GetCrafty Craft Facts

Q: I have recently downloaded 'Beadesigner', a free software program for beading. I think it will work fine for 'graphic' designs, but I also would like to work up some photos into beadwork (mostly amulet bags). I also downloaded the 'Beader' program which will convert a picture into beads (peyote, brick, loom, etc.). Unfortuately, I find that when I load my picture and convert it, the program comes up with way too many colors (I use 11's mostly - it's getting old, it can't stay focused on smaller). To my knowledge, there are just NOT that many colors available, and I think I already have every possible color in my stash. Am I scanning wrong (i.e.; too many DPIs)?

A: I have tried to contact '3D Software', makers of 'BeadPlan', recently and received no response from them. Do any of you have a preference for a design program? Is there one I don't know about? Does anyone have a program with a right-angle weave graph? That would be wonderful for me, as I really prefer to work that stitch. One trick that I learned from the people at 'Cochenelle' is, if you don't own a scanner: Trace your design onto a piece of acetate transparency. Tape this to the screen of your computer, then fill in the graph on your screen image to correspond! It works great. You may have to enlarge or shrink the pattern on a photocopier. I don't know why Carlos wouldn't have answered you. You were writing about program capability, right? I use 'BeadPlan', and you can set it to use only the colors you want in the 'Map Into Beads' section, but I wonder if you know about all the size 11 beads out there - there's certainly hundreds of colors. I don't know of any program that have a graph for right-angle weave, but you could use a loom or square-stitch form to graph a right-angle weave. You can use a brick stitch to do a netted graph, and there is a sample on their site. The idea of using 'loom graph' is perfect for using a right-angle weave pattern - I will have to try that. If you are having a problem with too many colors, you can scan first into a paint program, and change colors accordingly. Then you can transfer them to the beading program.