Thursday, January 13, 2011

BeadCreator Software

Delica beads with over 1,000 colors in the popular size 11/0 beads are the beader's palette.  Ironically, my first project, where I discovered Delicas, I was making a black and white version of Steam Boat Willie.


I learned a lot with this project.  First I started with regular craft beads, (I was a novice and did not know any better).  This project took much longer because I actually tried to use the craft beads, and found them to be too misshapen to fit together to make a tight weave.  This picture is actually six panels that were done each individually on an Indian Loom.  Then when they were all finished, I sewed each panel together.  The time consuming part was redoing the individual panels over and over!  I finally gave up on the craft beads and went to my local bead store and paid four times as much for "better" beads.  But I found these too were misshapen!  

So very frustrated, I looked on the internet and found Delicas!  Much to my amazement they were actually uniform in size and worked beautifully for my project.  Back went the expensive bead store beads and I've never looked back!  LOL

For my first few projects I modified cross stitch patterns.   But I soon wanted to put more of a personal touch into my bead artwork.  I researched and decided to try BeadCreator software.

My first BeadCreator project was a birthday gift for my father.  He is an avid fisherman - and has everything fishing he could ever need - so I decided to do a picture of a Large Mouth Bass.  I found some free clip art and used that to create a pattern with BeadCreator.

Here is the print I used to create the pattern - I placed it on the bottom of my loom to give reference as I worked on the project.


Here is the finished picture.


My next project was a Valentine's Day gift for my hubbie.  He loves the mountains, Grandfather Mountain in particular.      He could stand on top of that mountain and take photos for hours.  I used one of his photos to create a pattern using BeadCreator.




Here is the finished artwork.



Since I have been so pleased with the software, I decided to carry it in my online store.  Several customers have purchased the software and are sharing their experiences with me.  Laurie is one.  She recently turned a photo of a friend's dog into a beaded picture for a Christmas gift.  Here you can see the photo she used with the pattern.


Isn't that just the cutest picture? 



Here is a close up of the artwork so you can see the detail in the piece.  It is amazing and I'm sure her friend was thrilled to have such a thoughtful and personalized gift!

It is very satisfying to be able to fully customize a bead pattern for our own needs, I know from personal experience!  If you are looking for a good software program, I recommend this one.

More looming projects to come.....  (yes I could not resist!)


Happy Beading!

Betsy

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