Ooops

Forgot to add one very important thing, I used Robin Atkins' new book Heart to Hands Bead Embroidery in my current page in particular the part about running water and the bumps on page 65.

October page

Finally, I am done with my October page. I had a lot of fun doing this one. Truly felt like I was journal beading. The colors matched the season and also my mood. And boy did the beads talk to me. I have done beading in pink and started adding orange the past couple of years, but yellow (not counting amber or gold) is really new. I think part of that has been inspiration from one of the Curious Creek yarns I like, Sunrise on Daffodils. (See the link to the right if you want to check it out.) I have included some in progress shots, and some close ups. This piece was very hard for me to photograph, so the pictures do not do it justice. I have a vintage button which is really cool. And I love this material. There is so many great quilt material out there in the market place, just like beads, very addictive.

There are techniques or pieces I learned and adapted from Paula Walter (class,) Diane Fitzgerald (book,) Marcia Decoster (class) and one from the newest Beadwork, which of course I could not find at the moment. I even came up with another way to bezel a rivoli, so that was pretty cool.

I also discovered my page could be turned two ways. Since I like bead weaving so much, it was fun to bead some of the pieces separately and put them on the page.

Finally, I am hoping I can get my knitting idea together for November's page.

We will see! Happy beading and knitting everyone, Nancy.

Inspiration - recent trips

Hi everyone, I am hoping to complete my October page this weekend and will post when done. I have included some pictures from my recent trips to central Illinois and Missouri along with Port Townsend, WA. The lighthouse is in Hannibal, Missouri which is along the Mississippi River.

The Japanese Maple tree is from the front of the house. Two closeups and one of the whole tree. I love to watch it change colors. Happy beading and knitting, Nancy

October and inspiration - pictures

Better late than never, the pictures I referred to in my last post. My October pages and the inspiration.

Inspiration

Every so often I look at things (artwork by others and things of my own) and realize how I like to work around threes or odd numbers. Part of this has to do with balance for me, but also from early photography classes I took and the law of threes, about not centering your main object, putting the horizon in the top third of your picture, etc. That has stayed with me a long time.

I played Morwyn's color game. (http://anothercountry-morwyn.blogspot.com/2007/10/52-inspirations-heres-1.html.) My colors are burnt umber, silver, cobalt blue and ivory. Nice combination. I will need to make something in those colors, either knitting or beading or for a page. I think I even have all the colors in beads anyway.

I am using different colors in my October page. I will post a picture later today. I will explain the colors now though. The piece is called Dahlia, and there will be no dahlias in it. Just the colors. I picked up some dahlias several weeks ago at our local farmers market (good thing about living in CA, mine is year round) and the colors were yellow, orange and pink and I determined I would make a page in that color scheme and October is the month for that.

As far as September goes, I also noticed (again) how dark it looks in the picture. For now, September sort of represents a dark time for me so I am going to leave it as is unless something really jumps out at me later on in the 12 months of this project. But there are 3 sets of three in there, three black briolettes, three main beads (well one is a pin and the other was a button,) one of which has three beaded arms or beaded strips coming out of it. I was really happy with that as it was totally a spur of the moment way I beaded it (beads talking again) and it came out pretty cool.

Another thing looking at everyone's work and my own blog reminds me is how much joy I get out of beading and the other craft/art work I do. It is a good thing to remind myself when I am feeling down, or feeling sick.

No farm tour last week, but we did have a nice time at the beach.

Happy beading everyone, Nancy

Updates

I had a great trip to a local quilt and bead store last week end. I wanted to get material to go with the beads I had picked out for my revised September page and got some beautiful material. Now I wish my page was bigger so I could use a whole pattern. But I have a general idea of what I want to do. I have been beading on other projects and knitting this week, so bead journal page yet. I also joined the face brooch swap and need to get that done too. I have been planning that in my mind. We also have someone coming to look at foster dog #3 this afternoon. One of those happy sad things, I hate to see KoKo go, but if it is a good home...

Have a great rest of the weekend everyone. Nancy

Flowers and Faces, The Three Graces

It has been so long since I posted, almost a month. I can not believe it. I am nearly done with my August page, but needed a break. I got my break and got inspiration from two recent classes I took. One was Etruscan Treasure by Marcia Decoster (picture in this posting and link to her website to the right.) The other was Oothecal Bead by Rachel Nelson-Smith. (Rachel's link will be added to my list too.) It was wonderful to switch to beadweaving. I will post my necklace with my Oothecal beads when done. One of the things I did in August was to go through some of my bead and other magazines and rip out projects I liked or thought I would do and inspirational pictures of projects, for the color or an idea it gave me. That was fun, relaxing and inspirational. Gave me the incentive to work on something else too along with the classes. I ordered beads for one of the projects and am halfway through with it. That picture I have posted. It was a project I saw in Step by Step Beads from the July-August 2006 issue. I don't recall being stuck by it last year, but this year, wow! Plus I used a color I have been trying to get more accustomed to and that is lime green. You can order kits or the components (which is what I did, I had to have my usual turquoise/blue colors) at www.twistedsistahbeads.com. I am also posting pictures of my August page in progress, which I have named, Flowers and Faces, The Three Graces, which will be obvious once you see it. This is a theme(s) I like (flowers, faces and goddesses) which repeats in my work. I also happen to have a fountain in my back yard that is the Three Graces. Never thought I would like a naked fountain, but I do!

Finally, we are on foster German Shepherd #3. Her name is KoKo. I am posting her picture too and also #1 (my Daisy girl) and #2 Lucie. Daisy was with us 4 months, very hard to say good bye to her. Her adopters are great people and are okay if I check back with them and even sent pictures of how well she is doing. I also had to change my picture on my profile as it had Daisy in it. Now it is a flower.

We had Lucie a week, so did not get too attached to her. She was an 11 month old puppy and I called her the devil dog upon occasion. KoKo is such a sweetheart, it seems as if she was used for breeding a lot and is still very shy. But she is coming around!

One final comment on my August page, I may be done. There are some open spots I planned to fill in, but may leave them open. We will see. Still no final plan on how I will mount my pages. Anyway, thanks for stopping by and happy beading, Nancy. P.S. I will comment on this in the main blog, but oh my goodness, such wonderful work this past month! I checked each entry, just did not blog on them. I did not see anything I did not like. Talk about inspirational!

Here are the pictures:

Etruscan Treasure


Leslie Pope bracelet

#1

#2
#3
#4 and possibly done (?)
Close ups
Daisy

Lucie above, and KoKo below.

What's new...

Actually not too much new. I have not posted for awhile, nor have I done any beading since I finished my July page. I had planned on it, but the beading muse was not working. I have done some knitting and lots of reading. I also decided to try to get rid of some old magazines that I have not touched in quite awhile, so I have been productive and got some insipiration.

I also took a short trip to Portland, OR, beautiful area. Nice and green. I went to two bead stores and did not see anything I had to have, always strange to me. I did get some nice yarn however.

I am going to get my August page started today, at least as far as the set up of it. It will be covered in beads, but will have material underneath and it will be a different color scheme. But it will be my other favorite color to work with and I have lots of beads and material in this particular color!

I have been reading everyone's posts and enjoying all of the updates, I just have not been posting on all the blogs like I did the last couple of months. I miss that and need to stop and smell the roses so to speak and read all of the posts thoroughly so I can post too. I noticed some thoughtful posts I really want to take the time to read.

The issue I was dealing with came to pass, so now I really have to deal with it, or rather do some grieving. Change is good, (or so I always tell myself) but does cause some grieving, no matter what the change is. One thing I have learned over the years is that.

Thank you anyone that happens to wander by, I appreciate you looking. Come back in a week and I should have an update for my August page.

Off to Barnes & Noble to look at bead and bead embroidery books.

Happy beading (and knitting) everyone.

This is the post I thought I lost. It has been so long, I forgot how to post it.

July page finished - Here be a Dragon

I fnished my page just now. I have a feeling the pictures did not come out that well, so I may try again. At any rate, I am happy with the finished product and hope I don't go back at a later date and add more beads. I will need to put a back on it at some point. I really enjoyed doing the peyote piece separately and making the dragon and will probably do that again, with a wolf next time. Or a pattern I have that is the back of another amulet bag, it is a Native American pattern. It is really cool. Anyway, speaking of patterns, the pattern I used for the dragon came from Beaded Obsessions and was designed by Bobbi Assemi. It is only the second time I used a pattern to bead in peyote.

The beads spoke to me again too. The material I used was an inspiration to me this time around.

I am happy to have finished early as I will have time to work on other bead projects from Beads on the Vine and a new knitting project I want to start. Then my August page, which is planned out too.

Happy beading everyone.