darkemeralds. Q: "How do you do that?" A: "One bead at a time." (Reply)

Some signs that I was done with beadwork--that the artform was, for me, no more:

I took my old beadwork website down
No one in the beadwork world talks to me anymore
I recently came thisclose to giving away all my beads and tools
My beadwork software is so old that it won't install on this computer

So it came as a surprise to me, this urge to make something beady again. But I have a mission: a Serenity convention in November.

The design was easy. Stolen, in fact. Lifted right off of Can't Stop The Signal. Totally unoriginal. I'm not proud of myself.

Then I needed new software. Selecting it took a couple of days. Figuring it out took some more time.

The software hasn't been invented yet that works the way I do, so rendering an image into a workable pattern was more than several hours' intensive computer work. Man, was my ass tired of this chair!

Next problem: printing the pattern. I haven't owned a printer in several years, but this is one of those rare instances where I actually need something on paper. My sister saved the day on that one. Flash drives are great!

Then there's finding beads in that many shades of brown, gold, amber, copper, bronze, orange. See, color is one thing. Then there's reflectivity, translucence, opacity--all of which change the final effect--sometimes very unexpectedly. And all of which make ordering the right beads online kind of tricky.

Some signs that maybe beadwork lives again: