Dragonfly!
Don't get too excited... It's STILL snowing here. Since I'm really fed up with about everything right now, I made a dragonfly.
This was the more complicated pattern from that Korean bead page I found through pinterest. I deviated from the original, since Fairbanks is seriously devoid of bead suppliers that have a decent selection of Swarovski(or even cheep knockoff) crystals available I had to get creative. Pristine's can't get their massive crystal order in soon enough in my opinion. Or I need a damn vacation somewhere by beads. Lots of beads.
Here's the link to the blog with a picture of a dragonfly true to the pattern:
1.bp.blogspot.com/_zZ9sSDwBL_k/TA-pk9d0K1I/AAAAAAAAAUI/pAcf9zbbx4Q/s1600/beaded-dragonfly.jpg
Here's my dragonfly:
Notice, no fancy pants crystal body with loopies along the side. Yup, I had to learn peyote bead wrapping around a rather small bead, including decreasing technique. Not bad for a first time. It sits well and held up to the wing and abdomen attachment too. Yes, my OCD bothers me. The second bicone in the tail from the body size IS another shade of green. They didn't have any greens that came in the correct sizes that matched. Yay Fairbanks...
As for technical beading details, this is made entirely with beads and string. No wire. The wings are solid thanks to stitching tension. I used mostly delica size 11, various Swarovskis, and one focal bead in the middle. The wings are peyote stitch with increases and decreases. The body is peyote wrapped with delicas. I think it will make a very nice little sun catcher. All together I think it took around 8 hours or so? I had to redo a wing or two as I went along, and tinker with a way to make the body bead actually work. I also had some mental blocks about attaching the wings together. I don't read Korean. That may have helped solve my issues in the first place.
I'm going to make a blue one next. Just for fun. They shouldn't take quite so long now that I have an idea of what is going on maybe 5 hours?
Maybe I'll really go nutty and make a whole flock of the damn things. I'll bead a freekin' sunshine too.
THEN IT WILL BE SUMMER IN MY APARTMENT. I live under a suspended ceiling. I can hang tons of stuff quite easily.
I seriously need a vacation. Work just pissed me off today. They are OK with us constantly replacing $400+ LED fixtures forever. No, we can't actually address the issue, we just keep throwing money at it while they bitch at us for spending.
The problem: They are installed up into a ceiling. The interstitial (area between floors and walls) in that building is very, VERY hot. It's the nature of the old building and obnoxious heating system in spite of new pipe insulation and all that. A KNOWN issue. Think the area is probably over 90*. Well, LED fixtures are very, VERY hot. The boards and the drivers (converts the power from AC to DC so it can power the boards), generate a TON of heat. Yes, the LEDs themselves are cool running, the components are not. Don't believe me? Check out some LED light you have on hand. Bulbs are cool, the rest of the thing is HOT.
Anyway, so these fixtures have HUGE aluminum heat sinks on the back part that hides up in the ceiling by all of the wiring and stuff. Normally things would be fine, as the heat would be able to dissipate as they are designed. When the constant air temperature around there is all ready super hot, obviously these things WILL NOT do their job. Duh. Do we really need a lesson in thermodynamics?! When heat can't dissipate, it ends up causing issues. Electronic parts that need to be cooler will shit the bed. Period. THAT IS JUST WHAT HAPPENS. I can't magically snap my fingers and change the laws of thermodynamics.
Can we just replace these miserable LED fixtures with a different type? NOPE! HAHAHAHAHA! Because only LEDs are green, environmentally friendly, and will eventually save the university money.
They would rather we just keep replacing parts. Taking billable hours to install expensive parts that WILL FAIL. Awesome isn't it. Plus the old fixture (we can't just get boards to replace the bad ones, so essentially the entire fixture (other than the mounting part and driver) gets totally replaced. HOW IS THAT GREEN?! WE JUNK THE OLD BOARD/OTHER STUFF. IS THAT GREEN?! NO!
See? This sort of environmentalism and general mentality makes me insane.
It's like the time someone argued with me when I said flashlight LED retrofit kits had to go back. They were labeled Green. "Oh that means they are good for the Earth!" Umm, no. Green was written where WHITE usually goes, and it was in green ink. Think ROY G BIV. GREEN LIKE FUCKING GRASS. Durh. Yes. I was right. No one wanted a green lit flashlight to work by either.
I just don't understand this shit. And I hate changing those lights. They are hard to reach, the stupid bathroom stall partitions are in the way, and I just hate the set up. I should get paid more.
This was the more complicated pattern from that Korean bead page I found through pinterest. I deviated from the original, since Fairbanks is seriously devoid of bead suppliers that have a decent selection of Swarovski(or even cheep knockoff) crystals available I had to get creative. Pristine's can't get their massive crystal order in soon enough in my opinion. Or I need a damn vacation somewhere by beads. Lots of beads.
Here's the link to the blog with a picture of a dragonfly true to the pattern:
1.bp.blogspot.com/_zZ9sSDwBL_k/TA-pk9d0K1I/AAAAAAAAAUI/pAcf9zbbx4Q/s1600/beaded-dragonfly.jpg
Here's my dragonfly:
Notice, no fancy pants crystal body with loopies along the side. Yup, I had to learn peyote bead wrapping around a rather small bead, including decreasing technique. Not bad for a first time. It sits well and held up to the wing and abdomen attachment too. Yes, my OCD bothers me. The second bicone in the tail from the body size IS another shade of green. They didn't have any greens that came in the correct sizes that matched. Yay Fairbanks...
As for technical beading details, this is made entirely with beads and string. No wire. The wings are solid thanks to stitching tension. I used mostly delica size 11, various Swarovskis, and one focal bead in the middle. The wings are peyote stitch with increases and decreases. The body is peyote wrapped with delicas. I think it will make a very nice little sun catcher. All together I think it took around 8 hours or so? I had to redo a wing or two as I went along, and tinker with a way to make the body bead actually work. I also had some mental blocks about attaching the wings together. I don't read Korean. That may have helped solve my issues in the first place.
I'm going to make a blue one next. Just for fun. They shouldn't take quite so long now that I have an idea of what is going on maybe 5 hours?
Maybe I'll really go nutty and make a whole flock of the damn things. I'll bead a freekin' sunshine too.
THEN IT WILL BE SUMMER IN MY APARTMENT. I live under a suspended ceiling. I can hang tons of stuff quite easily.
I seriously need a vacation. Work just pissed me off today. They are OK with us constantly replacing $400+ LED fixtures forever. No, we can't actually address the issue, we just keep throwing money at it while they bitch at us for spending.
The problem: They are installed up into a ceiling. The interstitial (area between floors and walls) in that building is very, VERY hot. It's the nature of the old building and obnoxious heating system in spite of new pipe insulation and all that. A KNOWN issue. Think the area is probably over 90*. Well, LED fixtures are very, VERY hot. The boards and the drivers (converts the power from AC to DC so it can power the boards), generate a TON of heat. Yes, the LEDs themselves are cool running, the components are not. Don't believe me? Check out some LED light you have on hand. Bulbs are cool, the rest of the thing is HOT.
Anyway, so these fixtures have HUGE aluminum heat sinks on the back part that hides up in the ceiling by all of the wiring and stuff. Normally things would be fine, as the heat would be able to dissipate as they are designed. When the constant air temperature around there is all ready super hot, obviously these things WILL NOT do their job. Duh. Do we really need a lesson in thermodynamics?! When heat can't dissipate, it ends up causing issues. Electronic parts that need to be cooler will shit the bed. Period. THAT IS JUST WHAT HAPPENS. I can't magically snap my fingers and change the laws of thermodynamics.
Can we just replace these miserable LED fixtures with a different type? NOPE! HAHAHAHAHA! Because only LEDs are green, environmentally friendly, and will eventually save the university money.
They would rather we just keep replacing parts. Taking billable hours to install expensive parts that WILL FAIL. Awesome isn't it. Plus the old fixture (we can't just get boards to replace the bad ones, so essentially the entire fixture (other than the mounting part and driver) gets totally replaced. HOW IS THAT GREEN?! WE JUNK THE OLD BOARD/OTHER STUFF. IS THAT GREEN?! NO!
See? This sort of environmentalism and general mentality makes me insane.
It's like the time someone argued with me when I said flashlight LED retrofit kits had to go back. They were labeled Green. "Oh that means they are good for the Earth!" Umm, no. Green was written where WHITE usually goes, and it was in green ink. Think ROY G BIV. GREEN LIKE FUCKING GRASS. Durh. Yes. I was right. No one wanted a green lit flashlight to work by either.
I just don't understand this shit. And I hate changing those lights. They are hard to reach, the stupid bathroom stall partitions are in the way, and I just hate the set up. I should get paid more.