This is the second in the series of the single the single bucket challenge. I have a long term goal of creating ten of these over the next few years. My first piece like this was a simple pattern, and I was thinking the whole time that the houndstooth pattern looked an awful lot like the ships from Space Invaders, and was inspired.

I worked out most of the design from a screenshot found online of the ships in formation, added the Mystery Ship looming large in the background, plotted out the curve of the “Earth” and continents (not to scale). The big challenge here was to use all the colors while creating a design spontaneously.

It took about 25 hours to sort the beads, 30 to lay out the design, and 3 to tape and iron.

Gotta poke those holes to help the ironing process (important for bigger pieces like this)

Two sheets of Reynolds Parchment paper covered it nicely. Getting read for a long ironing session. It’s stressful as all getout, and I have to switch up arms. Big stack of books on the ready. Yes I have a functional candy machine in my house. I buy these books half off at Goodwill. No I didn’t read the Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh books. =)

Closeup of the finished surface. I only iron the one side, and I display the bead side.

INSERT.COIN(S) — Danthol 2016