Last Month

I can't believe this is my last piece for the 2007-2008 Bead Journal Project. I would have thought I would be dragging my heals on this piece not wanting it to be over. I guess in a way it isn't going to be since starting in September we will be doing it again. If you are interested in joining us for the 2008-9 BJP please go to the website and register. I know I have grown tremendously as an artist this last year, thanks again to Robin Atkins who had this wonderful idea and is a great friend and inspiration to all of us.

The first photo is where I started, it is two photos taken a few years apart but they go together perfectly. Wayne suggested I not use a border on this page but I ignored him and used a piece of Kumihimo braiding for the border. I happened to have a piece already made that was perfect so it was just a matter of sewing it on.
Like several of my other pieces this year I used leather cords to represent the branches. They add a nice dimension to the pieces and look more realistic than beads would for the branches. On my first day of working I got the border on and almost all of the cording added. On day two I finished the cording before taking the second photo.

The second day saw me spending most of my beading time working on the flowers for the page. I used faceted glass beads, flower pressed glass beads, a handful of oval beads and some seed beads to make the flowers. By the end of day 2 I had all of the flowers added.
The title of this piece is going to be "I Blossom As I Fly Free" The imagery for this page is perfect for where I am creatively at this moment. I find it really amazing that I picked out the photos for most of my pages in July and yet they are perfect for where I am at the present time. If the last few had been in a different order they wouldn't have been correct for where I was at the time. Either I subconsciously knew where I was going to be when or someone was guiding my hand on my choices. Both blossoming flowers and flying free represent where I am as I start the next phase of my creative life. At the current rate I should finish this page in a record for me of 4 days. I have spent quite a few hours each of the days so far but the page is so full of joy and freedom that it hasn't been hard at all.