October's Beaded Butterflies

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

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)

Journals, Keeping Track of the Journey

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.

October Finished

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.

Fall Is So Natural

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

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

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.