Process

I was beyond lucky to find this wee baby Moleskine weekly calendar (2 1/2" X 4") for $1 at Borders last week, and it has really come in handy for planning which days I will make and share certain spiders. If I suddenly remember a holiday or a great idea for a spider for a certain event (like my Spaaah vacation coming up), I can skip ahead to that date and write in my idea so that I can prepare for the spider as the date approaches (which typically means making sure I have all of the supplies to make it). And this little planner goes with me when I leave the house. I probably could store the information on my phone, but I'm more likely to peruse it in book format, and this size pretty much means I can put the planner anywhere.

I also keep a list of spider ideas in a notebook. (Naturally, I'm not at liberty to share a photo of that.) The list is somewhat random, but if I don't write down an idea when I think of it, it could be lost forever. Because I can be a bit of a neat freak, I'll regularly go through the list, cross off spiders I've already made, circle the next likely candidates, and rewrite my list.

So far, I'm having no problem coming up with ideas and even have had help with ideas from friends. Sometimes, when I get out the supplies for one spider, I see beads in my stash for another one and quickly get to work. To be honest, I'm a bit ahead of myself...by about a week. But I continue the process of possibly 2 or 3 at a time in the works, even if I don't finish one per day. After that, it's a matter of putting the spiders in order, juggling them a bit so that the ones I think are similar are separated by a couple/few days.

I'm tempted to say I'll have no problem with a whole year of spiders, but then I take a step back and realize I've barely completed a month of spiders! I'm using pizza boxes for storage, and each time I lift the lid to put away another spider (I haven't quite filled one yet), my imagination runs wild with that final number. Another ongoing task this year will be designing a giant web so that I can exhibit the spiders when I'm finished.