A New-to-me Option for Bead Illustration Software

Graphic - vector illustration and design by Indeeo, Inc.

Every few months I receive an email from someone asking what software I use to create my bead diagrams and illustrations.  To date, I've used Adobe Illustrator, but that may soon change as I continue to explore a new iOS ap called Graphic.

I love Adobe Illustrator. It's been the gold standard for vector-based graphic design and illustration for years, for good reasons.  But it also costs a pretty penny.  I'm lucky enough to own an old copy of Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6), purchased right before they moved to a subscription model.  These days, the single-app license for Illustrator is $19.99/month if you don't happen to be a student or teacher.  The price makes it really hard for me to recommend it to other indie designers.  I also worry about what I'll do when my current version of CS6 gets too old and glitchy to work with the latest operating systems on my computer.  Sooner or later, it's bound to happen.

This means I'm always on the look out for a solid, low-cost alternative.  Last night, I think I may have found one, designed for the iPhone or iPad.  Searching for 'vector-based illustration software', I came across a review for Autodesk Graphic, by Indeeo, Inc for iOS.  Comparing the feature set from the reviews to the latest feature set in the product description in the App store, I decided it was worth the $8.99 pricetag to give it a test drive.  Doing research for this blog post this morning, I found that different links have different pricing, from $2.99 - $29.99.  One thing to note - the link for $2.99 seems to be for an earlier version of the program (version 1.01, as opposed to 3.1) - so I wouldn't recommend it.

Why do I like Graphic, besides the pricetag?

Bead Sample page: trying out the shape tools and gradient fills

It's easy to use
The interface is very intuitive for anyone who's familiar with Illustrator or other drawing software.  They also have a really nice series of tutorial pages to quickly bring you up to speed on the tools and workspace.

It's quick
I worked up this little beading sample page within about 20 minutes of downloading the program, that includes reading through the tutorial pages.

It has the tools I need
I have very specific things I want to accomplish.  Can I make pretty looking 'beads' quickly?  Can I easily add a radiant fill, and change line and fill colors?  How about adding in the thread paths?  Does it have layers for additional control?  Early experimentation indicates that Graphic meets all of these needs, hands down.

It's vector-based 
This last one may need a little more explanation.  In a nutshell, the question is whether lines are rendered as a series of little dots that all happen to connect, or as a continuous line described by a mathematical algorithm.  The later creates smooth, beautiful curves no matter how much you scale the original image.  Here's an example to show the difference:

Zooming in on a .JPG and a .SVG file

For this, I exported my Bead Sample page in two separate formats, first as a .JPEG, then as a .SVG (which is a vector-based file format).  I opened the .JPEG in Photoshop, then zoomed in to 500% on one of the beads.  This is the left-hand sample, and you can already see the pixellation along the outer edges of the shape.  I then opened the .SVG file in Illustrator, and zoomed in 800% on the same bead.  This is the right-hand sample; see how nice and smooth the edge looks?  The very slight pixellation you may notice is because I combined the two samples and text in Photoshop, then reduced the size and saved them as a .jpg so that they'd download more quickly over the Internet.  

That's the key with bead illustrations - drawn them in a vector-based program, then export them in the size and format you need for your particular purpose.  While, of course maintaining your original, vector-based files as your originals.

It Exports into Multiple Formats
I touched on this above, but it's worth pointing out again.  Besides JPEG and SVG, you can also export into PDF, PSD and PNG, as well as a Graphic source file (useful if you're moving between devices).  

It supports the iPad Pro and iPencil
All the experimenting I did last night was curled up on my couch.  Drawing with the iPencil on my iPad, is a night-and-day experience compared to working with a mouse.  But even if you don't have an iPencil, I had a lot of success with simple touch gestures, and still found it much easier than working with a mouse.  

Could be used to Layout Single-Page Tutorials
Graphic, like Illustrator, is designed for single-page designs, not multi-page books.  However, within those limitations, it offers a lot of control for page layouts combining illustrations and text.  In fact, their beautifully-done Intro Guides were all created using the program.  

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So, will Graphic replace Illustrator in my workflow?  I'll have to see as I do more experimentation.  At this point, I'm guessing that I'm going to use it to augment how I use Illustrator.  At the very least, it's fun to use and will allow me to work in situations where dragging along a laptop simply practical.  If you decide to check out Graphic for yourself, I'd love to hear what you think!  

In the meantime, I'm still looking for a viable, lower-cost alternative to Adobe's InDesign for page layout and design. 

Visiting the Portland Bead Society

I love the views from the train between Seattle & Portland

Last month, a friend emailed to ask if I'd be interested in doing a talk for the Portland Bead Society.  Her email was a total surprise, as I've been pretty quiet in the beading world of late.   It seems she still remembered a talk I'd given for our local group, the ages ago.   Feeling like a bit of a fraud, I found myself saying I would, then went searching for my old slide deck.  There's nothing like a quick kick from the universe to get one going again!

view from the train platform, arriving in Portland

Which is how I found myself on the Cascades train Tuesday morning bright and early, headed for Portland.  Before the meeting, I had the chance to spend the day with Janis VanWyhe, the current president of PBS.  Janis met me at the station and whisked me away to grab some lunch.

Going for a quintessentially Portland experience, we stopped at a food-truck court.  It was a full city block, ringed on all four sides by food-trucks, literally.  Food truck after food truck, lined up along the sidewalk in the place of buildings.  I discovered that there are so many food-trucks in Portland, there's a website devoted to tracking them, and they even gives tours.  We skipped the tour, grabbed our food and headed for a nearby park for lunch.

Better yet, the park was only a block away from Powells Books, where I can easily get lost for hours (maybe days) in bibliophile heaven, wandering from room to room.   It's been year's since I had a chance to visit this amazing bookstore, which also fills an entire city block.  Our browsing was limited by our 90 minute metered parking, which was likely a good thing as anything I purchased had to fit into my already full suitcase for the return trip.

Crystal Springs Rhodendron Garden (photo from their website)

Since the weather was about as perfect as could possibly be, we decided to head for the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden next.  In all of my previous visits to Portland, I'd never ventured much beyond the core, so this was a real treat.  I found it interesting how wooded the city seems, even driving along some of its main corridors outside of the city.

The garden itself is so beautiful.  Though it's already a little past prime blooming season, a number of the rhodies were still in bloom.  Interestingly, it it was primarily the taller, tree-sized rhodies that were still blooming.  Even if none of the rhododendrons had been in bloom, the garden would still have been lovely.

The garden is perched on the side of a valley,  with winding paths through open, wood-like gardens that periodically open onto water views of ponds with a lively population of mallards, wood ducks and Canada geese, all with offspring.  We even spotted a bald eagle circling above one of the larger ponds.  The picture is from their website, because all of mine turned out too dark, though I did get a couple fun pictures of a dogwood in bloom.

Finally, it was about time to head to the meeting.  I can see why so many of the members of our local bead society also belong to the Portland group.  During the business portion of the meeting, they discussed an upcoming exhibit that will travel to all eight of the local libraries, several different community outreach possibilities, their upcoming annual potluck, and more.  I am definitely going to see if I can make it back down for their annual Bead Retreat, if not before. 

In case you happen to see this, many, many thanks to Jennifer Engstfeld who suggested my name, to Carol Perrenoud (Beadcats) who took care of all of the arrangements, to Janis for an absolutely wonderful day, and to all of the members of the Portland Bead Society.  You were all so wonderfully welcoming.  I was truly honored by your invitation to speak, and hope that you enjoyed my presentation.

Sping Ring Fling May Day Celebration and Blog Hop

A little May Day posy of Spring blooms

Happy May Day! 

I've always loved the idea of hanging little posies on friends and neighbors' doors to celebrate the optimism of the season on the first day of May.  I've never actually run around the neighborhood hanging mini-bouquets off of neighbors doors, but it always seemed like fun.  Instead, this year, I'm hosting a virtual May Day celebration with my first-ever freeform peyote Spring Ring Fling Blog Hop and Challenge.

Many, many thanks to everyone who accepted the challenge to make a ring or rings inspired by the season: 

* Svetlana, Svetlana’s Gallery
* Lori Finney, Using My Beads
* Monika Burzyńska, Sztuka Magiczina
* Teresa Shelton, KeyGirl Designs
* Vanessa Walilko, Kali Butterfly

Trees Budding celebrates the first signs of spring, as buds emerge on the trees

April found me traveling from Boston, to mid-Missouri, and back to Seattle.  I was struck by how much Spring's timing differs from place to place.  The wisteria and cherries had just begun blooming in our yard in early April.  Later that day, I discovered spring was just starting to unfurl in Boston.  It had snowed in Boston earlier that week and the snow had just melted!  So my first ring is for my friends over there on the 'other' coast. 

A view from the back/underside of the ring

Trees Budding (I'm still working on the name) celebrates one of the earliest signs of spring, as the buds swell on the trees.  So many of these early buds have a lovely red-orange cast.

Dyed jasper rounds nestle into a background of soft greens and the coral of dogwood stems. "Magic Apple" Riso seed beads remind me of the texture of the spiky maple 'flowers'.  (I checked on wikipedia, and they do call them flowers!)

This photo of apple blossoms from my yard started the ideas peculating for my second ring.  I snapped the photo as I was heading to the airport on my way to visit family in mid-Missouri, where I discovered my parents' cherry tree covered with snow white blooms.

Combine that with a foray to Itchy's, my father's favorite thrift shop where I picked up a 100yard spool of 3/8" white satin ribbon for a grand total of $5.00, and my second ring was born.

a side view of Karen's Apple Blossom ring

This ring was a little blast from the past - old favorites meets new(er).  I've always loved ribbon worked flowers, and used to teach how to make them back in the early nineties when my focus was more on crazy quilting and embellished embroidery.

I made three little blossoms and an apple bud, then set them aside and worked on my freeform peyote ring base.





 Once I had the base, I stitched each of the flowers in place, using apple green, transparent magatamas and 6mm bugles to add additional textures to the bouquet.

Worn, the blossoms almost complete hide the structure of the ring

The beading is almost a little secret for the wearer

So there are my little spring posies.  Now it's time for me to go see everyone elses' lovely creations in this May Day Celebration! Here's the list again:

Karen Williams, Baublicious (you're here)
Svetlana, Svetlana’s Gallery
Lori Finney, Using My Beads
Monika Burzyńska, Sztuka Magiczina
Teresa Shelton, KeyGirl Designs
Vanessa Walilko, Kali Butterfly

Teresa Shelton's Spring Ring Fling

Spring inspiration, Teresa Shelton

Teresa Shelton jumped into the Spring Ring Fling with both feet, creating not one, not two, not even three, but four separate rings.  Here's Teresa talking about her designs:

It’s been so long since I did freeform peyote work that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the freedom of it. For the past several years I’ve primarily been doing a lot of geometric beadwork which is rigid in form and structure but still creative in application. Once I got started on the first ring, the joy of freeform expression was familiar and inviting, much like reconnecting with an old friend, and I savored the chance to fall back into those comfortable rhythms.

Spring is my favorite time of year and I can’t wait to see everything wake up again and return to life. The first ring is inspired by the first apple buds and leaves that sprout from dormant branches and yearn for the Spring sun. At our house, the apple tree vibrates and hums as the bees find the bounty in their early blossoms. The ring, Apple Blossoms, was started shank first with a single row of beads followed by several rounds of freeform peyote. The branch, leaves, and blossoms were beaded separately and then attached to the shank through a flat washer looking trade bead which has an added bonus of allowing the branch to rotate on top of the shank.

Teresa Shelton's Apple Blossom Ring

After the first ring was well under way, so many more Spring Fling ring inspirations hit me all at once and I wondered if I’d find the time to create everything I was exploring in my head. Daffodils are my favorite flower and one of the first Spring flowers to bloom in our yard. Several years ago, I purchased a lampworked daffodil bead from Serena Smith at a local bead show and tucked it into my purse. When I got home, I found one daffodil petal had broken from banging around against who-knows-what in my purse.


I kept the broken bead and figured I would find a way to use it in time (The beads tell me what they want when the time is right, I have only to listen and wait for their suggestions). First Bloom gave me the opportunity to use this beautiful but neglected bead. The single missing petal was created with seed beads, then a blend of freeform peyote and 5 sets of geometric herringbone increases was sculpted around the base of the bead. The shank was created and added after the flower, petal, and foliage were assembled.

Teresa Shelton's First Bloom

Teresa's First Bloom, worn

A side view of Teresa's ring (it's easier to see the beading)

Why stop at two rings when there was a whole month to create and rings only use a few hours of stolen time?

Spirals are everywhere in nature and the universe, and I seem to gravitate to this shape so why not explore it in beads. In New Zealand, the spiral-shaped Maori koru is reminiscent of an unfurling fern frond, symbolizing new beginnings – yet another Spring theme. I usually steer clear of pink in my beadwork and never pair pink with orange but a beader friend of mine recently made me some earrings in hot pink, orange, bright green and bronze. Everyone I’ve shown them to loves the color combination so I guess it was time to emerge from my habitually comfortable color cave and see what new paths I could discover. New Beginnings started with the spiral and worked from the center out. The shank was beaded later and has a diagonal transition in two locations between the hot pink and orange colors so they also spiral around the shank.

Teresa Shelton's New Beginnings spiral

a side view of Teresa's ring

starting point for Pacified

The final ring in this series, Pacified, blends my love of the geometric beadwork with the freedom of freeform peyote. I had an older exploded warped square (technique from Contemporary Geometric Beadwork) in pastel colors which reminds me of the soft, muted sunlight emerging in Spring. The shank is a simple square-stitch connection of two of the warped square tips which creates an open ring base to build from. To the base, I added several lacy trusses of netting and introduced peyote in subsequent passes to add structure and support for the heavier beads near the top of the ring. After it was completed, my husband commented that it looked like a pacifier with the center tear-dropped focal extending up so high.

Teresa Shelton's final ring, Pacified

Thanks Karen for organizing and facilitating this challenge as well as hosting me as a guest blogger on your site.

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Teresa Shelton, who beads under the pseudonym Keygirl, has been creating art with seed beads for over 25 years. You can see more of her work on her Facebook Artist’s page or e-mail her at keygirl designs gmail com. 

Creative Cross Training - Designing Triangle Boxes

I've never been one to stick entirely to a single artistic medium.  Lately, my focus has been developing my own geometric box designs for my Cricut cutter.

It amuses me that while I'm totally a freeform bead-weaver, I find it's tremendous fun figuring out how to build these three-dimensional geometric shapes out of flat pieces of paper.  And I love that once I've come up with the design, my Cricut does all the hard work, cutting everything out, even scoring my fold-lines.  All I have to do is (carefully) peel the paper off the cutting mat and assemble the boxes.  This is especially helpful as I've been going through a rough spot this winter, where beading, painting, even typing have been difficult due to the pain and stiffness in my hands and forearms.  Luckily, I think we've finally figured out what was causing the imflammation, and I'm slowly on the mend.  (This Sunday I'll be sharing my latest bead weaving - cute little freeform peyote rings, perfect projects when you can't bead a lot!)

But in the meantime, I'm having a great time trying to come up with designs for little boxes that don't require glue.  I like to think of this as creative-cross training.  Not as daring as the trapeze classes a few years back, but more suited to my current fitness levels.  :)

little tabs hold the boxes together

The paper designs are from my photos - color studies I painted years ago and a close-up I took of some succulents.  I simply print them onto my white card stock and voila, I have an unending supply of 'fancy' paper.

Playing with an triangular ornament design

As my hands continue to heal, I've started trying to figure out if there are ways to combine beading and paper cutting.  Towards that end, I designed these 'triangle lantern' boxes.  At 4" tall, I think they could make cute ornaments, especially with a beaded-bead or tassel hanging down from the center. 

New Classes at Fusion Beads this Summer

I'm teaching two new classes at Fusion Beads this summer.  In July, I'll be sharing my spin on more freeform bead embroidery with my Happy Fish.  These little guys, my newest additions to my underwater menagerie of beaded fish friends, were inspired by Robin Atkin's Bead Journal Project.  I needed a theme I'd enjoy working with for a year, and smiling fish fit the bill. 

And in August, I'll focus on the techniques I used to create my Nautillus Flower Cuff, from Explorations. 

Sign-ups for Summer workshops begins this Thursday, April 14th.

If you're planning to visit Seattle this summer, definitely check out their classes catalog. They have one of the best, most varied schedules you'll see outside of a major beading conference. 

Extending Signups for the Spring Ring Fling

Want to join in the fun of the Spring Ring Fling Blog Hop and Challenge?  There's still time as I'm extending the signup date until April 10th.  The final reveal will still be on May 1st.

Why Sign-up the Challenge?

* Themed Blog Hops are a great way to share your work with people who understand!  Reading the comments left by other, wonderfully creative people and kindred spirits can be a true gift.    

* Like taking a workshop, challenges can jumpstart your creativity.  Better yet, they are completely free, and you can web surf in your pajamas, at the coffee shop, or in-between innings at the softball game. 

* Freeform Peyote Rings are FAST!   It feels so good to be able to finish a project in a reasonable amount of time.  Compared to larger freeform beadweaving projects, you can complete a ring in a number of hours, rather than days, weeks or months.  If you're like me, and haven't started your challenge project yet, it's okay.  There's still plenty of time.   

* Because they're so quick to make, rings are perfect places to experiment!  Simple or completely over-the-top, freeform peyote rings can really shine.  I'll admit, I always thought I preferred to wear simple rings.  My earliest freeform peyote creations reflected that.  But the more I played (and learned from the students in my workshops fearless creations), the more I realized just how much fun wearing an over-the-top signature ring could be. 

* Wearing a funky ring is a great conversation starter.  Try it!  Wear your ring to an office party or out for brunch.  People are much more comfortable staring at your hands than at your cleavage (the big problem with necklaces), so people are much more likely to ask you about your ring.  Rings are also easier to take off to let someone else take a closer look at your work.  

* Everyone is invited to join in, whatever your familiarity or skill level with freeform peyote.  The goal here is to challenge yourself and choose your own adventure.   Your piece must include freeform peyote, but may include other beading stitches or mixed media techniques as well.

On the reveal day, post a photo (or photos) of what you made and include a paragraph or two about your piece.  If this is your first time working with freeform peyote, tell us about your experience.  

Don't have a blog?  No problem!  As long as you can email me photos and text, I'll make sure you're included in the hop as a guest post here on Baublicious.

* To sign up, email me (skunkhillstudio at gmail dot com).  Make sure to include your name, email address and blog URL (if you have one).   Or leave a comment with your email address on this post, telling me you'd like to join in.

I'll look forward to hearing from you.