New Fabric

I rarely (like twice) ever buy fat quarters that are pre-bundled in combinations that are supposed to go together, but I did this week and I had bought a set of Asian inspired fabrics a couple of years ago and hadn't even untied the bundle yet!
So I did some ironing tonight...I had to stay up and wait for a phone call and it kept me awake anyway...so here are my newest fabric quarters...I'm about ready to make up a few more 4x4 squares for the last of the basho pieces and have been thinking that asian fabric might be fun...on the other hand it's been mostly batiks so far so I can't get too wild.

Moving Along...

Nothing exciting for now...just the background work that has to be done to get the basho pieces finished so they can be put together in some format....27 completely finished, 36 beaded, 8 more to bead and then17 backs to do.

Passing On the Award

It is, of course, impossible to just pick 5 people whose work inspires me, so I'm going to go through my list of BJP'ers and pick 5 at random...

One goes to Diane Redmer Moore at Mountain Salt Studio whose big hearted pages for the bead journal project have been a constant inspiration this past year and who I am happy to see will be going on to 2008/09 too, so we get to play together for another year!

One to Vivage, whose work grew with each month, but who always stayed true to her own vision and who surprises me each time I see it.

One to Caroll152 who gives new meaning to the word rococco! I kept looking closer and closer because I didn't believe it was all beads!

To Karen Cattoire here in probably the most exotic location of any of the bjp'ers, vanuatu, in the south pacific...and I am amazed that she's only been beading for 2 years...wow! Her combination of beads and stitching has gotten me interested in learning more about traditional embroidery.

To Thom Atkins, here and here, Robin's brother, whose larger bjp pieces (larger than mine for sure) have inspired me to go a bit larger next time around and to add more fabric combinations/manipulatons to the mix. The first link leads to his quilts page on his website and the second to his bjp pieces. The pieces are all great but the february page just grabbed me and made me pay attention!

And that's all for now....I could have listed a few dozen more inspirations and a number of them aren't bead related at all, but thank goodness, was only asked for 5!

No Time

My friend linda from Born Under a Bead Sign gave me this lovely award but life has suddenly gotten too crazy to spend the time needed to pass it on right now....so I'd like to accept it, but put off passing it on until things settle down around here...okay?
We're okay but a friend is in dire straits, so I'll be back when we get him settled...I hope!

May TIF

WIP's (works in progress) become F's (finished) today! My May take it further challenge is done...the theme this month was based on what we call ourselves...artists? makers? anything at all?
I usually just go with artist and then if someone wants to know more I will add mixed media fiber artist...that either intrigues them or loses their interest entirely....oddly enough it's usually women who are interested and men who aren't (grin)...
So this little window holds a book of a few of my most recent mixed media fiber art pieces...

Turquoise Girl with Dreads Pin/Pendant

She's finished and in my shop...thanks to everyone for commenting on her!

Too Much?

I may have gone a bit overboard on the dreads!

Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback...my Etsy shop is up and running again! I'll be adding items occasionally but mostly I'll be back to being focused on my august exhibit.

Hanging or Standing?

Any preferences? Any suggestions?
The first one would hang...the second would just stand up.

Little Houses

I've finished the little house pin/pendants and am now working on their tags. My friend cheri, who actually makes a living at this, suggested a little hanging tag to pin them on, so when you're not wearing the pin, you can hang it on the wall like a miniature piece of art. Isn't she clever!

Qarrtsiluni

My photo is up at Qarrtsiluni, if you'd like to check it out...there's some fine poetry and other writings on the theme of Water, if anyone is looking for inspiration!

My Baby Turns 35!

Hope you've had a lovely day...glad you liked the card and photos!

Beadbabe/Digital Photographer

This has been a great week for my photographs....a heart image I sent to pia jane bijkerk will be considered for her book, My Heart Wanders here.
And another image I sent to qarrtsuluni for this seasons theme of Water was accepted and will be published online shortly.
In honor of all this activity, I thought I'd redo my header...how do you like it?

Hey, if the beads ever get too small to see, maybe I can do photography fulltime!

Speaking of beads, I've got all the houses beaded and backed with pseudosuede and a pin/pendant finding and just have the edges to finish. I'll post them here and then onto my Etsy site for sale.
I'll also be putting up my seahorse instructions up for sale as soon as I get some kits together. I'll be offering them as just instructions (in pdf. file you will just be able to download or I can send them to you via email) or as instructions and a kit, for those folks who don't want to buy whole tubes of the different beads that go into one of the little seahorses.

Bridge in Fog

This is more like it....caught the mood better.

In the Moonlight

I'm just a bit further along with the leaf and last night I went out and took some photos of our bridge in the moonlight...not as good as I expected, so I'll have to read a bit further in the book to see what the settings should be.

Back to Work

After two ferocious days of over 90 degree heat, it looks like today we'll have temps in the 70's...that's more like it!
Even most of the restaurants don't have air conditioning here since we so rarely would use it! We're not used to such heat after living at the coast for almost 20 years!

So...I'm sending off my cyberfyber postcard to susan today, going to our farmer's market which just reopened for the summer and working for a couple of hours at the visual arts center, where I usually bead as I greet visitors and answer any questions they might have about the exhibits.

I didn't get far enough on the leaf piece to finish it in time for the opening tonight due to the heat....wow, when it's too hot to bead it's TOO HOT!

Did I mention it's been really HOT here?

another rhody

Hot...hot...hot

Looks like we're going to get all our summer in just a couple of days! It was over 80 outside, almost 90 inside and 100 on our sun porch...although right on the beach it was a lot cooler. One of the few times the weather was better over the hill. Before it got too hot this morning I took some photos of our rhody....which often blooms in march, but it was so cold this spring so far it waited until may to bloom!
This was the porch this morning while it was just 80....by the time it hit 90, the cats and I were outside under the willows in the shade, but by 3:00 it was over 80 out there too and not enough breeze to really cool you off, so we just lolled and read....well, I read, the cats lolled...;)

New Stuff

Some house pin/pendants I'm working on and a large leaf pendant with beetle that I'm collecting beads for...

Finished