I…am terribly tired. I’m not sure it’s at all related to the fact that I have slept so much within the last two days. I ended up dropping my Computer Science course. There was essentially no way I could complete it, and even though I am more focused on learning than grades, at this point; my Professor was not. I should note to myself that I still have access to the text, so I actually can do the reading I wanted to do.
Since that time…there have been some physical things to take care of (which were the things I haven’t mentioned yet which led me to miss a week of class), and a newly introduced lack of structure. My Bullet Journal records and goals have all been shot since the middle of last month, when I finally filled out the June layout. I still haven’t filled out the July one, and it’s almost the 15th again.
It is a lot of work, to do the layouts. It’s a lot of work for something custom, though, which…should be familiar to me. Where else am I going to find a sleep journal that spans all 24 hours? 😛 Nor have I kept on top of my spreadsheets…which I’m going to want or need to do, at some point.
My major issue with this right now is the fact that I do need to separate out all of my seed bead records into their own workbook, along with making some kind of unique identifier for each specific type of seed bead I have. This is going to require some conversion, as I’ve found that my earlier entries did not accurately capture the correct information needed for my purposes. I’ve not had to do conversion on such a large scale, before…but I have help.
Right now, I’m unsure if I’m falling into a depression. I do know that it feels that way — I was up last night upset at all the death in the world right now, and the fact that I know we’re in the middle of a mass extinction, on top of COVID and Bird Flu and people going homicidal and whatever else. Right now, I’m not sure if I should even plan to make it to old age, as it may be energy wasted.
Anyhow…I did recently receive the beads I mentioned last post. Size 11/0 instead of 8/0, in the same colors as before (see left or just above, if on mobile). Yes, this is one image.
Although it’s a bit difficult to concentrate on anything right now, I was at least able to work this little sample on the bottom row…
Double Spiral Rope stitch uses up a lot of thread! It also becomes inflexible if there are too many beads going around the outside of the core, as happened when I tried to place six 11/0 beads per stitch (with a four-bead 8/0 core). The top sample in the above photo also was way too dense, using four 8/0 beads around a four-bead 8/0 core…the space just filled up before I could open up more length with my stitching.
As I initially learned it, Double Spiral Rope normally adds two loops per one core bead added, not one loop per one core bead added, as in regular Spiral Rope. This produces added density (not to mention, weight) which…can be difficult to deal with. There seem to be a few ways to get around this…I went with shortening the length of the stitch, which worked out well. Not perfectly, but well.
I’ve found the need to alter the angle at which I hold the needle to pierce into the core beads, and then lever it around — in order to get the tip of the needle safely into that space (and not into my own fingers). So far as I can tell, this seems to be a specific difficulty of Double Spiral Rope altering the required angle of attack — single Spiral Rope does not present this problem for me.
Using four 11/0 beads per stitch with a core base unit of three 8/0s is much easier, as it allows for more space between the outer beads — and that allows for greater flexibility in the chain.
The silverlined beads and shiny black core beads in the above are Preciosas, while the other opaque beads are Miyuki. In the all-8/0 sample, I used a set of matte black beads for the 8/0s (just visible at the ends of the sample). I don’t know who made them; but this batch, at least, has a nice form.
I just went with the glossy black beads (Preciosa) this time because 1) I have more of them (hanks are much larger in volume than tubes, especially as the sizes of the beads increase), and 2) I wanted to see how it would turn out. Essentially, they’re barely visible, except on the ends of the chain, or if the chain is parted for some reason (like trying to evenly space the helixes around the outside of the core).
The latter is the next problem I’ll have to work out, it seems…
SpectralBeads 