end of the year

my subject is all in lower case keys as will be the rest of this entry. i just found out today that gill slone had died in a motorcycle accident this summer. she & I were corresponding for about 6 months before she left for a holiday in europe. she wrote and said when she got back we'd carry on our "conversations". i was delighted as we had two things in common...our beads and our scotties. gill had a boy named archie, and we chatted about our crazy scotties. then today when i opened the newest issue of bead and button, i saw an article she had written. i had been waiting for it as she told me about it before she left. there at the end was a "in memory" of gill. what?? i saw that she'd been killed in a motocycle accident while in germany back in june. i am still in shock and want to cry. i had been thinking about her last week during christmas but just thought like myself things were keeping her occupied. so i went to her blog which is still online and then clicked to her website. there was a note from her brother in law. i just am so sad tonight. this year, i've lost two bead friends who had encouraged me and gave me joy. lora and gill will be missed by me and others. then i read on nicole's blog that her sister died. nicole has lost her brother previous this year. o what a year.

i do hope that 2010 will bring all i know a better year. that all of us will not suffer loss. that all of us will find happiness and hope. my wish is for peace of mind for all those who i've learned to love.
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New Yahoo Group

I was very sad to hear that one of my favorite Yahoo Groups (Beaded Art Doll) was closing. I'm not sure why, but I heard that it was lack of participation. The moderators & owners are merging the group with another Yahoo Group called BeadDreamz. I really didn't want to belong to another beading group which promotes all types of beading techniques as I already am on several Delphi Forum groups. I was thinking that I would love a group dedicated just to bead embroidery in all forms. So after talking to Cynthia the other night, I decided to start a group catering just to those of us who love bead embroidery. It doesn't matter if you make dolls, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, ATCs, boxes, or embellish dolls. Everyone is welcome to join.

Cyn & I were talking about names & I just blurted out "A Bead Story". Then she added "come add your chapter". There it is. Our motto and a theme for the group. I hope that folks from the BJP find us and will want to join so that they can ask questions no matter how "stupid" they think they are. As I say every single night to everyone who calls the lab, "no such thing as a stupid question"...just questions. So if you are interested, please join. I have a button over on the left hand side.

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Merry Christmas

TO all my Scottie, beading, fiber artist, and doll making friends:




Off to Victor's house for a Christmas Eve celebration. I rarely get Christmas Eve off from the hospital, but when I do there is no other place I'd rather be than with my baby brother and his glorious family. I sometimes forget & call my nieces & nephews my grandchildren. I've had people then ask me, but don't you have no children. Well, I didn't, but I still feel like Mallory, Emily, Isaac & Elijah are really mine. So a night of lasagna, desserts, presents & especially board games. We love playing Aggravation. Use to play this game with Grandma & Grandpa on Christmas Day after the feasting, so I guess in a way the tradition still lives on. Tomorrow just Chris & I with the dogs.

Mother Earth

It must be my "thing" this year to be working on Mother Nature pieces. But I do enjoy the concept. I designed this wee doll for the Cloth Paper Scissor's Mother Earth challenge. The doll had to be SMALL! Less than 12 inches tall with only a 2 inch depth. So I made this little tree like doll form with feet that are suppose to look like roots. Then I beaded her. The face is a traditional Native American bead embroidery technique. I found a old Navajo necklace and got an idea for a beaded face. I traced a face design on a piece of paper and fused some fabric to the back. Then following the coloration from the paper, I did a back stitch around a focal bead in a circular fashion. Looks funky, but turned out find. At the feet of Mother Earth are about twenty or more peyote leaves in all different colors. That is what took me the longest to make. In her hand is a charm of JOY which was given to me by ArtTeaLife. Check out her blog, it is great. When I entered this piece I wrote:

"From your feet surrounded by forest leaves to your arms carrying the Stars, our Mother Earth comforts us and gives to all creatures the JOY only we can find in Her embrace. Thank you for my life and the beautiful world I live in".

Okay, why am I rambling on about this doll...well, I just got an e-mail telling me she is one of the finalist in their contest. Yeah! Now to send her off but after all the holidays as their offices are closed. Which lead me to this thought. Last year at this time, I made a resolution to get my beaded dolls published in magazines besides Doll Crafter. Well, I've achieved that plus more. So I've been a very blessed girl this past year.

And to entice you about other things, here is a picture of Chris' new creation called Artemis. You can check out more of his creations at MacRadioBot

So-So...

This is the doll that I made for the Mother Earth Challenge for Cloth Paper Scissor. She's so-so, but I thought I'd go ahead & enter her. Why? Well, because she is all beads! Even the face is beaded. AND this is my own pattern. Let me tell you, working on such a small measurement requirement was tough. I can sew small, but this was SMALL! I wanted to do an assemblage piece that was three dimensional, and it worked. And yes, I made all those leaves one at a time. Not the prettiest doll I've made (what am I talking about, I don't do pretty), but she's cheerful.


Speaking of challenges...I actually know the person who won the Use The Muse III. I have a doll that Susan made me a couple years ago. Check out the other love pieces of work. We bought a kit from Scarlett Larson & had to make something with the beads & the what she calls "Muse" which this time was a copper butterfly. I had the hardest time as stupid me didn't read all the instructions when I first started to make it & was working on a doll...then I reread the instructions & saw it had to be jewelry. YIKES! So I had to rip all the beads off the doll and try to come up with something in only a weeks time. Taught me to really read! I'm not sure if I'll do the Use the Muse IV in the future. I thought the price of the kit was a little high for the quantity of the beads. But then I'm into cheap beads, so that is probably my problem.

I'm also thinking about my Bead Journal Project for 2010. I need to get those jars out & clean them up. I'm planning on going to a couple doll making conferences this year. I've already sent my check for the Gala here in Ohio, but have to think about MM&M in Kentucky. I'd love to go, but have to figure out if I have the time off. I better decide soon or else the spaces will fill up. Patti Culea is teaching there, and Judy Skeel has a cute puppet class in the evenings. Plus, it will just be nice get away. I have to figure out my schedule this week at work.

Speaking of...we finally hired a new tech! After four months we are full staff again...AND...I made a suggestion on training new people to give them more experience in multi tasking and was approved to come up with training schedule for off shift techs. Now that was a huge surprise to me as lab people are so stiff & traditional. But times are changing.

Scottie jewelry...finally

Scotties started me on this road. True! I wasn't interested in the internet back in 1989 until Chris told me there was a group called Scottie-L talking about their dogs. I joined and was hooked. I met so many people from that group, and they have changed my life. When I first started to make beaded jewelry 8 years ago, I did square stitch Scottie bracelets. I made so many of them that I got sick of doing them and haven't made anything since then. UNTIL...NOW! I've been playing around with poly clay and made a few cabs using some of my vintage Scottie button collection. So here are a couple things that I made. The earrings are a mold that I made using a very old Scottie button that has celluloid disease and was crumbling to pieces. So I decided to make the mold and keep that image with me. I made earrings from it. The second is a brooch that someone gave me many years ago. I thought is so cute and worked well this the earrings. Right now, I'm working on a Scottie bracelet just for me! And have ideas for other Scottie theme jewelry. So watch out Scottie people...I'm on a roll. BTW, these are going to my Terrier Twin from the AngelScot Yahoo Group.

I see that the deadline for BJP has come & gone. I think I read that we'll have over 200 people in 2010. That made me really think about what I want to focus on for next year. I have a theme. It is called "Secret Treasures". I want to recycle all these beautiful glass jars I have and make them hold keep sakes that I'm so afraid I'll lose if I don't find some place to put them. What kinds of treasures??? Well, I have a brooch that my Great Grandma Gray use to wear. It has lost some of the rhinestones, but I still want it & would be so upset if I lost it. I also have SkyeBlue's puppy teeth and last name tag. There are other things. Some silly, some great, all treasures to me.

Use the Muse III

In three days the big reveal for the Bead the Muse III and there is a give away from ArtBeads.com.

This was my first time doing the challenge. I think for me the hardest part was to think how to take the "Muse" and try to incorporate it into something that if seen without my name it would be recognized as being "Dot". If you don't know me, then I'll tell you what that is...a beaded doll! But the rules were that it had to be some piece of jewelry. Yikes, even more of a challenge. So for me I had to make a doll small enough to be a brooch, could handle the size of the Muse & incorporate the other seed beads into play. I used my Palm Prayer doll form as the base & made a piece filled with the colors of Autumn which was when I made it. I enjoyed the colors & had fun working with the fibers. Don't know if what I did was unique enough, but I sure did get a kick out of adding that Muse!


My boss gave me 5 copies of This Week Westerville that had the article about my beaded dolls in it. My sister got 5 more, so I have enough for me & to share. I sure hope that more people consider voting for the Land of Odds challenge. All the dolls are just wonderful.

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Newspaper article

Here is the link to see the article that Jennifer Nesbitt from This Week Westerville wrote about me & my beaded dolls. She came to interview me about my being a finalist in the Land of Odds Earthern Mother beaded doll challenge. It was so much fun & now I actually have a bit of local publicity. I really liked the article and think she did one bang up job. Now to get people to vote on the website.

Here is a picture of me holding my Global Warming doll which started my thoughts about Rachel Carson and Silent Spring. I also have "Getting Motivated" in my arms which was my piece for AFIC. And yes, that is my work area with all my beaded dolls hanging on the wall behind me. They give me inspiration!