorful Everyday.

Now I'm off to tag them! (I hope they don't run too fast.)