Done and Gone

I spent a lot of time thinking about traveling while beading my February page. In the last few years I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to some wonderful places on this planet, and now I find myself days away from leaving again.

I used copper and red for this months page. I don't use a lot of red generally and I wanted to try this color combination out, as a sort of sampler for another piece I have in mind. Technique wise this piece is pretty simple but I'm still pleased with how this turned out overall. 

Well that's it for now. Time to put down the beading needle and put on my walking shoes.

Bead Journal for January

 When so much is brown, grey and dark out side I felt drawn to the splashiest color combo I could think of. Orange and hot pink seemed to fit the bill. I found myself looking forward to coming home and working with these colors. It seemed to fill some sort of color deficiency in me.

I dug out some sequins I've had for far too long and never used.

I haven't decided how I want to finish these. Do I turn them into individual pieces or wait until I have finished all twelve and put them all together? Oh well, I guess I have a year to figure that out.

I've been slowly working away on the first piece of my bead journal. I had a change of heart on the shape and am going with a rectangle about the size of a credit card. It just came to me one night and I liked that I could have the pieces turned one way or the other. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to taking any pictures yet.

But I wanted to post some pictures of my Birthday bag. J.P. gave me this for my birthday years ago. I beaded the front piece about 6 years ago and it has hug on my studio wall since then.

The bag was made by our good friend and neighbor Jerry and has a long braided strap.

The bead work is done on Lacey's Stiff Stuff and then sewn on to the front.

 The bag hangs on the wall next to my table. I keep notes and other ephemera I have collected over the years, just stuff I want to remember from time to time.

Clearing out my head

I guess I would call this a prototype for my bead journal that I start in January. Not sure if I will turn them all into small wall hangings or find some other way to display. But I feel pretty confident I can keep up as the months go by with this size.

I also used this as an opportunity to try out stuff that's been floating around in my head.

Solid color spaces are not really something I do a lot of.

I love these cup like pearls and wanted to try them in bead embroidery

I recently bought these tear drops from work and tried them out as edging and fringe.

Jumping in with both feet

After some not so gentle peer pressure I signed up for the 2010 Bead Journal Project. I have been interested in joining this since first hearing about this during the 2007 go-round, but didn't remember to sign up until after the deadline ended this last year.

This will be my first foray into any challenge/group project and I'm really not sure what I plan on getting out of this. I am excited to see what comes from trying to use beads as method of journaling. Hopefully I will also be able to experiment with different techniques and explore different color pallets. Mostly I just hope I can keep up every month. My ability to stay focused and on track will be a main hurdle.

I have already put some thought into what shape and size I want to work on for a year and have decided to go with a 3" circle. In an effort to challenge myself I wanted to try a shape I had only worked with on a small scale. Now what I'm going to do with them once the beading is done I have yet to decide.

Hear is a sample i started just to get an idea of how it would look. It is like making beaded buttons just on a larger scale. I'm actually further along with this just haven't gotten around to taking a picture.

So that's whats been going on here. Gathering supplies, brain storming, general preparation in order to be ready when January rolls around.