For the amulet bag in the previous post....

The beading of the pouch portion took probably 20 hours-- part of the reason it took that long, is because I needed to adjust the pattern as I went along to keep the proportions right. Which meant ripping out several rounds at a time, and re-beading them.

The initial graphing took a while, too-- it was done "low tech" (not with a graphing program). To start- you scan a graph onto a transparency, then lay that over your picture, and re-scan with the two together.... Then agonize over each partial square when filling out the paper graph that you use for your working copy, realizing that the "squares" aren't QUITE the same proportions as your beads (in my case, a Delica graph, but I used 15/0 beads).... I had planned to "someday" reverse engineer a pattern from the completed bag, but now that Suzanne has done it... I'll probably use hers if I decide to make another one. Besides, hers looks like it will be fine using 11/0 beads, which are easier than 15/0s.....

I used the same method with the Ruferto bag I made-- which was much more complicated because of the colors, and because even using 15/0 beads, details in the original had to be eliminated because they were "too close together" to make them distinctive in the overall size of the project I wanted. For that one, there were a few more steps using a copier to adjust the size of the original (which was about the same size as the amulet bag) to use for the pattern. Usually, the cartoons I use for patterns are much simpler than Sergio Aragones draws.... Hello Kitty, for example....