Saturday, April 7, 2012

Has this ever happened to you?

It was a first for me!

I started a new beadweaving project last night at home; a bracelet from a current issue of a beading mag, for display in the shop. I'm using 6 lb FireLine, and a fairly large mix of different colored and sized seed beads - lots of little piles, again! There're 3 different colors of 15s, 2 of 11s, an 8, and a 3 mm cube.

Working with 15s is always an extra challenge for me, because I truly struggle to see them (more than I struggle to see the rest of the sizes)! I'm legally blind, and as it is, I wear at least one, if not 2 pairs of glasses, plus an optivisor, just to see the beads - and sometimes I use that wonderful beading lamp with the magnifier built in.

But you know how sometimes you accidentally pick up an extra bead (or 2) when you are scooping the seed beads on to the needle? And you pull the FireLine down, ready to move on to the next stitch, and there is the offending extra bead, glaring at you, screwing up your pattern? I have never, ever met a beadweaver who doesn't do this: you pick up the chainnose pliers, and slip in there and crush the offending bead! It's a lot easier than unthreading the needle, backing out the FireLine, and rethreading the dang needle, and redoing the stitch. Right? We've all done it!

So, I accidentally picked up an extra 15 last night, and didn't notice 'til I pulled the stitch tight. I quickly grabbed my pliers, smashed the 15, and suddenly noticed this "stray thread" about 1mm long sticking out of my work. Puzzled, I leaned in for a closer look (how much closer could Mr. Magoo get, you might be asking?) and discovered, to my horror, that when I had crushed the bead, it had cut the FireLine. Eeeks! I can barely get my scissors or wire cutters to cut the FireLine, and this little old 15 cut through it like butter!
I have always know that cutting your thread is a risk when crushing beads while working with Nymo or S-Lon, but with FireLine?

I had to back out a full 2 inches of work to get 6 inches of FireLine that I could rethread on my needle, and tie off. And then I had to start a new thread - and those who know me, know that I already work with a ridiculous amount of FireLine because I hate stopping and starting my thread!

I probably won't stop crushing beads, but this really caught me off guard. So, has it ever happened to you? Would once be enough to make you stop crushing the life out of naughty, misbehaving beads?

1 comment:

H.T. said...

Hi:-)
The contents of Your blog post reminds me somebody's 'actions': of course-MINE-hahahahaa:-))
I bet,You do not know,neither can count,how many times I saw unneeded,unwanted and unloved,additional beads,which dared to screw up my whole work!I do the same: take the laaaarge needle,put it into that bead and-crrrush!There's no any better solution to such a problem.Afterwards I go with the thread in that place once again and pull the thread to fill the created gap.
Don't worry-be Happy:-)
Though, I cannot promise:it won't occur again:-)

HAPPY AND SUNNY EASTER TO YOU-
Warm Hugs-Halinka-