TA-DA...DONE!

This is my final entry piece for the BJP. Of all the 12 pieces for this year challenge, this truly has been a challenge and has taken me the whole month to finish. It all started with a class at 1 stop bead shop here in Columbus. I got to take a class with Sherry Serafini's the beaded purse class. Well, after working on and off for this whole total month, it is DONE as of late last night. I was going to add fringe to the handle and sides but decided not to do that. It stands pretty much on its own. Oh and I DO plan to take this with me to the Bead Unique Retreat with me in Tahoe.

June 2009 BJP

I've been so busy working on the Land of Odds contest "Earthen Mother". It is almost done. Wish I could share some pictures of this piece that I've been working off & on for the last 4 months, but the rules state that I cannot post picture anywhere. Bum! As I like to get feedback on these big pieces as sometimes I get so close to it that I lose perspective. Fantasy Swim was the last big enormous piece that I did like this. By the end of the 6 months when I'd have my actual nose touching the base sewing down those individual sea urchins, I was ready for it to be GONE! And it was gone for over 2 years. It now is on permanent loan to Byzantium where I teach. Yet, with this new piece which I'm calling Rachel's Dream to honor Rachel Carson, I really like it. Maybe it is as Chris says that I'm getting better at doll making & just like the doll better. I am & I do. But more about that later this year after I find out if they want it or not.

Besides doing Earthen Mother, I'm still into beading the beanies. They are a great relaxer for me & I can experiment with each of them practicing new techniques and color/bead combinations. For June's BJP, I decided to take a beanie baby that was flat on the ground & by using simple needle sculpting techniques to actually make the cat more life like. Now, I haven't had a cat in over 7 years, but I do remember them playing with their behind up in the air & the paws out front. I used some aqua crystal spacers for the eyes, but after looking at it close (probably too close), they didn't work like I had planned in my head. Better luck next time & out to look for new beads to get the exact pattern I'm looking for. Like I need more ideas to do some bead shopping. I don't know why I've named this cat Toby. Never had a cat named that. Only had three cats in my life despite the Doctor's screaming at me that my Asthma was due to cat allergies. So after our last cat, Casper, died, we decided no more cats. I'm healthier (yes, I didn't believe the Doctors at the time but they were right) but sometimes I do miss my kitty babies. Now we are an all dog family...well...all Scottie Dog family. So enjoy Toby. He makes me laugh & he has no problem sitting next to Gideon of the Big Fish Head. He's waiting for Gideon to make a mistake & then POUNCE!

March BJP

I'm slowly recovering from my sinus surgery on Monday. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but recovering is going kind of slow. Right now, I feel like I'm having a sinus infection what with all the pressure in my head and the sinus pain under my eyes. I tried to go out today for breakfast & boy was that a mistake. Had to hurry home. I'm NOT ready for the public yet. One thing that I was worried about with having this surgery was if I'd be able to sit at my work station and do some beading. Have I EVER! As long as I keep my head still, I can work away the hours. Which is a good thing considering that television makes me a little nauseous still. So I've been creating new projects, sewing, and naturally beading.

This is my March entry for the BJP 2008-2009. His name is Shawnee. The beading & color manipulation on this one isn't as good as I wanted, but I wanted to do a beanie totally encrusted. Shawnee first started as one of the bears from my recycle project. He was sitting there all bright & naked next to his friends. I'd just finished reading a post by Jeannette Shannigan which really touched my heart. Jeannette is blogging about grief from the death of both her husband and son. Every word she writes is filled with raw emotion that makes the reader want to reach out & give her support for this journey she is documenting. I thought about my Dad. He passed away from complications due to lung cancer back in 1991. He was only 61 years old and had only taken medical retirement two weeks before he died. To this day, I miss him so much. I have a picture of he & I when I was 3 years old in my bedroom. I see him every morning when I go to sleep and every night when I change clothes to go to work. I have one of his hats (Daddy had a bald spot & liked to cover it up), and sometimes get it out. But of all the things I have of his that give me peace is memories. He & I became closer toward the end as he still was too proud to quit working though he could. He worked 3rd shift with me at the hospital, and got too weak to drive downtown every night, so he'd come here & we'd car pool together. We shared so much in that time in the car. He told me things that I never knew & he also told me things I probably shouldn't have known. I look in the mirror every day & I see his face. I look like him so much as does my younger brother, Victor. So he also has a real physical reality to me every single day. I think you never truly get over the lose of your parent. I know I can't. I don't think about his death so much after all these years, but I do remember funny silly things about Daddy that make me laugh.

So back to Shawnee. I was thinking about Jeannette's post & looked down at the beads I had on my work table. They were greens with some yellows that I'd been playing with. Then I felt my eyes glaze over & suddenly I was back at home watching Daddy eat his breakfast. Daddy ate the same thing every single day except on Sundays. He had a big bowl of Wheat Chex with at least 3 tablespoons of sugar and enough milk to fill the bowl to the rim. The bowl is what I focused on. He had HIS BOWL! and nobody ate out of Daddy's corn bowl. It was a yellow and green bowl that looked like an ear of corn. It had come from a set of popcorn dishes that my Mother got from Brother Mendenhal for a wedding present. It had 4 bowls, a salt shaker, and a wee little pot for the melted butter. I believe it was either Shawnee or McCoy pottery, but I'm thinking it was Shawnee. Other bowls weren't big enough for Daddy's breakfast (oh he also ate ice cream sundies from this bowl too & could he fill it up with pineapple toppings), so Daddy picked this last Shawnee corn bowl for his. I remember having to wash it afterwards & there in the bottom was a crust of that huge amount of sugar he added to everything. Daddy loved his sugar. He is the only person I've ever seen who could sit down at one sitting and eat an entire apple pie (the WHOLE THING) with a couple scoops of ice cream. Funny thing is that he was very fit and trim. I never saw an extra ounce of fat on that man ever. Next thing I knew, I picked up the bear & started to beaded the greens and yellows on him. Some places is looks like the kernels of corn, in other it looks like the green of the shucks which were at the bottom of the bowl. But each bead was for Daddy. After I finished Shawnee, I called & told my Mom about this project. She laughed & told me she had forgotten all about Daddy's Corn bowl, but that made her remember it. She told me she still had the salt shaker and pot. She told me they'll be mine someday. So, Shawnee made both my Mother & myself share one more thing of Daddy that day. And Shawnee will make me remember my Daddy & his Wheat Chex.

Feb BJP 09

Here it is February in Ohio. Oh joy! Unfortunately Buckeye Chuck saw his shadow on Ground Hog's Day (2.2.09) so that means more Winter. I've already had it with the cold temperatures. We've had so many nights of below zero that I can scream. And my Scotties don't like it either as they are forced to wear their coats, and believe me when I say they HATE wearing coats. Each has their own color. Frodo wears a yellow coat, Fiona has a navy blue coat, and Arwen has a sage green. If by accident I try to put the wrong coat on the wrong dog, they let me know of my blunder really fast. Today it is suppose to get warmer and all this ice from weeks and weeks of accumulation is suppose to melt. Fiona is happy with that as she really got in the habit of our morning walks when I got home from work. So hopefully, she & I can get a little bit more exercise before we both outgrow our coats. But being Feb in Ohio, we still have snow to look forward to. Last year, the last weekend of Feb when I was at the Guilded Lilies Retreat in Hocking Hills, we had a blizzard with record snow fall. I leave on the 20th for another Retreat in Hocking Hills & I'm shuddering to think it will snow snow snow again!

Okay back to my post about the BJP. This is another one of my "Dumpster Dolls" and my goal to do only recycled pieces for the 2009 Bead Journal Project. This time, I've taken another bear from the Happy Meal give outs from McDonalds. I decided a Valentine's theme might be appropriate here with some hearts and pink beads. Now this doll is not here in my house right now. It is in Wisconsin being photographed with a few others for my article on Trash to Treasure which will be in Doll Crafter and Costuming. I still need to get some pictures of a couple of my Dumpster Dolls and send to a bead magazine at least for their gallery. I have a new one also from these Happy Meals that is a rabbit. I have to get the photography set up & get more pictures of the newer pieces I've been doing this month.

Bead Journal Project-December

December is ticking away. I'm feeling better, and am wanting to actually get back in the saddle and share some of my pieces with the world. I'm beginning to think that who cares if I brag. That is my right, and if some people aren't comfortable with listening to me, that should not stop me from sharing my Art with the world.

This piece is actually one of my found treasures. I was trying to find the gourds for Harvest' base when I came across these stuffed creatures that I had bought at Ikea earlier this year. They were only 50 cents apiece, and being a hoarder, I just couldn't help myself. So I brought out a stuffed elephant and a hippo. The hippo caught my eye. At the time, BAD was doing a "song" challenge, and I was thinking what a wonderful thing to do one of my favorite silly Christmas songs that had been playing on 93.3 since the middle of November. Guess which one it is?? Yes, "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas...only a hippopotamus will do....." And YES! I sang this song the whole week as I was beading this cute little stuffed creature. It is only 4 inches high and 6 inches long. I had a group of girls from work come over right after I finished it & one of them wanted to buy it. Sorry, not for sale. I didn't post him for the BAD challenge as I was feeling a little blue at the time, but I believe that was because it was suppose to become my December entry for the Bead Journal Project for 2008.

Bead Journal Project-November

For November, I wasn't sure what I was going to work on. Then I was cleaning out my clothes closet looking for some Christmas presents I'd bought last year, when I came across a doll that I had bought from Cyndy Sieving to help her pay for the 2007 Artistic Figures in Cloth conference. I really didn't like this doll when I bought it, but the face was cute. The original doll was in blue clothing, and had black wool roving hair. She was sitting on fabric green leaves. I don't know it you've noticed or not, but I really am NOT a blue person. My favorite colors are earthy tones with lots of oranges, yellows, and browns. So, I took this doll out, and sat her on the cabinet letting the Sun shine on her face. I realized that I loved the face Cyndy painted on her, and decided to recycle this doll by taking everything off & just leaving the doll form. Then I posed the doll with her head resting on the palm of her hand to give her a wishful look. Now done to the FUN! I had the best time beading this doll. I used beads from my stash that were dusty, and used some new beads from the trip to NYC. She was so Harvest looking that I decided to call her just that. But I needed to put her on a stand. So I brought some microscope boxes home from work which were sturdy enough for the base, but flexible enough for me to drill holes through so I could mount Harvest on it. Then I used some Fall Accents from Michaels' to decorate the base. I must admit that I really like this doll a lot. I wish I could claim to have made the doll itself, but to reclaim it to a Treasured piece sitting out in the Front room with all my other special dolls, was one of the objects of this project. When I showed Cyndy what I had done, she was happy with the transformation.

Bead Journal Project-October

For October I decided to recycle a doll form from the article I wrote for Doll Crafter's and Costuming. The article was my very first front page, and I was tickled to pieces over it. When the local bead store saw the article before it was published, they wanted me to teach the cat. It was the first time a beaded doll class was to be offered at Byzanitum. I had 5 students. Every single one of them really enjoyed the class, and asked me for more doll classes. Yes, I'm going to be teaching more in the 2009 year.

Roxane from Byzantium called this class the Howling Black Cat, and I really liked the name. Initially this class was taught with a fabric face, and this was how this doll began. But one member from Bead Art Dolls (sorry, but I forgot her name), had gotten the article, shrunk the pattern, and made this black cat using a button she got a Joann's. I really loved the button, and bought a set for myself. Now, this doll was the doll that I used in class for a sample. It started with all the different stitches here and there. It was a big mess, and I just put it to the side. But then, I thought to myself that if I didn't finish it now in October, it would go into a big tub of unfinished projects and never get done. Then I opened a drawer of buttons and saw that funny cat face. I was really inspired, and had the best time finishing this up in record time. It only took me a week to finish this 6 inch doll.

Bead Journal Project-September

First off, I want to apologize for not posting in over a month. I have been working on art projects all this time, but just haven't had the initiative to publish them. Back in July or August, someone told me that I was bragging too much about my accomplishments, and it made me a bit depressed. I backed away, and kept relatively quiet. But, I have commitments and need to publish them. This is the first for the new Bead Journal Project for 2008-2009. The committee decided that this year, we'd all start in September.

It was hard for me to come up with a big game plan for the year. I'd just finished a couple dolls for Global Warming and had read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. I wanted to do a big gigantic piece dedicated to Rachel, but I tried drawing, and thinking, and doodling, and nothing came to surface. Then I decided that instead of doing one big project dedicated to Saving our Earth, I'd do 12 small ones each month, and if I still had the energy I'd work on the bigger piece through the year. So my BJP project for 2008-2009 all revolves around recycling. Each month, I'm either going to work with something already in my stash, a doll that I have bought but really didn't like too much, or my favorite theme "Trash to Treasure" which is a piece bought at the thrift store which is probably ready to be thrown in the trash and taken to the landfill but I've "rescued" and turned into a piece of Treasure.

This month begins with something from my stash. I made over 40 doll forms for kits to sell when I went to EDAC in July. I came back home with 1/2 and from that, I sold half of those. So I decided to take one of my own design forms and bead it. Since I suffered so much from allergies in September, it was like I was swim all the time with my eyes and nose watering. So I decided to bead a mermaid. I used a clay face that Chris had made for me and incorporated fiber with the beads and sequins. I even came up with a new method to do hair. Therefore-Flora Swims.