FEBRUARY BJP

Garden Of Love

This months BJP is called "Garden of Love". How did I get to February ? I'm working backward now so I can catch up. (In my mind that makes sense) December and January are in the works still. I'm not completely happy with my work, but I guess it's just one of those months and maybe later on I will tweak it a bit or a lot! After using batik fabric as I have on all my past tags, I chose the center purple dichroic heart, which a friend made me a few years ago, and I wanted to use it as the center 'flower' . I glued this cabachon to the back and then did a peyote stitch around it. Everything else just kind of flowed from that center and although the turquoise was subtle I did want that color to be in it. It says 'believe' on the metal plate, which is just simply a note about Love in general. I struggled with this tag...and just couldn't get it going for a long while. Lots of things have happened in my life in the last few months i.e. My mom came out for Christmas (1st in 30 years) and 2 weeks later my brothers passing away, a wedding, and a birth, and my mind could not focus on beading. Beading just flows better when I am happiest. I'm not one of those who finds relief in painful soul art I guess. Don't hold me to it though. The red heart flowers at the top pulled some of it together for me and I did a russian spiral rope for the tags handle with random dangles of beads from its' ends. Although a small area, I found I wanted to continue with more things but decided it was better to stop than cram too much in.