My dear friend and editor Sheryl asked me to write an article about my beaded Cthulhu project... and then put it on the front page of Collector Times!
In other news, I'm not having any luck getting my old e-mails to load into my new in-box. Hopefully Chris will get it working later, there were a few things I needed in there and I really don't want to have to set the old computer back up.
Yes, at long last, Cthulhu is complete! I stitched the last beads on early this afternoon, clipped all the stray threads, and basked in the afterglow of the largest, most involved project I've ever done. Just look at that malevolent glare!
All those beads! He's surprisingly heavy now -- I'd estimate he has at least 50 grams of seed beads stitched down to his body.
His back is only lightly embellished, and good thing, too. The closer I got to his head, the harder it was to manipulate the needle, and I managed to snap another one! His dorsal ridge is accented with the same bugle beads that outline the veins of his wings.
I'm really proud of myself for completing this. Yes, I had to scale back from my original plan, and yes, there are some goofs, and yes, I may go back someday and add more beads, but... I beaded Cthulhu! And completed him on time! And only lost 1d100 sanity points in the process.
Cthulhu is so very close to done... Just his right leg and his back left to do! I might even finish him over the weekend.
For his leg, I did concentric rings of beads around a Czech pressed glass bead with a spiral pattern. I used those same pressed glass spirals to accent the wing tips, then outlined the veins of the wings with bugle beads. I also put bugle beads on his toes, so they weren't beadless.
It's a nice feeling to have my goal in sight at long last!
The last time that I posted about Cthulhu, I had just started on his torso... Well, the torso is done and now I'm working on a leg! I need to buckle down and work hard this week if I'm going to finish him and all of the other projects that I want to do before I leave on the 30th! I may very well be stitching beads onto Cthulhu on the flight to Tahoe!
I broke two more needles on Saturday night, as I attempted to finish the torso and accidentally found myself stitching along a seam. That brings the total needle death count to three.
Today was supposed to be a Cthulhu update, but I didn't get a chance to photograph him. It was a busy day of beading his belly (so close to done!), going to the gym (fun but intense workout), stringing crystals while watching Monk, and then cleaning house. Actually, I'm still supposed to be cleaning house.
I seem to get more blog action during the week, so I'll probably go ahead and save the next bit of tentacled goodness for Monday. That will give me time tomorrow to finish his belly (assuming I don't do so during tonight's game) and start on a leg.
I've been pushing Cthulhu's tentacles out of the way so that I can work on his belly. I decided to make things more interesting by doing a free-form branchy design, like some sort of bizarre kelp washed up on the shore of Ryleh. I'll probably fill it in with more of the opaque green that's become the main color on his body, assuming I can get my hands on a tube or two at the Best Bead Show this weekend.
While I was editing this photo, I realized that I haven't yet taken a shot that shows his completed arms (they're sort of hidden in tentacle-shadows here), so I'll make sure to include them in the next Cthulhu update.
Finally! At long last, I've finished Cthulhu's head (except for that pesky blank spot on the face that I need to break down and fill in) and moved on to his arm! This shot allows you to see the stripes that I did for the side of the head -- they wrap around the back and to the other side -- and the spiraling beadwork around his right arm. All of the arm work has been done today, and I'm pretty sure I can finish the arm before Chris finishes work today.
After that, I need to decide what to do with the hand. I'm thinking I might just accent it with beads. Given the fact that I only have a month left, I'm not sure if I have time to fiddle around with a good way to completely cover the hands. Not since I still have the other arm, both legs, the entire torso and the wings to work with.
Cthulhu hitched a ride in my purse today, accompanying me on a trip to Long Beach to meet a friend. It's hard to tell in this pictue, but I've finished the top of his head, finally. I didn't get a chance to work on him during my flight out, due to the tight space in the airplane, but I've stolen a few minutes here and there to work on him.
However, Cthulhu didn't get to come bead shopping with me today, because I didn't trust him not to escape my purse and wreak untold havoc on the sanity of the bead store employees.
We went to three stores today. Wherefore Art Thou, a small shop where I found nothing to buy, my usual standby of Ace Handicraft, where I bought a bunch of key pendants, some vintage beads, and a couple of neat focals, and Beads and Stitches, where I found some matte pearl Czech glass and other neat things.
Tomorrow we're off to NYC for shopping, site-seeing and Wicked!
After last night's wild party to celebrate HP Lovecraft's 119th birthday, I found Cthulhu passed out on the dining room table. This gave me a good chance to take a photo of the work I've been doing on the top of his head. When he woke up, he was feeling a little light-headed, so I gave him a hand up, and snapped a shot of the beads on the back of his head. Even though I'd turned the flash off, he was still irritated and threatened to eat my soul, but we both know he didn't really mean it.
After reaching the end of the thread I was using to work on the top of Cthulhu's head, I decided I should really put some more work into his face, even though it's difficult and annoying. I actually made a bit of progress before reaching the end of that thread as well, and can probably do the rest of the face in one go, if I'm feeling particularly patient. I need to push onward, as there are only 5 weeks left until the retreat, and a whole lot of Cthulhu left in need of beads.
By the way, if you are a fan of Cthulhu, even when he's not covered in beads, you should probably check out the Indie Squid Kid blog, where they're having Cthulhu week!
Ok, this is a really lousy picture. I forgot to take Cthulhu outside for photographing before it got dark, so I had to take the picture at my desk instead. It's dark because I'm between Cthulhu and the light. I'll try to take a better picture in a couple of days, when I'll have more progress to show.
I got very frustrated with how hard it was to fill in the little bits of the face, so I've moved on to working on the rest of the head. I'm mainly using some matte opaque pea green size 11 seed beads that seemed rather fitting. I also decided that the four sections of the crown of his head should have ridges. Size 8 seed beads seemed to be just right for that, and I fortunately already had some that matched the lime green 11s I was using on his face. Now I'm outlining the ridges, and filling in the rest of the head.
Working on the head has proven to be a lot easier than the face, which makes me confident that the main body and limbs shouldn't be too challenging, either. This means completing the project should only be an issue of time and appropriate beads (both of which I should have enough of), and not an issue of skill/feasibility.
Why is Cthulhu giving us the evil eye? Is it because he objects to being called cute? Perhaps he's offended by the fact that he's being covered in beads? Maybe he's annoyed that I stuck my needle into his hand. Most likely, he just can't help it.
The eyes probably are the most evil part about this project. If you're not familiar with this style of eye, it's a hemisphere with a shank in the back, held in place by a sort of pronged washer sort of deal. This means that the cloth around the eye had metal or plastic under it instead of plush, which makes it very difficult to anchor the needle to stitch the beads down.
Another problem I encountered while working on Cthulhu is that the thread I was using was too fine and kept breaking, so I had to force a thicker thread through the tiny eye of the needle I'm using. But at least I haven't broken any more needles -- yet.
Cthulhu's face is mostly covered in lime green colorlined size 11 seed beads leftover from a past BFAC kit. I considered using the pink-lined lime beads leftover from this year's BFAC kit, but two things stopped me: I hate them and I hate them. Ok, maybe that's just one thing.
I'm filling the rest of the face in with the size 15 beads from the first step, as they're smaller and easier to use in the tight spaces leftover in his face. Also, I got bored of using the same color. I think there will be more variety on the rest of his head and body.
Here he is, in all his plush glory, Cthulhu! And he's sporting beads upon his brow.
Why is Cthulhu being adorned with beads? Because he's (hopefully) going to be my entry in the Ugly Beaded Project contest at the Tahoe Mountain Bead Retreat in October.
When I first heard about the contest, I started thinking. While it's perfectly acceptable to submit something you already have lying around the house, I've only completed one truly ugly necklace (being a perfectionist, I'm quick to stop making something ugly, rather than trying to salvage it), and I have no idea where it was. Besides, it was ugly in a rather unspectacular way.
I didn't want to miss out on the competition, but I also didn't want to make an ugly necklace on purpose -- what a waste of time and materials, since I'd never wear it! But then I thought back to a project I've wanted to do for years -- a fully-beaded plush Cthulhu. Though the plushie itself is pretty cute, Cthulhu is a pretty ugly dude, and while he probably won't be ugly enough to win any sort of prize, he'll be something I'll be happy to have around my house long after the Retreat is over.
So far I've just stitched some matte metallic iris size 15s along his brow line. I tried to continue that down to the eye, but after breaking one needle and bending another, I decided that seam was too tough to sew beads into. Now I'm trying to decide how I want to bead the rest of the head, and what beads I want to use. Definitely lots of greens!
My dear friend and editor Sheryl asked me to write an article about my beaded Cthulhu project... and then put it on the front page of Collector Times!
Yes, at long last, Cthulhu is complete! I stitched the last beads on early this afternoon, clipped all the stray threads, and basked in the afterglow of the largest, most involved project I've ever done. Just look at that malevolent glare!
All those beads! He's surprisingly heavy now -- I'd estimate he has at least 50 grams of seed beads stitched down to his body.
His back is only lightly embellished, and good thing, too. The closer I got to his head, the harder it was to manipulate the needle, and I managed to snap another one! His dorsal ridge is accented with the same bugle beads that outline the veins of his wings.
Cthulhu is so very close to done... Just his right leg and his back left to do! I might even finish him over the weekend.
The last time that I posted about Cthulhu, I had just started on his torso... Well, the torso is done and now I'm working on a leg! I need to buckle down and work hard this week if I'm going to finish him and all of the other projects that I want to do before I leave on the 30th! I may very well be stitching beads onto Cthulhu on the flight to Tahoe!
I've been pushing Cthulhu's tentacles out of the way so that I can work on his belly. I decided to make things more interesting by doing a free-form branchy design, like some sort of bizarre kelp washed up on the shore of Ryleh. I'll probably fill it in with more of the opaque green that's become the main color on his body, assuming I can get my hands on a tube or two at the Best Bead Show this weekend.
Finally! At long last, I've finished Cthulhu's head (except for that pesky blank spot on the face that I need to break down and fill in) and moved on to his arm! This shot allows you to see the stripes that I did for the side of the head -- they wrap around the back and to the other side -- and the spiraling beadwork around his right arm. All of the arm work has been done today, and I'm pretty sure I can finish the arm before Chris finishes work today.
Cthulhu hitched a ride in my purse today, accompanying me on a trip to Long Beach to meet a friend. It's hard to tell in this pictue, but I've finished the top of his head, finally. I didn't get a chance to work on him during my flight out, due to the tight space in the airplane, but I've stolen a few minutes here and there to work on him.
After last night's wild party to celebrate HP Lovecraft's 119th birthday, I found Cthulhu passed out on the dining room table. This gave me a good chance to take a photo of the work I've been doing on the top of his head. When he woke up, he was feeling a little light-headed, so I gave him a hand up, and snapped a shot of the beads on the back of his head. Even though I'd turned the flash off, he was still irritated and threatened to eat my soul, but we both know he didn't really mean it.
After reaching the end of the thread I was using to work on the top of Cthulhu's head, I decided I should really put some more work into his face, even though it's difficult and annoying. I actually made a bit of progress before reaching the end of that thread as well, and can probably do the rest of the face in one go, if I'm feeling particularly patient. I need to push onward, as there are only 5 weeks left until the retreat, and a whole lot of Cthulhu left in need of beads.
Ok, this is a really lousy picture. I forgot to take Cthulhu outside for photographing before it got dark, so I had to take the picture at my desk instead. It's dark because I'm between Cthulhu and the light. I'll try to take a better picture in a couple of days, when I'll have more progress to show.
Why is Cthulhu giving us the evil eye? Is it because he objects to being called cute? Perhaps he's offended by the fact that he's being covered in beads? Maybe he's annoyed that I stuck my needle into his hand. Most likely, he just can't help it.
Here he is, in all his plush glory, Cthulhu! And he's sporting beads upon his brow.