September BJP Finished

It's all finished now...sleeve and back on, whipstitched around the edge and hanging on the wall on an old chopstick...

Dolls Today

I finished the doll for the mixed nuts online exhibit and thought I'd add a link to Dot Christianson's blog about her dolls...she's the originator of "dotee dolls" and sell kits for them on etsy plus other dolls she makes.
I'm naming the little nut, Nuts About Meditation, and she's just 5 3/4" tall, bead embroidered, with my own polyclay face made from my own mold and painted and sealed, lightly stuff with fiberfill and backed with a very soft olive green ultrasuede. She's got a beaded loop to hang by but she's just the perfect size to hold in your hand during meditation. She'll be on the mixed nuts website as soon as I send them the photos.

Gone But Not Forgotten

One of my few real life heroes died today...Paul Newman. I fell in love with him when I was 16 years old and over the years my respect for him has just kept growing. For his great and undervalued talent, his constant and faithful marriage to Joanne Woodward, his liberal politics and his humanitarian activities, especially his funding of the Hole in the Wall camps for seriously ill children. I've been doing a bit of grieving today, for his family and friends especially but tomorrow I'm going to celebrate his life...well-lived, well-loved and well-respected.

Class Kits and Fall Gifts

I've been putting together kits for a class on dotee dolls I'm teaching to a group of cancer survivors, their families and/or caregivers through our local hospital. I'm so happy to be able to give back a little to folks who aren't quite as far from their last treatments as I am...and I'm hoping to make this a fun and easy two hours for them all. The kits are all together, but I'm going to be taking out the body part and sewing and stuffing it since we only have 2 hours. If we had three, I'd have them sew the body too, but it seems to me that wouldn't leave them much time for the fun part of embellishing them!
On another note this week has been full of so many different gifts...lunch with a far-away friend visiting in town, another even farther away friend sending me some beautiful fabric for my growing stash and a dear oregon friend sending me these darling embroidery scissors with her very own handmade fob in silver and fall colored swarovski crystals...exquisite!
I'm getting ready for a couple of gift-giving opportunities myself...I should know more later in the week and I'll share then...
I'll also be back with more work as time permits....

Good Morning!

I took my walk early this morning and got home in time to catch the sun as it was hitting the clouds from below...it only lasted a few minutes (why painters have a hard time with plein aire painting), so I was happy to be there with a loaded camera...
Today is my sweetie's birthday...he doesn't celebrate birthdays but he does accept presents, I've noticed!

The Other Green Girl

I've added a few things to the green girl beaded doll too...would have more but my ISP was down for a day and then I changed modems so it's been a (small) challenge to get back online...my next tech challenge will be getting a router and setting up my desktop and laptop in a LAN...tiny step by tiny step it goes!

Green Girl

Just a bit more progress...

Black Czech Nailheads

I have a friend who sells vintage uncirculated nailheads and beads and over the years I've bought a lot of black czech nailheads from him....they come in dozens of shapes and many sizes and probably comprise, all together, about 1/5 of my entire nailhead collection. I use a lot of them on my bead embroidery but I'm always trying to figure out new uses for them and even though I don't wear a lot of jewelry, I do wear a lot of black, so a bracelet or two for me and the millions of seattleites who wear black might be in order....alas, I'm not much of a stringer...that doesn't seem to be my forte, but I do kind of like the simplicity of this little piece. It's got three strands of 3 different shaped black nailheads and is very light weight. I'm going to wear it for a while and see if I continue to like it and if I do, I might make a few for my little etsy shop...

Greens

I'm a bit further along with both pieces...the weather has been all over the board and so have I...

Mixed Nuts Online Exhibit

This is a great online exhibit (begun with a "real" exhibit in Australia) of art dolls made using a basic shape (nut-like) and it did so well that kirsty campion (the web organizer) has opened it up to anyone else who might be interested in adding to it. She sent me a pdf file of the pattern and I reduced it as it was too large for a beaded doll (well, too large for me, anyway!), and I'm having a go at it. I am using a face I made from a mold I made of an old kwan yin statue we've had for years, so it should be pretty much unique and after she's beaded, I'll cut her out and stuff her adding an ultrasuede back and small hanger.
She's keeping me busy while I'm waiting for that "big" inspiration...

Another days work

I thought she was going to be a pin/pendant but I guess not!

Humbug Mountain

Another photo from our trip down south...just a bit of Humbug Mountain as it meets the Pacific...

Moving along again....

Denise from Bits of Beads and Fiber is asking for links to photos of our desktops or wherever we work...it's not a large space but it's bigger than the tray on my lap I use when I'm working in the living room....
...and I got a bit further on the face this afternoon.

Faces

I've got a back and sleeve on my sept. bjp but haven't decided quite how to finish it yet...bead edge or blanket stitch or some such....in the meantime, I had these wonderful charlottes in a gorgeous green color that I thought were going to go on the bjp, but didn't....so I pulled out another face and just started beading. Not sure at all where she's going but I see a lot more seeds in her future!
And I finally got a decent shot of one of the great blue herons that nest in the big firs in our park...I wonder how they get along with the ospreys?

Twinks Bank Award

A dear friend, Lisa from Pursuing Art, has given me this award...thank you, Lisa! I understand I'm to pass it on to 4 of the folks I visit regularly and one from far away so...
1. Wednesday's Child by Joanne
2. More Whiffs, Glimmers $ Left Ouevres by Deb
3. Spirit Cloth by Jude
4. Mary Tafoya's Seriousbeadin' by Mary
5. Dyed and Gone to Heaven by Lisa, who is in Australia...guess that's pretty far away, eh!

And now back to the back of my bjp....after doing the backs of all 12 of mine at the end of the year last year, I promised myself I'd finish this years' as I go along. I've decided to hang them just like little mini art quilts, so I'm putting on a fabric back with a sleeve to hang it by.

Surprise Finish

I kept looking at this all day trying to figure out where the lovely green charlottes I had picked out would go but instead these three dyed shell rectangles and faux tortoiseshell leaves insisted on going on the bottom and it then declared itself finished...believe me, I was the last to know!

Mowing Done

My DH took up gardening about 5 years ago and has just totally transformed our place....he says he's working on a 10-year plan, but I'm already so amazed when I look at photos from even just 3 years ago and see the differences....for one thing, it takes me hardly any time to mow anymore. Between the huge raised strawberry bed and the raspberry patch and the flower beds, there isn't much lawn left...which I'm delighted by. I think next year we'll have to plot out some paths...barkdust would be the least expensive but I'd love to put down some pavers....maybe we'll have a windfall and be able to afford some....I'll keep that thought in mind.
This is the raspberry patch to the left...they're over my head now but will be pruned back when most of the leaves are gone...
Straight ahead are the grapes our neighbor planted....we love them a lot since they're as into privacy as we are, so when we're in our back yards we can hardly see each other...yay!

BJP 9/08

I've got a beginning I'm happy with and plans for the finish, plus I managed to pull together tools from 4 separate places in the studio into one single organizer...so I won't be jumping up and down continually...I hope that's a good thing! Some days that was probably the most exercise I got, lol!
The yellow silk is yet another attempt on my part to portray the wind...and we got a lot of it on our way south and back!

Not Much

This is as far as I've gotten so far...some fabric and a single abalone bird...now I have to pick out a bunch of other beads as I'm gallery sitting for two hours this afternoon and it will be the perfect place to work...especially as it's a place I spend a lot of time and it has a great view as well.
This is the best fall I've had in a number of years, emotionally speaking, so although the background is a somewhat dark fallish fabric, there will be a lot of the yellow silk in the piece. Hopefully, I'll have some interesting progress to post tomorrow....

Face Pin Swap

My three face pin/pendants are finished...I'll probably send them off next week...and now I've got to get cracking on the bjp.

Coast Drive

My DH and I delivered a show from our visual arts center to it's next venue in Bandon, which is about 120 miles south of Newport. We spent the night with friends and then the next morning we headed south to Brookings, which is just a bit north of the CA border. It was a beautiful day...very windy but warm and I got to visit some of the viewpoints along the way...especially just north of Brookings. My new header is from Natural Bridges Cove and the photo here is just a bit north of that at Arch Rock...the water was almost turquoise and the views were far better than my photos can do justice to. If you get the chance, I'd drive the 101 route along the coast from Brookings to Yachats...north of that are some lovely places too, but it's much more populated. But bring a large card...I used my 2gig card and got some videos made also.
Now we're back home and I'm reinspired for my fall work.

2008 BJP Start

I've started a piece that may or may not be "the" piece, but something is started! No beads have been added yet since I'm still working on the fabric bits...but I am getting excited since this is all new ground for me (the fabric manipulation part)....I'm not going to call it a quilt as it won't be sewn from front to back and that's my most minimal definition of a "quilt"...three layers and sewn through all three.
So I'm not sure what to call it....fiber collage, mixed media collage, mixed media fiber collage with beads or MMFCB for short, lol!