The Time! Where does it go?

It's nearly the Ides of March, and not only haven't I got the software finished, I haven't blogged lately either. But this is me, refusing to feel guilty. Life is too short for spurious guilt.

There has been movement on the software front. Finally got the icons I need for the interface done, and the major screens are now shaping up really well. Perhaps a screen shot early next week?

I have done some beading, though never as much as I wish I could.  Let's see, what can I show.....?  (sound FX of rustling through photos)

First is a wonderful necklace that my husband says is his favorite so far of anything I've done. It's a quiet, elegant piece, and it doesn't garner the same kind of attention and/or compliments from passersby that some of my showier bits do. On the other hand, when I tell people I made it, their eyes get real big, because it looks so complicated, and yet so cool.

The neck band is all peyote, done with raku color small bugle beads. Yes, it's asymmetrical.  The pendant and fringe beads are real porcelain raku, from Xaz Beads. I bought these a few months ago at the Pasadena Bead Show, and have been wanting to use them since. They are wonderfully light, and have a surface shimmer that just won't photograph.  I fastened the whole thing together with a snap catch behind the pendant, so it goes on very easily.

Then I felt the need to do something spring-like. Even here in southern California, I get springtime cravings for color, the way I used to do in the terrible gray months in Michigan. So I spiraled my way into color delirium, I don't know what I was thinking when I bought those neon bright shocking pink beads, but they work nicely in this bracelet.

The bracelet is now listed on Etsy, too.

The spiral was fun, although for some reason it seemed to take me a long time. Perhaps because I'm just not getting enough beading time. I found some nifty magnetic catches I used in this that are so strong, they stick when you put one on each side of your finger!  On the other hand, they have holes in the middle for a knotted thread, but when faced correctly to embed the knots inside each piece of the catch, the magnets are incorrectly oriented. What genius decided that the NS magnet poles should face in the SAME direction in each catch piece? It's like selling only left shoes.

You'll notice in the second picture that the bracelet is resting on a...what is that thing?  Oh, it's my new Wristometer ©, a bracelet sizing mandrel that's printable on a single sheet of cardstock or paper.  Then you cut it out and tape it into a cone-like shape. This is something I've been working on and hoping to get out there soon.  Like next week.

There are other bracelet and necklace sizing options out there, but I think there's a place for a very low-cost, portable, and easy doo-dad for sizing how big a bracelet is. It's remarkable how the length of a bracelet when laid flat has so little to do with what size wrist it will fit! Depending on the thickness of the beading, the flexibility, the catch, all those things make a difference in fit.

So keep watching this space. I'll try to provide more updatingness. And promptidity.