The Beaded Tapestry

A quick project to rejuvenate the creative mind. Inspired by a Bead and Button magazine article.

The amulet bag is now complete!

The pouch and the strap are now complete. Time to work on the fringe.

Making some progress.

My character Ellyna has been on my mind lately. I miss writing about her. I found a weaver pattern in a book I have had for many years: Uniquely Yours. I will modify the image so it represents my beaded tapestry fabricator. Maybe it is time to work on book two of her saga.

Created this dragon banner by modifying a bracelet pattern. It makes a nice addition to my workbench decor.

Dear sister,

A short note to pass the time as I sit and wait for my test to run. Mother will be here in a few hours and I want to have as much free time with her as I can. Father will not be joining her since he is busy with the tax deadline looming. This is always his busiest time of year and he has planned his own trip to Oxford in the summer. It is good to have time with both our parents alone. They always seem to act as one personality when they are visiting together. It will be nice to see the individual for once.

The Louvre has contacted me with an update on your progress to New London. Your ship is nearing the halfway point and they stated that everything is on schedule. After this the messages will be so delayed that there will be no update on your progression until after I have left for my own travels. It is still hard to grasp how far away you are from the Earth at this time. Since you are in stasis, this fact is not evident to you, but you are now crossing the threshold. From now onwards your will be closer to the Anomaly than to me. I hope our Black Swan will enfold you in her protective wings and guide you safely to your new home.

After mothers visit, I have one more month to prepare, pack and ship all the required equipment for my journey and research. It will need to be in the custom warehouse by mid-may in order for the clearance to be completed by my departure date in November. Such a long tedious process, but regulations on foreign material being introduced into the Alpha Centauri system and subsequently New London are very strict. I hope we have done our homework sufficiently or you and I will both have headaches at the end of our journeys. Whether that destination is the Phycodurus or the planetary body of New London, some major recalculations will need to be conducted if all does not go well. Luckily most of the materials we deemed necessary for your productions will be sourced from the New London environment. I envy these new discoveries that you will make during your time on the planetary surface. Maybe you will even find something unknown to anyone in your investigations. The planet has been occupied for two hundred years, but you have a tenacious mind. It is always searching for new material to enhance your creations; a new color, a new electrical emission or some other fascinating property. Such innovation will not have been seen before on New London. I cannot wait to hear what you have discovered when I arrive. Just make sure I can adjust my own work to your ever evolving creations. Our final product will not function if you exceed my capabilities to map your renditions wavelengths and other properties to the human experience. I trust you to keep to my limitations and the parametric of the human brain.

My test is now completed its run and I can button up the lab for the duration of mothers visit. Now for a bit of housekeeping before her arrival. My quarters are a disgrace.

Dream of science sleeping beauty,

Annalis

Dear Victoria,

I sometimes wonder how different my life would be without the innovative advances in epigenetic research. If these mechanisms for the information mapping had never been defined, I would not be a complete organism at this point in my life. Regeneration was a giant breakthrough using this innovative approach, and I thank them for their tenacity in solving the process of limb formation at the cellular level. Imagine a blueprint of life embedded within each cells chemical makeup. The final mechanics for this ability still are not fully known, but the capability of activating it within a specific cell location was a major step forward to understanding the entire system. Every time I flex my new hand these thoughts interrupt my current focus. I wonder sometimes if my limb is trying to tell me something.

Mother is coming up in the next few days to transport most of my personal belongings back to London. I do not have many items left here with me in Oxford, but there is still too much things to transport by mail carrier and also some things are too fragile. For one it would be entirely expensive and also most are irreplaceable if lost or damaged.
Grandmother’s tea service is on this short list, along with my collection of exotic plant specimens. Mother and father will tuck these away in our old room for safe keeping along with the items you have left. I think I will miss the tea service the most. It would be completely worthless to take this with me to the research station. It will also be impossible to find an alternative once I get there. I will have to forgo this daily ritual for the extent of my stay, since there is no practical way to replace the tradition in space. I hope you have found a suitable surrogate on New London. The pleasures of an elaborate tea ritual every afternoon is something engrained in us since childhood. I do not know how I will cope without it. I will have to find another vice for this calming activity; some replacement to realign the mind before beginning the afternoon routines.

I will keep the bare minimum of personal items for the remainder of my time here. It will hopefully prepare me for the years ahead and help me clear my agenda for the trip to come. Although my departure is still many months away, I must start the process of separation from the life I have known. For you it will not be as drastic a step since your final destination is the planet surface and a planetary life. For me I will be transitioning to life on the research station. A near military life if you think about it. Weekly safety drills, refreshed air and dispensed rations. Let us hope that is all I will need to adapt to. I will not even adventure into the lack of privacy I will encounter. I am trying not to think of that. I have a feeling the craving for wide open spaces like those I encountered in New Zealand will be higher on my wish list than any other amenities. Dreaming of a future where the dangers of a total vacuum are only a few centimeter away are gone. But the thought of being in close proximity to the Anomaly overwrites all these programs. It will be worth every inconceivable occurrence to be close to my subject.

Enough of these thoughts! As I have always said, it will all be worth the final realization of our dream.

Love, Annalis

Dear sister,

I feed your absence very heavily today. I now sit alone at my favorite coffee shop, watching the passing traffic out the window. Your presence sits beside me, but it is not the same as having you here. It is only a creative anime, entertaining me with animated stories about our childhood and occasionally throwing in an anecdote from our father’s vast library. Although it was long ago that we lived within the same general area of each other, the fact that I cannot hop onto a transport and be near you within a few hours is disheartening. I do not even want to mention the total lack of communication abilities we now face. So I sit here alone, imaging your face and drink my coffee in solo.

The college is out for spring holidays and I have taken this opportunity to enjoy a much quieter Oxford. Most students have vacated for warmer climates this week and I was actually able to grab a seat at my favorite haunt. The coffee has only improved since you your last visit and I am now on my second cup. I will need to return to the lab shortly, but it feels good to enjoy some time away from my calculations.

My appointment with the entomologist was postponed till June since Professor Simona was caught up in a battle against a bacterial outbreak in the bee population in South America. I gathered from her correspondence that the threat has now been contained, but over a third of the facilities inhabitants have been lost. Such a tragic occurrence since they were finally making strides in balancing the hives across the southern continent. She will be back on this side of the globe in late May and we can then make the final arrangements for her stowaways. She shared a model of the creature’s molecular structure with me. The DNA complexity is incomparable to anything I have seen in the related species native to the Earth. There are hints of advanced brain function beyond the capabilities of their Earth counterparts. I hope to have time on my outbound journey to study this feature thoroughly. From the narrative of your journey, I gather I will have several idle weeks during my own trip to the outer reaches of this solar system to do some extracurricular activities. I think I will fill it with something completely different to occupy my brain functions.

Well my cup is empty now and I will head back to my realm. I hope when you arrive in New London there is a pleasant coffee location waiting for you to discover.

Love Annalis