Continuing Adventures in Seed Beading

Still recovering from the stomach blah, but I had already written up this entry last week, and wanted to share.  After all, why not?  :)

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Alternate Title: 
Why I Have Trouble Doing the Peyote Stitch

Alternate Alternate Title: 
Guess What?  Depth Perception is Important!

So, in this post, I expressed some regret that my seedbeadery skills are not where I'd like them to be.

I also mentioned that I have realized why, in general, it proves to be a rather elusive artform for me.

I mean, I like bead embroidery (or bead doodling, as I've been calling it).... And I can actually understand how to do the basic seed bead stitches. I've even done some of them, with a beginner's proficiency, with fairly large beads.  

But my biggest hurdle is my vision.

Or, rather, my lack thereof.  

It's not something I really write about often (or talk about, really, although I did mention it briefly here) but I have a blind spot in my left eye, directly on the center of my vision.  

Technical Mumbo-Jumbo: 

Why do I have a blind spot in my left eye?  

The short explanation: I have ocular histoplasmosis.

The long explanation: Ocular histoplasmosis has left scars in both of my eyes. In my left eye those scars filled with blood vessels, which then--unfortunately--hemorrhaged. This caused permanent damage to the macular tissue in that eye... specifically, on the fovea, which is responsible for sharp central vision (you know, the vision that is necessary for reading, driving, and any activity where detail is of primary importance). 

Thankfully, I was able to have a procedure which stopped the bleeding.  Thankfully, I have a good retinal specialist experienced with ocular histoplasmosis so that he can see the warning signs in case the hemorrhaging starts again.

Yet, while the bleeding was stopped, there will always be the possibility of it happening again.

End of Technical Mumbo-Jumbo

So, yeah! My lack-o-vision.

As I said, this blind spot means that I have no fine-tune vision in that left eye... which means that writing, reading, beading, literally anything that I focus on, I am only seeing it with my right eye.

Seeing with only one eye means that I have no depth perception.

Guess what?  

Depth perception is really important when working with seed beads!

(Who'd have guessed it, honestly?)

When I'm stitching, I keep losing my place. I can't tell which layer is supposed to be doing what. Even using different colored beads doesn't alleviate the challenge completely--when I look at it, it just appears like a flat painting. (A flat painting of a beaded jumble, but hey... You get the idea.)

Now, there are not many things that my eyes keep me from doing. Granted, going down stairs can be rather terrifying, and looking at a computer screen can be extremely tiring, but my right eye is awesome in picking up the slack.

So, am I giving up on seedbeadery? 

Nope!  

I'm stubborn!

But, I need to be patient with myself.  Even if I didn't have issues with my eyes, there is absolutely no reason for me to get upset with myself for not being a seed bead master. 

And so, I'm going to take it one step at a time.

...And remember that every day with my vision is an amazing, awe-inspiring, miraculous blessing.