A Fresh Week

Yep, time to peel the wrapper off a brand new week.

I got back to some designing over the weekend, another new main design. Not the one seen in the photo...that's a freeform lariat I'm working on...it's a long one, 50"+ when it's done so I keep taking breaks from it.
I really wanted to do something very new and different for me so I started working with right angle bases, done with seed beads 4 x 2 and 4 x 3 bead squares. my first play with it turned out like Rachel Nelson-Smith's Ootheca cuff...well, we couldn't have that...I'm no plagerist. It was interesting though because I haven't seen the pattern for the Ootheca cuff but now I know how she came up with it...what I came up with wasn't exactly the same more of an "Ootheca Lite" version. Of course I scrapped it, lol! I kindly requested Rachel step out of my mind and I started over.

I picked up Vogue over the weekend and I turned to that for inspiration...what came out was (insert drumroll).... pyramids! Liked that...haven't seen anything like it...this is good. Then the pyramids turned into "Petits Paquets" (small packages), for some reason the name popped up in French (gee...all those years of school French and look what I do with it). I'm not going to go into this too much because I don't want to give it away...lol. After stumbling into Rachel's design I see how easy it can be to not be original. Anyway, the Petit Paquets have my mind a-popping.

I have the idea to come up with six to ten original design bases and then explore different things to do with them....sounds like a book, huh? That's what I'm thinking. I'm totally inspired by Ms. Nelson-Smith's book that is doing so well and Ms. Lisa over at A Bead A Day whose first book is already available for pre-order on Amazon...WTG Ladies! Lisa is being awesome as usual and encouraging me to write my own. It's in my plan and has been for a while....an outline for a book proposal has center stage on my magnet board. Problem is I actually have ideas for at least three books and I have to decide and focus...but.....maybe I'm getting there. Shape and form seems to be a theme I'm working with...that's what the original stuff I'm coming up with is telling me anyhoo.

My goals for this week are a teaching catalogue of my kits...so people can choose what they want to learn and book me accordingly. I want to really offer a service with the kits too, so I'm going to include a color chart so an overall color can be chosen too. The kits are a bit more expensive this way because it means not ordering in bulk but thankfully http://www.artbeads.com/ allow me to order exactly what I want without minimums or shipping.....don't you just love them?
Ok...the second goal is to put together a project submission for one of the beading magazines.
The third is to head down to Mesquite to set up some classes (catalogues in hand) and join the Virgin Valley Arts Association and see if I can get some things in their gallery.

My evenings need to be filled with beading because I'm excited to work on the new designs and see where they can go. To be honest my head is spilling out ideas as I type. It's so exciting to come up with something new...my muse Morganna is definitely on a roll. It would be nice to start actually getting things down on paper for the book proposal too.....damn...this would be a productive week if I managed to get that far.