When Beads Go Bad

I fully intended to enter the Etsy Beadweavers Challenge, Inspired by Picasso!  I researched Picasso's art including his different periods.  I was most struck by his analytic cubism period.  All the angles, shapes, and play with a confined colorway was something I understood.  Picasso's "Le guitariste" (1910)  is the perfect example of analytic cubism.

I organized my thoughts (as well as they can be organized).  I chose my colorway.  I drew a diagram of what I planned to do.  It was titled "The Swimmer".  If you look closely you can see a face and two swimming arms.

I even made the base for the bracelet. My plan was to embellish the angles and lines on the surface of a right angle woven base.  I chose a wonderful Czech finished seed bead that was sort of a variegated buttery tan color.

I started to add my embellishments...that's when things started to go bad!!!  Somehow, I had forgotten to tell the beads what I wanted to accomplish.  As many of you beaders know, beads do have a mind of their own!  The beads felt very strongly that stripes were in order.  Who was I to argue!  

Actually the "bad" beads were correct in their thinking,  stripes turned out great.  My only problem was how to close the bracelet.  Again the beads made that decision for me.  They had the idea of collapsible flowers with loops for the closure! 

They turned out even better than I thought they would.  Sometimes when beads go bad, we really need to listen!  The bracelet was wonderful...but had nothing to do with Picasso or analytic cubism!  Oh well, there's always next time!  Happy beading!!