BJP 2012 and Best Wishes For 2013

My Bead Journal Project 2012 is complete, and just in time!  Yes, I finally finished the December piece of my BJP 2012 on Saturday evening.  Yesterday I stitched the pieces to the cotton velvet and then mounted them onto the wooden painting panel (18" X 24" panel).  I didn't want to use a stretched canvas because I thought the weight of the beads would need the support of the solid wood panel.  I like the cotton velvet because it absorbs light so that the beads are highlighted without having the more formal look of silk or viscose velvet.

The December piece includes many shades of blue and my beloved spirals.  I'm often drawn to blues and I seem to come back to spirals in my work so often, that I thought it was a fitting end to the year.

I've got the rest of today to further think through my idea for the BJP 2013 plan that's taking form in my head.  I have yet to determine if it will work but I may just have to jump in and try it!


I wish you and yours a JOYfully wonderful New Year and hope that 2013 brings you good health, happiness, inspiration and creativity!

Hugs,
          Linda

Bead Journal Project: November

I'm two weeks late, but my November bead journal piece is finally done (Sorry for the time warp Eliza...it really is December!).  I was using the excuse that I had set up the blog for BJP 2013.  But really I was just in a beading slump and couldn't seem to get motivated to get this piece going.  I finally started it a few days ago and made it my only focus when I needed art time (which is really all the time) and so I got it done rather quickly.  I can't believe there's only one more piece to go and this spiral will be finished.  I can't wait to see it done and mounted and ready to hang!  

This November piece is about a journey I'm taking right now (another reason it's been hard to stay focused on my art).  Engraved on the back of the silver hand centrepiece is the word "healing".  The three large triangles represent very personal struggles and the red Chinese knots have a dual meaning.  On the one hand, they represent the literal idea of a knot, to be struggled with and untied.  The other meaning, taken from the Chinese culture and story behind these knots is one of harmony and peace which I seek on this journey of healing.  

As has been the case with all of the BJP 2012 pieces, the colour palette comes from Vicki Welsh and her Colour Palette challenge. 

Here is the spiral showing all of the pieces from January through November:

I've already started planning my BJP for 2013.  I've got my plan pretty well sketched out in my head and a little of it on paper.  It's going to be a challenge to pull it off, and I'm still not totally sure if it will work, so that's all I want to say about it for now.  I'll explain my plan when I reveal the first piece in January because by that time I'll have figured out if it will work or not.

 

Bead Journal Project: October

Vicki's colour palette this month was an interesting surprise.  I guess I was thinking all things October and expected to see oranges, reds, yellows...the colours of changing leaves, pumpkins etc.  However, that is not what Vicki had in mind.  I wasn't sure where I wanted to take this piece, but I liked the original design in the image Vicki used so I decided to essentially stretch it and make it fit my shape for this month.  

My husbands birthday is in October, and this year was a milestone birthday so I've also subtly included his age into the piece using stylized numbers.

And here is the full year's spiral in progress.  It's really coming along!  Hard to believe tomorrow will already be November.  Where has this year gone?

Bead Journal Project: September

Don't you just love the colour palette Vicki came up with this month?!  I found it really easy to get inspired to work on my BJP piece for September because these colours are right up my ally.

 The 'journal' aspect of the piece was calling out  loud and clear to me this month as well.  September is about new starts for those of us in teaching, but for me, since I'm still not back to work it's a struggle between accepting me as I currently am and fighting with the knowledge that the summer is over and I 'should' be back at work.

I know I'm supposed to avoid the 'should' word, but I find myself going around in circles, trying to come to grips with accepting myself and at the same time working to heal. Big circles, little circles, randomly scattered all over...sigh...

Below you can see the entire year to date.

Bead Journal Project: Update of Progress to Date

I'm home this evening, getting ready to help our son move into his apartment tomorrow.  He's starting graduate school in the law program at University of Toronto next week.  I can't believe he's already finished his undergraduate degree!  Where does the time go?

He's busy with his last minute packing, so, as promised I'm back to show you the July and August pieces, properly photographed on the black background and then again with the rest of the pieces done so far, so that you can see how the year long project is progressing.

July

August

January - August

  I can't believe how the time has flown.  Only four months left to go!

Bead Journal Project: August

I'm happy to say that I'm all caught up.  I finished my August bead journal project piece last night and I'm ready to jump into September!

Here's the August colour palette that Vicki created:

And here is my BJP piece:

And here's the growing spiral:

Bead Journal Project: July

I'm still trying to get caught up with my Bead Journal Project pieces by it seems a bit of a loosing battle.  I did finish July a few days ago, but I haven't started August and September is fast approaching!  Oh well!!!

I've included the colour palette from Vicki Welsh that is my inspiration for colour.  

Here's the finished piece, and below is a close up of the centre 'bead'.  Since I spent a lot of July photographing the many variety of birds the visit us at our cottage feeders, I thought this was an appropriate centre piece.

Bead Journal Project: June

Well, I know it's actually the middle of August, but I finally finished the June BJP piece!  (insert sheepish grin...).  As always, the colour inspiration came from Vicki Welsh's Colour Palette Challenge. 

June's piece includes a few more literal symbols than I usually use, but it was a lot of fun to create. My husband, Bill, and I went on an RV camping trip to Northern Indiana for a week and while there I found that cute little truck so I just had to make an RV to go behind it.  We also saw some amazing quilt block gardens in which flowers were planted in quilt block patterns.  Very unique idea.  My son's birthday is on the 23rd of the month, thus the larger pink/red beads.  I wasn't really too excited about all the pink in this colour palette, but I'm happy with the results.

And here's the growing spiral, January through June.

Bead Journal Project: May

I finished my May BJP piece and I've got a full day to spare!  The colour inspiration again comes from Vicki Welsh's Colour Palette Challenge.

May has been about gardening and enjoying the beautiful spring weather we've been so fortunate to have.  I started off with the three larger flowers with their long stamen.I then went on to do a collection of fun little flowers that stood up on bugle bead stems. Pulling in the various colours of the palette, I just continued to fill in areas as I was inspired and slowly the piece came together.

Here is the finished piece for May:

And here is the growing spiral, January through May:

Bead Journal Project: February

Well, I'm a little late, but here's my finished piece for the Bead Journal Project.  

I started with the purple heart, not because of Valentine's Day, but because of it's representation of the purple heart for bravery.  To make the heart, I used a long piece of copper wire, strung it with random beads in purple tones and then bent it into the shape of a heart.  From there, I just works one area at a time, letting the piece tell me where to go next, until it was done.  

This picture shows the January and February pieces together as they will eventually be put together.  Watch for the progression of the final piece as it develops over the year.  I'll do my best to get them done on time from now on ;o)

Playing Catch-up

You would think that with the extra day we had in February due to the leap year that I could have finished my Bead Journal Project piece on time.  But, as you can see I have barely started it.  I was so busy playing with lettering in Joanne Sharpe's Letter Love 101 online class that I neglected a lot of other art projects that I have on the go.

Well, for the next few days my focus will be on beading.  I hope to be able to post about the finished piece in a few days.  Wish me luck!

January's Bead Journal Project

My first piece for the 2012 Bead Journal Project is done.  I started out with the square charm as a representation of my 50th birthday which I should have celebrated last year but because of circumstances it ended up being a non-event.  I decided that I'd have a 'do over' this year to make up for it.  LOL

The first step was to capture the square charm in a bead basket.  After that I did the spirals ~ I do have a thing for spirals.  The rest just came about intuitively.  There were times in the process when I didn't like it much, but fortunately it all worked out in the end and I'm happy with the end result.  The circle is the size of a CD (I traced one onto the Fast 2 Fuse that I used as my stabilizer) so it's just over 4 1/2 inches across.

Close up shows details of mica 'donuts' below the bead 

stacks in the bottom left.