You can see by the deep golden light that I finished the lion at the last possible sunshine moment. The way he stands on his toes makes him look as if he is ready to spring. I love that! Again I did the undersides first and that makes it so much easier to work in the tight places under legs and chin. It seems to also gives a lift to the chin that was missing in the previous version.
I will have a brand new animal for you tomorrow! I happened on an auction on Ebay that was selling Teenie Beanie Babies from 2009. There are over twenty of them. Many are smaller and the cats and dogs are made in a sitting position which is much more attractive than the normal sprawled position of the legged animals in 1996 - 1999. All were in bags and in premo condition so I was very happy with my win even though I paid about $1.25 for each animal instead of the 30 - 50 cents I normally pay

I would have finished Bushy the Lion last night if I had settled down earlier. All afternoon I was so antsy, so unfocused, so full of other things to do, that it was late in the afternoon before I could keep the beading tray on my lap. Usually I crash into the recliner, so glad to get my feet in the air, relieved to have my back perfectly supported that I grab the bead tray and relax. Not so yesterday! Perhaps it was the arrival of my old yearbook from 1955 that set so many images and memories whirling in my head. Now today I have looked at photos from the most recent class reunion and again my head is filled with other images. Now and then. The ghost of girls in adult faces! What a journey! I wonder if I will be able to see the beads at all this afternoon.

So this is Bushy the Lion. I see in the top photo I accidentally gave him pubic hair! whatever. I still have the tail to do. The last time I did this animal I felt his tail was too wide so I am eager to sew it smaller before I begin beading it. Slowly I am getting more courageous making changes in how the animal is sewn before starting to beading. I should have made some tucks in his legs so they do not spraddle out so much. I do like how the rows of beads give him pattern as is shown in the top photo. PS. I have made my peace with Picasa and it is easier to save and work on my photos than it was with Photoshop.

Bead Blog #600

Last night I finished the pink dragon. It looks a lot better here in the photo than in real life. I am really not good with pink! Was very glad to put all those pink beads away. I did find out that it takes exactly 2 1/2 strands of glass chips to do a dragon. I would have been forced to make the 'wing' a different color, even if I had not determined earlier the great contrast between the chips and the seed beads demanded that the wing color be lighter. At first I was thinking of purple wings. When I held the various stands of chips against the back of the dragon, I felt a 'click' inside of me, as if that color locked itself into the piece.
As soon as I cleared away the dragon-making beads I picked up the Lion that had arrived in a new win at Ebay. By midnight about 2/3s of his face was done. I am very happy to be working with warm golden amber beads - and to have a new animal in my hands. I gave my previous Lion to Heidi for Christmas so now I need to get a new one in my menagerie. Also Mike called from the CHAC to say Caitlin had picked the iguana as the silent auction item for the Charter School in Point Arena. Love thinking of making a new one!

I just could not let this go. Without thinking about it, I picked up the moose and did not put him down until he was done. At one point of thought of not doing his ears - just leaving the little felt flaps show, but when I finished the antler I still had a long thread on the needle and just did the ears, too. On the second photo you can see a bit of the rainbow belly that bothered me so much.

And here we are doing something pink again. This is my last seahorse and there are moments when I ask myself if I really want the last one to be pink? The pink on the belly looks very yellow. It is a transparent bead and I was hoping the actual pink would show through better. Maybe the very yellow feet/legs with change the color cast.

This may be one animal I fail to finish. I ran out of the brown beads even though I was so sure I had several tubes. Now they are all empty.

I've been substituting root beer for the brown, but in the light of day and the camera I am feeling this looks simply too awful. I do have enough to finish the other antler. There is something in me that really hates to give up on this. I can only see what happens when I take up the needle and space out.

The moose named chocolate! You can see why I am eager to get rid of those orange antlers! Normally I would do all the parts with a shared bead color, but for some squirrely reason, I just keep jumping from head to tail with this one. You can see the bit of green that will go up the legs. I simply could not bead that many brown beads without some color relief so I have him standing in a field. I do like how the gold knobby beads enhance the antler. I see from the photo there is a spot that needs one tiny bead yet.

Got this done just in time to be one year older today. So pleased with the way SHE turned out. Now I am wondering if I really need to do one in pink. This one radiates a golden pink that says something I would say about life in general. Too comfortable in my chair last night I started on Chocolate the Moose - mostly because I was thinking of eating some but was too lazy to go to the kitchen and knowing I probably 'shouldn't' anyhow.

Isn't amazing? Both of these were the same size but the golden girl is slightly taller. Glad I listened to my inner beader and made a brighter version. Now if I do a pink/purple one we could have a three-some. . .

Again I have to show you a dragon with detached legs. This time I was smart enough to wait to add the hips of chips until after the legs are sewn on. I cut the feet off a teenie beanie baby and noticed they are slightly smaller than the ones from Erin. Then I realized the difference in size between the teenie babies, the ones celebrating countries and the regular bears. Since I have a sheep done, a camel to do and if I win on Ebay tomorrow I will have a horse, I have been thinking of doing a beaded beanie baby nativity scene. That should really be unsaleable.
My next big decision is do I made another dragon in pinks and purples? Or give these a break and keep one Neon on hand and move on to another animal?

In the light of day I was able to dig to the bottom of the cedar chest and there I found 2 more Neon creatures. I quickly finished off the quadriplegic Erin and joyfully started on this. I love the gentle colors in the original and I would like to keep them a dragon body colors so I started using the clear 11s. You can see under the chin. . . However they, when together, cast a bluish hue that I am not sure I want. So I stopped working on that section and returned to adding the glass chips. I am hoping that in the light of the afternoon sun I can make a decision. This dragon may end up with gray blue chin hairs  - like an old dog with a gray muzzle.

Here is the dragon with his feet in place. I decided I liked the way the lighter green goes up from his belly and so did not want to cover it with 'hands.' Immediately I wanted to start another one, but a sifting through my cache did not come up with another Seahorse. Hopefully today I will have more energy and can really sort things out.
Somehow, in cleaning away the leftovers, I came across the Erin I had cut the arms and leg off of, and started beading on it. The eye-dias (ideas) flowed and I am coming up with a quadriplegic bear. I do not know why I am doing this; I feel compelled to finish it as an homage to vets who have given too much.

So this marks a new step in the alterations of the Teenie Beanie Babies. For the first time I cut up one for parts for another. I had several of Erin the Irish bear and he had a good green color. I cut off both legs and here you can see how I did the foot. I am now working on the left foot. I loved how the clear fringe beads made toenails! I have hands I could do but am thinking that may be too much happening right under the mouth and draw attention away from it. This animal seems very green! Would love to try it again with yellow or white. I had planned to make big bat-like wings but think I will stay with the fin of the seahorse as small wings that are closed. The eye shows up better here than I thought it would. Good news.

Okay! I've got the hang of managing the photos! Here is Neon the Seahorse being transformed into a dragon. I have wanted to do this for so long and only this week when a huge order of glass chips arrived did I have enough of one color to begin the transformation. I am thinking of cutting duck or chicken feet off of another animal to give him dragon feet. Anything I think of that I could make by beading is too thin - too flimsy. Anyhow I am thankful I could show you the animal at this stage - before all that pink is covered up.

At long last! I have worked for days to get my photos into Google's Picasas nightmare and up here. Old dog and new tricks syndrome is much in evidence. At this point, the laborious progress takes the fun out of blogging. End of bitching.
Here is Chops the Lamb who stayed with me during this silence. I think there was a movie, The Silence of the Lambs? Anyhow, using the pearlized glass beads worked pretty well on him. I used black 15s in the ears and face. Again beading allows him to stand up which is a big plus in my mind.

Finally gave up fighting with Google about my right to keep my photos on my computer and let them take them to their stupid Picasa. Here you can see the bottom of Seamore's underside.

And now days later I can show you the finished animal. I had to redo my photo shoot backdrop after the Christmas tree went down and only the other day did I figure out that the temporary set up worked better than the regular one. The sun comes in at such a steep angle it never reaches down to the normal set. So after a day of taping and untaping backdrops I have this place that gets a very gentle light even on sunny days. Ah the things I have learned this week!

For some unknown reason, the magic that brings you my photos is not working. I will save them and hope I can add them later. Just wanted to record that I am now working on the sea lion named Seamore. I started to do the sheep, Chops, but felt I needed a tannish natural color. Only after I started the water under the sea lion did I remember I had the perfect color in the pearls and that I had ordered even more. So we will stick with the sea lion until the new order comes in.

The year ended just as the duck was finished. Good timing! I wonder what that means for the new year. We have sunny skies so I also wonder what animal I will pick next to bead. Since I just sold the frog I suspect I will want to do another one. Somehow I have this zoo in my heart and when one animal leaves, there has to be another to fill the slot. I see from the photo it looks as if the duck is standing on his feet. Actually he sits with his legs extended. So there is more leg than you see here.