"Design a beaded mystery. Could be a symbolic chalk outline from a crime drama, or the tweed pattern from Sherlock Holmes, or a piece from a puzzle, or a simple suggestive clue. A key to a lost locket, a cypher of a cryptogram, a secret message woven into a work of art. Make an arcane riddle hidden in the pattern of beads, do a scene from a crime novel. Make a map with an X marks the spot, or make the jewels be the prize in a treasure hunt, or the one earring dropped by the strange lady in red. Any idea woven in beads, just be mysterious somehow in its origin.Mystery novels and drama were my favorites at one time but my interest has waned over time.
Now when I think of a mystery it often is something like, "How can I look all over the house for my car keys when they are right in my hand?"
I specialized in computer programming in college, did not do well because I was too busy socializing, but through it all I did learn a thing or two. In the most basic sense computers can only read whether a switch is off or on. So every letter and number in any language or numbering system is given a off/on code, called a binary code. Each letter has 8 off/on digits represented by 0 or 1.
Now how anyone could have come up with this system and what the system is I will leave a mystery. But it is the mystery that is at the basis of every digital electronic device we have today - a very powerful tool from very basic beginnings. What is not a mystery is that these devices will never be smarter than their creators and they respond according to how they are programmed to respond.
My entry to this month's challenge is a necklace which says "Mystery in Binary" spelled out in binary code: https://www.etsy.com/listing/101255377/mystery-in-binary-necklace-ebwc. It consists of oval pearls, the 'on' buttons and black bugle beads, the 'off' buttons.
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| https://www.etsy.com/listing/101255377/mystery-in-binary-necklace-ebwc |
Here I am wearing it - as you see my right arm is up holding the camera. My huge disappointment is that I couldn't get those 'off's' and 'on's to stay in line. They wanted to keep wandering. So here it is for better for worse - my entry to June's Etsy Beadweaver's Challenge themed "Mystery".
Entries were due June 5; the public vote is June 9 -16 at http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/ .
Please visit and vote for your favorite entry - June 9 - 16!!
