Bundle Up Baby

I came across this beaded doll kit I bought years ago at a Lace Guild Seminar. 

At the time I bought it, I had no idea how to bead.  I just thought maybe 'someday' I would learn.   The directions were pretty sketchy and vague.   I had no clue how to start, so I promptly added it to the 'yeah right' pile and forgot about it.

Fast forward a few years and a few (ok more than a few) bead classes later, and it was time to shake the dust off the kit and just do it!  I wasn't real keen on the colors and added some of my beads and didn't use all the bead choices in the kit.

Here's her backside.

I didn't know what I was going to do for the face, until I came across this dichroic (I'm sure I butchered the spelling of that) cab with the same colors as the beads in just the right size.  Perfect.

Her hair cracks me up.  Reminds me of a clown.

She's a tiny little thing and needs a name.  Suggestions anyone?

California Dreaming on Such a Winter's Day - February BJP

Funny that the second quarter I randomly picked for the Bead Journal Project (BJP) happened to be another state I travelled to for business. 
California. 
It was late Fall in 1993.  I was in my first trimester of pregnancy with Meghan and I was so sick.  I hadn't told my office yet that I was expecting.   Little did I know the nauseous-ness would subside in the second trimester only to be replaced by daily migranes that lasted the duration of my pregnancy and beyond.  Ever have to ride an elevator with a migrane - every day- multiple times a day?   Not fun.  Anyhow, let's get back to California.

I remember hating this trip. 
Hating California. 
Hating the person I travelled with. 
Hating the office staff. 

I'm sure it was just because of how I felt physically, but I was tired of travelling and just wanted to go home.

So how to turn all these negative memories into something positive? Time for an attitude adjustment.

Thinking back I do remember some 'fun' out of the trip.  The airport shuttle van ride was an experience I'll never forget.  It was really neat to see the neighborhoods around Los Angeles as we dropped off travellers to their homes.  One guy lived way up high in the hills and I was so nervous the brakes were going to give out when he parked the van and helped the guy unload his bags.  We were right in the front seat facing down the hill and I felt like I was on a roller coaster at the crest of the first drop.  Exhilarating but truly frightening.

It was cool that we could see the Hollywood sign from the office windows.  That was surreal. 

The fact that the entrance ways to the freeways had traffic lights to regulate the cars entering  was new to me.  Holy cow - the freeways were huge and the traffic unlike anything I had ever seen.  Give me sleepy ol' Buffalo any day.  

One night the office manager took us to dinner in a really beautiful restaurant somewhere in the hills outside of Los Angeles.  As night fell and the lights starting twinkling in the hills, it was magical.  I remember I couldn't even eat and the conversation was really really dull, so I just lost myself in the view.   Thinking back to how beautiful that scene was, I found  inspiration for my piece.

Starting with a black piece of Nicole's super-duper how-did-I-ever-bead-without-it beadbacking, I collected an assortment of night time colors. 

After outlining the quarter to make it like a full moon, I made 3 hillsides (gee, what a surprise - 3 hills).  I wanted one to have a very steep incline, to remind me of that shuttle van ride.

When I was filling in the smallest of the hills using the boucle (carpet) stitch, I didn't realize I had used a white center bead on every stitch.  I didn't mean to, and almost ripped it out because I thought it was too much.  But then I thought that it was OK, and it was meant to represent the City of Los Angeles far in the distance from the sparsely populated hillside.  Cool.  I love it when the beads tell the story without me even trying.

As I was filling in the night sky around the 5 stars (gee, what a surprise - 5 stars!), I realized that I didn't like the way it was going to come out.   So rather than continuing working my way to the edge, I started from the top down and filled in the area with shorter rows. 

Even though I used a 2-bead edging around the entire piece, I changed the beads and the placement of the seed beads to give it some variation from the sky to the hillsides.

 

Seeing this dark piece next to the bright Florida piece on my refrigerator is really neat.  I'm anxious to see what State comes up in March. 

February BJP 2011
California

January BJP 2011
Florida

I know it's only the second month and maybe I'm still in the 'honeymoon' phase, but I love being a part of the Bead Journal Project.  Just the opportunity to reflect on my past has really opened my heart and soul to what it is that has made me into who I am today.  I like to think of this as my personal Bead Journey Project. 

~Bead Happy and Often~

Winter Enchantment

I would think that in a poll of "What is your favorite season?"  Winter would probably be the least favorite.  Living in Northern Western New York, one needs to come to terms with Winter.  I'm still working on that. 

One of the things that has opened my eyes to the beauty of winter is the never-ending various shapes of trees.  Without leaves to cover the branches, the sheer number of branches on a single tree  and the odd angles at which they sometimes grow is fascinating to me.   I decided to try to capture that beauty in beads using just a tiny bit of the multitude of choices offered through Artbeads.com

I was looking to pick out some materials I've never worked with before, and Artbeads offers a ton of options.   

Some copper tubes in 20 mm and 12 mm lengths make up some of the branches.  I was a little concerned the edges would be sharp and break my thread, but they are finished very well and not a single broken thread.  Nice!

I've always wanted to incorporate chain into my beading and this project lent itself to that thought pretty well.  This particular chain is very fine and has such a nice draping quality, I felt bad tacking it down!  It would make a great fringe.

I thought these laser cut wood links would make for an interesting element on the tree trunk.  Kind of like a knot in the side of the tree.  They are adorable and so detailed.  I can't decide which wood I like the best; maple, cherry or walnut, so I used them all. . . . 

Filling in with my favorite Toho hybrid seed beads (size 11 and 8) in that wonderful Matte Apollo shade, finished up my naked tree.  These beads have such a cool color to them and are very uniform in size and shape. 

In addition to beading the entire background in various shades of white and crystal beads, my original thought was to use the beaded buttons I made and stack them like a snowman, but they were too large and over powered my tree.  I made up the smaller sized buttons and the outcome was just downright scary  (Nightmare before Christmas, anyone???)

So, I'm not sure what the background is going to look like. . . . .

 looks like a snow drift has developed so far.. . . .  

~Bead Happy and Often~

  FTC Disclosure:

The chain, wood links, and Toho seed bead were provided free of charge from Artbeads in exchange for my unbiased review of the products.