The Book, bead spinning and bead soup

I got to review a galley copy of my book last week. The name has changed to The Absolute Beginners Guide to Stringing Beads, and the cover is a little different than the one you see on the right. Galley is kind of an old fashioned term, but what it means is the book is about 75% finished and this was my chance to "speak now or forever hold my peace." Can I say that I just love this book? I've had a nice vacation from the projects, and seeing everything laid out and beautifully photographed was a real treat. There were lots of little post-it-note questions from my editor, about bead counts, or materials, or specific directions. There was also a request for "just one more" piece of jewelry ... a seed bead project to demonstrate a beaded bail. I knew just what I wanted to make, but to save time, I bought a bead spinner.

Have you ever used one of these? I've seen them demonstrated many times. I made up my bead soup and started to spin, but I just couldn't get the hang of it. After I few tries, I dumped out the beads and strung them one by one. It felt a little more real, and here's the result (shh, don't tell my editor).