Bead Journal Project: February and a Red Herring

Here's the next instalment in my BJP 2013. I was a bit worried about how the puzzle pieces would come together since it's tricky to bead a perfectly straight edge when using little round beads, but as you can see in the second photo, showing the first two months together, the joint is not too bad.  Working on the little interlocking 'tabs' of the puzzle pieces is a bit tricky, and of course I have to be careful to make sure I'm using the right colours so that the little buildings match correctly from one piece to the next.  The bright sky is a nice juxtaposition to the gloomy February we've been having...I can't wait for Spring to get here!

Okay, it might not be a herring but it's a little red fish!  On Sunday evening, while watching the Academy Awards, I added the beads to this fish that I had sewn up earlier in the day.  He's about 3 1/2" long and he's going to be used as an embellishment on a piece I'm planning to enter into a juried show.

Bead Journal Project: January

After the large undertaking I took on for BJP 2012 (you can see the finished piece here, or in person at the Cultural Centre in Georgetown where it is currently hanging in an art display to celebrate the grand re-opening), I decided to scale things back slightly.  I chose to use puzzle pieces approximately three inches square as my shape.  I drew up a basic plan for the final overall picture, and each month I will complete the next piece of the puzzle, literally.  This means that the journalling aspect has sort of gone by the way side, but since I'm keeping an art journalling calendar too, it will record the on-going events of my life as it unfolds over the course of the year.  However, having said that, I have snuck in a bit of journalling because I wrote something down on the piece of stabilizer, using a Micron, before I started beading.  I plan to record what I consider to be the most important event that transpired during the month (or at least the first 3 weeks of the month) as a secret journal entry that I will know is there, but others who look at the piece would never guess!  So don't tell anyone, okay...  I'd hate to think someone might take the beads off to see what was written underneath!