Bead Journal Project - March 2010

It's a chilly and blustery March day - rain, wind and dreary. I sit here and watch the fountain grass out the window blowing back and forth and but I'm staying warm in my old man sweater and having fun beading. So I worked today on my March knob - painted with bright green nail polish and beaded with brown, lime and turquiose.

March is complete, being installed in a couple of minutes.

I like it.

It's a good day.

Bead Journal Project - January 2010

True to my promise, I'm back! I had an idea for my first couple of beaded knobs.

The first knob is a modified "Terracita" style medallion from my friend, Marcia's book. It was modified to fit the knob, which is wood and was painted with pink nailpolish (why buy paint, when I have nailpolish?).

The next knob is just a simple swirl of colours with beads that are leftover from a kit that I have. I love the texture that the swirl evokes.

Back when I have something else going on!!

Bead Journal Project - February 2008

Doesn't she look like she is doing the happy dance!??

Bead Journal Project

Once December was determined, January was an easy choice. January felt right in green, with a blue background! Something just fell into place. Now, February.........

December Project

For some unknown reason, I really like this one. It's plain stitching, nothing fancy, but I like the way that the beads lay out. December was a late start - in January actually, but once my idea hit me, I just went with it. January has about 4 beads on it so far......

Bead Journal Update - December has some progress

I've been watching a British television show called "Time Team" - it's a show that have been around forever and the other day I was watching a DVD. The show was talking about medieval floor tiles. There was my inspiration.....

2008 - Year in Review

2008

2008 - can it be over already?? It just started. I had a really rocky start to the year with my mother-in-law passing away on New Years Day (not a good start to any day....), but that was the lowest point of the year. Although she had dementia due to Alzheimer's, and it was a mixed blessing, she is still missed.



For my artistic side, it was a pretty good year:

• I received notice that I was in the 2008 Bead a Day Calendar (three days)
• I had my Korean Dragon accepted for publication in the August 2008 Bead and Button magazine. I have received emails from beaders around the world letting me know how much they liked this piece
• Nicole Campanella (Beadwright) accepted four pieces of bead embroidery in her book "Flatwork"
• I worked with Marcia Decoster as a teacher's assistant in Milwaukee in June. I also lied to her about the weather - it was scarey. But I wasn't going to let her freak out. Besides, John the bartender would have saved us if necessary.
• Simply Beads published an article on traveling beaders which featured a picture from the 2006 Bead Cruise, of which I am in.
  I finished the 2007/08 Bead Journal Project with Robin Atkins and company, and have started the 2008/09 Bead Journal Project.
• Our study group from the Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild continues to meet. We worked on a round robin project this year, of which the projects should be coming home soon.
• I entered a funky pair of reading glasses into the Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild challenge to Bead an Everyday object.
  

Alan and I had a good year - we went on our second Bead Cruise with Beady Friends in January, we found a campground that we like in Monroe, MI that was can get to in 1/2 hour for long weekends. We also camped for a week in Brighton as gasoline was too expensive to drive too far this year. The state park there is very nice.

Dad and Patsy are doing well and wintering in Mission, TX - enjoying not being in Michigan with all the snow this year.

I hope that your year was as good as mine was.

Bead Journal Project - November 2008

November project is finally finished. Just in time for December to be started.....and finished? Today? I don't think so.

2008 Bead Journal Project Completed!

Completely completed!! Several weeks ago, I framed the pieces in shallow shadow boxes from Joann, Etc. About 15 minutes ago, they were hung over my dining room window (please no comments about the dust on the blinds!! I don't have time to dust when I am beading!!) - I love them!

October Bead Journal

October! The skies are clear and the leaves are changing colour.

Brr, it's getting cold out, but that doesn't bother our owl.

He's hanging out and looking for his dinner.

With the leaves dropping, it's easier to spot

supper running under the trees.

Rachel Nelson-Smith

I never thought that I would actually make this bracelet, but by adapting the pattern for me, I really like it. Of course, they aren't in the "in your face" colours that Rachel loves and uses, but more toned down for Liz (like some of my orange and green colours are toned down, right?). The flat bracelet is using the new permanent finish Toho beads - using them in a bracelet is the perfect place to see if they will keep their colours.

Next? Working on part of my round robin project with members of my bead guild. Diane's piece is at my house now. And I need to finish a swap piece for Diane - she's making me a felted bag, and I am making her a Marcia DeCoster "Etruscan" necklace. Then I need to complete my October Bead Journal piece - it's about 1/2 done, but was put aside for the above projects.

Housework? I need to do housework?

Oct 15 p.s. I've worn the permanent finish bracelet for three days, 9 hours a day, in an office setting. The colours have not changed.

Labour Day Weekend 2008

I had a really nice, quiet weekend camping with my husband and dogs in Monroe, MI. This wasn't the skunky campground - this is the one that is just 28 miles from our home, but feels like we are very far away. What a great feeling. Alan and I took Friday off work to make it a nice long weekend. I spent a good amount of time this weekend with needle, thread and beads in my hand working on month one of the Bead Journal Project.

I originally was going to have a hawk as my first month, but I really love this owl. For some reason, when my mother visited me in Germany (while I lived there), she learned the German word for owl: Eule.

From Wikipedia: Owls are an order of birds of prey. Most are solitary, and nocturnal, with some exceptions (e.g. the Burrowing Owl). They are classified in the order Strigiformes, in which there are over 200 extant species. Owls mostly hunt small mammals, insects, and other birds, though a few species specialize in hunting fish. They are found in all regions of the Earth except Antarctica, most of Greenland, and some remote islands. Though owls are typically solitary, the literary collective noun for a group of owls is a parliament.

I also worked quite a bit on Neuschwanstein Castle. I finished work on the castle towers and started some of the trees in the front. I hadn't really worked on this since April but I do like how it's coming along.

Bead Journal Project - September 2008

I have my idea for the first month. It hit me when I was driving home today for certain. I work in a very urban area - downtown Detroit. But as I was entering the expressway to come home, I saw a hawk/falcon sitting on the lightpost over the road. OMG! It was such a clear sign - and ties in perfectly with the square that I started on Monday and should have done for October.

Here's my September square and yes, I am going to sign this year's pieces as I complete them. As artists, we don't give ourselves enough credit and my co-worker Kathy actually fussed at me and told me that I need to start "autographing" or signing my embroidery. The first piece that I did was the Korean Dragon.

May Bead Journal Project

May's Bead Journal is in loving memory of Audrey Sunburn. Audrey was a generous and loving beader whose heart was as big as her smile. She made these little "cocoon babies" for a swap that our Buzzard (Bitchen Biker Turkey Buzzard Beadin' Babes) group was doing several years ago. I thought that she would love them in the piece. Also is a shell and a piece of coral - Audrey loved the sea and I though she would approve of these. I used a different fabric base this month - this is EazyFelt (sp) from the craft store. It comes in large sheets and some wonderful colours.

It wasn't my intention to do two months in a row as memorial pieces for Jim and Audrey, but life does things to us. I was going to use this piece for May. It's a sampler of different bead stitches that I have learned from a variety of places. Over the weekend, my good friend Joan and I were looking at the pieces and I told her that I wasn't going to be able to use this because it's now number 13. She just chuckled and said it's for me - it's your Baker's Dozen. Joan's last name is Baker.

So, the over achiever that I am - I have 13 pieces - my baker's dozen.

April Bead Journal Project

April's bead journal project is a little harder emotionally than any I have done. This is for my brother. My brother, Jim, passed away four years ago from complications from his liver transplant (received in 1991). I acquired a piece of snakeskin that he cured a long time ago and it's been hanging on my bulletin board since shortly after his death. I thought that it was time that I do a piece for Jim.

I cut the snakeskin to basic triangle shapes to fit on the background and glued them down. I bezeled around a 1907 Indian Head penny that I am pretty certain that he provided to me at one time or another, and I have put the picot edging that I have on all my journal pages.

But I know that it's missing something and I just can't put my finger on it. Colour? Jim wasn't very colourful, but he appreciated the beauty of nature. He enjoyed being outside, loved camping, fishing, and hunting (at least until his body told him that he couldn't do it anymore). Jim collected coins and stamps also.

It's kind of interesting that Jim will be gone 4 years this summer and I think I have been more emotional about it in the last month than I have since shortly after his death. Hormones on my part? I don't know what it is (I'm sitting here with tears blinding my typing - good thing I know where the keys are) all about.

But back to my project - I am going to have to search through my stash of beads and find some that Jim would appreciate being on his own month - kind of makes him a calendar boy, eh?

p.s. April 20th - After thinking it over, I must have taken the picture and written about it for a reason. This piece is complete.

Bead Journal Blogs

Do you know what I think that I might love the most about the Bead Journal Project? It might just be the links on all the other blogs, that carry me to other blogs, that link me to more blogs. Since joining Robin's project last summer, I have seen more cool beading throughout the world than I have seen before. When I get a block, I visit blogs. I see things. I see bead work that I wish that I had done first. I get inspired, I get refreshed. Okay and I do get jealous of the talent of all these wonderful women. Below is just a sample of some of the sites that I have seen (yes, I liberated this from another site - Arline has a great list of links on her page - I hope you don't mind that I did this).

AKP Beading
Another Country
Artfulmuse
Artntheheart
Bead Inspired
Beader's View-Jen
Beading at the Beach
Beadlust
Beadnik's BJP Blog
Beads n fibers
Beadweaver
Bits of Beads and Fibers
By Char
CC's Artblog
Clevelandgirlie
Confessions of a Bead Counter
Dolliebead-Ellen
Dreambeadr
Dulcey Heller
Enchanted Wolf Beading
Erthafae-AJ
Focus on Fiber
Freebird Sings
From the Magpie's Nest
Fruitabeader
Girl Gone Thread Wild
Grace Beading
Heidibeads
Jann Beads
Kathy's BJP
LunaC
MotherHenna
Mountain Salt Studio
Nancy's Bead and Misc.
Papercatspage
Phantasmagoric Peag
Quilts, beads and other such
Sammystuff
Sassy Art Goddess
Serious Beader
Speediebeadie
The Lone Beader
The Wingedneedle's Nest
Wild Spirit-Jos

March Bead Journal Project

March! March is a month that is completely unpredictable in metro Detroit. It could be nice and sunny with beautiful temps or it can rain every day or it can snow the entire month. This March was pretty cold, with lots of snow; but we always celebrate the coming of spring. For my March Bead Journal project, I looked at the celebration of spring with my Goddesses that were designed by fellow Buzzard, Debb Pflanz. The background is a mix of vintage sequins and size 15 seed beads (and a few size 18 seeds).

January Bead Journal Project

January 2008.

I was on a cruise with a bunch of bead crazy women.

I picked up the little dolls in the Grand Caymans.

Along with the shells and starfish.

So, imagine yourself walking along the beach.

Sunset behind you a delicious magenta colour.

The perfect end to a perfect trip.

December Bead Journal Project

I am almost finished with December's Bead Journal page,

so I thought that I would post it.

I just need to complete the black picot edging.

Knowing, me, I will continue with the peyote bands

until the fabric is just a hint of what's underneath.

My inspiration was from the bright green fabric

and the glow-in-dark face that my friend Audrey made

(I think it was Audrey) several years ago.

I plan on taking my January page

on my BeadyFriends Bead Cruise

when we leave on January 19th.

This is a 5-night cruise of the Western Caribbean

with ports of call in the Grand Caymans and Jamaica.

I'm very excited as I haven't been to those

ports again.

And I do work to support my vacation habits.

(My other blog!)

November dreams - Flowers!

What?? Flowers from Liz? My goodness, who are you and what have you done to her?

Liz is so not a flower person, and yet, she's beaded a November piece with

beautiful watermelon tourmaline and seed beads.

I love watermelon tourmaline and these beads used to live in a bracelet that I made

and didn't like.

I couldn't have them living in a bracelet that I didn't wear!

They needed sunshine, spirit and the right project.

November field of flowers brought to you by the Bad Liz.

(The real Liz will return next month, not that you will notice a difference)