Exciting News...

I'm excited to announce that "My Year Unravelled" has been accepted into the 6th ANNUAL OPEN JURIED SHOW at Beaux-Arts Brampton.

The show, which runs from April 9th to May 4th, will consist of work in any two or 3 dimensional media with the exception of photography (for which they have a separate show in May).  For more information about show times or other participating artist, click on the image below.

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!  

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: 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: April

Well, here it is just past the middle of April, and my Bead Journal Project piece is done!  As you may remember, I am taking my colour inspiration each month from Vicki's Colour Palette Challenge, and this month the colours came from mouldy pie.  Yes, you read that correctly.  As disgusting as it sounds, the colours are actually wonderful.

I started with some fun bugle beads that were the perfect colour combination as well as a piece of whale bone that my friend Heather bought for me a couple of years ago while she was visiting my cottage.  The spokes represent my bike since I try to cycle about 30-50 km (19-31 miles) each day, and the whale bone represents the centre hub of the wheel with the chain circling the gear. 

I then made a bunch of meandering paths to represent the various routes I cycle, to give it sort of a map view. 

Once the paths were complete I just filled in all of the background area with the neutral coloured beads.

And, here's this month's finished piece.

 Four months done and eight to go...

I love how the spiral is coming together.  I'm starting to think about how I will mount this for hanging since the beads are pretty heavy and once the twelve months are complete the total weight will be significant.  Oh well, I've still got eight months to worry about that. LOL

Bead Journal Project: March

Well, this month (or rather last month since it's the piece for March) I actually finished beading on time, but I'm still a little late posting.

I started with 5 'snowflakes', my interpretation of the Whistler/Blackcomb symbol and the three copper beads to represent three nights spent at the resort.  I then filled in the background of that area with the random beading in the yellow, gold and orange beads.  I wanted the snowflakes and resort icon to be subtle.

Since I don't plan these bead pieces, the rest just evolved section by section as I played with adding various rows, spirals, etc.

Finally, here are the first three month's pieces shown together.  You can begin to see the spiral developing.

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.  

To Bead or Not To Bead - There Is No Question!

     Sometimes it's all about the message!  I saw a plaque some time ago with this wonderful quote and I knew I had to do something with it.  I've been struggling a lot lately with who I am and what's going on in my life right now, but this message make me smiles.  Depression sucks. (There, I said it.) We've (I've) got to get over the ridiculous stigma and move on.

        Anyway, I was inspired to pull out my beads [thanks to Anne Marie D :o)] and try to put some colour and bling into my days.  Anne Marie has also got me inspired to joint the Bead Journal Project 2012.  

     This piece is the result of hours of time wasted in front of the TV while watching too many episodes of Property Virgins, Income Property, House Hunters International and the likes.  The good thing is that you can't snack mindlessly while beading (although I do manage to get in some leftover Halloween Smarties).