Connections

My brain works in mysterious ways. I have several friends who frequently accuse me of changing topics midconversation. But in my mind, it's not a change of topic. See, my brain likes to connect things. And not always in the same what that others connect them. So we may be talking about trains, but my brain sees the industrial revolution --> Victoriana --> steampunk --> cool modded keyboards --> the most recent episode of Warehouse 13. And I will suddenly start talking about that. It all connected in my head.

This week, I decided I wanted to make one of the cool wrap bracelets I had seen that wraps around the wrist a bunch of times. The tutorials all say to use a clip board to steady the work. Yeah, that didn't work for me. And holding it in my hands worked, but because I am making a longer one, which means long thread, I kept getting knots. Then I suddenly looked down at it and thought, "This is just 2 warp looming". So I went and grabbed my bead loom, did some wrapping and presto chango!



The piece is held, I can work in a motion I already know, and it all makes perfect sense in my head! Woo! It also allows for bathroom breaks without everything falling apart. Bonus.

Quote: Coincidences are a true paradox... on the one hand they seem to be the source of our greatest irrationalities--seeing causal connections when science tells us they aren't there. On the other hand, some of our greatest feats of scientific discovery depend on coincidences.
Josh Tenenbaum, quoted in "The Power of Coincidence," Psychology Today, July 2004


(for the record, the quotes always make sense in my head as well...)

Lusciously Random

I decided last night that I wanted to make a ring using a strawberry sead bead mix. The mix has some lovely colors ranging from a dark burgandy to a light pink. When thinking about how I wanted the ring to look, I really liked the look of all the beads just piled together.
The randomness of the mix appealed to me. So, the question then becomes: how to create a random design? First, what is random? From Dictionary.com random –adjective 1. proceeding, made, or occurring without definite aim, reason, or pattern: the random selection of numbers. 2. Statistics . of or characterizing a process of selection in which each item of a set has an equal probability of being chosen. 3. Building Trades . a. (of building materials) lacking uniformity of dimensions: random shingles. b. (of ashlar) laid without continuous courses. c. constructed or applied without regularity: random bond. Second, how to acheive random on purpose? My plan was simple. Take my pile of mixed beads, poke my needle in, whatever bead stuck was the bead I would use. The problem came when five times in a row I stuck my needle in and came out with the same light pink bead. Something in my mind insisted that in a random pattern you wouldn't have the same bead next to itself five times. See, my mind wants random to be like the shuffle feature on my mp3 player, where the same song is never played twice in a row. Turns out, that's not really random. After I thought about the nature of random and what I really wanted of this ring, I decided to treat the process the same as I treat my Kareoke Revolution song selections... random with right of refusal. This means I poked my needle in but if I thought I had too much of that color bunched together, I tried again... and sometimes again.
	Overall, though, I think I am happy with how the ring turned out. Very vibrant and fun, and while not 100% random, asthetically pleasing. I shall have to purchase more seedbead mixes. They are a good way to experiment with different color combinations. And they are just fun!