AKP Bead Journal Project

January Dragonfly

2010-04-28T12:04:00.002-04:00

Although this post is seriously overdue the block was done in January and finished on time. March and April won't be but I will get to them soon. The good news is that we have gotten a lot done on our new home (still plenty to do.) My studio is coming along nicely, I am sure it will be an ever evolving thing but hopefully it will get to a more finished state soon.

If you read my Following the Inspiration series you saw the ideas that lead up to this piece and pictures that show what the whole piece will look like at least as far as the overall design.

Each of the blocks for this year are five inches square. They will all be done using Zentangles in pen and beads from Artbeads.com that I got from their Blogging For Beads program. I reviewed the beads that I am using in Part 8 of my Inspiration series and here in my main blog.

If you are interested in seeing more photos you can visit my Web Gallery. I will also be posting photos occasionally on my new Facebook page. If you are interested in becoming friends due to this blog please put BJP in the request (Thanks).

Here you can see the basics of the block. This is the main part of my dragonfly, the rest of him will be on the block above and below in the finished piece. I have already inked in the lyrics on the blocks before I cut them into the 12 blocks.

Here you can see the beginning of the pen zentangling. This fabric is a bit more course than the fabric I used on my other fabric zentangle but I am getting more used to that. The really fun thing is figuring out how best to incorporate the beads into the zentangles so they look like they belong together.

This far I have used some Jet/Picasso Daggers which are really cool looking (it hard to see all of the detail and variation in this photo) and some Jet AB Glass Roundels which add to the look of the dragonfly eyes.

I started the body section by figuring out where I wanted the beads and then designed a tangle to go with it so that they would look incorporated. In some case I will be adding beads first and then tangling around them and other cases like this I will add the beads afterwords so that it is easier to tangle.

Here I have added the Jet w/ Picasso and Crystal w/ Dark Picasso 10 mm x 10 mm lentil beads. In this tangle they look sort of like the center of flowers.

Here you can see that I added some additional small circles to the body's tangle. Here I have started to add more tangling. Here I have done my first section that has no beads which I will include here and there. The head has Toho Bead Round Hybrid 8/0s in Jet/Picasso (are we sensing that I like this finish?)

The other seed beads are from the Amber Blues Toho bead mix. I can already tell that I am going to love the mixes I got since they have bugles, 8/0s, 11/0s, and 15/0s in them in multiple colors. Gives me a lot of choices.

This is January's block finished. Here I have added the border of the piece along the left (the head will extend beyond the border. The lower section of the body uses 1.5 mm cubes in Transparent Smoky Topaz AB. I love the baby cubes for bead embroidery, it gives a very neat look. It is especially good for using with the zentangling since there are several tangles that incorporate small squares in the design.

I will try to get Februaries block up with in the next week and hopefully I will get to March's block soon.

Disclosure...As a reviewer of products at Artbeads.com, I receive the Glass Beads above free of charge. I have been asked to review these products and give my honest opinion of the products...positive or negative. I am not being compensated by Artbeads.com for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.

Following the Inspiration: Part 8

2010-02-17T14:57:00.000-05:00

Part 8: The Beads

This fall Artbeads.com contacted me about their blogging for beads program. Every few months they send me products to sample and ask that I review them on my blog. Last time it was Swarovski Crystals this time it was Silver and/or Glass beads. Since I am at heart a seed bead lover and I had been spending the last month or two working on ideas for my 2010 BJP I thought I would combine two different things and get beads that I could use on my BJP project.

Since I went with glass beads and seed beads I got a fair number of different goodies to play with but even then I couldn’t just stick with what they were sending me so I had to add an order of my own to get more. I am sure that the artists and beaders out there will understand you can never have enough. The joy for me is that I had two orders to open up and play with.

Since I got so many goodies I will mention the ones in this review that I loved the most and review more of them as I use them on my Zentangle BJP. All the beads were wonderful and my only complaint would be that the packages of seed beads were not big enough ( I don't think they could be ; > ). They do have the advantage of if you don’t need a lot you don’t have to order a big tube and use only a hundred or so and have tons left over and you can always order more packages if you want more. Most of the non seed bead glass beads were available individually so you could order as many as you needed and ordering more means more discounts.

I admit I was really struck with some of the finishes on the Czech beads. I ended up ordering more than one size/shape in Picasso, Picasso Brick, and Blue silk. I really like the variety you get in the beads so although they are the same size and color the finish makes them just enough different to lend them some wonderful uniqueness. I ended up with squares, daggers and lentils in Jet with Picasso and even some matte lentils and I love them all. The matte ones have a really old earthy feel to them like they could have been around for a long time. I may have to order some more of some of these beads since I can see them as really cool bracelets and other jewelry.

Since I wanted to use the beads I got for my BJP project I chose seed beads that I thought that would go well with the zentangles that I am doing for my 2010 BJP. I thought some 3 mm and 9 mm Toho bugle beads might be “just the ticket” since there are quite a few zentangles with straight lines. The Metallic Blue/Purple Iris are my favorites with the Dark Rainbow Iris coming in closely behind. I must admit I do love metallic beads and choosing from the many colors was really hard for me.

I realized that the easiest way to give myself more of a selection without getting a lot more beads was to buy a couple of Toho Seed Bead Mixes. I tend to love mixes anyway and when I don’t buy them will often make my own mixes for certain projects. I ordered 4 different mixes and was quite pleased with them. They included bugles, cubes and a range of different sizes of round seed beads. Each mix was in a theme ( I chose Amber Blues, Blue Water, Grays and Blacks/Crystals). I could really see some of these mixes as really cool freeform peyote bracelets or something. These will definitely come in to play a fair amount on my different blocks for 2010.

My other favorite beads (from both orders) were:

The Toho 8/0 round hybrid Jet Picasso; like the larger Czech bead these had the same finish in a smaller size and were really cool, need more of these beauties.

The Toho 1.5 mm cube Metallic Amethyst Gunmetal; it’s like they mixed gunmetal and purple and wow if you love purple these are a “must have.” These baby cubes also make really cool bead embroidery to fill in an area. The other colors are almost as cool.

The Toho 11/0 round Matte Nickel-Plated Plum/Teal Iris and the 8/0 Matte Raku Nickel-Plated Plum/Teal Iris; not sure what the difference is with the raku on the 8/0’s is but this is a color bomb that has lots of Wow to it. It is a mix of fuchsia, teals, purples, and copper like colors in it. Will have to make sure to pepper these around here and there for some fun sassy color.

After receiving my orders and after I had my sketch for my Zentangle BJP done I decided to lay the larger beads out on the sketch so that I could make sure that I had them spread out on the piece. I didn't want to end up with all of the larger beads in one block or one area. I still have all of the seed beads that will be spread throughout the piece as well.

I am including more photos of the beads in my Zentangle BJP album on my web gallery. If you are interested in knowing more about a specific bead leave a comment here I will get you the item number. I will also have more photos of all the beads in use every month in my Zentangle BJP.

Disclosure...As a reviewer of products at Artbeads.com, I received the glass beads above free of charge. I have been asked to review these products and give my honest opinion of the products...positive or negative. I am not being compensated by Artbeads.com for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.

Following the Inspiration: Part 7

2010-02-03T14:52:00.006-05:00

Part 7: Ideas coming together/The Plan

So where does all of this process of saying what if and combining different ideas from different sources?

At this point several ideas are coming together and different things that I like are going to be included. For anything that I wasn’t sure about I did some samples or trials (just another excuse to play). So what have I ended up with so far? I really like the Zentangles and am planning on using that as the basis of my BJP this year. The graphic nature of the black and white would be a new direction for my BJP and combining that with stylized images would make it more “me.” After making the original dragonfly zentangle I liked it so much that I decided to make a companion piece for it.

I have decided to go with 12 tiles that join to make a larger piece. I will be making the whole group as a zentangle in pen and ink and using beads and embroidery to add color and dimension.

Size: 5” square fabric blocks some of the edge blocks will probably have tangles that leave the outer edges. The 12 blocks will join to form a total piece approximately 15” x 20” which I will probably mount on a canvas.

Techniques: This year I will be experimenting less with new techniques but will be mixing embroidery and pen and ink work. All the pen and ink will be black with the fabric being white. The only color will come from embroidery.

I really like quotes and enjoy when I can bring quotes, lyrics or poems into my work; I really don’t do it often enough. The big question would be what words to use. I have been listening to a fair amount of music while working on the house and think that maybe one of the songs that I have been drawn to lately might have to come into play.

I have chosen my inspiration pieces; I will not be using every word. Here are my choices:

Nickelback - If Today Was Your Last Day Lyrics
Songwriter: Chad Kroeger

My best friend gave me the best advice 
He said each day's a gift and not a given right
Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind 
And try to take the path less traveled by
That first step you take is the longest stride

If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late 
Could you say goodbye to yesterday? 
Would you live each moment like your last
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had, if today was your last day?
What if, what if, if today was your last day?  

Against the grain should be a way of life 
What's worth the price is always worth the fight
Every second counts 'cause there's no second try
So live like you're never living twice 
Don't take the free ride in your own life  

If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had?  

And would you call those friends you never see? 
Reminisce old memories? 
Would you forgive your enemies?
And would you find that one you're dreaming of?
Swear up and down to God above 
That you'd finally fall in love if today was your last day?

If today was your last day 
Would you make your mark by mending a broken heart? 
You know it's never too late to shoot for the stars
Regardless of who you are

So do whatever it takes '
Cause you can't rewind a moment in this life
Let nothing stand in your way
'Cause the hands of time are never on your side

If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday? 
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had?

And would you call those friends you never see? 
Reminisce old memories? 
Would you forgive your enemies?
And would you find that one you're dreaming of 
Swear up and down to God above 
That you'd finally fall in love if today was your last day? 

The Road Not taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, 
And sorry I could not travel both 
And be one traveller, long I stood 
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,  
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.  
Oh, I kept the first for another day!  
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

  I shall be telling this with a sigh
 Somewhere ages and ages hence:
 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
 I took the one less traveled by,  
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost

If you wish to see all of the photos for all of the inspirations, trials, and the start of my BJP for 2010 you can go to my Web Gallery. You can also see photos for the building and decorating of our house. If you want to read about any of that you can visit my main blog.

Following the Inspiration: Part 6

2010-01-31T16:06:00.072-05:00

Part 6: Where to get more tangles?

Once you get started where do you go to find more tangles? As I have mentioned just by doing a cursory search on the internet for “Zentangles” you can come up with plenty of places to find new tangles. I have mentioned Sandy Steen Bartholomew, the Zentangle website, and fellow BJPer Robbie as places to start but what if you want to look for your own sources; where do you go.

The good news is that inspiration for tangles can be found around you in your everyday life. The basket you keep your favorite crafting supplies in, your favorite rug, a stack of CD’s sitting on your desk. In their basic form tangles are repeating patterns. You can take them beyond that but finding repeating patterns just takes a look around and inspiration hits.

Another place that I found amazingly interesting for inspiration was an art museum. I trip to DC to see an exhibit that I was really interested in and I ended up full of ideas for tangles. The inspiration doesn’t have to be something new.

The exhibit I had wanted to see was “Falnama: The Book of Omens” at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The Falnama’s are rare 17th-century works of art, pictures that were used for prognostication created at the end of the Islamic millennium. After preforming ablutions and reciting prayers the person would open the large manuscripts to a random page to answer a question.

I really love illuminated manuscripts and miniature paintings with all of their elaborate details. I try to get to any special exhibits that I can that feature this kind of art as they truly speak the detail part of me. I really lucked out as we visited this show shortly after I had started tangling and I saw right away that there were loads of patterns within these wonderful, colorful pages.

I just had to buy the book that went with the exhibit so that I could take these home with me and poured over the pages finding different patterns that I could use. I added couple of dozen new patterns in just my first times through the book and when things get more settled I will look for more inspiration from these pages.

Another source for some unexpected ideas came from The Washington Post. They have a magazine each Sunday and when I saw the cover done in black with zentangle like images in white on it I was struck how if you are open to it inspiration for art can come from the most unlikely places.

When I ordered my Zentangle Kit I got a zentangle legend with 20 different zentangles on it. I thought that was a great idea and so started making some more with ideas I got from their newsletters, other blogs, and other images online as well as those I pulled from the Falnama book or came up on my own. I have fallen a bit behind and need to work on adding more ideas to the cards.

Since we have been so busy with the house and decorating and I am behind with my posts so if you wish to see all of the photos for all of the inspirations, trials, and the start of my BJP for 2010 you can go to my Web Gallery. You can also see photos for the building and decorating of our house. If you want to read about any of that you can visit my main blog.

Following the Inspiration: Part 5

2010-01-27T15:57:00.003-05:00

Part 5: Trying it on Fabric and in Tiles

At this point I think that I want to see what happens if I combine beading and the black and white pen and ink look of zentangles. If I go this direction though I don’t think I am going to want to bead through paper the whole time. If I use acrylic matte medium on paper can I prep fabric to accept the pen without having to worry about bleeding and will the surface of the fabric work with the fine detail work that I would want to include? The only way to find out was to try it.

I used a few coats of acrylic matte medium on a scrap of leftover lining fabric from the curtains that I am currently sewing for our new house. The medium has the advantage of keeping the fabric from fraying so I thought I would also try out the idea of making a piece that has a larger image and then cut it apart and work on the tiles individually. This would allow me to see if I liked how this worked and looked when I put it back together.

I really enjoy working representationally more that abstractly so what did I want to use as an image? Since Transition has been a big factor in my life these last 2+ years I decided to go with a dragonfly and since they are connected to both air and water I gave him some water and some cattails. I also gave him some flying loop to loops that join the whole piece and further divine the piece up. Once the pencil lines were done I cut the piece up.

I chose five inch squares for this project which pushed the size of the piece up to a total of 15 x 20 when it is together and some of my images and loops go off the border a bit so it is a little larger.

Working on the fabric was easier than I thought it might be. A finer weave would probably be even better but I only get hung up on the weave occasionally. I have enjoyed working on the fabric and can see where some of the tangles would look cool with some beads and others could be completely beaded.

Now I just need to come up with how I want to finish the piece.

Since we have been so busy with the house and decorating and I am behind with my posts so if you wish to see all of the photos for all of the inspirations, trials, and the start of my BJP for 2010 you can go to my Web Gallery. You can also see photos for the building and decorating of our house. If you want to read about any of that you can visit my main blog.

Following the Inspiration: Part 4

2010-01-06T14:59:00.005-05:00

Part 4: Quotes, going larger

I have always enjoyed quotes and have occasionally used them in pieces of art or inspiration for a piece of art. In Sandy Steen Bartholomew’s article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors she used words and journalling with her zentangles and I thought that could be the perfect next step to explore where I could take my doodles. At this point I also wanted to go larger. The small size was easy to finish and fun to do but would I enjoy taking it larger? If I was going to include quotes then I would want a larger format to explore this more.

So where do I start? Which quote do I choose? Since I am a bit of a Christmas music fan ( I have purchased 11 new Christmas CDs this year) and I have been listening to Christmas music on and off since July I had recently listened to a song on Windham Hill’s “Winter Solstice On Ice” which has the Jim Brickman's song “Your Love.” I included the lyrics to the song in my post for Wayne and my anniversary.

I started out with making the strings for the piece which I placed on a 11” x 14” sheet of paper. I used the lyrics to inspire how the strings would look. Since it was a love song I included a heart and some stylized wings for the “You could give me wings to fly.” After the strings were finished I added the lyrics writing them so that they followed the lines of the strings. I wasn’t worried about the whole thing being written in order or upside right. I did keep the individual verses together. I contained the lyrics with lines on either side of them so that I would not put the tangles too close so that you couldn’t read the lyrics.

Then it was time to play. Many of the tangles are just regular tangles that I had found through Sandy’s article, blog and the Zentangle website; I also let the lyrics inspire some of the tangles including feathers, flowers, rings, hearts, the sun, moon and stars. In this piece some of the tangles are my own ideas and others are variations of the ones on the various sites. You can find inspiration for new tangles in the patterns that are all around you in everyday life; they are repetitive patterns.

After the “Your Love” piece I wanted to try using some quotes about creativity and so I chose several that I find inspiring.

“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition.” ~Alan Alda

“Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow talent to the dark places it leads” ~Erica Jong

“To create one’s world in any of the arts takes courage” ~Georgia O’Keefe

More strings and words and time to play again with tangles. I was working on this one on the couch next to Wayne and he came up with the ideas for a couple of new tangles for me. He has since come up with a few more tangle ideas for me which is kind of fun.

Although I do not like this piece as much as my previous piece I still learned a lot and tried new things and I don’t dislike it I just don’t think it is quite as strong a piece.

The next piece was also 11 x 14 but no quotes this time. I wanted to see what happened if I took some stylized images and combined them adding strings to join the images and further divide the piece. With Christmas approaching I thought I would try using a theme. I also wanted to see what happened if I added some selective color to the piece. I made a circle to represent a wreath and a Christmas tree with a star on top. Some of the tangles here were representative of the season like Christmas lights and poinsettias and other were just regular tangles. I really liked how this piece turned out. It has a graphic feel to it.

Following the Inspiration: Part 3

2009-12-12T15:19:00.054-05:00

Part 3: Playing with Details

It would appear that I am not the only BJPer who has discovered Zentangles and is considering using them for the 2010 BJP. A shout out to Robbie who has been experimenting with zentangles as well and has already combined them with her quilting, very cool.

My first couple of Zentangles were just small pieces of paper with simple strings. Zentangles are easy to do. You start with a piece of paper, the website suggests a quality paper that they sell but to start I used what I had on hand that was heavy enough to not bleed with the pen work going on it. To start all you have to do is put small dots in pencil about 1/2 inch in from the corners and then join them with pencil lines (they don’t have to be remotely straight. Yeah!) After that you draw in what are called strings; these are just lines to divide the area up. (imagine dropping a string onto the paper and drawing those lines onto the paper with pencil).

Now you just grab a fine permanent pen and start making tangles. These are mostly repetitive patterns that end up looking fairly complicated but usually consist of repetitive parts. You can find several tangles on the zentangle.com website in their newsletters and in their starter kit which includes instructions for quite a few tangles and all the supplies to get you started. Sandy Steen Bartholomew has some on her blog and there are also ones that you can find elsewhere online including YouTube.

Here are a few tangles for any one who wants to try them.

This tangle is actually pretty fun to make and looks harder than it is. Start with a zig-zag line near one side or bottom of your area. Add additional zig-zags to connect to these. The additional zig-zags can be completely free of the previous ones, or like these connected on the down strokes. One of the nice thing about connecting them is that it is quicker and gives it a more organic look. I like mine to curve a bit to give them more movement.

Originally inspired by a leaf this tangle is very versatile; with some variations it could look more like buildings or parts of a bridge or.... Start with a dashed line (sort of looks like the lines in the middle of the street) and then add more lines that radiate out from this center, these can be very organic or very structural, thin or thick, or whatever you can think of to do with them.

Inspired by peacock tails this tangle starts off with lines of connected "P" shapes. Fill up your space with roughly parallel lines of these "P"s. Fill in each loop of your "P"s with a smaller teardrop shape. This can be colored in if you like. add radiating lines out from each line (sort of like the veins of a leaf.)

This pattern has been around for a very long time and can be found on tiles and other media from years ago in part 6 I will mention where I found this pattern and where you can find other patterns to inspire you. You start out with horizontal lines in twos and then repeat with vertical lines. Color in the boxes at the intersections and then make elongated teardrops around the center point of each of your squares.

Following the Inspiration: Part 2

2009-12-08T21:50:00.003-05:00

Part 2: A New Inspiration

Whenever I get a new issue of a magazine I give it a once through and then read the articles as I have time for them. I seldom read any of the articles the first time though. When the November/December issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors ( this is one of my favorite magazines) came I started to do this as well but got stopped in my tracks on page 80 with the article “Add Pattern to Journals with Zentangles and Transfers” by Sandy Steen Bartholomew.
I have always been a detail person and I love to doodle and this was doodle art. I read the article and then reread it later that night and found some paper, a pencil and pen and got started. Hey I can doodle with the best of them. I thought hey this is great fun, maybe I should find out more so I went to Sandy’s blog and read some there and then went to the Zentangle website and read their newsletters where I found more tangles to use and saw many more ideas on how others had used the techniques and how it had inspired artists to push it in new directions. The original idea is abstract and all in black and white with some shading but people where pushing it into including color and some representational images.
Since I am really enjoying the process which is really relaxing and fun I think I will see where I can take this. Could I use this and combine it with beads? Some of the images remind me of patterns in embroidery (with or without beads).

Following the Inspiration: Part 1

2009-12-02T22:37:00.005-05:00

Part 1: Introduction and Unformed Ideas

Have you ever wandered how other people come up with ideas for projects? Wanted to creep into someone’s head and watch how one little bit of inspiration morphed and joined with other ideas to eventually become a piece of artwork? I have always found the creative process fascinating and know that for every artist how they follow this path is different. I have decided to try to share this process for my 2010 Bead Journal Project with those of you who read my blog.

I must admit that I have never been one of those people who suffer from artistic blocks. I usually have more ideas than I know what to do with and since I do a variety of types of creating I find they feed into each other or that I can switch the media I am working in to refresh my creative energy.
I think that a good start will be to look back at what my last two years ideas were. For the first year (2007-8) I chose to combine my photography with beading using at least one photo per piece that was 4” x 6” or larger. That year I explored many techniques that were new to me and seeing what happened when combining photos with beads and stitching. For this past year’s (2008-9) BJP I got more ambitious and although the overall piece isn’t finished yet the individual monthly blocks are. I chose to do a self portrait symbolically using mixed media and bead embroidery. This time I included collaging, painting, thread and bead embroidery and have tried many more new techniques.
Looking back at the two years I have found out much more about myself and have discovered that I really enjoy mixing somewhat disparate techniques and balancing them to make a piece that is uniquely my own. I have enjoyed trying new things and finding the deeper meaning in what I have done.

As I registered for the new (2010) year of the Bead Journal Project I started to consider what I wanted to set as goals and parameters for my next 12 blocks. I knew since we were getting ready to close on our new house and that I would have moving, painting, helping lay hardwood flooring, and have many other projects to accomplish in the next year that I could not take on something that was too big or time consuming. I had tried 8” x 10” individual blocks and 4” x 6” blocks on a larger format. I figured that I would not want to go much bigger that 4 x 6 blocks. So what would happen if I went square instead of rectangular for the individual blocks? Maybe joined blocks or tiles so that the individual blocks were part of a larger whole piece? Robin Atkins included a post about a bead quilt that individual beaders were each given a block of that had lines that were part of the whole picture and when the individual blocks were put back together they formed an over all picture even if the beaders used different colors, images, etc. MMMMMMMM.....

Crystals and a Special Offer

2009-11-10T23:37:00.007-05:00

Recently I ordered some Swarovski crystals from Artbeads.com so that I could play with some new stuff and to try out some of the crystal that my LBS doesn't happen to carry. I made a small order and wanted to choose things that I could relatively quickly turn into finished pieces with the crystal and supplies I already have.

Artbeads.com has a pretty impressive collection of Swarovski Elements and keeping the order reasonable was pretty challenging since I wanted some of everything. One of the nice things is that they have free shipping on all orders in the USA or $1 to Canada. (More money to spend on crystals.)

The top photo is my order all wrapped up in purple tissue paper which I think I will have to use in a collage once my studio is up and running. The photo below is all of my goodies laid out. What did I order? 100 each of the 3 mm and 4 mm Crystal Heliotrope bi-cones, 12 mm rivolis in Crystal Copper and Crystal Vitrail Light, 14 mm rivolis in Amethyst, 10 mm rivoli buttons inCrystal Meridian Blue, 2 of the brand new Fish Pendants in Crystal Golden Shadow and 2 of the smaller 16 x 26 mm leaf pendants in Topaz.
With my order I got a Share the Savings Card that I would like to share with anyone who would be interested in checking out Artbeads.com for themselves. Although I just purchased crystal this time they have lots of other goodies. With the code I am including you can get 10% off your order through the end of the year. The code is SCF10P-ARTBEADS-0424. Now to figure out what I want to get next? Maybe some seed beads for next years Bead Journal Project which starts in January? MMMM.........

Go to my Artistic Kreations and Passions blog in a few days to see what I have done with all of these yummy crystals.

12 Months Finished

2009-11-04T14:42:00.004-05:00

Although it has taken me a while to put this photo up I have had all of the the 12 blocks for the year done for a while. I won't be able to find the time to work on the background layers until sometime next year. I am still planning on joining the new years BJP that starts in January but will try to keep it to a more manageable size so that I don't get behind since I have this one that still has many hours of stitching left to go. Registration is still open for the 2010 BJP for anyone interested. I am really glad that I chose this and am still really excited about where it is going and how it has pushed me to try new things and grow artistically.

For those who have been keeping track you can check out how the house is going on my web gallery and read more about it on my Artistic Kreations and Passions blog. I am knee deep in fabric working on getting the curtains for the new house started. I doubt I will have all of the curtains (18 panels) and roman shades (6) that I am planning in the first wave. That will cover most of the windows I am going to want done in the first few months.

Nest Building

2009-10-14T12:09:00.004-04:00

There are times in our lives that we all want to build a nest. That place that is distinctly our own. My final block for my 2008-9 BJP is a nest. My magpie wanted to have her own nest so she got it. The idea for the nest came and went as the year went through but I finally went with the idea since it felt right.
The nest was made free form with several cord pieces and imitation raffia I had no idea what it was going to turn out like but it was kind of fun just putting and weaving the branches together into a nest. I made a lining for my nest of feathers and after attaching it to the tree I let the magpie decorate her nest with beads and buttons and more feathers.
For me the nest was very timely since we are building a house and I will get to decorate it in all of the colors, fabrics and other goodies that I want. After years of making other people's houses that we were renting into a home for us, we will get to have our own house and really personalize it. We now have drywall up and the house is really starting to come together. If you want to see the progress we are making visit My Web Gallery. I will be putting a new post of my main blog when I have time this week about how things are going and my upcoming projects to get ready for the house.
Magpies build their nests in forks of trees or thorn bushes, thorn bushes often guard doorways to the spirit and fairy realm. Forked branches represent intersections between worlds (again a doorway.) Birds nests in upper branches of trees are emblems of celestial messengers or souls.

For anyone interested the registration for the next years BJP is now open. We will running the new years from January through December 2010. If you are interested please go to the registration page for the Bead Journal Project website. Registration runs through December 15th 2009.

July Dragonflies

2009-09-27T13:09:00.002-04:00

It is kind of interesting that I included Dragonflies and Butterflies both last year in my pieces and this year as well. Last year the dragonflies were nearer the beginning and the the butterflies nearer the end. It would seem that transformation is a very strong message in my life these last couple of years.

July's block comes with 2 dragonflies landing in amongst the flowers on my sacred tree. The number 2 is important to Dragonfly, so think in terms of two year periods when you begin a change. Their heads and main body segments are heart beads both to represent my love of dragonflies but also my love with Wayne. The paired bodies of mating dragonflies form the shape of a heart, perhaps being the source for the modern symbol of love; it is believed that if you see two dragonflies paired together that they represent love and maturity.

The dragonfly is a symbol of growth and development. Her life begins in water, but as she matures, she moves to the air yet always stays close to the water. She reaches her strongest physical point during the summer months as she gains optimal strength from the warmth of the sunlight. Her brilliant colors result from reflecting and refracting the radiance of that light. As a result, they are associated with color magic, illusion in causing others only to see what you wish, and other mysticism. Dragonflies are reminders that we are light and can reflect the light in powerful ways if we choose to do so. “Let there be light” is the divine prompting to use the creative imagination as a force within your life.

When Dragonfly enters our lives, it is time to dig deeper, lift the illusion of suffering and believe in our limitless divinity. They are the essence of the winds of change, the messages of wisdom and enlightenment; and the communication from the elemental world. Dragonfly is a magical totem, signifying our ability to transform ourselves as we travel our path of self knowing toward enlightenment. It's iridescence and shifting colors lift us into dreamtime, where we can come to see that what seems to be "reality" is actually the illusion. The dragonfly symbolizes going past self-created illusions that limit our growing and changing. Call on Dragonfly to guide you through the mists of illusion to the pathway of transformation.

The dragonfly inhabits two realms: air and water and the influence of both these elements will be felt by Dragonfly people. They will be emotional and passionate during their early years (the influence of water) but as they get older they achieve balance with mental clarity and control. They gain an expression of the emotional and mental together.(the influence of air). Dragonflies are a symbol of the sense of self that comes with maturity.

It is said that Dragonfly was once Dragon, covered with beautiful, shimmering scales and wielding great inner strength. It could change form at will, and light the darkness with the fire of its breath. Coyote tricked mighty Dragon into changing form and into believing itself to be tiny Dragonfly. Dragon got caught in this illusion of its own making, just as we can find ourselves forever mistaking our facades for who we really are. Too often we believe our failures, our shortcomings, and our limitations are real. We have forgotten that we too can change form at will, wield great inner powers, and can light our darkness with our faith, hope, and determination.

Finding a Voice

2009-09-20T15:00:00.004-04:00

Although she has been done for a while now I am a bit behind in blogging about my beautiful magpie friend. She is bright-eyed and happy to finally get to meet you all. Life seems to keep getting in the way of my blogging and I am sorry that I have been so preoccupied with life.

Seeing a magpie is good luck. This member of the crow family teaches communication and the use of your voice. Understanding the balance of light and darkness, they help one see in darkness. Magpies are highly adaptable and have strong social organization skills.

Curious and somewhat impudent those with the magpie as their animal have a will of their own. Magpies will steal anything they can carry off and teach us the skill of using what ever you can find. The use of what is on hand; may reflect in a ‘dabbling’ pattern in your life.

Magpies symbolize intelligence showing the proper use of knowledge and intelligence and how to use what you have. They help you advance your knowledge although the knowledge is often incomplete. You may gain what you desire from the use of knowledge, but it may come in an obtuse or unusual way.

Magpies show us how to use ritual in everyday life. They help us to understand messages from spirit and the proper use of animals as familiars and occult knowledge. If the magpie is your animal you can use whatever metaphysical knowledge that you have and are able to open up as a person to new realms as simply and quickly as possible. You should not look for quick easy methods of attainment through occult knowledge. Seeing or dreaming of magpies usually indicates that you are going to encounter the spirit realm and metaphysical world in a different manner.

The flowers in this block were to represent my love of lilacs, my favorite flowering tree. In my mind they will always be tied to my Grandmother who had beautiful full lilacs in her front yard. The smell of them when they bloomed was amazing. As I write this she has just recently passed. I am so glad that I included a memory of her in BJP while she was still alive, her love of plants and knowledge were always inspiring. Once we start landscaping for our new house I will try to include lilacs because they always remind me of her.

June Magpie takes flight

2009-09-05T14:59:00.001-04:00

June goes to the birds or in this case to one bird. The magpie is one of my spirit animals and she has decided to visit us on my sacred tree.

I started working on her on our way back from Boston in the end of July. She wanted nice feathers so using feathers I had purchased years ago at Michaels I couched her feathers down. I am sure there were people in the airport and plane wondering what in the world I was up to.

Although a magpie's tail is not so fluffy and fanned out she liked hers that way so they will stay a burst of blue to help us steer and balance we go through life.

I used a crystal sequin for her eye and then beaded her head in blue to black size 15 seed beads.

May Iris Blooms

2009-08-28T14:45:00.002-04:00

I finished this block on our trip to Boston but haven't gotten around to blogging about it until now. I chose to add the Iris because it is a flower I love and it tends to bloom around our wedding anniversary.

The Iris symbolizes faith, wisdom, valor, hope, light and power. It leads us to higher inspiration and psychic purity.
At the root of the Iris I added more treasures for the bounty the ocean can bring to us with it's life giving nature.

The photo below is the background with the first 9 blocks on it. I still have a lot of work to finish the background for the piece but I really love how it is all starting to look.

More Love and Irises

2009-07-21T23:31:00.003-04:00

I am still behind but I finally got some time spent working on my May block. Since we are leaving tomorrow for a trip to Boston I will keep this note pretty short and will look at any symbolism in post with the finished block. The first photo show the background painting and the stitching getting started.

The second photo shows the piece with the thread embroidery done and the piece ready for some beads.

The last photo shows the piece after I added the stiffened Iris to the piece. The only part I needed to stiffen was the petals so that they would stay upright on the piece. I added leaves and sewed the roots down and spreading to get their moisture and nutrients from the world around them.

I do realize that Irises do not grow along salt water beaches but that is what Artistic License is for. These are primordial waters that give life to us all.

Wayne said that he really likes it so far. I still need the surf, sand and shells and then we will be finished and ready to move onto June.

If you want to see all of the photos of my Sacred Tree so far this year please visit my Web Gallery.

May Brings Love and Irises

2009-07-08T15:48:00.003-04:00

Life has seriously gotten in the way of my art lately and I am hoping that things will now start to settle down a bit so that I can spend some quality time creating. If you want to read about all of the hub-bub in our life you can read about it in my Artistic Kreations and Passions blog.

May always starts out with our wedding anniversary on Cinco de Mayo, lucky for me that is also when the Irises around here are blooming. Wayne bought me some creamy roses that he thought would look good with the Irises we had.

I have always liked Irises and they are one of my favorite flowers and I have used them in y art before. I made a 3-d iris for my Pond Necklace. When I wanted to include irises in my Tree of Life I knew that it would be for May and that I wanted to make a 3-d iris for it.

I did get this much beaded in May but haven't had the time and energy to post the iris until now. I made each of the petals separately and then sewed them all together. The stem is made using herringbone stitch. I have also stiffened the iris with acrylic matte medium so that it will not look like it is dying with all of the petals about ready to fall off. I am planning on adding a leaf or two as well but will wait until I know how it is going to sit on the block.

I have the background painted as well and will try to get that up on here in a few more days. Once I get to work on the piece I expect that it will come together fairly quickly.

Although we have some stuff on the schedule for the month I am planning on spending some time just making art and trying to regain my sanity. I really feel like I loose that when I go too long without making art.

The Goddess in Us All

2009-05-26T07:20:00.003-04:00

This first photo shows the block that my tree spirit was going to go onto. I did most of stitching on it while on airplanes and in the airports on my way to Iowa. Very productive use of my time. I had figured out approximately what she would cover so that I didn't stitch where she would be sewn on. The halo is a piece of metal that I found one time on a trip to DC. I cleaned it up a bit, filed sections to get some of the shine in areas and added a bit of paint lightly to add more color. I top coated it to help keep it from tarnishing any further. I like the idea of having a slightly tarnished halo. Once I sewed her to the block I added the stars around her for my twilight sky.
Here she is in her full glory, the goddess that is inside each of us. She made get her hair trimmed a bit but I haven't decided yet on that. I still haven't found what I want to put in her hands. I feel that I will know when I find it. I have considered giving her a charm bracelet to hold between her hands but am not sure if that is the look I am after. When the time is right I will know what she wants.
While in Iowa I also spent some time working on my background a bit. I have not put any time into that in a while so I was glad that I had the time to do so. I wanted the biggest impact for my time spent so I chose to work on the ivy that is climbing up the tree. I wrote about it's symbolism with my October block (Ivy speaks of attachment, eternal friendship, fidelity, and wedded love.) The first step was couching down the cord which is a green cotton cord that I added values to using permanent markers. The ivy climbs up over the door, up the tree and onto my butterfly and cougar blocks. The next step was to add the leaves and the tendrils from the main vines. I didn't finish all of that in Iowa but worked on it some at the Wire Fest- Bead-In night and finished the leaves. Getting the Ivy on helped make the tree seem even happier than it was already.

The last picture is of my tree spirit block pinned onto the background. Her fringing will overlap the door but that is fine since it is a secret doorway anyway and she will help hide it a little bit.

It's all in the Details

2009-05-25T06:52:00.002-04:00

I had thought my life was a bit crazy before it has become more so in the time since my last post. We were originally planning on moving near the end of this year but that has been moved up twice in the last couple of weeks first to mid-August and now the end of June. Looks like we may end up in temporary housing until we find the house we want to buy, we don't want to settle or rush our decision. I have been busy and will only become more so in the near future. Luckily we can put our stuff in non-temporary storage with the Navy until March or so of next year.

I expect the craziness to mean that my blog entries may be a bit delayed and that I may fall behind on some of my blocks. The background will likely be delayed and I won't be able to work on the quilt part of it until we have a home probably. Who knows maybe it will give me more time since I won't have busy work around the house to do and we won't be living in a house that is on the market all summer.

One of the things that I knew I wanted for my Spirit was for her to have beaded jewelry. Since I make my own jewelry and have entered pieces into contest how could she not be adorned in some beaded finery. The photo above shows one of her peyote stitched bracelets. The photo below show her in all of her jewelry. She has CZ teardrops for her earrings and a small rivoli was used for the center of her necklace.

These two photos show where the bulk of my time went on this piece. I made lots and lots of vine fringing. I used 3 different type of flower beads and made slightly different fringes for each type of flower. I spent many hours at my parents home and at Mayo working on all of her fringe. My poor doll spent most of that time upside down since it was easier for me to work that way and I didn't get the tread caught so often that way. I found I couldn't work on it for hours straight because holding it the way I had to made my wrists a bit sore so I broke it up into smaller groups of time. I was amazed that it went quicker than I thought it would. I considered doing another row of fringing but she disagreed with me so I didn't argue with my muse.
In my next post I will show you her block in progress and then what she looks like all done on her block and pinned to the background. I won't sew her on like I have the other blocks because I won't be able to roll the background up with her on it.

Tree Spirit Comes To Life.

2009-05-12T15:52:00.004-04:00

Although my April BJP was finished in April on schedule I haven't taken the time to do any of my blogging about her yet even though it is almost half way through May. I am afraid that getting everything ready for my two and a half week trip to Iowa in late April kept me busy the first half and while I was there I kept busy with shopping and visiting etc. If you want to know what I have been up to please visit my main blog (Artistic Kreations and Passions Blog) Since I got back to the east coast I have spent time in Philly for Wire Fest and then trying to catch up after being gone. Wayne and I also celebrated our 19th anniversary.

I thought I would start with my sketch of this my block that I expected to take the most time and that really thinks outside the box. I found it interesting while I was researching trees and the tree of life how many early civilizations believed in sacred trees and how many had Gods and spirits that lived in or where part of that tree belief. My Tree Spirit is symbolic of that connection to the tree and our connection to the Earth. She is a tree spirit, earth mother, goddess, creative muse and so much more rolled up into one. She also represents all of those qualities that exists with in me since my whole project this year is about a self portrait of who I am.
I knew this project would be a learning experience since I wanted my tree sprit to be dimensional and so I needed to make a doll that I could attach to the block. I haven't made many dolls and I wanted this one to be somewhat realistic so I got to try things to see what would work. I used a pattern that I had kept from a Sew News from years ago for making a mini dress form. I scaled to what I needed and used just the front pieces and attached them to a pice of EZ Felt so that she would have a flat back. The head I just needed the correct size so that I could glue on the face piece that I got at a bead store in Maine a few years ago. The arms I made with pipe cleaners wrapped together with thread so that I had a hand shape. I did flesh gloves for them and put the wires inside of them. I did the main body piece in muslin and then once I had attached the arms I gave her skin over that stitching that to the backing.
First I attached her underskirt gathering it and stitching it to her wait and then I stitched sleeves and attached those. I must admit the little bit of clothing sewing I had done helped when trying to figure out how to make her clothing.
Her dress was made as a wrap dress with 2 separate pieces that I made the with the same pattern just flipping one of them. I sewed them on one at a time.
This last picture show her after she had gotten her hair. I used my hair that I had kept from a hair cut some years ago. It was challenging to work with it and figure out how to attach it to the doll. I ended up with some of the stitches showing so I gave her a bead cap to hide the stitching. My goal before leaving for Iowa was to have her ready to add beading to and of course have all of beading stuff ready to go with me to Iowa so I could work on her. I am glad that I managed to fit it all in.

First Seven Months

2009-05-05T16:58:00.003-04:00

I realize I promised this photo weeks ago but I had a lot to do before I headed off to visit my parents in Iowa and then I was gone from home for 2 1/2 weeks so I just never got around to it.

This is the first 7 months of my BJP completed and sewn onto the Sacred Tree background. I promise to start writing about my April block in the near future. My Tree Spirit is completed and I have photos so I just have to figure out what I am going to write about. If you can't wait to see the new block I have the first photos on my web gallery and will get the others on once I download them from the camera.

The Power of Silence

2009-03-31T14:18:00.003-04:00

I kept the stitching and beading for this months cougar pretty straightforward. Thread embroidery was used to add texture to the branches and add detail to the cougar's face. I used beads for the little bit of Ivy that climbs onto the piece on the left hand side. I kept the beading on the cougar to outlining to keep with the refined look of the cougar. I used a mix of beads to increase the shading effects possible. My last steps were adding leaf beads to the trees and crystal sequin stars to the sky.

All of the stitching and beading for this piece was done on one of our trips to Philadelphia. I have managed to accomplish a fair amount of beading on our trips there, between the drive up and down and the time here and there that I fit in I always seem to get a lot accomplished.

Cougars are expert climbers and swimmers and have 410 voluntary muscles. They are powerful, graceful, and stealthy in the dark. I am none of those things but sure is cool. Cunning, highly intelligent, with a strength of will, steadfastness, and intuitive abilities are often found in those with the cougar. Part of us is domestic and the other wild and primitive; we may dream of racing through the forest in the dark and dancing around a campfire. Cougars are primarily nocturnal.

Cougars help us to make quick decisive action and to measure or pace our movements according to the goal we are trying to achieve. Showing us how to grow and take charge they lead us to our own power. Guiding one to balance when to be gentle and when to assert oneself more forcefully the cougar can teach us how to defend ourselves and yet reminds us that there is strength and power in gentleness.. They remind us to use leadership wisely and without ego; balancing power, intention and strength. It may be a time to learn about power and to test your own. Assert your power, stretch your muscles and show your capabilities: bring out your power, fill your heart with it in a manner that will enable you to take charge of your life.

Cougars can move into different realities. As we peer into the darkness of the unknown the cougar can help guide us to the other side so that we can enjoy exploring the mystical side of life. Becoming more perceptive of our surroundings is something they can help us with so that we can achieve a heightened sense of spiritual awareness. They are a link between ourselves, Mother Earth, Father Sky and the Originator of All. Learning the benefits of concentration, deep contemplation, prayer and the power of silence will help those with the cougar as one of their animals spirits. They ask if we are empowering our lives the best way we can

I will write a post later this week with the start of my April piece and a photo of the first 7 months on the tree background. I chose my Tree Spirit for April since I expect it will take a bit longer and I will be traveling to Iowa the last half of the month to visit my folks. I should have plenty of time to bead.

I have recently changed my website up so if you would like to see all of the changes please visit Artistic Kreations and Passions. If you want to see even more photos of my BJP pieces please check out my Web Gallery. I have added photos of the box I started when I took a class with Robin Atkins when she visited Baltimore to my Web gallery so you can see them there or read about it on my Artistic Kreations and Passions Blog.

Painting the Cougar

2009-03-25T16:04:00.003-04:00

Now it is time to go a bit more in depth with what I do to make my block to bead on. All of the pictures are clickable if you want to see them larger. Also if you want to see more photos and larger photos please visit my web gallery which has all of the photos I take and usually gets them before I even get them on my blog.

If you read my last post you know where I get my images for drawing my animals. I start with a piece of graph paper that is the size of my block and copy the details like branches from the background so the block will have those on them. I then figure out where I want my animal and which way they will face. Using the research I did I then draw the animal onto the graph paper. If you read my Like Leaves on a Tree Plenty of Ideas post you saw that for many of my blocks I did the original sketching early on. Also if you look at the pictures on the post you will see an earlier version the the cougars head.

When the month rolls around for the animal to come to life I refine my drawing looking again to my inspiration and changing what I don't like. The cougar got lots of attempts at getting his face right, it had looked almost like a cartoon and he did not like that.

After the drawing is finalized I take a piece of medium weight interfacing to which I have applied a coat of acrylic matte medium. I place that over the drawing and copy the information onto the interfacing with permanent pens.

At this point I may also add some extra details to the interfacing with more permanent markers. (Let's hear it for so many colors of fine tip Sharpies!) Then it is time to start painting. I have been using mostly fluid acrylic paints for this piece but I also use some fabric paints as well. I usually work relatively quickly on the animals starting with lighter colors and going darker doing the shading and gradations while the paint is still wet. When I want to add crisp lines or finer details I will wait for the piece to dry then add them.

The background is painted onto a poplin weight fabric that has been prepared with a coat of matte medium. I often have areas of different colors on it that needs to dry between them so that I don't get bleeding. I will usually start with the background move to the interfacing and back so while I work on one the other can dry some. Once I have both the back ground and foreground images painted I let them dry and then I cut out the foreground image. I use matte medium as a glue to attach the two layers together.

I made one mistake on this piece in that before I added my cougar I should have added the fusible web leaves. It was more challenging to add them after he was already on the piece but I managed. Once the layers are all married together I cut out the block and fuse it to felt. That's it, I can usually do it all in a day depending on when I get it started.

Cougar/ Information on Research

2009-03-20T15:35:00.002-04:00

My first note is that all of these photos can be clicked if you want to see them larger. Also if you would like to see more photos visit my web gallery which has my latest photos and often gets them before I get around to blogging them.

I have received several comments on how I do my research and where I get my information as well as how I get the images I need to draw and paint my animals for my blocks so I thought I would break this month's (March's) block up into sections talking about the research, showing the steps in the making of the painting and then the last entry will cover the beading and symbology for the cougar.

As I was playing with the idea of my Sacred Tree and I knew I was going to use my animal totems and animals that have personal meaning to me I decided to re-read the information that I had on them. I have Ted Andrews "Animal Speak" and have found it a really useful source. There are other good books out there on animal totems and "Animal Speak isn't the only one I have. For those of you who don't like to collect books as much as I do another very good resource is to go online and use your web browser and type in the animal you are interested followed by symbology (example: cougar symbology) and do a search. You will be amazed at how much information you can find that way. The same is true for all of the other symbology that I have used in my piece you can either look online or buy books. I have at least 5 symbology books and still spend time online adding to the research information that I have.

The first 3 photos are of my notebook that I am keeping for my Sacred Tree piece. It was an inexpensive notebook that I bought and started collecting the information I was finding for this piece. For each item I have blogged, the symbology for each animal or other item in the overall piece has a separate entry in my book. Luckily for me this notebook can be taken apart and the pages rearranged so that I could keep like things together or finding anything would have become a problem.

The first photo shows one of three pages of written notes that I have made of the cougar for all of the symbology information that I was finding, some of it is repeated from more than one source and they are not in any order. Once I get ready to blog I try to make some sense of order out of the notes.

The other question I got was about my visual research or how did I draw and paint the animals especially since I haven't seen many of them or didn't have my own photos of them. I would have liked to use my own photos but alas except for the Honu (turtle) I did not have any photos that would work. Once again I went online and did a search this time with what I was looking for and then images (cougar images) the number of images you can find is overwhelming but I would sort through and find some that gave me an idea of the look of the animal and the coloring. In the case of the cougar I also found a pice of fabric that had images of cougar heads so I bought some which came in really handy when I was having trouble getting the face of the cougar to look right.

February: Bear on the Beach

2009-03-03T11:28:00.002-05:00

I started working on my February block after I finished my January block so around the 16th I started painting it and then got all of my supplies together since we were going to Philly the next weekend and I knew I would have time on the way up at least to work on it. I had other time as well and then finished it on the very last day of February. This block was a lot of fun to work on and required no real thought. Although my bear guardian is a male, Wayne and I both agree that my bear looks like female. She looks like she is happy to be sitting on the beach playing in the sand and gathering treasures.

Bears symbolize healing, solitude, change, communication with spirit, death and rebirth, transformation, patience, playfulness, astral travel and wisdom. Bear offers strength, introspection and knowledge. Bears do not make snap decisions; they take in all available information, take it to their quiet place, study it carefully until they reach their own informed decision. They teach us to go within our inner sanctum to find our answers. They are strong, nurturing and protective; reminding us to not forget caution. Bears are self sufficient and would rather stand on their own two feet than rely on others. Bears are often associated with trees (all can climb), trees are the natural antenna linking heaven and earth, fertility and things that grow. The tree serves as a reminder that we must bring what we awaken into the world and apply it. We should also keep the cub in us alive and climb trees.

They are a creature of dreams, and teach us to be dreamers and may help us to develop the skill to visualize new things. They store the teaching of our dreams until we wake up to them. They help us awaken the power of the unconscious. They are a spirit keeper of the west, a place of maturity and good harvest. Bears are active both day and night and are connected with both solar (strength and power) and lunar (intuition) energies.

The bears going into their caves is symbolic of a return to the Mother Earth. Bear people tend to like home and shelter and like to be warm and cozy. They help us to go within to find the inner stores of energy and essence necessary for our personal survival, even those that have never been tapped, and teach us how to remain balanced amid change. Bears represent the great cycle of life and rebirth, renewal and fresh beginnings. People with bears often feel a need to go deep within themselves, to have periods in their life when they can be more reclusive. Often during this time they will birth 2-3 new ideas or projects that they will nurse through the winter and as spring approaches they emerge with their new “babies” to help them grow. A cycle of semi-hibernation and reclusiveness in the winter may feel very natural to these people and the thing to remember is to be careful not to hide away and hibernate all year long.

I have always felt very drawn to bears starting in early childhood. I always liked bear stories, seeing bears on TV or in zoos. When I was 10 I got Teddy who is my favorite bear, he goes with me everywhere and is a very well traveled bear. I also have a decent collection of stuffed bears and other bear goodies. When I first read about bears I was amazed in how much it related to who I am, especially in that I did indeed have a certain need to hibernate in the winter. I often will not leave the house for weeks at a time if I don’t have to and often am very creatively productive. It is also a time of great introspection for me which is definitely one of my personality traits.

January: Bison

2009-03-01T12:47:00.000-05:00

January's block actually was done in February since I spent most of my creative time in January reorganizing my bead supplies. That was one of my goals for the new year and gave me a sense of completion that I was needing at the time. February started out fairly quickly with a terrible cold that really knocked me out for the first 1/2+ of the month but somehow I still managed to work on my block for January and finish it by Valentine's Day. I had painted it before I got sick which helped. Like the previous months the background is painted with fluid and other acrylics onto a poplin weight fabric. The Bison is painted onto interfacing and cut out and collaged onto the background. The painting is then fused to felt that acts as a mat and a support for the beading.

The hardest part about starting this months block was that I liked how the painting of the bison had turned out and had a hard time stitching the first bead onto it. Luckily, once the first bead was on the rest of the beading was much easier.

Bisons represent our sacred life and the abundance of the Creator’s blessing on Mother Earth and the respect that we should have for all of creation knowing that all things are sacred. As a manifestation of the divine aspects of our being bison teach us to incorporate our own efforts to embrace and hold life. Bison remind us to honor our path through life and ask for assistance from the spirit world as we recognize the sacredness of every walk of life and honor the pathway of others. The massive head of the bison reminds us to combine our own efforts with that of the Divine and that both mundane and spiritual are necessary to manifest what we are seeking. You don’t have to struggle to survive if right action is combined with right prayer.

Bison stands proud against the winds of adversity. The bison teaches us to temper our power when dealing with others and to allow the tranquility and peace of the Buffalo Brother to enter our lives. They remind us to look for the good in all things and to have the courage to face all of our problems head on. They help us to eliminate our burdens by directing our energies in a balanced way and to follow the easiest path and to not use force in our life, to flow with it. Do what you have to do and then let the events take their natural course.

The huge head of the Buffalo Brother signifies higher mental abilities that is grounded in Mother Earth by their tough bodies. Bison symbolize feminine courage and they teach us creativity, courage, sacred knowledge, sense of community, generosity, strength of character, hospitality, and survival strategies. Bison prize freedom and can teach us healing medicines. With their hump the Bison reminds us that we always have reservoirs that we can tap into.

Bison are known for their strength. I find it very interesting that most people who don’t know me really well see me as weak. Being an introvert and other things about me tend to make people see me as vulnerable. I have found I tend to bring out a protective instincts in a lot of people and a mothering instinct in many women. The thing is if you have any idea what it takes to be a military spouse you know that you can’t be weak and survive long. Many of the things that the bison teaches I use to get through the challenges that life offers, I always have even before I knew that the bison was one of my animals. Wayne is one of the few people I think that truly sees and knows how strong I am inside, it isn’t showy but it is there. He has told me that I am his rock and yet he is a very strong person on his own.

December: Foxes and Tulips

2009-01-09T14:06:00.000-05:00

December's block came about more quickly than I thought it would with Christmas cards and gifts, travel and everything else I was feeling way behind and like I really didn't have time to just create for me. We were planning a trip to Philly for our friends Renee and Dave's Christmas party and we were going up early so that Wayne could work a couple of days at Dragonfly so I knew that I would have a couple of days by myself in the house so I planned ahead and painted my block and got everything ready that I needed to take along. Above you can see the sketch of the background on the fabric and the fox on the interfacing before painting. Below is the the piece after the pieces were painted, cut out and the layers assembled.
The bottom photo is the finished block. I am going to start with the Tulip for symbolism since in this piece it has more personal meaning than symbolism. The tulip has many symbolic meaning with each color of tulip having it's own meanings. The main meaning I found that included most of them was the tulip is a declaration of love. December is a meaningful month in my life since in 1970 my brother, sister and I were adopted 2 weeks before Christmas. What a present for my new parents they suddenly had a 1,2, and 3 year old. Tulips have always reminded me of my mother because in Iowa they are often blooming around Mother's day and I would pick one to put in a vase for her breakfast in bed. In the picture below you will find 11 tulips representing the day were were adopted.

There is a lot of symbolism regarding the fox and there is no way I can include it all here. When I found out that the fox was one of my animals and I read about what they mean I was surprised by how much of myself I could see in it. First I will start with the basic meanings; cunning, slyness, stealth, observation and wisdom. The fox teaches us harmony with our surroundings and that listening is often more important than speaking. They also show us how to respond to situations by using the power of inner instinct and knowing. I react to people largely on an instinctual level, going with what I feel is right.

The fox has the ability to hide in plain sight and although I thought that I might do that unconsciously sometimes I wasn't sure until I talked to Wayne and he said that I definitely do that. I think part of it is that in social situations I will often draw into myself. Wayne has said that at a number of events someone has come up to him and ask him where I am and I am usually not far away right there but unseen. I guess luckily Wayne always knows were I am.

The fox lives in the between time of light and darkness and can look into both the physical and spiritual worlds. They are considered masters of camouflage and shape shifting. Foxes are often considered guides to the Fairie or Spiritual realms. They are connected to twilight and feminine magic. It seems many of the things I chose are related to the feminine energies and also the boundaries between realms.

The fox is closely related to the creative process, if the focus stays on creative energies life's twists and turns can be accomplished with ease. Some foxes can actually run up trees and those with the fox totem can move in new directions and call upon new resources instinctively.

Foxes are very monogamous and yet live alone about 5 months of the year (sound like a military spouse?) They are often solitary and comfortable with that state most of the time. People with the fox have a love of home, often have great tests in childhood and have great instincts. They will avoid potential danger and will go out of their way to do so. (That is so me when it comes to conflict.)

November: Full Moon

2009-01-08T14:21:00.000-05:00

At one point I was sure that I was not going to manage to get my November or December blocks done until after the start of 2009 because things were just a bit too busy and hectic but I managed to finish November and do December on a trip to Philly were Wayne was combining a visit with friends and some consulting work. I had 2 days in their house with no interuptions for several hours plus the time driving and got both finished. I just didn't manage to get to blogging about them until after the New Year.

One interesting thing I have noticed is although I haven't decided on what order I am going to work on the blocks that I have been asking Wayne which block I should work on sometimes giving him a couple to choose from and I have found that his choices seem to have some relivance to where either I am at or where we are at. So far he has pick which block for every month but the first one.

I am still really enjoying the effect of combining the painting, embroidery and beads on my blocks. I have been finding it a bit more challenging to figure out where I want the beads each month but it still seems to be flowing really well and the smaller size that have less beading and stitching are faster to work up that my 8 x 10 last year which seems to be a really good thing this time around.

The moon and sky are painted directly to the fabric. I made the branches out of painted interfacing and added some background leaves out of painted fusible web.

I used blue metallic thread to stitch texture into the sky. I did find out that trying to stitch dark blue thread on dark blue background in the car on a rainy day was very challenging so I switched to adding my moon lit leaves and finished the sky later with better lighting. The next addition was crystal sequin stars and a bit of topography for the moon and viola a beautiful twilight sky with the moon and stars shining bright.

Because these are the first stars to make it onto the piece I will include there meaning here. I am sure that they will end up on most of the sky blocks and background as well. Stars represent the spirit or the forces of the spirit, the soul, guidance (especially spiritual) and hope.

The moon represents the positive and negative traits of the female. It represents the accumulation of knowledge. A symbol of regeneration, it shows that life is full of fresh starts. The moon also is a symbol of intuition, imagination, reflection, sensitivity and the upward progress of humans. The full moon symbolizes wholeness and perfection and the ever continuing process of reaching these goals in our lives. Many of the symbols of the moon speak to parts of my personality and my quest for knowledge and wholeness in my life. As I work my way through another year full of personal growth I am amazed closely the objects I have chosen match the process of my growth.

I will try to get December's block up tomorrow but for those who can't wait I have added new photos to my website and to my web gallery (including all kinds of new photos of my BJP progress) feel free to check them out. I have also added a photo of my BJP as of the finish of the first quarter so if you want to see it go to my Artistic Kreations and Passions Blog

October's Beaded Butterflies

2008-11-03T12:53:00.004-05:00

I finished my block on the 29th of the month even though I wasn't sure if I was going to get it finished. With Wayne's homecoming, spending time together and getting ready for a party for his guys, I wasn't spending much time stitching or beading. I was glad for the smaller piece and that I had chosen not to work on the tree spirit piece.

I started working on this piece the Thursday I went up to Baltimore to meet and bead with Robin. I only worked on it that Thursday since on Friday with her class I started working on my first totally improvisational piece. If you want to read more about my time with Robin and the beginnings of my box for Wayne you can read about it in my main blog here.

I spent the next weekend mostly in vehicles going up to and back from New England for a friends wedding. Luckily most of the time I wasn't driving and I got all of the stitching on the tree and a good start on the embroidery on my butterfly done.

After getting home from that trip I had a couple of days to clean the house, unpack, teach a class, and run errands before Wayne got home from deployment. I did get more done the following week when he had to go out of town for a couple of days to return some gear and do paperwork.

While it is wonderful to have Wayne home I am still getting used to having him around especially since he is doing most of his working from home and I haven't quite gotten used to him being around so much, he is a wonderful distraction though.

The rest of the bead and thread embroidery have been done a bit here and a bit there as I took the time. Wayne even get to put his 2 cents worth in opinion which I even mostly listen to. The last thing to go on was the Ivy and Ivy leaves. I did them in beads since on the background piece they will be made out of cord with leaves from interfacing.

I still need to trim the felt but will get to that soon. I haven't decided what I want to do for my November piece yet. I am very undecided which comes next. I determined that since I was behind on my blogs and e-mail and haven't worked on my box for Wayne in 3 weeks that I would take a few days and see if one of my blocks spoke to me. I think that maybe I need to catch up with myself.

Remember if you want to see more photos of my Sacred Tree BJP that my Web Gallery has all of the photos I have of it and whenever I take new photos of the piece in process the photos go there first. I have also added some new photos to my website.

My Web Gallery- Includes photos of both of my BJP pages
Artistic Kreations and Passions- my website

BJP Website (my 2007-8 pieces)

Getting October Started

2008-09-30T15:27:00.011-04:00

I have started October's block a little bit early since I am going to spend the weekend in Baltimore meeting Robin Atkins (our wonderful leader for the BJP). She is going to be teaching classes and giving a presentation about last years BJP for the Needlework Guild there. I get to be her teacher's assistant which should be a lot of fun. Heck just talking and playing show and tell should be a lot of fun. I am really looking forward to my trip.

Since I will be going up there on the 2nd of October I wanted to have my block painted and ready to go. My original plan was to do my Tree Spirit this month but since I am going to be away from home the next 2 weekends and then having Wayne come home and there are some challenges to doing my tree spirit the way I want to I thought that maybe I should pick a month where things would be a little less hectic (if I can find any). Then I had to figure out which of the other blocks might feel right at this point. I have not assigned any particular blocks to specific months.
I chose the Butterflies since I wanted to do 2 butterflies to represent Wayne and me. With his homecoming happening this month something that represented us seemed rather appropriate.

I liked the way that I did my block for September so repeated the process. The background of the block was painted onto the poplin with fluid acrylics and the butterflies were painted onto the medium weight interfacing.

I am not sure how much of the painted butterflies will end up showing since I will be beading them and probably adding some embroidery as well. I used some of my left over painted fusible web to add leaves to my background before collaging the butterflies on to the background.

I chose our favorite colors for our butterflies. My favorite color is purple and Wayne's is blue. Each butterfly has a bit of the other's color on it to show that we each have some of the other in us. Color is one area where you could get seriously bogged down in symbolism so I will include some of the meanings for each but not spend days or weeks trying to wade through all the available meanings of each color.

Dark blue carries the blue symbolism of importance, confidence, power, and authority. Darker shades of blue are associated with intelligence, stability, unity, and conservatism. Blue is the most common favorite color. Blue is seen as trustworthy, dependable, loyal, faithful, and committed. The color of sky and the ocean, blue is perceived as a constant in our lives. As the collective color of the spirit, it is restful and calming. Blue is the least "gender specific" color, having equal appeal to both men and women.

Purple embodies the balance of red stimulation and blue calm. A sense of mystic and royal qualities, purple is a color often well liked by very creative or eccentric types. It can be uplifting and calming to the mind and nerves. It is also considered to encourage creativity. Often considered a feminine color since it is a favorite color largely among women.

Now onto the symbolism of butterflies, two butterflies represent marital happiness. The butterfly represents transformation and metamorphosis; very appropriate since we are both going through periods of personal growth and change.

Butterflies are considered a symbol of the soul. Since they shift shape they are connected to the faerie realm. They remind us that transformation is inevitable and that growth and change do not have to be traumatic. They encourage creativity and freedom and encourage us to get up and move, life is a dance.

Since the symbolism in this block is strongly about both Wayne and I the ivy that was climbing up the tree decided to grow when I wasn't looking and has climbed onto this block. Ivy speaks of attachment, eternal friendship, fidelity, and wedded love making it a perfect addition to this block. It is also another feminine symbol to add to a long list of symbols in this project that are feminine.

My Web Gallery- Includes photos of both of my BJP pages
Artistic Kreations and Passions- my website

BJP Website (my 2007-8 pieces)

Honu in Beads

2008-09-14T12:43:00.001-04:00

Each of my pieces will be backed with a piece of dark purple felt. It will act as a frame so that the pieces will stand out from the collage and also give me a more substantial surface to work with. I also found that the stitching gives it a quilted look which I like.

Since I started planning this project I started looking for beads that I thought could work. Mostly this had included looking for leaf and flower beads I knew that I was going to include a honu and when I saw these mother of pearl shell beads I knew they would be perfect for the shell of the honu. I bought them in both a green and a beige. They were the first thing I added to this piece. Sort of like a puzzle I had to figure out what pieces would fit where to stay on the shell of the turtle. I filled in the rest of the shell with 15/0 beads so that the shell read as a whole better.

The next thing I added was the gold 15/0 beads as ripples in the water. I used the gold ripples of paint as a guide. I added a crystal sequin for the eye of the turtle. At this point it was time to follow my instinct. I considered adding more beads to the turtle but felt that I would lose the painting and overwhelm the piece. Instead I chose to add stitching to accentuate the scale like surfaces. I quickly found that satin stitch with cotton embroidery floss was perfect for the look I was after. I added variegated rayon thread to edge all of the scales. The last step was more ripples with more variegated rayon thread. I really love my block.

Turtles are connected to the feminine and are a symbol of the primal mother. They are a symbol of heaven and earth and help you unite the two in your life. They remind you that Mother Earth provides you with all of your needs and to take time for yourself.

They are keepers of the doors to the Faerie Realm. They help you awaken the senses on a physical and spiritual level and tell you when to go with the flow. They help you connect with your most primal essence letting you know when you need to go within your shell and only come out when your ideas are ready to expressed.

For my Sacred Tree piece part of what they are symbolizing for me is mothers. All mothers from my mother and mother-in-law to all of the other woman who have adopted me into their lives and given me support and love as I have lived in different areas. Also the motherhood of birthing new ideas and letting that creativity out into the world.

My Web Gallery- Includes photos of both of my BJP pages
Artistic Kreations and Passions- my website

BJP Website (my 2007-8 pieces)

Honu Swimming

2008-09-12T18:40:00.005-04:00

It has almost taken me longer to get this piece posted than it do to do the piece. I swear it seems like my brain has melted lately. After 2 1/5 months of constant headaches I guess it makes sense although doesn't make it any more fun. I have been doing Physical therapy which is helping some.

On to more pleasant thoughts, Since this is the first block of the year I got to see if I would enjoy painting my blocks and then see about how I wanted to bead them. Like the photos that I used last year part of the challenge for this year will be balancing out the painting and the beading. I will also be using embroidery for the finer details.

I am using a poplin weight fabric as my "canvas". My first step was to prime it with acrylic medium. I am using Fluid acrylics mostly for my painting along with some of the different Jacquard brand fabric paints. This one was particularly easy to do since I didn't have any background details (like branches or roots) to include. I just sat down and had fun making a watery world for my honu to swim in. I layered a couple of different layers of techniques. One of the things I really like about the fluid acrylics is that you can treat them almost like watercolors. I enjoy working with watercolors but knew doing handwork on watercolors wouldn't work well.

After painting my background I copied my honu onto medium weight interfacing and painted it. using a separate layer for my honu allowed me to not have to mask out the space for it on my painting and to work in a more fluid way on the background. After she was painted I cut out my honu and then collaged her onto the background and then covered the whole piece with a coat of a thinned Lumiere paint which gave the hole a glistening quality like water.

I have a lot of information on symbolism of honu/turtles and will split it between the two posts for this piece. Honu is what the Hawaiians call the green sea turtles. We lived in Hawaii for 2 years (there are some nice advantages to moving with the military.) We went snorkeling a fair amount and found my times swimming with the Honu amazingly spiritual. I always felt calmer when I was with them. If you were calm and just being they would let you swim along with you often within touching distance. Since many of them are 4-5 feet long it is inspiring. I have them swim right towards me like they were as curious about me as I was about them. We have several pieces of art that include honu and they still call to me.

Sea Turtles symbolize the bravery of the young. They have a connection to the moon. They represent the ability to travel long distances to reach home (seems pretty appropriate with all of the moving and traveling I have done as a military spouse). They remind you of your duty to the completion of your life path. They symbolize wisdom, longevity, patience, tenacity, self-reliance and carrying your home on your back.

A Mountain of Strength

2008-09-07T17:13:00.003-04:00

I am sorry that it has been so long since my last update. I went to Bead Fest in Philly and had a great time and bought a whole lot of beads to use on this years BJP. More colors of 15/0s and a really nice selection of leaf and flower beads. I got home and immediately got sick with a really bad head cold and it has kept me completely down and out, just starting to feel like time on the computer again. Now if I could just get rid of the headaches.

The next part of my background is stitched although I will be adding more to this area as I have time. (waterfalls anyone?) More rayon machine thread for the stitching in this area. I am using a lot of threads meant for machine sewing on this project, partially since I have them and that saves me buying as much tread for all of the embroidery work.

Actually the mountain was Wayne's idea and I liked it. Based loosely on the Na Pali coast mountains on Kauai (one of the Hawaiian islands). Mountains have a lot of symbolism attached to them. They are the meeting place of heaven and earth, as this they also represent the stages of spiritual ascent and transcendence. Spiritual attainment can be ours as we overcome our obstacles. They are places of communion with spirits and deities and the realm of meditation. They are a masculine symbol (one of the very few that seem to be making it onto my piece). They also represent wisdom, solitariness, power, assertiveness, resurrection, freedom, peace, strength and majesty.

My Web Gallery- Includes photos of both of my BJP pages
Artistic Kreations and Passions- my website

BJP Website (my 2007-8 pieces)

Stitching Grass

2008-08-22T13:22:00.001-04:00

Stitching grass, it just sounds so funny, Like taking little blades of grass and stitching on them. OK really I am not quite that nuts.

I used painted green scrim (cheese cloth type fabric) The nice thing is that it is open enough to show the background through and fine enough to scrunch it some for areas of more density and texture. I think that I may be adding wildflowers to the rolling hills of my meadow. I am thinking of daisies and possibly other flowers as well.

One note on the symbolism that I am including, I am not going to include all of the possible symbolism to all of the parts, partially because their is a lot of symbolism to some of them and some have stuff that doesn't apply to me and my life and since this is a self portrait I am looking at what applies to me, especially on things like the landscape that I put in to make the piece complete and weren't as special or didn't have personal meaning to me.

That said let's start with grass. Green and lush grass is a symbol of a healthy land and fertility. It also symbolizes humble usefulness, utility, submission and the fleeting quality of life. I guess that means We only have so many years here to accomplish our passions and that we should make the best of our time. At least my grass is lush and green.

I couldn't decide exactly what type of geography this is so settled for rolling hills and meadow. Hills represent, aspirations, constancy, stability, innocent pleasures, freedom from care, eternity, fertility and is among 1 of the many feminine emblems in my piece. Meadows have some less happy connotations that I am skipping because this is a happy place. Along it's happier notes it represents peace, patience, dreaminess, gladness and is connected to the river of life.

My Web Gallery- Includes photos of both of my BJP pages
Artistic Kreations and Passions- my website

BJP Website (my 2007-8 pieces)

Moss at the Roots of my tree.

2008-08-18T13:03:00.001-04:00

I have always loved moss and when Wayne and I are out hiking we often take photos of it. I love all of the different types of moss that are out there and all of the itty bitty details they have. They tend to grow in places that look inhospitable on the side of rock cliffs etc and I always appreciate that life can thrive no matter what kind of conditions there are.

My moss is made up of french knots, lazy daisy stitches as well as a scattering of straight stitches. They are the same stitches I used on my February BJP page only without any beads. I used a mix of rayon and cotton threads. I had already fused on a background of painted fusible web where I wanted the moss to go. The webbing as a background gives the moss a nice texture and depth.

Now for what it symbolizes, humility, service, friendship, boredom, a parasite and maternal love. I am sure that on the items where I have a ton of information I will edit it down to the ones that have meaning to me but I thought the 2 obvious ones that I would delete were kind of funny. Boredom, I don't ever remember being bored in my life. I love to read and creating gives me such joy that I couldn't consider what it would take to make me bored. I can't even get my brain to slow down enough to successfully meditate. The other is parasite, I don't look at moss as a parasite and sure hope that nobody thinks I am a parasite. I hadn't looked up the meanings behind moss before I included it on the piece and find it interesting that after what I wrote about the roots that I have put the moss at the base of the roots and that 2 of the things that moss represents is friendship and maternal love. I have a strong feeling that I am being guided on this project. Things that are meant to be will be.

Getting to the Roots of the Matter

2008-08-14T14:13:00.005-04:00

I haven't found as much informations written about the symbolism of roots yet but that is OK since I have plenty of personal meaning for them.

I will start with what I did. The stitching is done with both a rayon thread and a cotton variegated embroidery floss. No particular stitches mostly a mix of this and that to get what I wanted.

The symbolism that I could find for roots makes perfect sense. Being grounded and personal background are two that you would expect. I did find one that was interesting: it was that roots are the foundation, but that they did not necessarily imply stability.

OK now for the deep down and personal part of what roots have meant to me. December 11th, 1970 my parents adopted my brother sister and I. Two weeks before Christmas and they suddenly had a 1,2,and 3 year old. As the oldest I always knew that I was adopted. My parents got divorced when I was 6 and when I was 11 my Father died. There were times when I had trouble with every thing going on in my life and the loss. Although my Mother was always a stabilizing influence and loved me unconditionally there were many years in my teens and early 20's that I felt like I had no roots. It was like I had come out of nowhere at 3 years of age. I didn't remember anything before then and I felt a need for more.

My Mom always supported my desire for more information but in small town Iowa getting even non-identifying information was next to impossible at that time. I didn't really want to meet my biological parents ( I had a great Mom) I just wanted to know where I came from. I went through a period of depression during college but through the love and support of Family and Friends I managed to get through it. I went through a lot of counseling during the summer between my junior and senior years in college and that helped.

The next fall I met Wayne and fell deeply in love. Wayne was very good for my self esteem which was not great when I met him. I had some trust issues and feared being abandoned. All of the things I went through taught me some very valuable lessons. I no longer needed to find out about my biological family because I could make my own roots. I already had a wonderful loving family, a man who loved me more than I had thought possible and through him even more family that loved and excepted me. I also had some great friends who had seen me through some tough times.

You can create your roots from what ever you want or need to. You don't need to have a family linage that you can trace back generations. I have added to my friends and family as we have moved around and now I have a foundation that is built with all of the love that we give to each other. I reach out my roots to all I love and now have a foundation that is very strong and deep.

My Web Gallery- Includes photos of both of my BJP pages
Artistic Kreations and Passions- my website

BJP Website (my 2007-8 pieces)

Ocean Waves

2008-08-10T14:16:00.003-04:00

Water is the primal life source and represents our spiritual life and our emotions. All life sprang from the oceans. It is the symbol of the womb, motherhood and feminine energies. The Ocean in a dynamic force and is constantly in transition representing the sum total of possibilities. This is where we find our sub-conscious mind and even our unconscious mind. The ocean is a dynamic force and represents universal life, spiritual exploration, time, and eternity. Ocean swells symbolize activity in our unconscious mind. Waves are for regeneration and dreams.

The waves of my ocean are done with different metallic threads. I have learned several things with working with metallic threads. For the mylar type of threads work with short lengths, don't pull to hard and be careful not to pierce the thread. Although the thread breaks fairly easily it does give lovely sparkle and is easier to hand stitch then you might think. All metallic threads seem to do better in shorter lengths and with regular knots on the back in case of breakage.

I chose to add a bit of surf to my ocean by using some white netting and a pale blue sheer ribbon. I kept breaking threads while attaching it and finally figured that cotton was the best because it was a bit stronger to pull the scrunched up netting in. Regular knots on the back helped, too.

For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

Stitching Up A Fern

2008-08-06T12:28:00.005-04:00

The stitching has started so I am guessing that my posts will probably start coming a bit farther apart since the embroidery work will take a bit longer to do. I have had a headache everyday since the second week in July so things are going a bit more slowly than I might like. I have also been working on a couple of other projects which you can see if you go to my main blog.

I am not sure yet how I will break up all of the stitching blog entries but I think the first couple are going to be by area. That may not work for all of the areas of the piece since I have been doing the handwork in whatever area I was in the mood for so far.

I am using a variety of threads so far for my stitching. For the ferns I used rayon sewing thread and metallic sewing thread both from Sulky. I have been using several different embroidery stitches and some sort of free form embroidery stitches. I am not to worried about whether a stitch is done just so or if it is even a "real" embroidery stitch. I am very much after getting the look and feel I am after. I think having no formal training in embroidery is only to my advantage, not that I have ever been very good about falling the rules. I think in Art rules make good guidelines but are meant to be bent and broken. A favorite quote "We must be fluid, flexible is too rigid" not sure who said it but sure describes some of my design philosophy.

The stitched area that we are going to look at is the ferns that are growing at the base of my tree. I decided to add the ferns and some other items without looking up the symbolism first. I love ferns and find them fascinating plants. They are ancient plants and grow from spores and not seeds. I love seeing the furled up fiddle heads as they grow. A forest floor blanketed in ferns feels very peaceful to me and I love to take photos of ferns when I can.

Ferns symbolism includes magic, fascination, confidence, sincerity, endurance and shelter. It is interesting that looking at the symbolism I probably would have chosen the ferns anyway but the ferns came first. They are on the secret door which leads to the other side giving me the magic and confidence to open the door and see what it reveals.

For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

A Door Takes Form

2008-08-03T13:40:00.002-04:00

In my last post you read about the door getting cut out of the main collage. Part of the reason I chose to do this instead of making a separate door was because I wanted the door to blend into the tree and be somewhat secret.

I started my stitching on the door because it was a manageable size and so that I had a better idea where I wanted to go with the stitching. I used rayon machine thread and embroidery floss and cotton embroidery floss. Some of these are variegated which adds a nice realism to the piece. I started with the wood of the tree, the fern and moss bits were next and last was adding the ivy which is waxed cotton cord couched on with rayon thread and a few stitched tendrils and interfacing ivy leaves. The leaves are only stitched along the center vein so the edges are free

I wanted to use the brass hinges because they would stand out. I want the door to be somewhat of a secret but not completely. I found these and the latch at Michaels, I was hoping I could find them small enough and I did, but how to attach them. I could have just stitched them on but wanted them to look more door like so I found some small brads for scrap booking and used them instead of screws to attach the hinges and latch. To give my door some stability and to help support the brads I used Tacky Tape to attach a piece of card stock to the inside of the door and then cut small holes for the brads and opened them up.

I wanted to have the inside of the door to look like real wood and since I have done some Marquetry for the ottomans my husband made for our living room I happened to have a collection of wood veneers on hand. I painted both sides with clear acrylic to protect the other surfaces from the acids in the wood. I used more of the double stick tape to attach the wood to the inside of the door.

Now I have a really cool door for my piece. If the rest of the piece looks half as good as the door I will be so happy. I LOVE IT!

For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

A Secret Takes Shape

2008-07-30T14:11:00.003-04:00

I will start this post suggesting that if you haven't read my July 13th post, specifically the second half "It's A Secret" that you do so you have some idea where this is coming from.

I measured and drew where I wanted my blocks to sit on the piece. Since I am painting the blocks I am including the landscape in the paintings so I have to have the placement settled so that I include the correct parts of the landscape in the paintings. I am going to do stitching/embroidery on the collage so this also lets me know where not to stitch. After I had all of these marked it was time to mark where my secret door was going to be. I felt a bit of trepidation at this point because not only was I marking this on the piece, (unlike the other markings it isn't going to be covered up) I was going to cut the door out of the main collage. Yes I actually cut a hole in my collage. In the 2nd photo you can see, yes there is now a whole in my collage.

In my July 13th post I mentioned that my current idea for the inside of the secret door was a mosaic of mirrors. In the last 2 photos you can see where I am on them and what it will potentially look like. I will need to get more of the Delicas that I am using for the beaded bezels when I go to Bead Fest in Philly. I haven't run out yet but will before I get all of the mirrors done. I am using peyote stitch to create the bezels using Delicas and 13/0 charlottes (sp?).

After I bezeled the first mirror I butted the next one up to it and used the connecting side as part of the bezel just adding a new lip for the new mirror. I think I am going to like the effect of this .

I don't have to decide on this yet since it won't be attached to the piece for a while yet.

Remember if you want to sign up for e-mail alerts when I have a new post you can sign up with Feedblitz on the top right of the page. For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

The Tree Is Planted And Gets More Leaves

2008-07-27T14:38:00.005-04:00

After lots of fun and experimentation I was ready to collage my tree onto the landscape collage. I used more acrylic matte medium/water mix. I covered the surface of the collage with the mix, placed the tree on top of that and then brushed more collage over that. I added 2 more coats of the medium to firmly secure the tree to the background.

I liked the effect that I got from the fusible web leaves so much that I painted some more for the middle layer of leaves, these would go over parts of the branches and the trunk of the tree.

The second photo is of the painted fusible web once I pulled it off of it's paper backing. You can see the grid of my cutting board through the webbing.

The next photo is detail after I added the new webbing "leaves". It gives the tree that extra bit of depth and more realism. I am really liking how all of this is turning out. The project has kept me very excited from the first and I have never gotten bored, blocked or felt anything but joy with it.

To show my joy with the piece I decided to use some pressed flowers that I found on clearance at Michael's during one of my visits there. It does give the collage a more festive spring/summer feel.

For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

Leafing Out

2008-07-24T12:07:00.003-04:00

More painted interfacing, this time painted mostly in greens. After making the tree with the painted interfacing and liking the way it felt and looked I decided that it would make good leaves. Most of the other ideas I had were going to have larger leaves than I thought I was going to want on the finished project. With the interfacing I could make them any size that I wanted.

I drew the leaves with permanent pens and after drawing out a group of them I would cut them out. I have done this so far in several different sessions so that I wouldn't get bored doing them. Besides the leaves for the tree I wanted to have ferns and Ivy on the piece so I drew those leaves as well. The fern leaves I drew onto the back and once they were cut out I flipped them over I had the parts for my fern.

I may need to make more leaves but since until I start sewing them on I don't have a very good idea how far they will go. I have more of the painted interfacing so I can make more as I need them. The fern leaves will be collaged on with the tree, the ivy and tree leaves will be stitched on when I do the embroidery work for the collage.

For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

Every Tree Needs Leaves

2008-07-21T14:49:00.005-04:00

My tree wouldn't be very healthy looking with out some leaves now would it? I have had so many ideas for what to do for the leaves of this piece and there was no way I could use all of them. I really liked the way the painted fusible web looked and thought that it would work great for background leaves for the tree. When you look at a tree, all you see of the leaves further back is color and pattern so the fusible web would work great to give me that. In my post on July 10th I discussed painting the fusible web. I could have cut out shapes and fused those onto the landscape but I wanted an organic feel so I pulled the fusible web off of the backing paper (a butter knife or a bead scoop helps those areas where it wants to stick to the paper) and tore the fusible up into smaller pieces.

I did the fusible in more than one layer. I first put down a layer and used parchment paper to fuse the web to the background. Already I was liking the effect, getting the effects I was getting would be very challenging if you were just trying to paint directly on the surface of the piece. After I fused the first layer I placed the tree on top so that I could make sure I had leaves behind all of the branches, even the lower ones.

I ended up with 3 layers of fusing the web on, the layers overlapped and the colors/values melded together when they were fused. The parchment paper worked great for the fusing. Once I fused the web on I let the parchment cool a little so the web didn't stick to the paper. As you can see from the last photo where I just placed the tree on top to see how it looked already the tree looks happier.

For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

Painting My World/A Tree Takes Form

2008-07-19T14:39:00.008-04:00

Time to add more depth to my world. I used fluid acrylics and Jacquard Dye-na-Flow and Lumiere paints to add more depth and color to the landscape of my piece including clouds in the sky. I used washes of the paints so that I could add layers of color as I wanted. Working with these acrylics diluted gives me soft almost watercolor effects while still allowing the piece to be added to without getting muddy or loosing the detail from a previous layer of color.

After letting the landscape dry I used permanent pens to add details to the grass and the cliffs. The wrinkles that are in the paper of the mountains made good starting points to add rocky depth the the cliffs, as you can see in the 2nd photo.

A TREE TAKES FORM:
PAINTING ON INTERFACING:

This project is full of new techniques and I think I have more to try. The current one is painting on interfacing. I used a medium weight, non-woven, non- fusible interfacing. I wanted something heavy enough to have some body but light enough to be able to put on my drawing and trace onto the interfacing. There is a seam along the left side of the tree that I taped from the back side, the interfacing was not as wide as I needed. I used permanent markers to draw the tree onto the interfacing. The third photo shows the interfacing on top of the drawing.

I again used diluted acrylics and Jacquard paints. The interfacing proved to be very absorbent and with the diluted paints I got some really cool watercolor effects. I added some acrylic medium to the diluted paint to help keep the acrylic content enough so that future layers of paint would have a stable surface and wouldn't run.

After the first layer of paint had dried I added additional layers of paint to add more detail and depth to the tree. After painted with the acrylic paint the surface looks almost like a light weight suede and since it is non-woven you can cut out intricate shapes without fear of fraying.

After painting to a point I was happy with it, it was time to start cutting the tree out. It took me 2 days with scissors and a craft knife to cut around all of the branches. Although at points I was wondering about the choice of making the tree of the separate surface and having to cut it all out (it was a bit daunting); as soon as I put it on the collaged and painted landscape to see what it would look like I did a happy jig all around my studio. The tree seemed to glow, now I am thinking I may consider doing it for another project in the future.

I enjoyed painting on the interfacing and if you want soft effects it works great. If your paint was thick enough you could probably get more details, another option would be to use mat medium or gesso to prime the surface like you would a canvas. I think that using heavy weight interfacing you might have an interesting surface to bead on.

For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

Like Leaves on a Tree: Plenty of Ideas

2008-07-16T13:57:00.000-04:00

Here you can see how my full sized plan is looking. The smaller rectangles will be the painted and beaded blocks for my Bead Journal Project. I haven't figured out what is going in all of my blocks yet and some I just haven't worked on the sketch for them yet. Each one will contain animals flowers or other things that have symbolic or personal meaning to represent who I am.

The ideas from this project have come fast and furious and part of the process has been to figure out which of the ideas I want to keep and which I want to save for later projects. My first idea for the collaged landscape was to use a collage of handwritten paper and then paint the landscape over it but I decided that I wanted to use some of the papers I had and make the basic landscape from them and then use painting to add depth and detail.

Changing my idea for the background led to changing how I was going to do the tree since I wanted to use fluid acrylics to paint with and they are somewhat translucent. Thus I needed to paint on something that would cover the landscape. My solution to that will be my next post and include working with another new technique for me.

The place where the most ideas have come and gone has been how to make leaves for the tree. I have gone through lots of ideas and I think many will end up in other tree related pieces. I considered carving my own stamps and using them, making leaves out of wire and fabric or paper, painting each leaf individually and collaging on punched out leaves. I am going to use painted fusible web for the background leaves and am working on my idea for the foreground leaves which I will add when I do the stitching on the landscape and tree.

I have included photos of some of my sketches of my blocks, I have not finished any of them and they will end up with added details. Other than working on the sketches and looking for beads for them I do not plan on starting them early. I will paint each one on the month I am going to use it unless I need to do any ahead if we are going to be moving or something and I will be without all of my supplies.

For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

How I Do It/ It's A Secret

2008-07-13T14:21:00.001-04:00

HOW I DO IT:
After getting a couple of comments about the organization going into this piece and I realized that now would be a good time to look at how I approach my more elaborate projects.
I also just read Robin Atkins "One Bead At A Time" and was inspired to share what I do to create art.

I start all of my larger projects with a sketch book. How I start there depends on how I am coming at the project. Sometimes I have a theme in mind; a season, trees, ponds, crystals or purse and I just start sketching ideas. This stage can take hours to weeks depending on how quickly a sketch grabs my attention and says "work with me." I will often refine my idea with more sketches until I have a good idea where I want to go. I go by what feels right and although I know all that goes into "good" art I tend to work intuitively, if it feels right I am less likely to have problems later.

An important consideration for me is that I don't design with the idea of how I am going to accomplish something. I start with the idea that I like and figure out how once I have a good idea where I am going. For me I really enjoy figuring out how to accomplish the idea. I have learned new beading techniques, tried new supplies and made myself stretch creatively this way.

At this point I gather supplies, again I go a lot by what feels right for the mood, season or whatever I am trying to convey. I tend to collect supplies so quite often I already have something that will work, occasionally I will need something more (mmmm more supplies, yeah!). Quite often I will not be sure how I am going to execute my idea so I may end up with supplies I don't use and have to get others later.

For a project this big I work full scale for finishing the design. It helps me to see where I want to go. I do not consider a design finished until the piece is finished and the whole process is fluid, ideas come and go. Some ideas get used others go on to the back burner for some future project.

I am a detail loving person (probably the reason I love working with 15/0 seed beads). I tend to take detail photos of nature and like to draw/paint things like lichen, and other small things. I don't work improvisationally. I almost always have a plan of some sort, I have not found that this limits my creativity because I tend to work very intuitively so that I go with what I feel like doing as I work on a piece letting the piece evolve as I go. Of course after reading Robin's book I am tempted to try something completely without a plan, pick a fabric some beads and just go. I have a feeling for me this would be very challenging, way outside my comfort zone.

IT'S A SECRET:

As I was playing with the idea of my tree and I knew I was going to use my animal totems and animals that have personal meaning to me I decided to re-read the information that I had on them. I have Ted Andrews "Animal Speak" and have found it really useful source. One of things I noticed in reading about the animals again is that a number of the animals that I am including are guides or guardians to the other side (spirit realm, fairy realm however you want to look at it). One morning after this while I was out walking I realized that what the piece needed was a doorway to the other side. I am still working on the idea of how I want to have through my secret doorway. At the moment I am leaning toward mirror tiles that would have beaded bezels. When you opened the door you would see yourself in a mosaic of mirrors. The other side is in essence already inside of us. I would love to hear any other ideas people have.

Remember if you want to sign up for e-mail alerts when I have a new post you can sign up with Feedblitz on the top right of the page. For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

Trying New Techniques/Collaging My World

2008-07-10T20:10:00.003-04:00

This post will be about two of the new techniques I am trying and the beginning of collaging the mixed media piece.

Painting Fusible Web:

I had read in more than one issue of Quilting Arts and Cloth, Paper, Scissors about painting on fusible web and adding it to your artwork. All you need is some paper back fusible web, some diluted acrylic paints and a brush and have fun. I did learn that you could dilute the pain too much in which case the pigments don't stick to the webbing well. As you overlap colors of paint you get additional colors and values. The picture to the right is the webbing that I painted. The backing paper crinkles as it dries, since my first layers of paint were fairly wet my paper crinkled a fair amount. After this you can cut out a shape and fuse it to your art giving you a web of color on top of your work. I am planning on ripping my webbing up and using pieces of it behind my tree to look like leaves in the background.

Painting on Scrim (or cheesecloth):

Another technique I have read about was painting on or dying scrim. Most people dye it but since I don't have dyes but I do have acrylic paints I diluted them down and had fun. I put some tissue paper underneath to catch some of the extra paint, folded the scrim in half and started painting. I am not sure where this will get used on the piece. I may scrunch some of it and sew it down to be more background leaves. Another idea is to scrunch some of it up down in the grass area of the landscape.

Collaging My World:

The last photo on this post is the first step of the mixed media/ collage background that is the world that will contain my tree and all of my beaded journal blocks. I used my full sized drawing to help cut the paper pieces that I was going to use to the size I needed them. The sky, cliffs and hills are all mulberry papers that Wayne brought me home from a trip to Korea one time.
The papers for the beach are 2 different scrapbook papers that I tore up and combined. They have shells and sand on them so look nice and beachy. The paper for the water is one that I have had for a long time and that I have always loved but not know what to do with it. I decided that it would make interesting water especially with the shimmering gold on the surface. After tearing/cutting the paper to the sizes I need I got ready to collage it onto my backing fabric. I used a piece of off white poplin that was stiff enough to give the piece some stability since I will be adding more to it. I also don't want it so stiff that I can't sew through it to add embroidery and embellishments so I did not go with canvas. I used a mix of Acrylic Matte Medium and water to do the collaging. I applied a layer of "glue" to the fabric and then added the papers, layering them as needed. As each paper was added I used a layer of glue on top until everything was glued down giving me my rudimentary landscape and the background to future layers of paint, embellishments, leaves and the tree.

To check out the most current photos of where I am on my piece go to my web gallery or my Artistic Kreations and Passions website which I will keep updated with new photos of my Sacred Tree.

A Sapling Takes Root On Purple Dirt

2008-07-07T19:47:00.003-04:00

Part of my process for this piece includes drawing the mixed media section to scale so that when it comes time to make it I already have all of the information I need as to how things are going to fit together. This also has allowed me to work on how the tree is going to look. I am not a expert on trees and trying to draw one to this size and keep it fairly realistic has been challenging. The tree is not meant to be any particular species of tree so I didn't have to make it look like a oak or an elm or a maple or anything.

Drawing the piece to size also allowed me to play with the placement of where I want my 12 blocks to be on the piece. The colored index cards represent where the blocks are going to go. At first I was thinking of making the background smaller but I wanted the tree to figure predominately in the piece so I went for the larger size. The finished mixed media piece will be approximately 24 inches by 40 inches.

The photos show the sketch laying on the fabric that will be the front of the quilt that the piece will be attached to. While I was visiting the in-laws I was working on the ideas for the piece, when I mentioned making the quilt with purple fabric, Marti pulled out a piece of beige printed raw silk that some one had given her years ago and asked if I would like it dyed purple. Mmmm would I, heck yes! I got to help a little and we ended up with this fabric in shades of fuchsia to purples. At the moment I am planning on using the printed side up but I could always go printed side hidden.

She also gave me the three little stone turtles that are sitting near the bottom of the top photo. She had planned on making a necklace with them for me but once she saw what I was doing on this piece she thought that I might like them better to add to this. I will include the symbolism and my person take on what they mean on this piece in a later post.

Goals for a new year

2008-07-04T22:43:00.003-04:00

OK here is where I look at my goals for the upcoming 2008-2009 BJP project as I discussed in my last post the whole thing is going to be a quilt/mixed media collage with painted and beaded blocks. But what all do I want to accomplish in the coming year.

MY GOALS:

-Explore new techniques, surface design/painting on different materials, different stitches, combining divergent materials into a cohesive whole.
-Learn more about trees and their roles in human beliefs
-Learn more about Totem animals and symbols
-Explore combining painted images with beading. (last year I combined my photography with beading so taking it a bit further I will paint images and then add the beads)
-Take my Art to the next level
-Share the creative process on my blog
-Enter finished piece in Bead International

THE PLAN:

-The background/support will be a quilt approximately 36" x 60". It will be whole cloth of a raw silk that my mother-in-law Marti dyed for me and gave me. It will be machine quilted with a tree pattern and???
-The next layer will be a mixed media collage a fabric support with papers collaged on to make a landscape and painting to add details. The tree will be made separately and then attached to the collage. Stitching will be added for details and to add leaves etc. Little to no beads planned.
-The BJP blocks will be 4 inches by 6 inches some will be horizontal and some vertical. They will be painted and then beaded.

The photos are a teaser of my plan for one of my blocks. She is the tree spirit, earth goddess, creative spirit, my muse and me all rolled up in one. She is going to extend outside of her block with hands to her sides balancing ???, halo extending above and and skirt made of fringing off the bottom. I was planning on making her one of the last blocks I did but I realized that she will probably require more of my time than most of the other blocks and if I want to really enter the piece into Bead International (that is the thought at least) that I will have to be finished with the entire piece and have photos taken by the September 2009 entry date. (we will see if that works out or not.) As it stands she will probably get started in one of the earlier months in case she takes longer to finish. Maybe October which is my birthday month and since her are arms on either side she works for Libra.

A Seed Germinates

2008-07-01T18:13:00.003-04:00

Although the BJP for 2008-2009 doesn't officially start until September for me the eyes started flowing not too long after we got a good start on the 2007-2008 year. I knew that I wanted to do this again even before it was official that we were going to do it, if the others weren't I was. I learned so much the first time around and learned so much about myself, my art and new techniques that I couldn't not do it.

I have played with many ideas in the last year but I kept coming back to the idea of doing a Sacred Tree. The idea of playing with the idea of trees germinated when I went with Colleen to DC to a lecture by the Artist in Residence at a seminary school there. The Brother did predominately religious themed work but not all of it was. Part of the lecture was about the symbolism used in his work. It was truly fascinating and his mention of the Tree of Life set a little seed in my brain. I have always liked nature and love lots of trees around me.

I find it amazing how prevalent the tree has been in so many cultures as a sacred object. Most early cultures had some sort of belief system about trees. Trees have been seen as Gods, dwelling places of Gods, embodiment of different lesser deities the tree has been for thousands of years an important part of the forming of human beliefs. Why wouldn't trees be important? They make oxygen for us to breathe, provide us with wood to build shelters, fuel our fires, and provide food to sustain us.

The next parts of the idea I ended up with came in part from Robin Atkins, I read her blog entries about her animal totem(s) and since I had always felt very connected to Bears and other animals at different points in my life I decided to have a reading done. The other part of the idea came from Robin's January BJP. She had done a self-portrait with beads. Hers was an abstract portrait with lots of symbolism and her post came at a time when I was already leaning toward a tree with my animals and other things that I love. What a perfect blend of ideas, the piece would become a portrait of who I am including things that I love, have meaning to me or symbolize who I am as a person. In a way many of our BJP projects have been a self-portrait since so many of peoples page show who and what we are, where we are creatively and what has personal meaning to us.

I spent a lot of my initial time playing with ideas in my sketch book. How did I want to accomplish this. The tree as the background for the piece came before I had decided on the piece as a self portrait. At first the tree was part of the environment for the animals, but as the idea progressed it became an integral part of the piece. The photos are some of my early playing to work out scale and ideas. I went from little sketches to much larger attempts to see where I wanted to go. The photo to the Left is done with dry erase markers on dry erase poster board. My proposed blocks are index cards.

I have been putting in lots of time working on my Sacred Tree. Officially it doesn't start until September but since the piece is going to include so much more than the monthly blocks I need a head start. The whole thing is going to be a quilt/mixed media collage with painted and beaded blocks. I will include a lot of information on my creative process, different techniques I am trying, my goals, and all of the symbology of the piece. I already have put enough time into the project that I have enough info for several posts so I will try to write about 2 times a week on it until I catch up at least. I have also started a new album in My Web Gallery for the piece and if you don't want to wait for my blog to catch up you can see my photos of the progress of the piece there, I will update it as I get new photos. If you are interested in getting e-mails when I update my blog you can sign up with Feedblitz on the sidebar of my page near the top.

I Blossom As I Fly Free

2008-05-13T19:43:00.003-04:00

It has taken me longer to get the second post up for this page than it did to do it. I can't believe how it time just flew by. Four days, start to finish. OK the cord for the border was already made and it was printed out and everything was ready to start but it still went really quick. I think the big things were that it didn't have much thread work (just the couching of cords on) and I didn't use many seed beads. As the year went by when I saw leaf beads especially on sale I bought them and I used a lot of them up on this. This page has been a really pleasure to work on and it looks so much like spring to me, life in bloom. Blooming flowers to begin and end my BJP year. The blossoming of friendships and artistic talents that so many of us have experienced in this last year together.

I still have work to do since I need to put the information (title, name etc) on the backs of the pieces. I also need to make the cards and journals for the November to May pieces which will take me awhile. I have things I need to do before I start on those but I expect that after Wayne and I get back from our trip (to Bead International and a few other places) that I will get to work on that. Luckily I have until September to get them finished and get ready to start a new year.

I need to get photos ready to send in for our website and Flickr and a few other things. If you want to see more photos I have updated my Artistic Kreations and Passions website, my Web Gallery, and the BJP section of my website.

I will try to spend some time on fleshing out my ideas and see about posting some of it here. Just a teaser to make you want to check back before next years BJP starts, in case the cards and journals are not temptation enough.

Last Month

2008-05-08T20:00:00.003-04:00

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.

Transformation Intensified

2008-05-04T21:44:00.004-04:00

Although this piece is like September's piece a lot in it's feel and focus it was interesting in that I had a harder time deciding what I wanted to do. The butterflies were the most challenging since I had a hard time deciding how much beading I wanted to do to them.

Before I did the butterflies I worked on the flowers. I used cream and yellow seed beads for the small flowers in the lower right. For the top flowers I edged the flowers with iridescent thread and then chose to add beads to those that which would be closer to the viewer and beaded the centers of the petals. For the large center flower I combined my original idea for beading (beading individual petals) with Wayne's idea (beading bands of colors across multiple petals) and ended up beading sections of each petal but varying where on the petal I was beading moving in and out. I ended up liking how that turned out better than I think I would have either of the original ideas.

Next came the butterflies and it took a bit of thought to figure out what I wanted to do for each. I wanted to accentuate each butterfly without burying them. They didn't seem to want too many beads so they got their accents pretty quickly. After beading on the pocket and sleeve to the back I glued the two sides together and then added the red ribbon to the side and the butterflies are happily hanging on the wall with the other pages.

Here you go Robin hope this shows what I did better, Angie

Butterflies Spring Up

2008-04-23T23:22:00.003-04:00

Here it is April already and only this page and one more to do before this year of the Bead Journal project is over.

My April page is very similar in feel to my September page, this time it is Butterflies that are showing up as a symbol of transformation. The photos are from our trip to Montreal and the butterfly house at the Botanical Gardens there.

It was an amazing experience to be in and among all of the butterflies. One of those times when you step out of yourself and become one with nature. I have found that all of what I consider my most spiritual moments have come from being with nature. Swimming with dolphins (in the wild), Honu (green sea turtles) and other fish; watching lava flow yards away from me; and other experiences like that.

It is kind of funny that I find nature and the earth my greatest inspiration and yet if I mow the yard I itch from head to toe, I have a brown thumb, and bugs absolutely love me. Sometimes it is strange how life works out.

The red stylized butterfly was a piece that I started when I was teaching a class at Turquoise String Beads in Massachusetts. I had never gotten around to finishing it but as I started thinking about putting this page together I thought of it. I liked that the red of it picks up the red in the flower and the top-left butterfly.

One of the early decisions for this piece was to pick what I wanted to do for the border, after some discussions with Wayne and pulling out my bin of ribbons, I chose to make the border from some thin ribbons and threads couched onto the piece. I used a jade ribbon for the main edge and used a metallic variegated thread to attach it, outside of that is a heavy metallic thread that is couched on with a rayon thread. I have repeated this on the back. Once the whole piece is glued together I will put a thin red ribbon on along the outside edge attaching it to both the front and back edges.

This piece will have less thread work than any of my last few pieces. After attaching the borders and finishing the beading on my abstract butterfly I attached it to the piece, I had originally intended to bead the whole surface but I liked the way the red Ultrasuede looked so I left some of it showing. I used beading to edge some of the leaves and flower petals and extended the lines so that they brought the fabric more into the design.

Next came some dark green metallic thread to trace the edges of some of the leaves in the lower right photo. As of these photos, this is where we stand. For some reason this piece isn't coming as intuitively as the last couple did but I am very pleased with it's bright happy feeling.

I haven't mentioned it yet but there is good news on a couple of levels for the Bead Journal Project. First we will be doing it for another year (YEAH!!!) The 2008 BJP will start in September and if anyone is reading this who isn't already involved in the current BJP the registration is open until August 15th, 2008. You do not have to have any experience in bead embroidery, although the pieces do need to include some beading. We had some absolutely new beaders do it this year and they all learned a lot and got to try out new things. Probably just as exciting is the fact that Pink Moon Hallow has created an incredible website for the Bead Journal Project. Each of the participants from 2007 who finished 8 or more pages will even get their own page with photos of them and links to their blogs, websites etc. I just need to get my act together and get all of my photos the correct size etc.

Beach Combing

2008-04-22T22:58:00.004-04:00

I continued to work on this piece layer by layer. Next I added more stone chips to the piece. Now it was time to add what Wayne calls my sea weed ( the fringing with seed beads and pearls that come out of the openings in 3 of the larger shells.

At this point it was time to add the KEY to the piece. If you read the posts for my July piece with it's gate with lock, I said that I expected that somewhere during the year a key to that gate would show up. The actual key came from Marti (my mother-in-law) when I visited in November. This page seemed to me to be the one calling for the key. Now I can open my gate and go on the journey. I have already grown so much in the last year with this project that I can't wait to see how it all ends up.

The piece was now ready for a sprinkling of sand. I used 15/0 seed beads in several shades of creams and topazes for the sand and also used some small MOP (mother of Pearl) heishi beads and some small pearls. The sand was almost as easy to add as if I had indeed just grabbed a handful and sprinkled it on, it felt right.

The last addition to the page was the border. I decided to go with a cord made with Kumihimo braiding. This is a Japanese braiding technique that I have played with but this is the first time it is actually being used on a piece. I used 12 cords of hemps and waxed cotton. The nice thing is with the new foam kumihimo "looms" you can do the braiding anywhere including on car trips up to DC to look at new seats for the car. After sewing the cord onto the front and back I added a band of peyote to cover up the ends and Viola! another page I am thrilled with. Very me.

At the Beach

2008-04-12T14:42:00.005-04:00

This piece is actually finished and was my fastest finished (only 9 days). I started it on the last day of March after I had finished my Pond Necklace. I haven't taken photos of it finished yet, but thought I would share these and some of the process now. Last March when Wayne's folks came for their visit we explored some of St Mary's County and one of our stops took us to a beach were I collected a few treasures and took some photos. I love beach combing and Wayne knows that I will always be coming home with "treasures." I have even made small watercolor paintings of some of my treasures that became cards.
Once I knew that I was going to use this photo for March I kept an eye out for shell beads to include and found some interesting shells here and there. I started this piece by adding straight embroidery/stitching with threads to accentuate the pine cone, pine needles and other small bits. The next step was adding the cords for the sticks. At this point I decided that I needed to choose where I would place my "treasures" so that the rest of the piece could flow around them. I chose pieces that weren't too deep and that I could add with some invisible thread and glue since I didn't want them to be bezeled.
I laid out stone chips and some of the shell beads and started adding them to the piece. I chose the smaller chips to go further back (toward the top) and larger closer to the viewer. That takes us as far as the photos go so I will talk about the rest once I get my other photos taken.

I find it interesting how I work in a couple of different ways depending on the piece. Some of my pages I will work on one area and then another on the piece. Pages like this I work in layers adding one type of embellishment and then another working on the whole piece. In ways I find this more satisfying, I think because I see the whole page developing as I go and not one area at a time.

Final Polish

2008-03-17T17:20:00.003-04:00

I actually finished this page about 2 weeks ago but getting the house cleaned up and a visit from Wayne's folks have keep me pretty busy and catching up on my Artistic Kreations and Passions website, my Web Gallery and working on my Pond Necklace has also taken a bit of time.

This page has the most embroidery without beads of any of my pages so far and it is one of my favorites. It could be partially the subject matter, the fact that I used some of my treasures on it or the very textural quality of it.

I used a couple of different stitches in 11/0 and 15/0 seed beads for the moss, some lone seed beads for a bit of rock gravel, and a bit of fringing for the lichen. I made a spiral herringbone vine for the border.

Treasures

2008-02-29T14:49:00.003-05:00

I decided that for my February and upcoming March pages that I would include some of my "treasures" on the pages. While out and about hiking, walking along beaches etc I like to pick up interesting rocks, shells, glass and other little treasures. I have a table in our bedroom that is my "Sacred Space". I have my art doll Arabella who acts as my muse on it as well as other pieces that I have made and purchased that are beautiful, inspiring, or otherwise caught my eye. On this table I keep my treasures that I have found over the years.

The close up of the rocks and moss seemed like the perfect place to include some of the smaller rocks and bits of glass. All of them were glued on and then secured with some 15/0 seed beads. Finally some seed beads made it onto the page. The piece is actually almost finished I just need to work on the border and take some more photos. I have added many more beads but haven't lost the feel of the page. I think it may be one of my favorites so far. I should finish the piece today or tomorrow and then I will try to get my finished piece up here.

I finished my 3-D Iris for my Pond Necklace if you want to check it out.

Nary a Bead in Sight

2008-02-18T13:16:00.008-05:00

The month of February is over half over and so far not a single bead has made it on to my page.

The top photo is the piece before any embellishments were added. One of my many pond photos this was a close up to capture the details that so fascinate me. I have added a lot of stitching to add texture to the piece. I am really enjoying how the piece is coming along.

My next step is to add the small rocks and bits of glass that are going on and then add the beaded embellishments. I am thinking of adding an Ndebele vine to the edge, sort of like the one I used for October.

A few cord twigs made their way onto this page as well as all of the stitching, the last few pieces definitely have things in common. It is very interesting to see how I approach each page because I picked out most of these images months ago. I picked pieces that I thought I could embellish with beads but didn't have specific plans for most of them.

Besides this page I have also started a new piece so that I can enter it for Bead Dreams, If you wish to see the start of it visit my main blog. (Artistic Kreations and Passions Blog)

A Cold and Barren Place/ Winter's Details

2008-02-12T18:27:00.000-05:00

January got an early start because I knew I would be flying back to Maryland on Jan 2nd and then Wayne would be coming back from Iraq on the 5th. With 6 weeks of mail, a husband home, and a vacation to spend time together I knew that I would have 2-3 weeks where I would have little or no time to work on my page. I got a decent start on it while I was still in Iowa and then didn't get back to it for at least a couple of weeks.

January started with 2 large stones to go with the picture of the pile of rocks. I put them in first because I wanted to know where I was putting them for the design but realized as I worked that maybe it would have been better to pencil them in and add them at the end. They are a bit heavy and made the page a bit awkward to work on.

I chose the background fabric because it looked like ice cracking on a pond to me, I chose to accentuate that by outlining the edges of the patterns with the Sulky Sliver thread that I used on December's page.

Like the previous months January has cord branches to be couched down. I like that in most of these pieces that the cord branches join the parts of the page together, they help move the eye around the piece.

I used very small star shaped sequins for my flowers and surprisingly enough Wayne was suggesting I use more of them. He liked the way they looked. Wayne is always reminding me that "More is not always Better." I used the wrap around beaded border that I had used for my July page picking up the gold/amber and blue colors of the page. Having a solidly beaded border works really well with a page that doesn't have a lot of other beads on it.

Cold and Snow/ And the World Glistens

2008-02-12T17:59:00.001-05:00

December found me still on my journeys away from Maryland. I spent the the entire month with my folks and got to spend time seeing my family. I went shopping with my Mom, went to several musical productions, sang with the church choir, visited both Grandmas in their Nursing homes and had 4 Christmases (that doesn't include the one with Wayne when I got home).

I started my December once I got to Iowa. I manged to have really good timing weather wise. I got there 2 days after and ice storm and before more bad weather the next day. The photo I had chosen for the month seemed so appropriate with ice and snow all around. We had typical Midwest winter weather, snow, ice, and somewhat unusual lots of fog some of it lasting all day long. Although the weather is challenging to live in and travel in it is still pretty. The whole word glistens with ice and snow and hoar frost.

I wanted to use lots of stitching to portray the texture and accentuate the branches. I used Sulky sliver thread in a translucent white the capture the glistening of the light on the ice and snow on the pond. I thought it would be challenging to do hand stitching with this thread but it actually was great. The only slight catch was that if you pulled to tight the thread would break. In the right light the effect is perfect. The snowflakes I found as accents at Michaels. They are just plastic and not a button or bead but with some sliver thread they are invisibly attached.

The photo was so striking that I didn't want to distract from it too much so I kept the beading and accents somewhat minimalistic for me (I tend to be a more is better kind of girl).
The foot prints along the bottom right of the photo where mine as I was the first person who had walked here after the snow. I tried beading them but I lost the fact that they were foot prints and I undid them.

The border I kept fairly simple as well and just used a cord/branch to surround the page. The page has the least amount of beading of any of my pages thus far but the effect was really good for winter when the whole world feels much more stark and bare and yet has a beauty all its own.

Connecting To The Earth

2008-02-12T17:07:00.001-05:00

November got printed up and the front and back ready to be worked on as were all of the rest of my upcoming pages but after that it sat for a few weeks. Early November found me working on getting my Christmas cards far enough along that I could send them to my parents where I would finish them. I also had to get ready to leave for the holidays. I decided that since Wayne would be gone for the holidays and I have no family in the area that I would go spend the holidays with family. I spent 2 weeks with Wayne's folks and then a month with mine.

Being gone from home that long meant that I had to figure out what all I was going to want to use on my pages for November through Jan. That was very challenging.

I flew to Kentucky the 19th of November and after getting in safe and sound started on my November page. I worked on it around a trip to Chicago and all of the other activities that I did with Wayne's folks. I had a great time with them and since Wayne's Mom Marti is a Quilt Artist she was very helpful with advice and lots of encouragement. She also gave me some supplies that I could use including the metallic ribbons that make up the border of this page.

November I continued using leather and cotton cords couched down for branches, it is actually a trend you will see in the next months as well. November also sees the start of another trend that will continue into the next months and I think into some of my future work and that is including more hand stitching to add texture and details to my pages. It is harder to see from a distance but up close I think it really does add to the piece(s).

When I first start picking out photos for Novembers pages I realized that I had several interesting photos of milk weed pods opening up to disperse their seeds. Immediately the idea of using feathers to portray the fluffy part of the seed came to mind. This provided a challenge in how to do it but I love the way it looks. The seeds had a bit of a do-over because I tried something I ended up not liking so that came out and seed beads, French knots and a bit of other stitches went in.

Even though I didn't start my November page until the 20th I still managed to get it finished before I headed to Iowa on the 3rd of December.

Where It's At

2008-02-12T16:51:00.001-05:00

Although most of my life is behind and I have a long list of things I really need to catch up on I have been keeping on track with my BJP pages. The picture is how they look up through January. February is right on track for the time being. Currently I have them hanging chronologically Left-Right but may change that to Top-Bottom, we will see which I like better when they are all done. I am still loving the process and think that you can see changes to how I am approaching the pages and my art as you look through the pages.

November Preview

2007-11-17T15:14:00.001-05:00

It has been kind of an insane month so far and I have done no beading except while I taught 2 classes at Bead Boutique my LBS. I have not been good about my exercise program in the last 2 weeks although I have done some pilates. I will have to see if I can't get better once I get on the road.

Here is the start of my page but nary a bead in sight, actually some of them have been shipped off to my first stop on my trip. It is interesting trying to pick out all of the beads I think I may want for the next couple of months before I have added one bead to the piece. I think it would be even harder if I was doing the intuitive pieces where I just put down one bead and go with the flow. At least I can look at the photos and decide I need this color or might want this bead etc.

I have all of the pages for the rest of the months at this point so if you would like to see them go to the Bead Journal part of my website and check out the photo albums for the upcoming months. It will give you an idea of where my journey is headed. I have updated a few other things on my website as well including adding a section for the collages that I have been making to turn in to greeting cards.

I will try to post updates as I go and will try to include photos if I can. The really good news is that Wayne should be home very soon after I get back from my trip. I expect January to be a wonderful month.

Journals, Keeping Track of the Journey

2007-10-30T21:34:00.001-04:00

Here there are 3 months of journals all worked on at the same time. I also made the cards for these months at the same time. Since I will be traveling for 1/2 of Nov and all of Dec and hopefully getting a husband back sometime in January I have a feeling that my next 3 journals may likewise get worked on as a group. I will take my camera along so I will have during photos although it will be interesting to see how easy or hard it is to keep up on the blogs while I am traveling. The writing shouldn't be hard I am just not sure about the photos. will see how it works out when the time goes. I am learning new tricks on the Mac and with it my tags are a good place to try new things.

August Finished

2007-10-21T19:58:00.001-04:00

It had it's own pace to get finished and has provided me with many hours of enjoyment and contemplation. It is my perfect place to sit and be quiet.

This page is my most dimensional month and is fun to touch and you can move the plant around a little bit. Maybe someday I will be lucky enough to have a porch something like this one where I can sit out and just be.

October Finished

2007-10-21T19:40:00.001-04:00

It was quite the Bead Vortex that I fell into, even in a week with several nighs where I was tossing and turning I still managed to get both October and August's pages done.

It is interesting how things turned out with October's page. I had several ideas that changed and the look definitely changed as I went. With all of my pages having photos taken outside you are now beginning to see a bit of the effect of the change of seasons with October's page. The page feels much like Fall feels to me , earthy with rich colors and a sense of calm.

My original idea with wrap around the edge leaves got scrapped and so did it's follow on idea and the original leaves that I made for this page will show up somewhere else in a project I am sure. I am so glad that I used the Russian leaves from my class at Bead Fest and then made more to go with them. They had the right amount of detail and were not so heavy as to weigh down the look of the page.

Growth Happens

2007-10-15T17:58:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday last week I had a body wrap done at The Studio the gym I have been going to . For the wrap they put a series of heating pads around your body and then your job is to relax for the first 30 min. Then Gail comes in and gives you a hand and foot massage, mmmmm... wonderful. It makes a nice treat and the heat helps relax you and burns a lot of calories etc.

As I was laying there relaxing in the dim room with the soft music my plants from August's page decided that they were ready to grow and that the idea of a trellis that I had been toying with was a really good idea. That afternoon and evening I made 2 trellis and got them attached and since these photos were taken some growing has definitely been happening. With both August and October's pages clambering for my attention I have sort of fallen into a bead vortex and have fallen a bit behind in blogging and e-mails. Beading is more fun anyway, for those I owe e-nails to I promise I will do my best to eventually catch up on them.

Fall Is So Natural

2007-10-15T17:29:00.000-04:00

This months page has come so naturally to me, it has been almost easy and quick to do. It is quickly nearing completion. For those who read about my September page you might remember me mentioning a vine that I was thinking of using made with Herringbone stitch, somehow it decided that it wanted to be around October's page instead. I combined the couple of pieces that I had made for that and the piece I had started for my Fall leaves class at Bead Fest and added to them until I had enough to go around the page as the border. It was then tacked onto the front and when the piece is done it will be tacked onto the back as well.

For all that this piece has been relatively fast and felt very natural it has undergone some significant changes in ideas. I was going to use beaded leaves and wrap them around the edges of the piece but when I tried this I realized that the leaves became unidentifiable as leaves once they were wrapped around the edge.

The next idea was to just set them around the edge on the front as a border but then I thought the edge might need something and since my "vines where on my table they said try us and what do you know I really liked how they looked. After joining my sections together and adding to them I played with the peyote leaves that I had already made and they just didn't feel quite right, too heavy for the piece. The Russian leaves that I had made for the Fall Leaves class however were more delicate looking so I made more of them playing with size and colors and decided they were perfect. (the pictures with the leaves will be in the next post.)

I do like the idea of some pieces that are made separately and then can be added because it is so easy to play with ideas that way and I know that all of the pieces that don't get used on the page they were made for might just show up somewhere else. Who knew when I took the class in August that I wouldn't end up making the class project but use the pieces on a BJP page. I took the class to learn the technique so am quite pleased that the pieces are ending up on an "Angie" piece instead of a copy of the teacher's piece.

Thanks to those of you who left your opinion on whether or not to bead the fallen leaf. It was unanimous to not bead it, I know I just have to trust my own instinct which was saying not to bead it.

Fall Harvest

2007-10-09T17:02:00.001-04:00

I had a lot of fun at Bead Boutique teaching and spending some time beading at the end of September and while I was there I bought all of the cords and most of the berries for this page.
I really like the very earthy feel this page has. I wasn't sure if I would lose that once I started adding more beads to it.

This page feels right on a different level than some of the other pages have. I find that each page has me thinking and feeling different things. I am thinking of naming my pages for this year "Nature's Moods."

I am not sure what I want to do with the leaf that looks like it floated down and landed on my page. Part of me is tempted to leave it unbeaded so that it keeps that just landed on the page look. I am looking for opinions, as Wayne knows I take opinions and then may ignore them but I like them since they make me think.

Earthy October

2007-10-05T13:54:00.001-04:00

I haven't figured out what all I will be expressing and exploring personally with this page yet. It feels very earthy to me and because of that I felt that the leather and cotton cords to represent some of the branches felt right, more earthy than beaded branches. Maybe my journey this month has to do with my connection to the earth? Although my birthday is this month I don't feel that it is overtly going to show up in my page but maybe I don't see it yet. I think that the page is going to be pretty quick to bead but I feel that the edging is where this page will shine. The plan at the moment is an edge of beaded leaves that wrap around the edge. Going with that plan will mean that a lot more time will be spent on the edges of this page. I love the colors and patterns that you find on fall leaves and that like snowflakes that no two are ever exactly the same.

If you are interested in my exciting news for the beginning of this month please check out my Artistic Kreations and Passions Blog.

Slow Growth

2007-10-05T13:48:00.001-04:00

Although it is moving very slowly August periodically says today and like a plant growing little changes happen. It is interesting on how comfortable I am with the pace this page is going. I don't feel at all like it needs to be done by a certain time. This page has it's own pace and sort of like my personal growth it takes energy for the new leaves and eventually flowers to grow. Here the first leaves are starting to show up.

Free to Fly

2007-10-01T20:23:00.000-04:00

'So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land! - Peter Pan

Finished on time, my September page fills me full of happiness and sets my heart to flying. Full of light and love my Spirit Guides are helping me with my transformation and giving me wings to soar.

If you want to see the photo albums for my finished pages and inspiration photos for my upcoming months visit my Bead Journal Project section of my new website Artistic Kreations and Passions.

The 13th Dragonfly

2007-10-01T20:07:00.001-04:00

In she flies, full of fun and excitement ready to lead me on the path my life is following. She encourages my transformations reminding me how beautiful I am inside and out and that I can do and be anything I want to. I am not surprised by her wonderful crystal wings glittering in purples. The color of creativity and royalty (and my favorite) she is the queen dragonfly. She stands out from the rest of the crowd ready to share her wisdom and love with those who need her.
Our 13th beauty has wings made with right angle weave in 3 mm Swarovski Crystals. I love the bling and sparkle of crystals. She has wire through the edges of her wings and joining her body sections together. After all of the pieces were together I made small slits in my page and fed her legs to the back so they could be tacked down. For once I remembered to photograph the back of my piece before putting it together so you can see what one looks like.

Spiral Vines

2007-10-01T19:56:00.001-04:00

For those of you who have been reading my previous posts you may look at the photos and say 'Hey weren't there going to be herringbone vines on this page?' Yes there were but when I laid one of my vines on the page the dragonflies rebelled and threatened to fly off the page. The herringbone vining was to heavy for the page and visually weighed it down and changed the mood.

The day before my Inner Child had been doodling and made one of our favorite doodles curly cue vines with leaves and flowers and the dragonflies decided that those where a much better choice fun and fanciful without weighing down the mood of the page. So sharpie in hand we added spiraling vines and then beaded them . The herringbone stitch made it onto the page in a different way. I added a backstitched border to the page and off of that I added herringbone strips that will be wrapped around the edges to the back.

Creating on the Fly

2007-09-18T13:22:00.000-04:00

They seem to like the attention and more progress is made. I guess we will have to play to figure out the next step. mmmm.....

Flitting, flighty and Fun.

2007-09-17T14:24:00.001-04:00

This page is moving right along for me. The dragonflies know what they want and tell me. They are happy that I am including them in the journey. The mood of this piece is more carefree than any of my previous pages. I have beaded bezels for each of my dragonfly "cabochons." The next step will be to edge come of the yellow flower petals from the large photo. I am working on making some herringbone vines that I will add on to the page. I love texture and dimension and it is showing some in all of my pages. You can see why my original theme was "Details" I have always loved taking photos and sketching the details around me. I adore detail work which is probably why beading is such a good fit, and why I love 15/0 seed beads.

The Seeds Have Been Planted

2007-09-17T14:13:00.001-04:00

I have been mainly focused on Septembers page this month so far but I did plant seeds in my flower pot and you can see here that they have started to grow. I wonder if this is symbolic of the growth I am experiencing or just my love of plants (even if I have a brown thumb)? It is interesting how different my two pages feel to me. This page is calming, slow paced, and meditative while September's is more carefree, festive, fun and ever changing. Which page I work on depends slightly on my mood at the moment. This page is coming along slowly but I don't feel that it is ready for me to finish it yet. It already speaks volumes to me, what all will it have to say when it is finished.

Birthing a Dragonfly

2007-09-11T19:16:00.000-04:00

My pages until this point have only included photos taken during the month they represent, they could be from any year. September started out this way but from the start I had bugs on the brain. As the Dragonflies flew into my consciousness they also decided that they were claim this page as there own and thus they appear to one and all ready to guide us through our transformations.

I chose one photo to be my 4"x6" photo and while I was figuring out how I wanted to do the others and how many others where going to visit I remembered the 2" x 2" glass slides I had bought for this as well as the clear round slightly domed stickers that I had gotten at Jo-Ann's Fabrics and Crafts. I had printed out all of my choices in 2" x 3" size so that I could think about them and realized that they were already the correct size for what I wanted to do. I ended up with more dragonflies than I might have originally chosen but they all clamored to be on the page.

For the moment there are 12 dragonflies but I have a feeling a 13th one will show up before the page is through. When you are born on Friday the 13th in October it is hard to feel that 13 is an unlucky number. Since my 40th is just over a month away maybe this page has significance. Maybe this transformation is my form of midlife crisis, not so much a crisis as a taking stock of where I am at and finding my way into my future.

As for the title of this post it comes from the photo of the dragonfly in the upper right hand corner. When we were in New England camping one time, we were taking down our tent where we had been near a lake and right next to the tent was a brand new dragonfly. They live for 2 years in the water before becoming the winged wonders we so enjoy. On a weed was this dragonfly just free from it's casing with new untried wings waiting to dry in the sunlight. I think that in many ways I am at that point in my life brand new wings that I am getting ready to try out.

Blessings to you all and remember to fly high and reach for your dreams. Love Angie

Ready to Plant

2007-09-11T19:10:00.001-04:00

I have added some more details to my August page and am now ready to start planting my flowers. I am not sure if it will need any thing else once the flowers are added but they will take awhile to do. I am not sure what they will look like but I am sure they will be wonderfully luxurious and happy plants full of blooms. I have not worked on the page much this last week as I have been getting a start on September's page.

Needing a place of calm

2007-09-04T17:58:00.000-04:00

Life has been a bit hectic of late and so I am running behind on my August page but I am fine with that. Since this is my place of calm maybe it was appropriate that I was working on it as life got hectic with good and bad news (see my Artistic Kreations and Passions blog for details). Since this is an important page I want it to feel right and don't want to rush it. I will probably see about starting September's page and work on both of them this month. I am thrilled with how my page is coming along.

The photo above shows one of the pots I made in the stages it went through (yes there are 3 pots in different stages in the photo) I wanted to add a couple of pots of flowers to my porch since I love flowers, I was unsure of how I wanted to do the pots although I wanted them somewhat dimensional. I found the 1/2 pots made of wood at Michaels and decided try them. I covered them with double stick tape and added EZ-felt to that. I colored them with a permanent marker so if you could see between the beads it wouldn't stand out as stark white. On top of this I added peyote stitch using the felt as a place to anchor threads and the first row of beads. I occasionally ran the thread along the back to help keep the beading tight to the shape and supported. Now that they are stitched onto the main piece you can only see the ones near the opening and those will be covered once I add my beaded plant.

This photo shows the pots stitched on and bricks and flooring that I added. I want to add more to the brick wall but haven't decided what yet. I am definitely letting this piece guide me and tell me where it wants to go. I have a feeling this page will be one of my more elaborate and time consuming which is fine. Dragonflies are coming out to play for September and I expect that page to be a bit quicker and more flighty.
This last picture is how the page looks as I write this.

An update on my "Physical Enablement" I am sticking to my goals and am still not fighting the exercise which is a refreshing change of pace for me. I am putting in around 40 minutes on the treadmill 4-5 days most weeks at this point and have recently added some strength training to that. I can't honestly say that I feel more energized afterward but I know that I am improving my health and endurance. A nice bi-product of the changes I have made since the beginning of the month is that for August I lost 5 lbs. Although weight loss is not specifically one of my goals I am more than happy to accept as a bi-product of the changes I am making.

I want to say thanks to all of the people who are supporting me on my changes and to those of you who are also going through this kind of change and who are taking charge of your life, your health and your happiness keep up the good work.

A Place of Calm and a Bit of Blitz

2007-08-18T18:27:00.000-04:00

I can't seem to escape my love of a bit of blitz and bling. Even though this is a place for a bit of calm and contemplation I wouldn't want it to be boring.

I have been having fun watching this piece evolve. Although I got a bit of a slow start this month it is really keeping pace with the changes that I am making to my life. Slow gradual changes to my life. I have been exercising 4-5 days each week and have made some improvements to my diet. I have still got improvements to make but have felt very positive with this process so far. It looks like I may have even lost my first few pounds.

There Be Dragons Here

2007-08-09T15:14:00.001-04:00

I meant to take photos and post them a couple of days ago but haven't gotten a lot of beading done in the last few days. Part of that is instructions for a class I was supposed to teach at Bead Boutique ( class canceled but instructions now complete) and part was that I have added physical activities and writing in my morning pages to my day. I haven't quite found the proper balance for all things in my life yet. It will come I am sure. I am trying to keep the changes slow so that I don't push myself into frustration or hurt anything. Unlike a car I can't go from 0-60 in seconds. Ooh, did I just say that? Too many years living with a man who loves his cars.

I have my small dragon beaded and will just need to sew it on. I have a start on the larger dragon. Beading through the main support and fabric and 1 layer of the canvas paper is not hard. It is a bit more challenging to go through 2 layers of canvas paper along with the main support. A thimble is a good thing. I use one a lot with my bead embroidery anyway, otherwise I end up with the needle going into my finger eye first just a little bit too often and my finger tip gets sore. I stab myself with needles often enough as it is.

I liked the fact that the dragons in the photos looked like the edges of their scales and other bits were gilded so I took some silver sequins and used a permanent metallic gold marker and colored half of the edge with it. I really like how it looks. With my silver 15s and my gold charlottes they look sort of regal and blingy. I am definitely a glitter girl I love crystals and AB and metallic finishes. I have worked with crystal sequins before but this is my first time with regular sequins. You can't overlap the crystal ones and need doubled Fireline.

I am working on my columns at the moment because the adhesive I used is not holding them down real well and I don't want to risk them tearing. After that I will work on attaching the border ribbon to the front. It will be easier to know where some of the beading goes after I get that on.

I have added the ability for people to sign up to receive e-mails when I update my blogs so if you are interested feel free to do that. Just look on the side where it asks you to sign-up.

A Place of Calm and Contemplation

2007-08-01T20:25:00.000-04:00

I am sort of looking at my August page a place for calm and contemplation. While in Japan I fell in love with the idea of a covered porch where you could sit and enjoy nature.

I didn't have any digital photos of the wonderful wood porches we sat on in Japan looking at gardens or relaxing as we waited for the rain to stop. The sense of peace and rightness of those settings still offers it's calmness through my memories.

The porch I chose as my calm spot for this piece was from one of the smaller mansions in Newport. The Dragon roof supports are from the front porch of the same house. The pond with it's rainbow are from Sisson Pond that I visited almost weekly for the entire year of 2005 documenting the changes as the seasons changed.

I combined them to make a dream porch where I could go mentally to find calm and contemplate the transformation that I am embarking on. As I add more physical activity and other changes in my life I have a feeling that a place that I can mentally go to just "be" will hold a certain appeal. I am not sure what else this piece will mean to me as I begin working on it but am looking forward to finding out.

Now to the how's and what's of the piece. The pond is printed onto Cre8 fabric "paper" The porch and the dragon supports are printed onto an paper by Canson that is designed for acrylic painting that I got from Michaels. It came as 9" x 12" and I cut it down to fit the printer. It looks a little like canvas but is cheaper than "canvas paper". It was easy to print on and I don't think it will be hard to bead through. I sprayed the printed pages of "canvas" with poly-acrylic to protect the surface. I cut away the sections I didn't want (the background on the porch etc) and glued the layers together. I made the second dragon support a separate piece that I will bead and then add so that it will add a little more dimension to the piece. You can see the piece with and with out the 2nd dragon in the photos. I added a bit of added color with markers although most of it will be covered up with beads and/or sequins.

Did I mention that I am going to try using sequins for the first time? I have seen some really neat pages that people are doing using sequins and thought that they would make really great scales for my dragon.

I changed the photos out for the end of July so that you can see them better and that they will actually enlarge so that you can see the details better. I am still working out how big the photos files should be. Hope that they work better now.

As for the first day of the new plan, life or however you want to look at it; the day went well, the gym went well and my mental outlook is very positive. To read more check out my Artistic Kreations and Passions Blog For everyone who is cheering me on Thanks and for those of you who are joining from afar good luck as we set out to transform our lives.

Love and Blessings to you all, Angie

July Journal

2007-08-01T20:10:00.001-04:00

I finished the journal that gos with my July bead journal project page. Learning things doing the journals as well. I think it will be interesting at the end of the year to go back and look at these. It is the same information that is in my blog although arranged differently and my blog has more information but is a much different experience to reading the information on the tags, pulling them out of their pockets etc.

Taking the First Step

2007-07-30T15:42:00.000-04:00

It is the end of a month that has required that I look at my life and make some decisions about where I am going and how I can get there. Although I have good discipline when it comes to my art I have never shown that same will power and strength when it has come to taking care of myself physically. The truth is I know that it has an impact on other parts of my life including my creativity. I have decided to take the bull by the horns if you will and make my health and taking care of myself a larger priority. To this end I am planning on working on improving my diet and starting to add more physical activities to my life.

The world seems to be looking out for me in this goal because my landlady and friend Colleen has also decided to make this a larger priority in her life also and we are going to try being exercise buddies. I think that having someone else with similar goals and someone to be accountable to will help both of us. We start tomorrow morning.

I am sure with several more months to contemplate my life and goals and time to slowly implement new positive changes to my life that by the time my husband gets back that I will developed some new good habits and that by the end of the BJP journey that I will see several changes in how I look at things.

I have finished my July page as you can see from the photos above. If you go to my Artistic Kreations and Passions Blog you can see an idea of how they are going to be hung up.

I am still working on my journal for the month and mainly need to figure out what all I want to say on the tags. It is just narrowing it down and organizing the thoughts. It will be part how I did it and part what I was going through and thinking during the process. In the next few days I will probably finish it and get a post in here with the finished journal.

I have also started working on printing up the photos for August and once I get them finished I will post the page before beading as well.

On the Threshold

2007-07-25T23:31:00.001-04:00

I am pretty sure I know what the key is, it is there on my lock, it says "Made With Love" The key is love, isn't it always? In this case I need to love myself enough to take better care of myself. Not drinking enough water, not eating a balanced diet, not working out; I am sabotaging my self both physically and creatively. How can I be a fully realized person if I am out of balanced. I hope that at least part of the solution is fully realizing this. I need to love myself enough to "want" to improve my life and find out the best way for me to incorporate good habits into my life to replace those that aren't as good for me. I have been dragging my feet as this realization has come to me but I think as this month ends I need to take the steps forward to help get myself healthier and with that I know that I will be able to take that next step that my art is ready for.

On a slightly less serious note I hope that I am not making anyone uncomfortable. I think that sharing this journey in this way is helpful in that I know there are others who understand and "get" it. I also think it is good because as others read this who maybe going through their own personal growth and struggles and it is always good to know that you are not alone.

My July page is mostly done. I have glued the back on and am adding the beaded edging onto currently. I also have work to do on the journal to go with it. If the key is going to show up in the piece it will either be in the journal or I have a feeling it will show up in one of my future pages, maybe once I am truly ready for it to show up. I am very thankful that I have this journey before me and maybe the fact that I have so much time to myself is a good thing. I have less outside distractions and more time for contemplation.