Bead Soup Surprise

Don't forget to go sign up for my Giveaway!

I'm participating in the latest edition of "Bead Soup" hosted by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things. She does these periodically, and I've had a lot of fun participating! The above picture is the soup that I mailed out today...no you can't see what it is yet :P Not until Shay gets it! Once Shay and I have each received each other's soup I'll show you an un-smudged picture so you can actually see it :) 

This is my current project - and it's been quite a journey! Every month the Etsy Bead Weavers does a challenge, and this month's challenge is to do something for a Queen, any Queen. I picked the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland because, honestly, can really imagine me making something for a real person? If you've ever seen my reading list you know its largely fantasy, so there you go. 

Now your probably looking at that and going, "Journey? Doesn't look like too much work ... " Well, you'd be right. I started this piece earlier today. The problem has been getting to the point of creating this piece. 

I started out with what I'll call pattern 1. I was using red and white because for some reason that's what I thought the Red Queen wore. Well, I had the red right at least. Anyway, the red and white beads I had chosen were "technically" the same size classification, but didn't actually match in size. Which really didn't work for pattern 1. I really wanted to do that pattern, and had no other ideas, so I did an image search for the Red Queen. 

As you can see the Red Queen is actually red, black, some gold, and white trim. Hmm... So I tried pattern 1 again with red and black. Although this is a pattern I've done before, it just didn't want to behave. On to pattern 2! I had an idea that I tried to create (my own pattern) that didn't show up the way I envisioned it. I may still put that together at some point (after reworking it) but I'm starting to get down to the deadline! Plus I was getting tired of things going horribly wrong. That's when I got the idea for making a beadwoven heart.

Of course that's when I lost my black thread and sprained my wrist! Oh dear. Well, I finally have all the pieces together, and I'm working hard to get it done as fast I can. Sprained wrist? What's that? Ace-bandage and some tylenol and I'm still beading!