delicatebylou

Gold, luxurious Gold.

It might not have been super obvious just how much I like gold and working with the colour. After all, I only have a few pieces actually made in gold so it would have been easy enough to miss. However it is my fave colour to work with. Not the only colour I want to work with but if I did have to chose it would be gold. And the 24k gold is the best but it is also expensive, well more expensive at any rate.

My work colleague Ana was back on Wednesday and well it wasn’t bad working with the boss I am glad. Ana’s sister went home to New Zealand for the week and brought back treats to share.

The squiggles hokey pokey is awesome and the others are delish as well. Whittaker’s is my fave brand of chocolates now and I am glad we can also buy some of the flavours here. I have also been naughty and been buying Macca’s because the Monopoly is on at the moment. I’ve won some small vouchers and really, really want to win the gaming pack for my brother & brother-in-law. They would be thrilled. It’s not likely I’ll get that last ticket but it would be so epic. I also would love to win the fuel or the car. Not that I am holding my breath or anything.

So if you haven’t seen my posts about the gold dress collection on my social media accounts then let me tell you a little bit about it. Of three I have attempted this last week only these two worked out after a few changes. The third one I tried fail at least five times so I have left it be for now.

The solid gold dress was an experiment, I was really just going with the flow as I made it, not settling on any one idea. I really liked how it turned out, especially how it flares out at the hips. and the other dress was inspired by an ancient Egyptian dress dating back to 2323-2150 B.C.E. It was found in a tomn in Giza and reconstructed by Sheila Shear. According

to the Museum of Fine arts Boston.
Mine is not as fancy as the ancient dress due to size constraints and my lack of netting skills. it is a skill I have to work on but to be honest it is not something I intend to do much of at the moment, considering the netting it’s self is not 3d.

I would have loved to have this one contoured to the mannequin but it didn’t want to work like that and I am happy with how it turned out.

Both dresses will be in my exhibition next month along with my other miniature dress designs and beadwork.

On Sunday I went on a picnic to the beach with mum and the Farmalie and had a great day. I really need to take more days off from work, it gets to be too much and a refresher is a great way to reset. The dogs and I had lots of fun splashing in the water. I might have shouted ‘fish’ a few times as I spotted a small fish in the water where I was splashing. I did get sunburned but it was worth it and, mum Sonya and I went geocaching afterwards and then for ice cream where we caught up with Michael (my brother) who just happened to be finishing work at that time and I saw him.

On twitter yesterday someone posted a video of of a small snake eating a large egg, with the description stating that the whole process takes about two hours. And some one posted ‘Jesus fk, what planet is this’ (imonkey.eth) and I had to post a gif of this Grashopper mouse howling at the moon. And said:
The one where mice kill poisonous scorpions and howl at the moon.

It has 4 comments, 6 retweets and 174 likes so far. 😂.

One of my most popular replies. I’ll leave a link to the video below its worth watching. Also, this little mouse is my spirit animal because it is cute and fluffy and also a complete badass!

Anyway at the moment I am working on this and have decided to try making a bottle from it. It was hard to change directions as it was going to be contoured to the glass bottle it was started on, so the bead count left me with limited options of how I could expand upon it. So it will be a completely different bottle shape to the one it was started on. hopefully it will work out, we shall see in time I guess.

Other than that I don’t have much news except if you are in Mackay and want to come to my exhibition opening night on the 20th OCT than can you please message me as numbers are limited.

Have a fab day, Louise.

https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/video/tv/grasshopper-mouse-hunts-scorpions-howls-moon

Broken

Well, it has been a week. I did some extra hours at work and have spent a fair amount of time with my family this week.

I also made more pentagons for the IBW 22 project and started a new project of my own. It was going well (though I hate beading on things as it is a pain) until mum tried to show it off and dropped it. There had been a light cork (for fairy lights) in the top I had been trying out and she held it by that which was not secure in the slightest being plastic and the bottle of course slid off and smashed.

She did clean up the broken glass and brought me a replacement bottle though I said she didn’t have to as I am not sure I really want to start this project again. Maybe I will at a future date.

I did manage to save most of the beadwork as it was only wrecked in two places, so I pulled out a lot of rows at the bottom and then fixed a small patch up the top where a few beads were broken. From the outside it looks as good as knew although I have no idea what I am actually going to make with it now. It is a solid tube though so I can make something from it no problems.

Maybe it could be a ghost bottle? lol kinda like when you make things on a balloon and pop the balloon. though the neck is a bit wide for a bottle if it is not on one.

So there is a month and a few weeks until my OCT exhibition, so I will be contacting the media and starting to hand out flyers this month so that Mackay people know about it. Hopefully, it will be a success and expand my local audience.

hum other than that a random on Insta said they liked my work (they did actually follow me and like my stuff) and would like to send me some money and I did give them my payID I mean you can’t do much with it other than send or request money so I wasn’t too worried. I was like um ok. anyway they send me a screen shot of my payid in the search and I’m like yep thats me.

And they were like I’ve sent the money it couldn’t be delivered without the charge of $25.

and then when are you gonna pay, and I’m like I got no PayPal notifications. 👐

And she hasn’t asked me to pay her or give her details so I’m not sure if this is a scam or not but why is this random messing with my emotions? Needless to say if she dose ask for any of that stuff she won’t be getting it, but damn its cold 🥶 trying to scam people out of money.

I was on PayPal checking for notifications of any kind (given I was kinda worried about it being a scam) and saw the giving fund thing.
Well I set one up for my 1st exhibition/birthday gift (since the exhibition is my birthday gift to myself this year). I’m not promoting it or anything but i figured it can’t hurt to set it up if anyone wanted to send me some money for my birthday to help my little exhibition be the best it can be. I am totally not a workaholic 😂.

um other than inept scammers and broken work I don’t have a lot else to talk about my life is kinda boring at the moment. I have managed to save an extra $85.35 in my money jar over the last few weeks so that is something. lol.

Oh and I almost forgot dad and I saw a baby whale last week, I can’t remember if I posted about it or not but it was playing in the waves. it was a bit too far out for my phone to get a good video of but it was super cool to see. this week we got coral spawn. 😂

well i had better do some work I guess.

Lou.

Organising exhibition and Christmas

Hey there, I hope everyone is well. I got my first covid booster shot on Tuesday and I feel like rubbish. I did a covid test and I am fine, just responded badly to this shot for some reason. Oh well at least it is one less thing to organise as I prepare for my exhibition which seems a long way off as it’s not until the end of October but as the person who has to sort everything out it seems too soon.

I have sorted out the printing of the flyers and event brochures as well as tickets for the opening night. The space is payed for, I have a Fb event for it up and have at least 11 more things on the check list to sort out. I also did up some social media flyers for Christmas orders as I am only taking orders till the end of October this year for this Christmas.

Today dad and I went out for our usual lunch and got to see a baby whale playing in the waves. I did get some video footage of it on my phone but it was just a little too far out to really see much of anything in the video. I mean you can tell something is creating a splash but that is about it.

Hum well other than that not much has happened on the beading front since last week, given how much time I sent on design flyers and such. Hopefully I shall have something more exciting to post about next week.

All the best Lou

Shapes and more.

It has been great to see everyone getting involved in both international projects and all the enthusiasm to add in open pentagons. I offered to make a tutorial just as something interesting for people to learn but several people are keen to make them for the project as well. I’ll be editing the videos after this as I was interrupt and had to make two seperate videos, which I will join together.

Last week was jam-packed as I started doing deliveries to boost up my income. I only did a few hours over the

week but I earned $160+ before tax and super. It’s not the best pay ever and all the running around and talking to people stresses me out a bit but it is worth doing at the moment to I can get ahead with my finances. Thankfully a while ago my mum lent me some money to pay off my credit card which had become a major nightmare after having changed jobs for my mental heath. Which has been amazing in giving me the space to sort out my money and once I pay her back I will be debt free! which will feel so good. I’ve also found some amazing financial podcasts and books that gave me the information I was missing.

You might be wondering what this has to do with beads, well they are kinda expensive and it means that once I have paid for my expensive car part and then payed mum back I can set that money aside just for beads as much of the extra delivery money after tax and super is going towards that and to buffing up my bill paying account (which I have been trying to do for ever but it keeps getting drained) so that I don’t have to take money from other places to pay bills. And I have been putting extra money aside on week when I have extra into my art account.

Ok enough about money.

So I went to a workshop on writing about your art on Saturday, where I met some lovely ladies and learnt a few tricks about how to write about my art. It was really good except for one part where we moved to a second instillation to practice writing about art which was a chaotic noise thing which was horrible. It gave me a headache and made me queasy and another lady had to leave the room. People more sensitive to noise then I am would not have been able to stay in the room but everyone else seemed to think it was grate. I mentioned that it was a rather ableist piece given that people sensitive to sound would not be-able to be in the room with it but that was ignored.

Which did make me wonder if the acknowledgement of the first nations people was just a bunch of BS virtue signalling. I hope not but as much as I like the art-space it needs to work on being more inclusive. Many of the artworks it displays in the main gallery tend to be conceptual who-har that leave most residences of Mackay feeling like they don’t belong in the art world or that art is a bunch of BS and a waist of time and money. This is especially true of the older residents who are down to earth farmers or workers who come in wanting to see what it is all about. The entry all on the other hand often has wonderful art that is skilfully made and who’s concepts are clear to see in the artworks them selves if they have a concept. The quilt and the glass work in the photos above are examples of some of the better entry hall art.

Also on the weekend my aunt and uncle came up from Brisbane Saturday night for a birthday party and we spent Sunday fixing my aunty Joan’s townhouse (because the builder she hired was an incompetent git) ready for my brother and brother-in-law to move in. hum other than that I have to work early on Wednesdays which is a pain though it tends to push my pay up to $600 a week which is fantastic, though I still hope my boss can find someone for the job so I can go back to normal shifts on Wednesday. Oh and I am missing just one HP card for my collection of course it is the Ron that you have to get from Coles express with banana bread and I started a second collection for my nephews as my friend shops from wollies and am only missing 11 cards from it.

Well, I had better get cracking on that video tutorial before I have to get ready for work and I will try to write my next blog post on Sunday or Monday. I’ve got another busy weekend ahead but that just means I will have things to write about.

Oh and Monday night at a building I clean I was taking some large rubbish bags downstairs when I heard clinking. Turned around and there were coins and a USB stick on the stairs that had fallen out of a tear in the bag. So when I got downstairs I went through the bags (with gloves on of course) and pulled out several more coins and several cans (worth 10c each) and washed them all off before chucking the rest in the bin out side. Some of these office people are so waist full, they chuck out brand new office supplies, new wine glasses (I assume they had been gifted to them by another company) and all sorts of perfectly good stuff I even saw a whole pack of smokes still in the plastic wrapping in one bin and they are like $50 a pack or something. Things they could have given to other people or even sold on FB for a few dollars. I mean you can’t sell the smokes but the other brand new things you could have.

anyway catch you later Lou.

It started as a Vase…

Sorry I didn’t manage to write a post last week, I ended up just being drained after having a huge weekend last week and then helping work out this week and Ana was off sick on Friday. We have both been collecting HP cards from Coles and swapping them with each other. Our boss is also gonna swap cards with us so I will have most of them. I really just wanted Luna and Hermione, but well I do love collecting things and I still don’t have Hermione (either version). I do feel guilty about collecting them at all though as I don’t want to support the TERF; JK. Sigh life.

Ok in actual beading news if you were following my mini twitter blog, or my stories on INSTA of FB then you would have seen part of the vase saga. This lovely box is what started it really. As the post title says it started as a vase. And then became a box because I started going up and was like this would look great as a box and then had to make a box. It also doubles as a tea light holder (only the electric ones) though I will have to come up with a design that shows off the light better. Unfortunately the colours don’t show up as well as I would like in the photos.

I had actually started a larger vase but had stopped to make what had turned out to be the box. However, when I returned to it, it did not become a vase either. Yes I know that’s twice now. You might be wondering if I actually managed to make a vase?
Well yes I did and it was the one I had been meaning to make all along, just in a different colour combo. This one however became a ring holder.

It’s kinda ordinary but it works as it should. I remember my mum and grandma had small crystal ring holders (that looked nothing like this) and was inspired to make one. I am glad I didn’t turn it into a vase as I really didn’t have enough beads to keep going up the way that I wanted, as high as I wanted. So it worked out nicely enough. But what about the vase? Ok its next I promise.

I honestly think the shape would look better as a lantern. I will have to come up with a lantern design for it but the vase is cute so I am happy with it. The colour combo is one I’ll have to use again as it is great, though it’s hard to see the metallic purple in this photo.

I will be doing a tutorial for the flower as a few people have asked about it. I will have to find the petal design as it is old and I have no idea where I put it. Hopefuly I have a copy on my computer somewhere though it was from

before this computer.

Oh, and the latest instalment of it started as a vase, is this cute mini vase which is small and hard to get a good photo of. So it started as a vase and ended up as a vase but not actually the one I was making. I had plans to go up but I liked it so much where I had gotten to that I stopped. There are two more that I am going to make along with all the other projects on the waiting list.

Finally on the beadwork front I found a small amount of SL Gold Tohos and have added three more rows and a bit onto my scarf and will hopefully get another three more rows done before running out of the beads again. Oh and I have also signed up as an Uber Eats driver to make some money to pay for my car part that I need to replace and an order of beads. I haven’t started delivering yet as having to deal with so many people creeps me out but I will get there this week hopefully. Not today though, I’ve had to deal with too many in the past few days and am all peopled out.

other than that I’ve been reading as always and the Sandman on Netflix came out on my brother’s birthday. I managed to stay up and watch three episodes after work, then changed my routine and watched the rest the next morning instead of reading, once I got out of bed. My Twitter followers are not really interested in my Sandman tweets but I loved the show and it did justice to the comic books and audio books. Also I watched Trainwreck: Woodstock 99′ (later that night after reading a bit) and OMG talk about insanity. I almost can’t believe that really happened and the footage, wow. Then last night (day three of Sandman being released I watched Shania Twain because she is amazing and one of my heroes from when I was a kid. After that I was looking at what else to watch and was not really interested in watching anything else on Netflix or at least on the home page and I didn’t want to go on a search so I started watching Sandman again and got up to E6. And yes I will finish watching it and the remaining four episodes tonight.

Ok, I should get some work done. I will have other news for you later.

Love Lou

IBW: International Bead Week!

I hope everyone is enjoying international bead week and has found at least one IBW project that they want to do. the International Patchwork Sculpture now has over 70 members and several people have started making pentagons! I also got the video tutorial up today and I have another one on the way for a basic dodecahedron pot.

The IBW zoom meeting where I did a demo went well and there were over 40 people who dropped in, though because of time zones

Some couldn’t make it.

Now the photos of the bear are because it is cute, and also I made a small crayon and art book to go with it as a gift for one of my old teachers who is an artist. Hopefully she likes it as I haven’t managed to catch up with her yet. I was experimenting with the book and it could have been joined in a better way but it works fine and looks ok so I’m happy enough with it. hum what else? I’ve been thinking about making a super large pentagon, just because. It would be interesting to see how big I could get it.

I have entered my beadwork into some competitions so we shall see how that goes.

On the left is a photo of the little basic pot it is big enough to hold a small pair of scissors, lighters and pencils and things.

hum what else? well the Days for Girls Mackay cent-sale is on this weekend so I will be helping setting that up on Saturday and buying some tickets to help raise money. Over 200 hundred prises have been donated so I might even win something.

well it is Thursday and my dad will be turning up soon for our weekly lunch so I had better finish up.

Lou

Jellyfish, Jellyfish

While I have lots to do, that hasn’t stopped me from trying something new. I spent too long staring at my RNBW crystal beads and then couldn’t help myself I had to make a jellyfish. So far I have made 2 and plan to make one more for my up coming exhibition. And I have ideas for other jellyfish as I plan to make them all different. It is not my usual style and jellyfish might seem like a strange choice but in summer you take your chance swimming at the beaches of Mackay because of bluebottle jellyfish. There are also sharks and crocs but the main danger is getting stung.

Jellyfish have a strange beauty but are also taking over parts of the oceans where climate change has had its most devastating effect. I’ve been thinking about making an artwork about the effects of climate change on our oceans and reefs but am not quite there on the details.

well, I suppose I had best get back to beading so that I have something else to write about. There are several people off work sick at the moment and a few other hassles so I am doing extra time to help out today and quite possible for the rest of the week as well. Oh well it least it will mean a bit more money to go towards my beadwork.

Lou

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/delicatebylou

Less than a week till IBW

It has been a few weeks since I last posted, things just got away from me as it has been a busy few weeks and by the time I had a chance to post I was just too drained. So I’ll be writing up two posts today and will try to fit in another two this week but I can’t make any promises.

On the beading side of things I’ve been making more pentagons and some companion triangles and squares so that we can make at least one shape that is not all pentagons. I had wanted to have the project with several shapes but had to pick just one for everyone to make.

I guess we shall see if people participating wish to make more than just pentagons, it’s not a problem if they don’t.

I have also been making earrings to sell as I really need to work on the business side and start actively earning money, not just half-heartedly waiting for orders. Not that I am going to be in your face selling as I hate other people doing that to me. Hopefully they will sell and I can spend some more on my exhibition and supplies. the fringe earrings are popular overseas so hopefully they will be popular here as well.

I have also been working on another beadwork project, which I am not entirely sure what I am going to make with it but I have a few ideas. It won’t be finished until after I get more supplies but depending on how I go with it, it will be displayed in a mini version before then.

Lou.

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/delicatebylou

International Patchwork Sculpture IWB 2022!

I am so excited to announce that I am running one of the international projects this year! It is an honour to be the youngest IBW ambassador and to be in charge of my own project. Hopefully, it is something the beading community wants to be a part of and is something that will give them satisfaction being a part of.

The theme is patchwork as it was inspired by the patchwork quilts that communities of women would come together and make but with a modern twist. While 3d geometric beading is modern the craft of beadwork goes back to almost the start of humankind and almost every single culture used beadwork for many different things, including status symbols, money and decoration. I also chose patchwork as the theme so that every one with some Miyuki Delicas could easily participate without having to go buy bead especially. Given the geometric nature of the project it did have to be confined to these beads specifically although hopefully in future I will be able to run another project that can use any beads the beader prefers.

As this is an International Beading week, even it officially starts on the 23rd of July 2022. But I have set up a Facebook group which you can request to join if you wish to participate. I have also donated a mini vase pattern which will be up on the IBW site for IWB so make sure you grab it.

QR code for Facebook International Patchwork Sculpture group.

You can scan this handy QR code or search FB groups for International Patchwork Sculpture. If you are having trouble finding it please message me.

The plan for the project once it is done is to have it exhibited in my hometown of Mackay and then donate it to a museum or gallery for its forever home. I will be organising this in the coming weeks and will keep you updated.

Project details:

Ok, so a little about the project. Everyone will be making 2d pentagons, including me (I have already started) and they will be sent to me to put together into a large 3d shape or shapes depending on how many people participate and how many pentagons are made. This will also dictate what shape/shapes are finally made, and if it will be something made with only pentagons or something with other shapes (which I will make) but highlighting the pentagons. There is a written tutorial on the Facebook group, and on the IWB site and I will be making a page here where you can also grab it. I will also be uploading a video tutorial later this month.

If you are participating there is a short form in the FB group for basic details but you can also DM me your Name, country, email address and let me know when you have mailed your pentagons off or you can use the link below to access the Google Doc and fill it in yourself. If you don’t want to add your email in the doc please Dm me.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V6MP4A7c5qRZ0BQy2pfbvwXq6zFN4QS_m95yNrMtXeE/edit?fbclid=IwAR39aWbIUcJm2Q6os3OvMWVMs7vC9jeCbrLEz2RUeMiq5QWrFWDuNdjRgJw

the deadline to send the shape in by is 31st Jan 2023.

Ok well, I have a lot to do so I shall keep moving. Let me know what you think about the project, any tips or suggestions are appreciated. Lou

Sunflower Wheel

Hey there, I haven’t gotten to do much actual beadwork lately as I have been working on patterns, video tutorials and other bits and pieces that are beadwork related but not the actual thing.

It’s the school holidays next week, so I will have more time but less pay. Anyway I did managed to make this Sunflower Wheel this week and it went well on my social media.

Other than one large project I shall be able to post about soon, I will have to stick to smaller creations for a while until I have saved up for a part for my car, rego, my exhibition and then enough to buy more beads in bulk. I’ve been collecting cans at work to help make this a tiny bit faster. Usually get about 60 cents worth a night. And I will be doing extra work during the day tomorrow to help my boss out and make up for some of the work I will miss out on due to school holidays.

I did splurge 32 dollars on a camera today so that I can take cooler photos of the inside of my creations. It should be here by halfway through next month.

hum other than that I don’t have much else to tell you but here is a hint about my large project, it involves lots of pentagons. Anyway, keep an eye out for details they shall be up soon.

Dad shall be here soon for lunch and I have a few other things to do so I log off now.

Lou.