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:

Shadow Play and Beads

Back in the first week of March I showed you the beginnings of this art quilt, before I started the quilting.

The next step was to do the free motion machine quilting.  There is something very 'zen' about doodling with a sewing machine!  In this case, I let the batik drive my stitching design by loosely following the pattern in the batik.

Once I finished the quilting this piece moved from my studio to the family room where I did the beading while 'listening to' TV.  I also added a little hand stitch with pearl cotton to give the smaller squares a bit more texture and interest.  Again, I used the design in the fabric (that I had fussy cut in the original piecing and fusing stage).

Playing With Shadows

Today I spent some time in the studio playing around with shadows.  I love adding that layer of black under shapes to give the illusion of the shapes floating above the piece.  The colours in this were inspired by Vicki Welsh's colour palette from the colour palette challenge.

The background was pieced and the rest has been fused.  The next step will be the quilting.  I love this part because it just seems to bring the piece to life.  I'll post again once it's done so you can see where I take it.

Thanks for visiting today.  Have an artfully wonderful day!

Water Lilies

I have decided to participate in the Colour Palette Challenge again this year.  It's a great way to motivate me to work with colours that I might not otherwise put together (even though I seem to have them in my stash LOL).  This year I'm planning on making 8" x 10" art quilts for this challenge.

Each month, Vicki creates a colour palette from one of her photographs.  This is the January palette.  Unfortunately, the colours were slightly off when I printed it, so you can see my colour choices don't quite match the palette selections.  Oh well.

I love the blue and green (as you may have noticed from some of my other pieces) but I don't think I've ever added the burgundy to it.  My design was inspired by some of the work done by Gloria Loughman, particularly the wonderful 'fan' shape with the circles on it.  I added some spirals and curling 'tendrils' to add some flow to the piece and gave all of the circles a shadow to bring them forward.  For this piece, I have done machine embroidery (buttonhole stitch) but in hindsight I'm thinking that some hand stitch and beading might be lacking.  Is there a 12 step program for bead addicts?