December Gathering of Beaders

December found our merry gang of beaders in Southfield, Michigan

at Jeanette's home. I don't know how much beading we did,

but we did a lot of laughing and talking.

Here's most of our gang:

front: Sharon, Joanne, Madeline, Sharon and Susie

back: Jeanette, Linda, Liz, Diane and Deb

missing: Sandy, Kate and Joan

Last year we worked on our Round Robin Bead Embroidery project.

This year we are working on Beaded Beads for each other.

Ladies - it's been a fun year! I hope that we all have a great

holiday season and a fantastic 2010!

Round Robin Loomatics Project Finished!!

Mr. Moose left my home in January 2008 and returned in early 2009. I finished my portions of Magical Moose (non-gender specific) just this evening and proudly show it to the world.

Thank you to Deb, Sue, Sandy, Sharon, Diane, Jeanette, Kate, Linda and Madeline - this was an awesome year long project that I enjoyed working on. I hope all of the above, and Tamaya - who didn't get a chance to work on my piece - love their results the way that I love Magical Moose

Round Robin Project

In March of 2008, the beading group that I belong to, the Loomatics started a Round Robin Project. My project was, of course, a Moose. I wrote in my journal that traveled with the moose, that I chose the moose because it would "Fit in so well with my decor and [allow me} to see how my friends would bead a moose for me." In the back of the journal, I wrote my infamous quote about bead embroidery:

"Bead Embroidery? Why on earth would anyone want to do bead embroidery? It's f*&^%$g silly, what's the point of it? It doesn't make any sense. I hate bead embroidery!"

Moose came home on Friday night. I still have a little work to complete on it which is not expected because we didn't believe that the pieces would be finished, but have a little bit of my beading friends in the moose.

Didn't my friends do a great job? There are so many parts that I love about it.

Loomatics Round Robin Project

I am really excited about this project. The Loomatics are a study group of the Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild and we are working on a round robin project. This is something new for us and I know that every piece is going to turn out wonderfully! Above are two pieces that I have worked on. I know that you can't tell what they are, but I don't know if they read my blog.

Basically, we all started with a design on a piece of fabric to work our bead embroidery on and we beaded a portion of it. Then we hand our treasure off to the next person. My piece started on it's journey with Madeline, then onto the next person. We won't see the piece until this time next year. We are allowed to put some guidelines for the other beaders (no pink, no flowers, no penis beads, etc), but once the project is out of our hands - we have no control.

When we meet on a monthly basis, we talk about our work and our visions. The person who "owns" the piece leaves the room for a couple of minutes to let the beader of the month talk about it. The laughter that comes from the room really makes you wonder "what are they doing to my beadwork?" but I know that it's going to turn out wonderful because I know that none of the women involved would do anything ugly or hateful.

I've had Sue's and Deb's work come through me and added my little touches to their visions. Because of my sense of humour, and the fact that I started off with a moose, I know that mine is going to have little pieces of my personality through it and I can't wait for it to be finished!

p.s. It's pronounced "loom-a-tics" with the emphasis on the loom, not loo-matics.