The bracelets I entered in Fire Mountain's beading contest a couple years ago have been used in their new Big catalog! For those of you who use Fire Mountain, and have gotten your new catalog, they're on page 551, in the 6/0 seed bead section.
Fire Mountain has had the bracelet pictures in their Design Gallery, along with a few thousand other people's, for a while now, and they have forwarded one request for a pattern. Then a few weeks ago, a local woman called me on the phone to ask for a pattern. I didn't think they'd listed my city in the Design Gallery, so I asked where she'd seen the bracelets. When she told me she'd seen BOTH of my bracelets in the newest "big" catalog, I was stunned, but happy.
When I finally received my own copy of the catalog, it took some searching to find the pictures because they were used on the 6/0 seed bead page, and I don't use that size. I was stunned, thrilled, tickled pink (and every other cliche synonym for "happy"). They'd blown up one of the bracelets to about 1/4 page, with the other one life size. Although they'd mangled my e-mail address, Yahoo had it available, so I registered it even though the random letters of the typo make no sense. I've gotten a few more requests for a pattern at the new e-mail address.
Of course I was completely unprepared for this, and I'm laughing at myself, too. I sell bracelets locally, so I wasn't thinking in terms of people wanting the pattern when I entered the contest. I should have known, since the catalog goes to beaders. Fire Mountain forwarded a request for a pattern about a month ago, so I've been thinking about how to explain the technique, but haven't been satisfied by either my written instructions or my diagrams. Now I've got people asking for a "pattern" and willing to pay for it. I'm also thinking about selling kits. It's exciting, but a bit overwhelming, too.
Anyone have any good ideas for how I can diagram my bracelet pattern? I have the basic Paint program that comes with Windows Vista, or at least I think I do. Has anyone here sold kits? Any insights or advice is greatly appreciated.
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Comments: 14
artisangoods.gather.com
It's a moderated group, but after joining, try posting your article to that group. From what I've read, it's made for discussion by that group.
(Sorry if I've repeated myself; I'm very sleepy.)
I dunno who "they" are, but I'm not offering anything for sale at any price anywhere, I'm asking how to diagram my beadwork. But I guess you were telling me to do that over at Artisangoods.gather.com.
At this point, I'm even closer to quitting gather, if I have to be worried about telling people good news.
Mo, you forgot I had staff status on a forum on Another Network, didn't cha? If there's one thing ingrained into the fibers of my being, it is that one does NOT advertise products, services, etc on fora.
Stream of conciousness sidebar:(fora? forae? I can never remember whether Latin nouns have gender and which words are what. Not that I passed any of my Latin or Spanish classes, which as it turns out, is also why I wasn't good at algebra. Never knew they were connected but they're both abstract thinking thingies. Prolly shoulda just used the Americanized version and pluralized it as forums, huh?)
Anyway, I don't violate anyone's Terms of Service (they're all pretty much the same) even when I'm excited. Sure wish I could remember what a TOS module is, tho.
I'm continuing to make progress on the directions and diagrams, kinda. The Roomie has more artistic/graphics ability than I do, so is going to help with the diagrams. I'm generally pretty good with the words part, except I use too many of them.
Off to do all the things I didn't do yesterday, 'cause I forgot to get up until 4 pm. Time to start switching back to my winter schedule. It makes more sense to be noctural here in the desert during the summer, like all the successful desert critters.
Cindy
Angela, I'm still working on the instructions, but I move verrrry slowly and have had a busy few weeks (cats spayed/neutered, grocery gathering, etc). Well, and then there's the ADD thing. I sat down at the computer tonight to update a med list for a Dr. appt on Tuesday. Decided I needed to go through e-mail. Sheez!
Auntie Smedley, Thanks! The base is Right Angle Weave with 4mm Czech firepolished beads, then two passes of embellishment, one with 11/0 seeds and the last with 15/0s.
Try this http://www.easybeadpatterns.com/ it's one of our customer's husband that has designed and developed this program. Get on his mailing list because he puts out frequent updates. Hope this helps you. And if you every need beads come and visit us at http://www.iBead.com and by the way we are having our Octobeadfest right now so we have some pretty wild sales going on. Any questions please feel free to email me at sales@ibead.com - Todd Aitken
Thanks for that tip! I'll check both easybeadpatterns and ibead out when I get a chance.
Thanks to everyone for the congrats and stuff.