My eyes!!

I've forgotten how tiny these seed beads are. And these are 11's, not even 15's.

Took ALL morning. And I'm sort of thinking that's crazy, because now my vision is fuzzy, and seeing the picture, it seemed like I did contained twice as beads than I see now...lol.

But I love how he turned out!

I also learned that I much prefer what's called 'Freeform Peyote' because I can't follow a pattern for the life of me. I tried to make those very precise triangular geometric shapes, and it was no fun. Cool result, but it took me 3 tries to get every bead in it's proper placement.

For this little guy, I followed a tutorial from a beader called Rrkra on deviantart. Linky  I decided to secure the tail to the body, and used what beads I had to make him. I may add scales later that I have on order from Bellomodo.

It's a fabulous size to wear, and I'm going to wear it to class on Monday. My students will love it!

Love at first sight. These beads. Those faces! Happy rings.

It all started because it was my sister's birthday. She creates beautiful beaded pouches. So for her birthday, I bought her one of those many-containers-in/with-another-container bead sets, with coordinated colors of sparkling potential. Then I found a pattern that reminded me of her origami kusudama balls, and purchased and printed it for her as well. Before I knew it, I had caught it.

The Seed Bead Bug.

Drawn to the small, ever so tiny, vials of seed beads. oh my. MUST GET SEED BEADS, never mind that I haven't worked in them for years, and have a faint memory of giving away a good shoe box filled mess of them to .... some young beader, and declared myself quite done with that phase of my life.

You'd also think that after 55+ years, I'd know myself better, and I would find myself rotating back around, as I am wont to do. Aging eyesight? Stronger glasses!

So I'm being quite obsessive about seed beads at the moment.

SO much fun!

For a trip down memory lane, here is the very first rock from my very first lesson at lapidary at the UCD Craft Barn, some decade ago. Leopardskin Jasper, freeform, backed on leather with seed beads.