So in one of my last blog posts of 2012 I mentioned that one of my resolutions for 2013 was to cleanup my workspace after I completed a piece...when it comes to my bead embroidery pieces I tend to start a work and continue on that same piece until it is completed. I will venture off on other tangents if I need to make a sample for a class I am teaching or fooling around with a color combo that pops into my head but for the most part what is on my desk in the Vellux lined cookie sheet is my main project that I am pretty much continuously working on from start to finish. So this resolution seemed pretty benign, easy to keep, in short doable....and that is when I think the bead gods said HA!!!!

You see one of the other things I do at the end of a year into the beginning of the new year is to go through my stash and supplies and weed out what is not working for me anymore and to assess what I need to have to be able to create the pieces that are in my head or my sketch journal. This action in and of itself gets the creative juices flowing and is, for me, the perfect start to the year. This year I realized that my Swarovski palette was a bit lacking in some colors, shapes and sizes. Time to brew a cup of tea and drag out the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Jewelry Maker's Comprehensive Catalog and make my needs and wants list! Now to my non beading readers let me explain a little about this catalog.....

.....it pretty much is to beaders what the Sears Catalog was to children in the early 1900s....inside I can find pretty much every beady thing I need to make whatever my mind's eye can create...I do shop for my supplies at my local bead store, estate and garage sales and on ebay but most of the shiny, sparkly bits come from Fire Mountain Gems! They are a wonderful company with the best customer service I could ask for...and being a former quilt shop owner, customer service is paramount to me!!! But I digress......So I took my cup of tea, pad, pencil and catalog in hand and a few hours later had my order ready to be uploaded to the FMG website with a promise that I would have my goodies withing 5-7 business days. Then it was back to the worktable to finish up the piece I was working on with the full intention of totally cleaning up said worktable when the last bead was stitched into place....but those oh so efficient FMG workers had other things in mind....2 days later this is what arrived on my doorstep

...what was a woman to do???? Of course I had to go through and check in the order (remember I used to own a quilt shop and checking in orders is part of my DNA!) and of course those sparkly bits of wonderfulness cried out to me and before I knew it all my good intentions of cleaning up before starting a new piece went out the New Years Resolution window...I had to start pulling components to start a new piece which would of course incorporate the newest colors of Swarovski that FMG came up with that I had to have....alas and alack not all New Year's resolutions are able to be kept....and maybe, just maybe they shouldn't be.......

Well the last weekend of 2012 is just about over and the new year will be upon us tomorrow evening...spent much of the past two days cleaning of my workspace and finishing up a few projects that were abandoned for one reason or another and tossing or recycling the things I knew would never get finished...it's a good feeling to have a fresh working area for the new year! I have made a commitment to myself to cleanup every time after finishing a piece...we'll see how long that lasts...... As I was saying in my last post....I am going to try and give an overview of my creative process from the beginnings of a piece to it's completion...today's picture is one that shows how The Lady of the Winter Solstice got her shape and her face attached...hmmmm...that sounds like I am a surgeon which could never have happened since I am squeamish around anything at all to do with blood (ask my husband...I even hide my eyes when they do fake operations on tv shows!!) and I also was never very good at following directions which I imagine you have to be to become a surgeon...but I am pretty wicked with a needle and thread if you add beads into the mix!!

I just love the way the face seems to glow and anyone who knows me well knows that those colors satisfy my soul. I am always searching for interesting faces or bits of jewelry, pottery, buttons & glass cabs that would work as a face for my Ladies/Goddesses. I am planning on really exploring this way of working in the coming year...I certainly have a really good selection of vintage rhinestone and crystal jewelry that I have collected over the past 6 or 7 months during the height of garage and estate sale season

Well that's all for 2012....sending out thoughts of joy, peace and creativity for the New Year....

Starting over

So it's been over a year since I made a blog entry but I am ready to put 2012 behind me and forge ahead into 2013....I have been working on a new series of beaded Ladies and I have gotten so many "how did you come up with that" comments at various shows and when I wear one of them that I want to share my process from the initial choosing of the beads and components on through the placement and decisions on fringe, chain/strap and closure. For the first time ever I took pictures of every phase....it amazes me that I remembered to do this! This is the genesis of my latest piece....it all started with the vintage snowflake pin...I knew I wanted to make The Lady of the Winter Solstice ever since I picked up this brooch at an estate sale this past summer

The face is one I purchased from a vendor at the Philly Bead Fest this past August...unfortunately I misplaced the business card that was tucked in the bag and do not know who the artist is who created it is...it is made out of the most glorious cranberry/blue/purple/turquoise raku and just seemed to glow from within. After those two elements came together it is time to dig through the shelves and shelves of hand dyed fabrics that I use as the base of my bead embroidery pieces. This particular fabric was hand dyed many years by my friend Helene Davis.Then it's time to dive into the bead stash and just start pulling together beads and other components that seemed to want to dance with what I already have....as you will see, some made the final cut and some did not but at this stage of the game I allow myself to be a glutton and just out as much as I think I want to use. Well that's how it all begins....be back soon to play some more...enjoy the last weekend of 2012

Aftermath

Well the storm has come and gone and we were very lucky....just a ton of downed oak tree branches and a soggy sunporch...power was only out for about 10 hours which is nothing compared to some including my son and daughter-in-law who as of this morning are still without power but pushing through!! Boy is Mother Nature on a rampage...first the earthquake and then Irene.... so very unusual for the NE....but today is a gorgeous day....branches are all gone and the sunporch is drying out! Last week I bought a ton of new botanic beads and of course I had to start playing with them right away! The flower in this piece is actually 3 layers of Vintage Meadow Artworks striated acrylic flowers. I am also incorporating a vintage rhinestone spider pin and a pair of vintage rhinestone earrings along with a raku face cabochon that I picked up a bead show last year and of course some Swarovski sparkle!!! These LadyOfInfiniteSparkle pieces are addicting and enticing! I start with components that seem to want to go together....position them on the cloth....walk away...come back...reposition them....sew something down....reposition....sew something else down....walk away....unsew something.....root around in the bead stash for that thing that is lacking...walk away again...then suddenly a Lady is created!!! I will post more pictures of her as I go along to give an idea of my process.