Turning 40...

I turned 40 last month and the beads turned on me! All of the sudden they are not as clear in my glasses as they have always been!!! What's up with that???? Now I have a cute pair of 1/2 glasses to make the beads clearer for me. I had always been told that it would happen at 40 but did it have to be so automatically?

I have lots of beady things on my horizon. I'm going to Tucson to work at the bead shows!!! YAY!!! If you are there this year - pop into the Bead Ren show - I will be at the San Francisco Arts & Crafts booth, surrounded by lots of Czech glass beads!

I also hope to go to Nebraska in the spring. If I get there, it will be my 3rd time and I just can't wait!

Turning 40 has other effect on me too. It seems like people listen to me a little better now. Though I have chosen not to have children, turning 40 sort of cements that decision for me. I do like to borrow them though.

Gotta go play with the beads now... :-)

Getting better

I can't believe it's been so long since I have been here.

Life had been so filled with ups and downs that I just don’t know where I am at right now. First tonsil surgery and it's many complications one that is still here where I cannot always pronounce all my words correctly and I'm starting to be self conscious about it. And now I have put a pinpoint on the headaches I am having. My creativity has been effected by the stuff happening medically and I'm trying to get out of this hole. Getting better has so many facets to it's definition.

I did get a really cool Japanese bead book and have visions of crystals dancing in my head because of that, so there is hope.

I hosted my first swap in many years and I feel it was very successful, so much so that I'm hosting another one! So I have 10 pair of earrings to make myself for the swap. I need to order kit beads when I get home, so I am looking forward to that. Beady things are looking up.I was a little down when I last wrote here but those things have been picking up there too. I patched up a few bad relationships in my life and feel richer for it.

I did design a cool new netted earring, so I have that to look forward too.

Life is just too short:

To sweat the whiners

To placate the people who want their butts wiped for them

To miss enjoying the simple things

To allow the insignificant things to get me down

To baby the babies

To stress over a speck of dust

To stress over a hair out of place

Enjoy the simple things - a lingering look from the man you love - the smile of a child - the sun on your face - a slow, passionate kiss - holding hands - playing your favorite song one more time

Take the time because you never know what tomorrow will bring

Vive la difference!

I think I have the total trigger to my hurt feelings.

It's when my unique qualities are not only not embraced but shunned. It's when the things I do uniquely at looked upon as the trash in the receptacle.

I have never been shy that I do some things in my beading in my own way. I try not to push my way on people. I might show them what I do, explain my I like it that way but I don't ever expect them to change their own ways.

And I am faced at this time with a dislike for the way I do things and I simply am not equipped to handle it. I embrace differences whenever I can in others.

Even when they are foreign to me, I embrace the fact, that while sharing the same love of beads, many of us have things we do to get to a similar end that is extremely different. I find it fascinating! I try to learn from it instead of digging my heels in.

I could sit with a beader who mixes all the beads in a pile on their pallet and have my neat triangle trays out and bead just fine. I couldn't trade places and bead just fine from her pallet and maybe she could not bead from mine. As long as neither of us forces the other to do that, we should be peachy. Not that I would generally even pay much attention to the way they set theirs up, but neither way is wrong, just different. I use wax to assist me in threading the needle some of the time, seldom coating the entire thread with wax, as I don't care for the feel of the thread coated. I am a tactile beader - it's all about the feel for me. Another beader can coat their thread with wax and be just thrilled with the feel of the thread. We wouldn't want to trade places but we could sit and bead just fine with our own preferred wax usage. I have needle and thread preferences. So? I feel like I'm under a microscope and I don't understand why it is like that now.

I think what has me upset is the feeling that what I do that is different is looked upon as wrong. It might be wrong for one person but it's a bunch of right with me. It brings me back to when I created my first beaded ornament and the beading mentor I had at the time looked at it as I showed it off to her with glee and curled her lip and said, "where did you get THAT?" with as much detest in her voice as she could muster. I didn't create another new ornament for over 6 months. I let her have the power.

Not much has changed for me now, 10 years later. I should not be seeking approval at this point in my craft but I still do it. It's the approval I never felt I got from my mother. I seek it elsewhere because I never felt that anything I did was good enough for her and there are times when I STILL feel that way. It was a B could have been an A. It was the perception I had and not even always the reality. I don't like being treated like I am different. I do and don't want to be "normal", whatever that is. I guess I don't mind being different but I don't want the differences to be the focus of things. I like them to be part of the bigger picture. Like I bead this way and it's the end result that is the focus of things. The biggest difference this time is that I am not letting it stop me from creating. I have grown a little.

Beads are flowing in my thoughts these days!

Beads are just flowing for me!!!

I have not been this prolific in my beading since I first started. It's like I had my beading excitement re-charged. I have so many designed in my head right now, that I can't bead fast enough to get them done!

I beaded for hours in the last few weeks and all the feedback I have gotten has been very positive. It's very nice to be able to spend my time with things that I really love doing.

I also love to have beady people around to share things with. It's as much fun seeing what they are doing as it is making the things I design. I'm headed to Nebraska for a beady trip and I can't wait for the beady inspirations I will have while I am there.

Getting away refreshes me and renews my energy for beading. This burst of creating new things is so much fun for me right now. It really started with my trip last year but changes in things at home have helped that bud that was started a year ago become a huge blossom. I have more ideas right now than I have time to bead them up and I have lots of beading time right now. I am working in colors that are out of my comfort zone these days too.

Back to the beads now!

Creativity

Creativity...

***I dedicate this to all the people who care about me and really do mean well...

I know how it happens for me, but almost every time I talk to most people about it, I end up feeling like a freak.

Ok, maybe I am a freak. I mean my beading comes from a place inside me that even I don't completely understand. I have had beads in my life as long as I can remember. My Nana had them and passed on her addiction to me.

I dream many of my designs. I guess that makes me weird. I tell people and then that makes me feel stupid... it's like I'm trying to share my soul and instead when I'm done, I feel like a freak.

Ya see it's like this...

I have the dream. It is generally pretty vivid when I wake up. IF I remember it, I remember it very clearly. I then attempt to make what I dreamed come to life, usually after making a little sketch in a book. So it comes from inside me. Then I talk to people, and many of them try to steer me in directions that just aren't in me. My beading is very much a part of who I am. In the colors - the choice of beads - the pieces I make and the pieces I wear are a direct reflection on me. I have never liked making things I didn't find appealing... One friend occasionally doesn't understand this and suggests things that will bring in money for me. But it's not about the money. Another friend tries to steer me in other directions in my work when I make affirmative statements about how the design is going to be done. It's when didn't ASK for them, and yet the offers for ideas come. Still another tries to get me to work in colors I don't care for. My mother seldom understands what I make or why I make the choices I make when I create. What none of them seems to realize is that it's all done in my head and until it gets completed - that piece won't leave my head. It's my design after all. I guess I would not be a good team player in a design group of any kind. I get tunnel vision. I have a goal in my head and I move forward toward it.

I do have people that help the beading flow. Sometimes they are the very same people I just mentioned. All are well meaning. All are great friends of mine and all only mean to give me ideas that I can build on. But it's inside me. Nothing anyone says will really affect the end result IF I'm clear in my head what I plan to make. These are the same people I can talk to when I'm stuck with a design. They can be the ones who help me get something to work that isn't. So maybe that is the confusion - they have become accustomed to me talking about things and needing input, so that when I don't want any - I am not clear in my communications... But then I had a situation where I was sent blown glass bubbles - and told that I should make hot air balloons from them and it was almost instant - the right inspiration at the right time, and I had it done in less than 24 hours. It has a lot to do with the timing too... See - typing out my feelings here isn't such a bad thing. Maybe I need to be more vocal that I have an idea in my head and I'm meaning to get it out exactly as I have envisioned... maybe that is it.

It comes out sounding very Zen and maybe it is... I mean I bead what I feel. I can't produce beading like an assembly line. I can make pieces in colors I don't like but I have to like the design first.

When I first started beading, I had a "wanna be just like you" roommate who started beading too. She was pretty good at the mechanics of it but she didn't really do much designing. She had a customer who wanted her to make a pair of earrings that by her own description, she HATED. So she spent 4 or more hours working on a pair of earrings that even she disliked when done. She then put them on a card with her name on it and sold them. When we talked about it, I told her that I would not have taken the order. Even back then, I had a feeling for beading like I never had for any other "craft" I had ever tried. I wouldn't spend my time making things just because someone was willing to pay me for them. I told her I would feel like I was prostituting myself if I made things just because there was money involved. She claimed I called her a whore. I tried to get her to look up the definition of prostitute... but she wouldn't.

The definition according to dictionary.com is:

pros ti tute n.
1. One who solicits and accepts payment for sex acts.
2. One who sells one's abilities, talent, or name for an unworthy purpose

I referred to the 2nd one for me. I didn't say she was to feel that way - I made a statement of how I would feel in the same situation. I simply would not have taken the order.

It's never been about the money. I'm not independently wealthy or anything but I simply can't get motivated to bead something I don't like. It becomes a chore when I make a piece I don't like. It's art for me. I'm not claiming to be an ahhhhhtist or anything. It's just an expression of me and I want things that reflect on me to be things that I like. It's a skill I feel comfortable with. I live beads! Right now I'm in a very fluid, flowing state of mind right. I'm trying to keep that going and get the things in my head beaded while I still am in the mood to do it. I could wake up tomorrow and be in a total beader's block. I have had it happen before. Beading great for a long time and wake up in the morning and I just can't get a bead to lay right or I make more mistakes than are worth bothering with - my thread is getting chewed up from frogging so much. So I move on to something else or even worse! Nothing else!

I guess what is happening is that things are flowing so well right now, that I don't want any suggestions to make it stop! I wake up and can't wait to bead right now. It's pretty amazing actually. I am in a zone and I want to do as much as I can to keep it going!

I feel that if I put my name on a piece whether it be a kit or a pattern or a finished piece, it's got to be something I find appealing in some way. It's that simple. I will not put a product out with my name on it that I don't like. And no matter how many well meaning people try to get me to do otherwise, I don't think that will ever change. It's about creativity for me. It's my ability to create and right now, I do that with beads. It's from inside me and it won't be changed for the all mighty dollar. It's the definition for create that is: To produce through artistic or imaginative effort. It's my effort and it has to be what I like. When it becomes a chore, I will quit beading.

Wow....

I just had a wow moment... in an otherwise uneventful day.

sort of surfing around today - cleaning out my Kim Kommando newsletters in my INBOX

I got a site of the day for http://www.caedes.net/

Cool wallpaper site. First on I put was fireworks.... I guess I should explain the way I like wallapaper. Generally something cool in the middle and lots of darkness framing the outside edges. I keep the middle clean and all the shortcuts are all around the center. I'm wierd. I know it - no biggie.

So I put fireworks up - I love fireworks but this particular picture is veyr much on the red side - the warm colors. So I look at it but am not thrilled, like I should have been. I keep looking and then I see a rosette nebula... blues and purples.... veyr appealing. I get it and the second I put it on the desktop I crack an automatic smile.

It's all about the comfort zone in life isn't it?

What makes you comfy, makes you happy.

ahhhhhhhhhhhh :-D

and I guess that's a wow for me right now.

Super Bowl Sunday

spent watching chick flick with SO, no football at all... Since I don't like sports, it's pretty important that he not be very into them either. Life is good sometimes!

I have several beady projects to work on when he goes to keep from thinking about him not being here.

Lots of beady things in my future.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday to all who don't play second fiiddle to sports.

Rejuvinated!!!!

New Year Rejuvenation!

It's a brand new year and I feel absolutely rejuvenated!

I have DSL and I feel like I am finally re-connected to the beading community like I was until about 2 ½ years ago. Trip I had planned to take got canceled and I decided to make it my time for revitalizing my beading! I have designing running through my head and I have started to bead them up. I designed a new ladybug earring and it came out really cute on the 2nd try! I have a love for netting and the Olaf books have a certain style all their own when it comes to netting in flat circles. There is nothing like it and I have come up with more designs in that style lately than anything else.

I can now get away into a fairly distraction free environment that fits my comfort zone and design to my hearts content, read e-mail and chat with my beady friends all at the same time! It is just a comfort level for me. I have almost always beaded that way. I thought it was a little ADD but someone else suggested it is just multi tasking. I can't seem to get into that groove of beading/designing without a bunch of things happening at once. I do them all and I bead.


I had some issues with a couple of my friends and they are ironing themselves out a little at a time. It's hard to tell someone how much you miss their friendship when you never have the opportunity to talk to them anymore. Then when you do - you don't miss it, so it doesn't come up that you just have a real yearning for that friendship. I have many friends on the Internet but there are a few especially close friends that I feel I am missing something if I have not had contact with them. With one person, it got to the point that I had to ask others if she was ok because I just had no way to find out any other way!

The pieces of my life are starting to fall back into place and I'm thrilled! It's going to bead a very beady year!

More end of the year babbling...

I don't understand people who insist on controlling a friendship. I mean isn't it supposed to be a two way street? Dictionary.com says that it's:
friendship n.
1. The quality or condition of being friends.
2. A friendly relationship: formed many new friendships over the summer.
3. Friendliness; good will: a policy of friendship toward other nations.
But I have known people who don't let it go both ways. They either take from me and give nothing or they run the whole thing. They choose when and how you can communicate with them. If they are not in the mood, then you have no choice but to sit in silence. They are the only one who can be a strong, confident person.
This year I will not let the bullies get to me either. You know the ones - fake sweet to you one minute and then using their power against you the next? Never know when they will turn on you? Bosses, relatives and friends, I have one in each category and it sure sucks when they pull that crap. They later apologize but who are they fooling? If I walked up to you and kicked you in the leg - said I was sorry and did the same thing every day for a week - how long would you think my apologies were sincere? Just because you are someone's boss, doesn't mean you get to treat people like they are nothing. Just because you are a friend or a relative doesn't mean you can kick the ones closest to you and get away with it, time and time again. Treat others the way you want to be treated.

I do have a few very close friends who are there for me no matter what. And that I am very thankful. It's been a long year and I am hoping for lots of good friendship in 2006.

To Do (And Don't) List For 2006

1) Bead more.
2) Keep some people close and others farther away.
3) Don't mix business with friendships - no matter how hard I have tried; it always bites me in the ass. The friends can't seem to keep the 2 separate. Business things are on their own and the friendship should be a totally separate thing.
4) Try harder.
5) Take better care of me.
6) Make sure the people who really mean something to me know it.
7) Be careful who I trust with my feelings, because they could just get thrown back in my face.
8) Don't suffer fools lightly.
9) Explore my bead dreams and make them come to life.
10) Know my mind and don't let others crush my spirit.
11) Don't let others bad moods effect me.
12) Love the ones who need it most.

I did it!

I beaded my first holiday themed project for 2005!!! Woo Hoo!!! Another beaders block thwarted!!!! I can bead!!! I can BEAD!!! It's a cool little Olaf project. I just love how it turned out too. This one is Mom's but I hope to make more. This piece can be seen on my web site: http://www.violetbead.com in the GALLERY.

I'm in the holiday spirit now!!!

Back to the beads!

Beading out.

To bead or not to bead... That IS the question!

Well so far in the last couple weeks, I have beaded very little. I have put kits together, worked on directions for kits and got beads in for kits. So I guess September was a kit month. I am planning to bead tonight, though I have no clue what I will bead. I had a nice dinner and I will have a peaceful evening. Should be ripe for beading.

I'm about to head away for 2 weeks and there will be beading done on that trip as well as working a bead show. Two weeks with people I miss will be a nice diversion.

Beady things just have to happen for me.

Hope they are happening for you.

Blocked and Bullied

I want to bead but I'm just blocked! I get ideas and before I get to the point where I try them, I'm off in another direction. Idea completely forgotten. This too shall pass. I have some hope of getting my beading going again - a real desk to use the computer at where I can bead while I chat or read e-mail. Maybe.

It doesn't help that I had a pissing match with a jerk about how I run my e-mail list. In the end - my expecting him to follow the rules constituted a power/ego issue. He simply couldn't see that he was breaking rules and that is why his post was not allowed through. When I told him that a man would think it was about control and power, he countered by accusing me of having penis envy... Ya right. In the end, I asked him to stop e-mailing me, he informed me that he could do what ever he wanted whenever he wanted and I filed a grievance with AOL against him. He could not see that sending me nasty e-mails after I asked him to stop was harassment. Male Bully behavior just sucks anyway. Odd thing was that AOL was putting his e-mail in my spam folder. Maybe they were trying to tell me they had nothing but CRAP in them? LOL Never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person?

I also had a comment come from my site asking for a pattern that I designed that was not up but the inference was for it to be given. Why is it that there are beaders out there who want you to keep putting out new patterns but none of them expect to have to pay for them? They want us to stay in "business" with no income? Come on people! You will buy beads - you will buy books but come across a private designer you don’t want to pay them for their hard work? You would rather pay a huge publishing company for a book but not put dollars in the pocket of a designer directly??? This just doesn't make any sense to me. I would much rather buy a book or a pattern or a kit directly than to give a percentage to ANYONE else who didn't participate in the creative process.

Amazed and Confused

I run several bead lists. One to learn about beading, one to announce changes to my site, another for more advanced beaders among them.

For the learning list to be productive, most of the members need to participate. They are either there to learn or help others learn. This isn't a list to talk about your personal things - it's a bead list to learn beading on. It has to be give and take. In regard to my time that I use to keep the list going, I want it to be successful. I want people to share beading information. Share info on a new book. Share the new project you just made.

I went to the archives this morning and I looked at how excited we all were to have a list to discuss the mechanics of beading on. We need to have the ones who want to learn speak up and tell the ones who know what to help them with. The ones who know need to help the ones who want to learn. Anyone who doesn't participate is sort of doing nothing and gaining info but giving nothing in return. I thought that was pretty unfair. So I told the entire list that if you want to be here - you need to participate. I told them I knew it sounded rough but it was the bare bones of the situation. I simply don't feel it's fair for a big part of the membership to not give anything. Many people are on every bead list they can find and share nothing on any of them. They get the benefits and no one gets anything back from them.

So I'm amazed that people can't grasp the idea that for the list to work properly, we all have to put something into it. I give my time and I want it to work properly.

The part that confuses me is that people who are on other lists of mine left them as well. What's up with that? One in particular actually participates on the list, so I really don't know why she got her panties in a bunch, she was not at all who I directed my post to at all. So what if I'm upset with people who don't bother to participate on the list? What's it to anyone who does? Shouldn't they want to have something shared as well as do the sharing themselves?

I love beads but there are times when the people in the beading community amaze and confuse me.

Doh!

So I get my 10 inches done... only to find I did it all WRONG! No wonder it wouldn't assemble the way the book said... Doh! Just goes to show that occasionally too much beading experience hinders you from actually READING the directions - ALL of the directions and not thinking you know what she meant... Oh well - back to the beginning and I have about 3 inches done the right way this time. *sigh* Not the first time and not the last. I did however have a new beader here beading when I had to cut up that 10 inches, so it showed her that 14 years beading and I still screw up enough to have to scrap the whole thing and start over. Not entirely a bad thing :-)

The weather is cooler yesterday and today but I think that tomorrow it will be hotter again. I was just not meant to stay where it's this hot! I think 80 is hot enough and I don't need it to be any hotter. I love thick blankets - hot soup - hot tea - hot showers... all things that can get me warmer but there is really nothing that I can just do to make me cool enough.

Back to the beads!

Lazy Days

Lazy days... I will tell ya that right now I have the energy of a slug! Another sort of a vacation and I have no ambition at all! It's a stay at home sort - no one here but the dog and I should be getting all sorts of work done but so far nope! I have a project in the works... a beaded rose. I will tell you that the base of that rose is the most boring thing to me right now - 10 inches of modified flat peyote. Ordinarily this would be a cinch but this time it is as slow as slow can be getting there. I seem to measure every 1/4 inch thinking I am so much closer to my goal, but not yet. The book is fantastic - it's The Beaded Garden by Diane Fitzgerald. A book full of flowery goodies and I picked this as my first project. Boy was that a mistake. I could have picked a nice purple pansy but no, a Rose! I HAD to make this darned Rose! And still it sits there. I did pick up 3 beady magazines today and I have not peeked at them yet but they have only been here a couple hours.

So I have had what will end up being 3 vacations this summer and the 3rd should have been productive and I have 5 days left to make that happen

We shall see!

Warning - Rambling post.....

Well goodness... Love is the best drug there is huh? 23 years and I still feel this good when I am going to spend time with him. Not too much to complain about huh? I'm headed on another vacation! 2 weeks in LA with people that re-energize me. (and much cooler weather...) I got a cool new bead book - The Beaded Garden - and I'm not taking it nor any beads with me... I take them but never have time to play with them, so I'm not gonna this time. The book is wonderful though and I will make many of the projects in it I think.

Beads have been everywhere for me the last week or so though. Even little things like scanning a beady article for a friend or seeing beaded clothes at the store. I have been making these really cool crystal bracelets. Made one in Crystal AB
http://members.aol.com/violetbead/BEADWORK/SparkleBrac.jpg

then I had to make a purple one :-) Lilac Swar - Sparkle Sparkle!!! I'm wearing that one. The crystal one is a little dressier than I wear on a daily basis. Pretty though. There is a prospective beady student when I get back. I will see a couple beady friends when I am in LA if I get time. Spending time with people I love and getting a little break.... ahhhhh what a life!

I have been spending time with my nephew and his new wife. She had a little boy when they got together and I can see all kinds of great changes in him since they got married. Both the stability of 2 parents and him maturing into a pleasant little boy have to do with that. Fun and sun and family - a very nice summer indeed this year!

I have concluded once again that life is what you make of it. Got Lemons? Make Lemonade! No one is going to pick you up - you have to get up off your ass and make the first move yourself! The rest will follow if you keep a positive outlook.

I have to go have more fun now!

Unshelling the hermit in me

It's amazing how good I feel when I have been beading. I am energized for everything. It both enhances and interrupts my sleep! It's just an all around good feeling to be creative again. I have several ideas in my head and am working on getting them out and real. I'm getting back in the mood to be around people! What's up with that? A shopping trip with my brother for a couple hours of companionship that I feed on, broke part of the hermit shell. The hermit mode I was in was further broken Saturday. An unplanned visit with a friend brought me out of a planned hermit day - it was going to be all 3 Harry Potter movies - junk food and iced tea. No people allowed! Just Dogs! But the request came and though I REALLY didn’t feel like going out, I needed to and I did.


And then poured the beads. Two new rings in basically two days. Possible kit in the makings and revenue from creativity! Imagine that!!! Who came up with that idea? It's much more fun to have $$ to spend on beads and the bills. I am planning another vacation soon. This one will further remove the hermit shell and re-energize me with beading ideas. This has been a good year for ideas on trips.

No more Gloom and Doom!!!

Well I haven't written here for a while... Haven't had much to write about, mostly due to a pinched nerve in my back, that and feeding off negativity from people in my life. I try to be optimistic, it's my nature. While I have friends and family who are pessimists - my glass has been half full a good percentage of my life. I do have a temper but I seldom stay mad long. It takes too much energy to be angry all the time or to hold a grudge.

People don't realize that when someone asks you how you are, they don't want a run down of all your problems. They want something positive. If your life sucks, think about why and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!! No one wants to hear all your aches and pains and complaints. Even the people who tell you they don't want you to feel sorry for them... they do too! Or they wouldn't be telling you all their troubles! My new motto is "You get from life what you put into it" (it's my old motto too) Horrible thing is that when I'm around people with complaints, I find that it's contagious! I find that I end up listing mine back to them! The less you think about your problems, the less they run your life!

So, I am coming out of my personal gloom and I have many beady ideas in my head soon to be reality IF they work! LOL I got to go to my fave bead show last weekend. It hardly seems like it was only a week ago... Now I'm beading and ordering beads. Kits have taken off to my shock and delight! So I have funds to order beads to make more new kits! The bead show was mostly fun and it has given me perspective on some parts of my life. ALL those beads!!!! And beady things!!! I got a bunch of size 11's and a few size 15's. A new pair of pliers with purple handles. But mostly I wished I was teaching the whole time. Seeing all of those student badges... *sigh* It’s funny how you are where you are because you are supposed to be, even when you don't know it. Knowing it gives you the lessons you are meant to learn from that and I did that on this trip. I met a couple beady internet friends which was very cool and I decided that I am going to teach beading where ever I can! All those students taking classes and none of them mine! Say it isn't so! I will also NEVER be anyone's punching bag - literally or figuratively. And that life is too short to deal with other people's baggage. You got baggage? That is YOUR PROBLEM! I end up being the venting board for several people in my life. Some I feel sympathy for and some I don't. It's wasted energy being sympathetic to someone who won't do anything to change their situation. Others just have a crappy situation that they are working to get out of - them I will listen to anytime because it's not all gloom and doom!

I saw so many really cool things at the bead show - mostly on other people! I'm going to post pictures of some of the pieces in the competition when I get time. I got the new Harry Potter book and it takes up all my down time! Back to the beads people! BEAD ON!