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The Lone Beader

The Lone Beader
Adventures in Bead Embroidery -- Lone Beader n. 1. one who creates beadwork without the assistance or company of others. 2. one who prefers solitude while creating beadwork.

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Mission Organization
2008-02-03 09:02:00
Yesterday, I really focused on organizing my seed beads. I finally finished transferring all of my beads into small ziploc bags which I labeled with colour & size. Then, I sorted them by colour family. Below you can see 12 piles of beads. The only colour that's missing is yellow because that colour is currently on my work table.(click to enlarge)After I sorted the beads, I put each pile into its own ziploc bag. As I did, I counted how many different bags/colours of beads I had, including the ones on my work table: 6- Yellow9- Orange22- White5- Black9- Brown19- Red17- Pink18- Purple42- Blue33- Green17- Gray21- Metallics23- Mixed-----------------------Grand Total: 241 different colours!! How many different colours do you have in your bead stash?? ;)Now, my seed bead drawer is organized! I am so proud of myself! This will be much more efficient than the way it was before... And, I even picked out colours for the top half of my beaded Beatles Yellow Submarine. Check them out:(click...
More About: Organization , Mission , Missi

Sub Out of Water
2008-02-02 08:37:00
Today, I finished beading the yellow half of my Beatles Yellow Submarine. This piece is 18" wide x 12" tall, and it is beaded with rather large Magatamas. I can tell you this piece will be quite heavy by the time I am finished. :0If you click on the images, you should be able to see the different colour yellows, although this colour is rather difficult to photograph. In person, you can definitely tell the difference right away, but it is tough to see it in a photo.In the last photo, you can see a close-up of my stitches. I'm not sure, but I think I'm getting better at this bead embroidery stuff. ;)I am about halfway through the beadwork now, but I still have a lot to do. I need to: Finish beading the rest of the piece. Add more yellow Magatamas to cover any spots of felt that show. Stitch yellow seed beads around the edges of each section to help define the colour.Smooth out the red circles around the windows.Figure out how to attach the tail of the sub so that (possibly) it is ab...
More About: Water

Backward Beadwork
2008-02-01 07:52:00
A few months ago, I submitted two slides of my beadwork to Upstream People Gallery's 10th Annual Realism Juried Online International Art Exhibit. Both of my pieces, Engine Co. 6 and The End, were accepted into the show. Well, today when I checked the website, I was surprised to see that both of my pieces are displayed in reverse! Click the image to see for yourself: I had to laugh when I saw that. The slides must have been copied upside-down by accident! This is funny to me because I've been reversing my beaded images using Photoshop just for fun in my blog posts lately anyways. I just sent the gallery a message to notify them of this mistake, but I doubt they'll fix it. It is also funny that my real name is displayed, but it is even funnier that I am annoyed at that. LOL. I submitted this entry long before I decided to go anonymous with my beadwork. I did email Upstream People Gallery a few weeks ago asking them to change my name. Either they never received the message, or they ...

Bee a Beader
2008-01-31 11:00:00
Yesterday, I received a very special gift from my friend's little sister, Angelique. She is 8 years old, and I just love her. I understand that she has quite a large bead collection, and is learning how to make beaded jewelry. So, I gave her a few beaded bracelets that I made awhile back. This is what she made for me: Two buttons that she made with her button-maker! One is a paper-clip, and the other is a magnet! The one on the left says "Lone Beader 4 Life", and the other says "Bee a Beader"! Aren't those wicked cool?? I love the one with the bee; that is so creative! I'll keep that one near my computer where I see it everyday. And, the statement about me being a 'Lone Beader 4 Life' is right on!! Thanks, Angelique! You're sweet! :D

Strange Sea Creature
2008-01-30 06:01:00
(click to enlarge)Beatles: Mean Mr. Mustard"I dunno, Jimmy...Sure doesn't look like a Mean Mr. Mustard to me..."Check out the new Wordless Wednesday HQ!!View More Wordless Wednesday Participants.
More About: Strange , Creature

Fill In the Blanks
2008-01-28 12:58:00
Thanks for all your comments on my last post. Just to be clear, I do not doubt myself as an artist. But, as a bead artist, this is easy to do when beadwork is constantly being labeled as craft.Crymson recently wrote a post that made me think about this subject even further. She experienced the same sort of identity crisis regarding her French-beaded flowers. Are they art or craft? I looked at Beads in Bloom written by Arlene Baker, and it says in so many words, "...the art of making beaded flowers... is a craft that dates to the Middle ages... " So, it seems that the line is blurry even to those who have written the book. I'm not sure that we can define at which point beadwork becomes art, and not craft, or even if it is necessary.But, in order to try, we must first define beadwork. And, what better way to do that, than on Wikipedia. I'm always surfing around on that site while I'm doing research for my blog posts, when suddenly I got the crazy idea that I should become a Wikiped...
More About: Fill

Identity Crisis
2008-01-26 20:07:00
The Lone Beader is:1. one who creates beadwork without the assistance or company of others. 2. one who prefers solitude while creating beadwork.This is a definition that I created to describe myself. Please note that nowhere in that definition does it say 'artist'. Yet, the Biography page of my website does say 'artist'.Today, I am questioning myself. I feel that in order to call myself an artist, I should be able to draw, paint, sculpt, and create things from my imagination, but honestly, I can't do that. I can sketch things that I see, but not very quickly, and not very well. I know how to work a paintbrush because someone taught me how in first grade. But, I'm not a painter by any means. What I am good at is stitching beads to felt. Sure, I imagine how things might look beaded, but I don't think I've ever really created something from my own imagination with beads. Every piece in my gallery has been created by first tracing an image from reality. I will admit that it's n...
More About: Identity , Crisis

So Tired
2008-01-25 09:20:00
(click to enlarge)1-10 I'm So Tire d ....I tried to finish beading this one little part of my Yellow Submarine, but I'm so tired... ZZzzz... ZZzzz...

So Tired
2008-01-25 09:20:00
(click to enlarge)1-10 I'm So Tire d ....I tried to finish beading this one little part of my Yellow Submarine, but I'm so tired... ZZzzz... ZZzzz

Two Things
2008-01-24 07:57:00
Today is meme day. I don't do these very often, but since it was Pink who tagged me, I will gladly participate. Here goes:1. Two things you do well.Bead EmbroideryDriving fast2. Two things you're not so good at.Making beaded spheresGoing to bed early3. Two extraordinary things you plan to do this year.Learn to speak Czech. Go to Prague. 4. Two items in your house you should get rid of.This beading loom. (I tried to use it once, got frustrated with warping the threads, and never picked it up again...)My rubber stamp collection.(Really, when will I ever do that again...)5. Your two favorite beverages.GuinnessSamuel Adams6. Two of your nicknames.LBDD7. Two places you've never been that you'd like to go to.HawaiiIceland8. Two of your favorite authors.Harper LeeAnne Frank9. Your two favorite outfits.Anything sparkly from Victoria's Secret.My rhinestone string bikini;)10. Two words you hate hearing.Last call!There you have it. Now, I should really try to get some sleep. :0
More About: Things

Ever Luvin' Sub
2008-01-23 07:05:00
(click to enlarge)Inspired by the 1968 Beatles Yellow Submarine comic book.Check out the new Wordless Wednesday HQ!!View More Wordless Wednesday Participants.

It's Official
2008-01-22 06:44:00
Finally, today is the day!I am thrilled to announce thelonebeader.com!!My website was designed by Steph Borel, and she did a fabulous job! This is where I will post news, important links, and information regarding any future shows or publications. It also has a wonderful gallery where you can view my work, as well as a Contact form for you to send me messages. I do hope you'll stop by. And, don't worry, if you happen to type in lonebeader.com instead, you'll still arrive at the same place:)
More About: Official

For You, Ju
2008-01-21 08:05:00
This post is for my little sister, Julie. Without her, any adventure would be blue. (click images to enlarge)I love you, Ju! :)

Full-Time
2008-01-19 18:01:00
In addition to working on my beaded Beatles Yellow Submarine, I have quite a lot of other beading related things to do. The first thing is organizing my seed beads. Here is the latest progress on that project:I've been working on transferring my beads into separate ziploc bags. I think that this will be a good method, because the bags take up less space, and I'll be able to organize them by colour easier. Above, is the pile I completed so far. I've been putting each bag into this 5-liter plastic container until I clean out my entire seed bead drawer. I think this is about half of my seed bead stash. We'll see when I'm finished, though...Also, I've been throwing the empty plastic containers into this bag. There are quite a lot of them. I was thinking of trying to reuse them somehow. I usually hate getting rid of useful things like this, but it's not like I won't acquire more of them in the future. LOL. So, I'll probably keep a few, and get rid of the rest. If you have any su...
More About: Time , Full

Oversized
2008-01-18 08:03:00
Yes, I'm up late beading again. So, I thought I'd post a couple of quick pics of my oversized Yellow Submarine to give you an idea of what I'm dealing with. Remember, this piece is approx. 18" wide. It is so big, it barely fits on my small work table. :0So, I've been allowing the table to support only half of the piece while I stitch through the other half. This seems to be working pretty well. Now, take a peek at the beads in the next photo. If you click the image, you'll see that I've been using 2 different types of beads - peach-lined yellow Magatamas & size 11 dark yellow matte seed beads. Any beads you see that look green are that colour because blue fabric markings are beneath them. These marks will eventually rinse out with water. Also, look at the red seed beads around the windows. The Magatamas next to them sort of distort the frames around the windows. I'm not exactly liking that, and I haven't figured out what to do about it, either. Maybe I'll try to bead a...

Drive My Sub
2008-01-17 07:34:00
The other day, Jay commented that I was driving around in my beaded Yellow Submarine. When I read his comment, the first thing I thought was 'you can drive a submarine'?? I thought that sounded funny, especially since submarines are watercraft that operate underwater. LOL.Okay, Jay, here's your chance to show me you can drive my sub. I hope you have a license for this thing! :0Beatles - Drive My Car(click images to enlarge)

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