NEW YEAR

The Chief Bag is in the mail. Such a wonderful wrap-up to 2018. It always feels good to finish a challenging project, yes, faces are challenging for me. Should he look happy or serious, anyhow I went for both, sort of. So now I can start 2019 with a new piece.Yay! Here's wishing everyone fun new projects to work on and a great start to the New Year...

KITS

Hello gang, This is the posting for all you intrepid beadworkers who have bought my kits. Thank you to everyone! If there is one thing I've learned over the past two year of running the bead store it's that there are tons of wonderful sewers out there! We all have the common bond of working with our hands to turn out something that we've worked hard on and put our hearts into. It's such a pleasure to be part of this community of makers. This is the first time I'm dipping my toe into doing kits. The counting of the beads and then using the scale to make up the bead packets was interesting. I doubled everything to make sure there are more than enough beads to complete the task. I welcome all comments, please feel free to let me know what and how, I can do better. I want to make it as easy as possible for you to enjoy your kit making experience! Here's a good close up of the Evergreen Chickadee Kit. And the link to the videos for beading instructions.

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TINY BEADS TO GET THE DETAIL

So, I'm working on an order. Not my usual subject matter but I never say no to whatever the challenge is. I decided to go ahead and use the tent stitch (which is one bead at a time, placed at an angle) for the face. Yes, I'm happy with it, but even for me, this is crazy time consuming. I did use my beloved couching for the nose and eyes but where you want to avoid lines the tent stitch is a good alternative. I can see already that all the detail in this piece is going to have me using size 13 and smaller beads for alot of it. I'm enjoying doing all the beaded regalia in beadwork. Lots of feathers, horses and all that good stuff. Stay tuned for the finished project. It will be awhile...

THE RAVENS ARE GOING TO SANTA FE

These birds are headed south. The fabulous ravens are always one of my favorite subjects. My work will be at The Eldorado Hotel, Thursday August 16th thru Sunday August 19th. If you are in Santa fe, stop by!

SUMMER SOLSTICE

The longest day of the year! It's raining pretty good today and foggy across the inlet, so I'm putting up a picture of yesterday. More of the summer feeling.The view from the bead table has been spectacular and distracting. The bead store is distracting too. Instead of plugging in, I wander around picking out beads for a pair of earrings or a necklace, I rearrange a display, or just have some long chats with customers. On the sewing front, I've been revisiting a few designs, but after I do the lazy stitch on these I'll be moving on to a new piece with summer flowers. Ahh summer, so much inspiration...

FIRST BATCH

These are the first three bags that are going to Santa Fe this year.

OPEN

  Robert got the tall ladder out and is washing the outside of the windows. The flies are crawling around on the newly dusted sills. A sure sign of spring. We are ready a week early so I hung the open sign today! For all the locals, if you need beads, beading supplies, interesting beadwork or other fun stuff, come on in. We are open 10:30  to 6:00. I'm feeling happy...

RACINE ART MUSEUM

So, out of the blue I heard from: RAM

Text Message: Words and Letters in Contemporary Craft

January 21 - May 6 2018

It turns out that they will be displaying a piece I made in 1990,
"Money Monster vs. Nature"
in a current show they are having. It's fun when beadwork from a long time ago
turns up in something like this.
It got me thinking about words in art so I decided to do this small series of
wristlets with text. I'm keeping one, which one would you keep? Opinions please.

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NEW YEARS DAY

@)!* That's 2018 with the caps lock on. I have a feeling it's going to be a good year. January first on a Monday seems right, got a workout in, going to try and stick with it this year. Might as well be optimistic on the first day of a new year.  Now I'm sitting down to bead.  I'm working on some seal side panels for a suitcase bag. Bill Scott, a local photographer, has a card I'm using to get the spots right. Not too many spots, just the right amount. The matte grays in different shades worked out well for the fur. Happy New Year to all of you!