Looking Ahead

So, now that we know each other a little bit, what am I up to these days?

I am honoured, delighted and amazed to share that I have been upgraded to an official collaborator for "Contemporary Geometric Beadwork", a fabulous new book by Kate McKinnon and Jean Power, with Dustin Wedekind, Gabriella van Diepen and ME! *G*

While I was happily contributing various items to the book, I think I had assumed they would go into some general eye-candy gallery. Imagine my delight when July rolled around and I was invited on board! There is so much true genius out there and Kate and Jean are but two examples! People who pre-order the book are not only contributing the necessary capital to get the book into print, but in return are being given the "inside scoop" on things each week, including tips, tricks and pre-publication access to selected patterns. The photos come flooding in, all day long, giving the creative response of beaders from all around the globe and they are AMAZING!

One of the earliest patterns to be shared with book pre-orders was my super fun Colourwheel Helix Cuff, shown above in one of my all-time favourite photographs. Kate McKinnon took that amazing shot, and set it up as if the tiny dino had an exercise wheel!






Believe it or not, it grew from a quick "sketch" of an idea sparked by Jean Power's rivoli stars (photo by Kate McKinnon).












Which led me to imagine a different scale and application of the technique, that I quickly sketched out in size 8 Japanese seed beads (photo by Kate McKinnon).












Which led to the need to run for my favourite size 12 cylinders (I know the rest of the world calls them size 11, but they ARE smaller than size 11 seed beads and I am a die-hard nitpicker!) in a full spectrum array (yes, this photo is also by Kate; she swears by her new iPhone4S and uses it to get these amazing shots. Aren't they great?).


Happy Beadsday!