Bad Habit

My other bad habit spoiling "BELLA" our fur baby

I have a bad habit, it is the habit of comparing myself to others. My family all tell me that I shouldn't do it because I am my worst critic. That is just what I do though. I know I'm not alone in this habit. My habit has pushed me however, to go on and do better things with my life. In some instances it has stifled me to just quit and give up. The mantra in my head goes like this: "they are so much more talented, creative, (insert word)". I knew when I joined the BJP that I would have a tendency to do either of the two, challenge myself or be stifled. So far I have noticed how easily some can open up and talk about the most intimate details of their painful days and it is released in their beautiful beadwork. That to me is truly art, if you can convey your feelings through a piece of your beadwork or whatever medium you are using. I don't feel I have reached that point yet. Even in my beadwork, I try to stay on the 'lighter' side. I have my share of challenges in life and so far my pieces have been about the seasons and how the seasons feel to me. Am I trying to cover up negative feelings by doing just positive things like the seasons? I'm an honest person and I should be able share easily. My goal is to look deeper and try to convey some of my inner thoughts and translate that to at least one of my monthly tags. That is hard for me to do and it will certainly come out when I least expect it. Scrolling through everyones blogs I have felt joy, inspiration, sadness, envy, annoyance and most of all an even bigger hunger for beading than ever before. The holidays are coming up and that always has a way of bringing out the emotions in me. Novembers piece will be about family.

October BJP

First let me say THANK YOU TRACEY N. for the freebie friday gift! What a nice surprise to actually win something, I look forward to wearing that cute pumpkin pin and earring set!!! If you haven't visited her blog, check it out, she's very talented.

I finished up last night in the wee hours. I decided to make a small spiral rope for the hanger of the famous hole, (boy does that sound weird).. and left the center beads of it just as is so that I could pull it through the hole in the tag. I made a different version of spiral this time which I had never done. Instead of working up the spiral with the beads and adding base beads as you go, I put on all the base beads first and then did the spiral beads through the base. It looks exactly the same, but you don't have to remember to put on the base bead. Anyway, I enjoyed working on this piece mainly because I love fall, the colors of fall, and encasing cabochons (the crow) is relaxing to me. The hole continues to be a challenge. This time I just left the center hole without beading around it and the edge is raw. Last months I beaded a medallion around it. In any case once the ribbons, or hanging things are put through it, it is pretty much hidden, but I know it's not as finished as I'd like and it continues to kinda bug me. I also did a very very simple whip stitched (I guess that's what you could call it) 3 bead black edging around the entire piece. My canvas is small so I am feeling kind of limited with what I can do on my tags, however I'm still happy I did not go bigger because honestly I don't know if I could finish a larger one each month. My plans for November and December are ambitious, I hope I can follow through with them...

GOOD DAY!

Another full day of Matthew! He's fun! However I only got a small amount of beadwork done today. 12 year olds do a lot of talking!! I have a class to teach on Saturday and I'm determined to get my tag finished by next week, so I can concentrate on Novembers tag and BABE! The Bay area Bead Extravaganza. I am planning on staying a few days out there in the Oakland/San Fran area to take in all it has to offer. Last year we took the train and it was fun and I'm looking forward to another great bead trip to inspire me. On another note, today a box arrived which had two copies of BEAD TRENDS magazine and a check in it. Why? Because finally, finally a design of mine has been published. I'm not real happy about the photo of it, but oh well, at least my name is in there. Here's my PHOTO of another color version of the same design.

I love Fall

"Crow Season"
My October Tag is almost done. This one went much easier 'cause Fall is my favorite season! You might ask why I chose a crow as my center piece. I always remember that when I would start seeing crows it was in the fall and winter and it was cold outside. I have always associated crows with the coming cold months. I actually took quite a lot of photographs of crows on white snow one year for a college photography class project. Because they are so black, they are the perfect contrast to color and white. Crows like sparkly things as do I, and this piece has bits of sparkles on it. I used olive green swarovski crystals although the pic kind of looks yellowish. The brown foliage leaves that are starting to show up as the nights get colder and leaves are changing I picked up by the yard. The pumpkins are also a favorite of mine as I see everyones homes lined up in anticipation for Halloween . I hope to give a feel of the fall season. All I have left to do is put on the back, decide on the tag hanger, and possibly do beading on the edges.

Fall in the Air

Today we plan to go to the fair, I'm expecting tons of inspiration! I always always head to the gem and mineral building to see all the pretty sparkly rocks, gems etc. A few artists have their beadwork on display there too. I worked on my piece last night, and it just looks too simple and I wish I had gone bigger with my shape. I find I run out of room for things I want to put in. I guess my mind works in a bigger format than I thought it did. Most of the time one central piece is used as my focus and then I build and bead around it, which is what I'm doing this time. Doing collages and trading cards with found objects etc...is so much my thing, that I find my beads are the last thing I put on a piece and then there's no room. Today I see that the new issue of Bead Trends is about to come out...it's the one I've been waiting for 'cause I'm in it! Yippee! Just a simple pair of earrings being featured, nothing fancy, but the rewards for me are great!

Oh What to do...

It is the middle of the month and although I have begun my project for October I am not thrilled about it. When I work, I just go for it and see what flows out...it seems a lot of people on the bjp plan and really think things out resulting in amazing pieces of works. Lots of depth and thoughts going on. That will be my challenge for next month since Octobers piece was another let's see what flows out month. For October I chose an orange/brown background of batik once again with little curly olive green designs on it. I love Halloween but thought the idea of jack o lanterns and witches was a little too literal...so I chose a crow as my center design and built on that...PHOTOS TO COME...