PLAYING WITH THE BLOG

view from the bead table today

Feeling inspired by my new blog colors I decided to post a piece that matches the gorgeous blues. This Raven and the Moon fits. I like doing skies like this, where you mix the colors to achieve light blue to dark blue, and the half circle is a fun direction to lay the beads. This beadwork also fits my mood. Winter has come. The moon has been huge lately, illuminating the light dusting of fresh snow. The clear weather brings the cold and it's crisp and beautiful!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

too much turkey

FINISHED TABLE TOP

Here's the finished piece of beadwork. As you can see I did add the little rice bowl and its shadow.  There are actually several things in this piece that I've never done before. I wanted to design a challenge for myself. The light patch on the corner of the table is suppose to be from a light in the room. The refection in the mirror.  The shadow of the clear vase not being solid. Also, making the curtain out of all satin beads in 3 different colors,( doesn't it look like curtain material?) and the silhouette of the bird in her nest behind the curtain. All new things! I'm pretty happy with it. So I lazy stitched it onto the leather that will be the front of the bag and now it has to be made into a purse.

Robert hard at it...

Use to be that I did it all, but after we bought the leather sewing machine my husband took over the leather work. He is very good at it and it frees me up to be creative with the beadwork! I can't tell you how much I appreciate this, not only do I not have to sweat the meticulous leather sewing, but he also does the linings and his amazing work has stepped up the quality of the finished product. Thank you Robert!

METEOR SHOWER

Just got back from mailing the repaired Raven Bag and running tons of errands.We're about 30 miles out of town so you want to check lots of things off your list when you go to Homer. The sun is setting and it's clear so I'm getting excited to go shooting star gazing. Tonite is the beginning of the Leonid's meteor shower! Have to bundle up (it's about 20 degrees here) but the sky is jet black with about a half moon so it should be spectacular. I'm going to try and take some pictures, I would love to be able to capture some inspiration for the beadwork. Have done lots of night skies, but none with shooting stars! I would like to do a piece with a crystal drop,(like the one in this piece) hanging in a window that shows some constellations and the shooting stars outside. I was happy with this crystal drop but think the piece was too busy to show it off very well. I have a petty clear vision of this future beadwork but tonites meteors should add the final element.

THANK YOU TROOPS

                                               Happy Veterans Day!

DAMAGE

This is a story of a well meaning nature lover who was trying to rescue a hurt bee. Unfortunately while transferring the injured insect (who was resting on her raven bag ) she tripped and fell into a rock wall. The bee didn't make it and the raven bag took a bad blow. So the bag is back on the table being remade. You wouldn't think that I would have to take the whole thing apart but I do. You have to undo the lazy stitch to get to the back of the beadwork. Today I carefully undid all portions of the beadwork that were broken, backing out lots of threads to make them long enough to tie knots. Tomorrow I will rebuild the birds wings. Not to bad, right?                                                                        The problem is you can not do the lazy stitch on a purse that is assembled, you can't, I've tried. ( not to mention the lining.) It has to be on a flat piece of leather. So the whole purse has to be remade. This happens sometimes. The owner has request a beaded bee be sewn into the lining which I think is a wonderful idea. A memorial. It all goes toward the idea that these bags are meaningful heirlooms but also they are to be used everyday and then, if need bee, (lol) repaired...

injured