anagramofbrat | Haven't don't bead blather in a while!

...which is rather inexcusable, as while yes, life got chaotic and "interesting," bead stuff still happened.

I did have to put the Castlevania Forest project on the back burner so I could make a present for Amanda. I decided on a cuff bracelet with three diamonds in it. Between Things Happening *wince* and some shortage of supplies I didn't quite get it done for Christmas - in fact I only just got it done this evening so I'll be putting it in the mail tomorrow. I hope. *shifty eyes* Anyway, have a slideshow of THAT project:

And if the slideshow doesn't work, have a link instead.

Things I learned from This Project:

I now know how to do picot fringe. I now also hate doing picot fringe. Also when doing pico fringe, order tiny round seed beads, not delicas, unless you're going for sharp looking. (It kinda fits with the design though.) But moral of the story? Fuck picot fringe. Fuck it right in the ear.
Miyuki end tubes are the best findings ever ever amen. I may order some tinier width ones and some much much wider ones for Mysterious Future Projects.
Next time I do this - four diamonds and much less chain.
if you're going to do a lot with jump rings, suck it up and get a set of tiny bead pliers. After muddling along with tweezers and regular pliers I took advantage of a Joann's sake and got extra snips and a set of three craft pliers and oh my god, quel difference. I apparently mentioned buying these in my last bead post but DONTCURR they're awesome.
There are almost zero local major bead and finding retail websites that aren't wholesale. The closest for beads is my go-to (delibeads.com) but they don't really have any findings at all. Thankfully it's not too bad paying $5 shipping for 2-day mail from fusionbeads.com but argh. I'm about half tempted to offer to build an online store for my local bead shop purely for my own self-interest.
It is also damn hard to shop for exact shades of colors/finishes online. Not every retailer has every color, most of their search tools are absolute shit and considering these beads originate from Japan their descriptions/names for colors vary wildly in translation. (thankfully, their product numbers don't; I have the five shades of Game Boy Green memorized. There were a few points where I gave up in a fit of pique and built my own database. I might still, because ARGH.

In other news, along with some of the aforementioned hard to find findings, I treated myself to one of these bad boys, which came today and OMG I love it.

I know, it kinda looks like a pregnancy test. It isn't. In fact, oh god, keep this thing far away from your hoo as possible. This is a thread burner - good for taking care of those persnickity millimeters of thread you can't quite clip. You just BURNINATE THEM OFF with this thing. (and then Trogdor comes in the NIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT - sorry) It is also fantastic for taking care of those ugly patches where you have a visible buildup of wax in between beads/rows. BURNINATED. EEEEEE.

*cough* I might like hot things. A little. The only drawback is that burning nylon and wax smells exactly like burning hair, which isn't too bad of a thing if you've spent any amount of time in a black hair salon.

I started back up with Castlevania on Christmas: I'll post some progress pictures on that front in a few rows, but I guess for now have a bead count.

14790 / 25840 beads. 87 rows. 57.237% done!