delicatebylou

Pentagon madness

I have been up to a fair bit recently so this post that I was going to write up on Sunday night is happening now instead. If you are in the Seed Beads and more group than you might have seen my request for pattern testers. Well I got some great feed back and worked on the pattern so am just have a final check to go before I send it off. I am also editing a video tutorial for the 2d pentagons I am using for my pattern and 3d polyhedrons.

On the right, you can see my mini frosted glass vase design, with a flower in the vase. the testers made their own in different colour ways and they look great.

Taking the videos and photos for the patterns and tutorials took up heaps of time but I really need to build up my skills in making them so I can start selling patterns for money to put towards my beading projects.

I found out my mum won’t be in town for my exhibition as she has planned a holiday having forgotten when my exhibition was on. I am kind of annoyed with her about it, especially given its on my birthday.

Anyway for the videos and some of the photos I used my big size 8 beads, I don’t have many left so I will have to get more for video and photo tutorials as they are much easer to see for the camera. You can see my usual size 11’s in the yellow next to the size 8’s in the grey, and the difference in size.
I’m getting there with the video editing though it really isn’t my thing.

Still, it is coming along ok and will do the job, once I have finished editing it and re-adding in the sound, to make it more streamlined. There is a nice fresh pink scare on my right hand just out of shot in this picture from 13. She was contentedly purring away as I petted her and next second she had had enough and clawed me, the little fury demon.

Speaking of cats, Andy has decided we are ok enough to now walk past at a normal pace so while he is almost always moving when I seem him he actually looks like a cat instead of the cat version of the flash. Here is my best photo of him yet. He ran off just after I took it.

Ok well I had better get back to it, but I will be posing again this week as I have Thursday off, being a public holiday, and I don’t have quite as much to cram in.

Lou.

17,620 beads!

I finally learnt how to use the ai cutout function on the pic editing site I am currently using and I think it is fantastic and I shall be making the most of it at least for my free trial this month. We shall have to see after that. It takes a bit of the stress out of taking photos as I don’t have to have a prefect background/lighting situation to get good photos.

Ok so I stayed up till almost 2 this morning putting in the final pieces before going to bed for a few hours and then posting on my accounts.

I edited photos this morning while I was semi-functional before mum came home and we went out for coffee and to do our grocery shopping.

I think I have managed to add in all the details of this work ( I haven’t named it yet) in previous posts and the final bead count is in the title. If there is anything you would like know about it that I haven’t posted please feel free to ask. You can find videos of this work on my facebook page and on my twitter and instagram accounts.

In other news:

I am a guest ambassador of International Beading Week for the International Beadworks Guild. I’ve made two miniature vases to donate patterns for, which I will finish writing up tomorrow. I have tested the designs and they are cute if I do say so myself.

I will hopefully also have other news to share very soon.

Ok that is all for this post as I need a nap before work.

Lou

Virtual tour and other things.

Last week I was so busy and I ended up a little cranky as I didn’t get to do as much work as I had wanted to. To be honest that came down to my choices and what I prioritised. This week while still having a lot going on is slower and I will be beading more.

So on the news front, I did a small virtual tour of my studio which you can find on my Facebook page (Delicate By Lou). It won’t win any prizes but you get a good look at my working space.

I also set up a Buy Me a Coffee page so now anyone excited about my projects and pitch in a few dollars if they want to help make the magic happen. I’ve put links up on my profiles and will leave it at that.

If you watch the video tour and wonder if 13 actually sits in the chair, the answer is yes. She has also taken over the spare bed, the lounge chair, Andy’s spot on Joan’s bed, and most of my bed, just because she can. Cats.

Ziggy will also hang out in my studio. And Andy runs away every time he spots me, mostly he is just a blur of fur darting about at night.

I have a meeting this week as well and will hopefully be able to update you on it later, depending on how it goes.

My current work in progress is going well, I found two more small stashes of the orange beads I was using so I could finish the second layer without having to wait to order beads. It was fantastic and so I now have only part of the outer layer togo. Just nine more squares and six hexagons to put in. I’m happy with how it is turning out but I think next time I will go back to a more minimal colour palette that suits my style more. This one is cool and all but it’s not really me, though I do like how every bowl has a different colour.

The bead soup on the outside is also interesting and I do have a few ideas for a different colour mix of bead soup for in the future on at least one other project, so even though it won’t be a main feature of my work it will still make appearances. Hopefully to best effect. I will have to get more beads before starting my next large shape so that I can pick a colour scheme and not have to worry about running out of beads. Hum I think that is it for now as I really just want to get back to beading before I head off to work.

Lou.

Rotunda-Drilled Truncated Icosidodecaherdon with Great Rhombicosidodecahedron core.

Well if the name isn’t a mouth full I don’t know what is. Ok there is some variation to the name on the different sites so I went with the most common. Most don’t say what the core is but I added it in just so you know.

I’ve been wanting to make this bad boy for quite some time now, ever since I first came across it. Several people have made paper models of it which is how I first came a cross this amazing toroidal polyhedron. When I am finished it should have 20 hexagons, 60 pentagons, 60 squares and 140 triangles.

Here is a finished version made by Yana at Geometiles after following my wip shots on twitter. I was super excited to have inspired something she made as I’ve been inspired by her creations. And she has photos of the inside that you can check on on her twitter and Instagram pages.

So I started working on this about the 17th of last month and I did have some of the early wip photos in my second last blog post.

As I mentioned before it took me a while to decide on the hexagons before I finally settled on an open version as I liked it the best and thought it would be cool to be able to look into the beadwork. Yana sent me a link to a small snake cable camera that I will have to buy to get the hard to get shots of the inside of the bead work as it dose look really good.

Ok I will post updates on it as I go on Twitter and will hopefully write another post later this week, with more progress shots.

I had better get cracking on the beadwork, it has been days and it is driving me crazy.

The Move.

Well, it’s been a few weeks since I last posted but hopefully I will be back to posting at least once a week as I am mostly settled into our new place. My desk is now mostly organised, but is still slightly messy from setting up, though I have space to work now so I can get started tonight. I’ll post some photos of it again when it is all sorted as it is a really nice space. There is now also a second desk for my laptop and printer so that I don’t have to shuffle beadwork to write my posts and do other computer work. And both my display cases are also in with room for another one in the future.

It has been crazy busy and, the rain put a kink in our moving plans but, we got there in the end and, all the furniture has found its place. I’ve separated my designs from patterns I’ve brought from other designers and they are in the two larger display cases with my small case now on top of the wooden case, housing the work I have made from other designers. It will help me keep a track of things with my exhibition coming up in October . I’d love do an exhibition showing off the amazing designs of other designers but that would take a lot of planning so it will have to wait.

The day of the move (second go) it was raining, but thankfully it mostly stopped and the movers managed to get everything in with only a few short breaks to wait for the rain to calm down. And of course the next day it was sunny as. Murphy’s law. Mum was at work so I went to Mike’s place and supervised the moving of her things before getting my larger stuff from Kea’s and going to the new place. And as I did not take work off I also had to go to work. The Cats moved in Friday night and Joan’s stuff arrived on Saturday so we had more organising todo. Joan, Ziggy and the fish also moved in on Saturday.

13 (My cat) was a bit house shy at first but she settled in a lot quicker than Andy (Joan’s cat). And I did have an opportunity to get a photo of Andy on Friday night and Saturday morning and missed it! Now you might never know what he looks like. One of my other aunts thought he was actually an imaginary cat as he is that good at hiding.

Ziggy Zoom Zoom has taken to the new house and the big backyard, though he is a scaredy-cat and won’t go out by himself, he is also convinced that the doggy door will eat him, and will not go near it. 13 was fine as soon as I held my hand through.

I’ve been having breakfast or brunch outside with Ziggy, instead of eating at my desk, which makes a nice change and is healthier.

Hum I can’t think of anything else to say about the move so I might leave it at that.

I will also write a post about my current WIP today and then I will actually get some beading done before work.

all the best Lou.

Running out of Beads.

I hope everyone had a good easter. I had a family lunch with my aunt, 2 cousins and our house guest. It was good to catch up. I also finished the second cube house, though it dose not have a roof as I got impatient and really as it is a prototype it dose not actually need one since the first one has a roof and was not going to do anything different on the second.

Later I will be making a third proto, but it will be completely different so we shall see how it goes. For now, I wanted to do something different but am limited for choice because as the title says I am running out of beads.

Don’t get me wrong I do have a decent amount, the problem is its all smaller amounts of different colours/finishes, not enough of any one colour to do a large project, except possibly one maybe. I will attempt to make all the parts for it anyway, and see if I have enough to put together, once I figure out what the inside shape of it actually is. I spent yesterday afternoon working out shape sizes that would fit together with different shapes as they don’t have the same bead count on each row.

I had to modify Diane Fitzgerald’s Square by one row; adding in an extra row with 2 corner beads on the repetition to get the one corner bead on the end row to join up with the other shapes.

It is hard to see in the photos, but the hexagon once you get to a certain size does not stay flat, which is mildly vexing, but I’ll just have to live with it, and hope it works out well in my projects.

Millie was being a sookie this morning so I

did not get much beadwork done. She really wanted to curl up in my arms and bury her head in my armpit. Because you know cats.

I also went for an hour (ish) long walk as I am trying to get healthy again and on the way, I saw this trolley just chilling in the park. On the way pack I ended up taking it with me and leaving it in a smaller attached park close to the road so that it would be easy for Coles to pick it up. I reported it so they would know where it was. I really can’t understand why anyone would go to the effort of taking it all that way and ditching it as pushing it on the park path was horrid.

I did also see some more typical park things like lilies and birds on my walk. I’ll have to get some decent walking shoes though if I am going to make walking a habit. The ones I wore were not really up to the task anymore.

hum other than that I actually started make the shapes yesterday for my international project proposition. As the Zoom meeting did not happen and I’ve not heard back yet I don’t know what to expect. Still as much as I’d like to make it a community project I might just have to do it on my own making it as I go along which will be super hard for me as the theme I picked is patchwork. Any way I’ll make parts for it over the next year and we shall see. On the plus side is that I don’t need lots of any one colour to make parts for the project so that is something, and even if it dose work out to be an international project well the more parts the better.

have a great night, Lou

Inspired.

Ok, so last week I took some time to make this cool torus link designed by Yana of Geometiles. I finished it yesterday morning and got so caught up packing that I forgot to write my blog post for the week. Woops.

Well, this project was a little difficult to make at first because I could not quite see how things came together in the centre, so I ended up making a paper mock up which helped greatly. Though I do plan to get a jumbo box or two of the Geometiles for even more complicated stuff. You can see the paper mock up and the tiles below.

It really is such a cool design and once I had figured out the bits I was having trouble with it was relatively easy to put together.

With this one, I used open squares so that you could peep in and see parts of the inside. It is a bit hard to capture well on camera but it looks really cool IRL. Any it is back to the sugar cube house 2.0 to see if it works out a little more nicely than the first version. And then I have version three to make and a jar to finish as well as the dragon inspired dress I have not forgotten about.

This Cartoon by The Oatmeal I shared in 2020 really just sums up the whole situation. Ok, it’s not that bad I do actually finish my projects even if I have several on the go and several more in the wings waiting.

At Days For Girls on Saturday I won a large box of chocolates and I like Toblerone so I am very pleased and dad also likes them so I’ve put aside a bag for him. As mum brought the tickets she got some as well, so it worked out really great. Mum, Joan and I also caught up with my cousin Sam and her two boys after Days For Girls which was good.

Other than that I don’t have much else to tell you at the moment. Have a great week, Lou.

April

Well, we are getting through the year rather faster than I would like. And everything seems determined to happen all at once, so I can only hope that getting a new place is one of those things. At any rate I shall be moving this month and I still have a decent chunk of packing to do. Now that the school holidays are here and I have less work it will be one of my job’s to focus on.

On the beading front, I’ve taken a slight break from the cube house project to make a torus link that Yana Mohanty from Geometiles made with the tiles.

I am not sure how it will work out in beads, I can’t see there being any problems, but you just never know. And the Jumbo set of Geometiles along with the large pack of mobies are in my list of things to buy, unfortunately, they are not currently high on the list, as much as I’d like to have them.

The second version of the sugar cube house was coming along nicely, and as soon as I finish the above project I will be right back at it. This time instead of making the walls two rows thick, which could be difficult in places, I left a gap between rows and will join them which will hopefully keep them nice and strong but easer to work with. I won’t know until its done though. Well that is life when you experiment with things.

I had better be off as I have a few things to do which might give me news to share next time.

All the best Lou.

Featured Artist!

I received an email today to let me know that I am currently Mackay Creatives Featured artist, which is exciting. Sometimes it can feel like nobody really cares as I work by myself and am still trying to get my art career off the ground, so it is really nice when my work gets acknowledged. Social media has also been great as receiving feedback from all the wonderful people who follow me helps keep me going.

This week I had an order from a friend for a small star and a bauble, so I stopped my current WIP to make them. Unsure as to how the colours would look together; I made two stars and let her pick how she wanted them, and she chose to have the purple outline. The other star will go in the pre made box for Christmas. As I was working on the order I also took the opportunity to make some more mini stars to add to my collection. How they will be displayed is a future decision but I plan to make many of them, each a different colour/pattern combination so that each one is an individual.

As for my experiment, you might remember that a while back I was experimenting with CRAW stitch and that it did not look right for what I wanted to make. So I have been experimenting again this time keeping to RAW stitches instead of adding in the peyote centre. MY first one I used both CRAW and RAW as the centre and while it worked I did not like how the centre was not firm and would curve out. Not that you can tell from the photo below. It looks fine otherwise and would work well in other projects I am sure.

Next was my experiment with just CRAW where I did the base with one row and the walls with two. It has worked fine, though I will be trying two more experiments before I decided on how I will do my church. Below is a photo of the base with the start of the walls, with the gap for the door and window slits. It is just a very basic design as it is always easer to experiment with simple designs first. I did try something similar ages ago, but the base had been more than one row and it had been way to thick to work as I progressed it just became too difficult to continue with it.

While this version is working quite well I am still hoping that my next experiment will work a little better as I find this one a little blocky and dense. It Dose not look quite as blocky now that it is almost done.

Being a 3d project, it is really hard to get a photo that captures it well, but I will have a video of it on Insta when it is finished and I also have WIP videos on Twitter as I am using my Twitter account as a mico blog which seems to be working out well.

When I was joining the top of the walls above the window slits I kept forgetting that they were two rows wide and had to pick apart the stitches as I realised I had forgotten and they were wrong. Oh well that is life sometimes.

Last night I cooked satay chicken for dinner and it was meh. And tonight I just brought fish and chips, as I really didn’t feel like cooking and didn’t know what to cook. Though I love eating good food cooking is not something I really like doing.

I will have to work at it as I intend to eat healthy.

Hum other than that I don’t have much else to mention today so I will leave it there and catch you next time.

Lou.