Mixed Up

I can't decide whether to make more earrings or get started on the prototype for the next bead journal project, so I'm doing both. A little peyote and herringbone and then a bit of bead embroidery...the only thing I'm not doing at the moment is right angle weave and now that I've said that, I'll probably find a RAW project I must start immediately, LOL!

Virtual Studio Tour

Quilting Arts and Cloth/Paper/Scissors is putting out a new studios issue this fall and also hosting virtual studio tours of artists's studios. This looked like fun and I do love to see other artists' studios so I'll be participating on the 3rd of October along with a zillion other artists...boy, do I know what I'm going to be doing next week...good thing it's supposed to rain all week, lol!
Anyway, here's the link if you want to play or just for more info?

Mizz Sumi Approves

of our new little settee (don't you like that better than "loveseat"...I sure do!) She's captured the back and oliver gets the whole seat after I've gone to bed or half if I'm still on it, lol!

Still Earrings...

I'm still working on earrings...will save the necklaces/pendants for next month.

Today...

is the love of my life's 70th birthday...I think he's just a tiny bit amazed to have lived this long since most of his family died at much younger ages. I thought about writing a post about him, but I just can not find the words to express how wonderful I believe he is and how much he means to me, so I'll just post a photo a friend of ours took at his 65th birthday party...
His birthday wishes? A new shirt and a load of barkdust...how could you not love such a guy?

Road Trip

The weather was so perfect yesterday we took a short roadtrip down the coast to florence. I think it's one of the most beautiful drives in the world and we hadn't done it all summer. I wanted to take some photos from the top of cape perpetua and the bridge in florence. Got the cape perpetua ones (and this one I'm using for my wallpaper now) but they were working on the bridge, so it wasn't a good time to photograph it.
Today is gallery sitting and another pair of earrings or pendant this afternoon....it's raining so we won't have to water the garden and tomorrow the sunny weather is scheduled to return, I hope!
Photos are from cape perpetua looking south and further down the highway, a view looking south towards florence and a little hidden walkway in florence that felt so cool and serene.

Triangles

I have to say, of all the shapes in diane fitzgerald's book, I love the triangles the most. Three has always been a rather special number to me, coming from a family of three and being a family of three...and I just like the balanced, yet yearning upward feel of the triangle.
I could not figure out how to hang the pendant until I thought about stringing some of the delicas on softflex, then crimping it and add a crimp cover, which looks like a tiny silver bead. I wanted to keep it affordable and fun at the same time and I hope I've succeeded. I do love this color combo too and I'm thinking I'll have to make another set like this just for me.

Hands

I've used hands in my art work for many years...some drawn, some painted, some collaged and then again in my bead and fiber work. My first series was 13 hand portraits done using the outlines of bead artist friends' hands. Each person graciously outlined their non-dominant hand for me and I took the outlines, reduced them by 50% and using the reduction as a pattern, traced each hand on different fabric and then beaded each hand as a "portrait" of each individual artist. You can see this series on my flickr site under, A Beader's Dozen set.

When I started the bjp for 08/09 my focus was in making the pieces larger and more 3-D than last year, but a few hands did show up in some spring and summer months.

For the last few weeks I've been pondering next year's bjp and what my focus will be. I had vaguely decided I wanted there to be more beading than last years, but I also wanted to go smaller this year, since I am always drawn to the tiny and miniature. I thought about doing a shaped piece instead of the rectangles I've done the last two years and considered houses, birds and hands.

This morning the image of two hands, palm to palm, came to mind and I was wondering about doing 12 hand-shaped books with hand covers but I don't think I've got 12 books in me. Next I wondered about resizing the hands and layering them, so I took my hand and put it palm down on my copy machine and made a copy of my right palm. That was interesting but a bit too large to bead, so I made two smaller copies and cut them all out to use as pattern pieces. I rummaged through some older fabric that already had stabelizer ironed on and cut out the three hands in three different fabrics and layered them.

So that's how far I've gotten this morning.

I'm still considering a book in there somewhere (I loved robin's books about her mom and dad that she incorporated into two of her bjp pieces) but I'm thinking of maybe just having the smallest hand slide aside to reveal a line or two of poetry? Maybe I can attach it with an eyelet to the next size and that would allow it to swing up?
So, I'll see what I can do this week with the three hands I've cut out. This can be my artist's proof or template, if you will.

And then we'll see if I'm still excited about this idea in january, lol!

Beads and Beach

I was gallery sitting this afternoon and got some photos of the beach...love the light on the waves...and some beading done...Not too sure what I'm doing with the beaded beads...maybe a bracelet or hung on a chain.

Bay and Bridge

I'm having a fasting ultrasound this morning, so I took an extra long walk and found myself at the top hill of our neighboring RV park...what a view they have! I wonder if we could ever leave our little doublewide and garden and trade it for an RV and that view? Maybe if the day comes when the garden is too much for chuck to handle, we'll think about that move...

Another BJP Year Finished

It just all came together this morning...I call it, Goodbye/Hello to Turtle Island.


World on a String
is a great 5 part documentary on the history of beads...our library ordered it on my recommendation and they just love it...maybe your library would like to have a copy too?

More Sun

We're still seeing sun here, at least in the afternoons, so I've been spending an occasional hour or two out by the island...some beading...some photography...some meditation. It's a good spot for all of those activities. A seal was fishing by my spot and I could hear him breathing when he came up for air...didn't have the lumix with me though, so I didn't get a close-up.
Got some more earrings done...and a bit further on the bjp.
And a photo of the fog coming in the bay yesterday afternoon.

New Beginnings

It's interesting that this years bead journal ended in august since september has always felt like the beginning of the year to me...probably because I was one of the lucky few who loved going to school and did not mourn the passing of summer.
So today is like the first day of autumn for me...even though the summer sun is still around during the day, it is beginning to get cooler at night...and I'm determined to greet each day, whether it's sunny or misty or wet, with an equal amount of gratitude.
I love the Basho quote I've put on the top of my new header...it's one of the main reasons I started the 40-part Basho series I finished last year (you can see them all on my Flickr site).


I may not be able to wander very far physically, but my spirit is the eternal traveler.