Not Celebratin'

Just a quick post to show you my most recent progress on the Celebrate ornament. I've done something to offend my back and it won't let me sit at the computer for long. Can't sit and bead for very long either for that matter. It's all about laying flat on my back at the moment. I am not a happy camper.


Here's a close up of the two millefiori beads I've embellished:

There are two rows of seed beads circling the yellow disc on the left in the picture above. The innermost row was done all in orange size 11's in sort of a cross between the techniques Robin calls a bump and a petal in her latest book. The outer row was also done in size 11 seed beads but this time I used deep red beads at the top of the bumps.

The millefiori disc on the right is surrounded by some chunky not-quite-cubes. It took me a long time to figure out what to do with them once I had them in place. Then after I'd figured out what I wanted to try I had to audition several colors and sizes of beads to see what would work best. I was surprised to discover that bigger beads worked better than tiny beads. I don't remember exactly what size those purple jobs are but they might be 9's or something on that order. Anyway, that was a very satisfying element to complete because it had me stumped for what seemed like a long time.

At this point I'm not sure whether I'm going to end up covering all of the background fabric on this ornament or not. In the beginning I thought I would; now I'm exercising patience and making every effort to just go with the flow. Last night I had an idea about how to embellish the next disc (whichever one that turns out to be!) and I'm anxious to get after it. I think I'm going to have to go lay down for a bit first though... :-P