The Beader's Muse

I entered the wrong address for Scarlett's blog. Here is the correct one:
http://www.thebeadersmuse.com/
Nancy

The Beader's Muse

Hi, I am still out here if anyone stops by. I have been busy with life for the most part. Some beading, some knitting, some crocheting, lots of reading, but mostly working!

Anyway, I am writing now as I joined Scarlett Lanson's The Beaders Muse II contest. I just submitted my piece. I wish all that joined good luck. As soon as we can post our muses, I will post mine. It was a fun and educational experience for me. I did some different techniques for me and used some different materials. I also learned from taking the pictures and submitting them. I need to read up more on how to use my spiffy camera. I got a Nikon D60 for Christmas and have taken over a thousand pictures with it since then. It is a great camera. I need to select some and post them.

Please check out Scarlett's blog.

If you are a BJP person I pretty much stopped. I hope sometime I will get back into my pages. I enjoyed that too.

Thanks everyone and have a great day, Nancy

Tree of Life - Autumn

Hi, this has been my weekend. Not only did I finally get my pictures on my computer and then post them on the blog, but I finished my October page. This is called Tree of Life - Autumn. Wikipedia says the tree of life has to do with immortality. I am not going for immortality, although we all do that through our art, I just liked the concept and it seemed to fit this month. The tree of life is another symbol I have always liked. When I doodle trees are one of the things I always doodle (along with flowers.) Wikipedia also mentions the tree of life in science as describing the relationships on earth from an evolution standpoint. It is a very old symbol. I am just going to think of it as meaning we are all interrelated. I think our work on the Bead Journal shows us that.

I used another technique from Robin Atkins book, Heart to Hands, Bead Embroidery. That was the tree trunks on page 8. I almost used the twisted lines as a border but decided to go with the beads the way I did. I had the bead soup beads from a leaf necklace I made a year or so ago. I kept them together just in case as I liked the colors all together. There are at least 10 different colors of beads in there.

I neglected to mention for my September page that I used Robin's bezeling technique from the same book on pages 52 and 53. I have seen similar techniques in other books. The thing that Robin talks about that worked for my page was the advantage of this technique on cabs (or items to bezel) that are not uniform. You probably can't tell from the picture but the bezels are ammonites (nature's spiral.)

Have a good night everyone, happy beading and in case I do not post for awhile please vote on November 4! Nancy

Here are my pictures, one with flash and one without:

BJP and other updates

Hello everyone, the computer is cooperating so I can get pictures up. I have pictures from 2007 BJP (March - I have written about this before, but this is my CA page.) I now have 8 pages so I can get them on the 2007 Website. I also have my September page for 2008. It is titled New Beginnings. It refers to the new BJP year and also spirals that mean rebirth.

This page was to be oriented another way. When I finished it, the way it is in the picture was what spoke to me. In fact this picture was taken another way and I turned it to get it to look like it does.

Some information on spirals from the website http://symbolic-meanings.com/2007/10/08/meaning-of-spiral/:

In terms of astrology, mysticism and myth the spiral translates into meanings of spirituality and rebirth.

In terms of spirituality, the spiral symbol represents the path leading from outer consciousness (materialism, external awareness, ego, outward perception) to the inner soul (enlightenment, unseen essence, nirvana, cosmic awareness).

In terms of rebirth or growth, the spiral symbol represents the consciousness of nature beginning from the core or center and thus expanding outwardly. This is the way of all things, as recognized by most mystics.

I have been questioning the meaning of a few things the past few months and also trying to get into yoga and healthier eating, so the spiral and its meaning is very appropriate for me right now. It is also a symbol I have always been attracted to.

I am also posting several pictures of Juno. She will be one on November 3. These were taken in September and October.

Been a long time again...

I have been beading and finally have 8 pages for the 2007 BJP so I can post on the web site! I also completed my September page for the 2008 BJP. However, we have had computer problems so I can not post my pictures just yet. I will keep at it though! Check back in a few weeks.

Happy beading everyone, Nancy

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.

Been a long time - new page

Wow, it has been a long time. I have been checking everyone's pages for the 2007 Bead Journal Blog and on the Internet site. A few weeks ago I was inspired and started my newest page. Of course I thought it was for November, it had been that long that I forgot I had November. So this is either January or March. Unfortunately I am sort of stumped, or blocked as the saying goes and want to move onto other projects. I am also putting in my most recent project. From a class with Rachel Nelson-Smith. It is a bracelet called Rachel's Bead Nouveau.

And a new Juno picture. She has really grown, about 60 #'s now.

Anyway, back to my page. This page has been in the back of my mind since I moved to CA, before I had done much of any bead embroidery. I was coming back from my first bead retreat (the first Beads on the Vine) and looked at all the lovely gold hills in central CA and told myself, I need to try to bead them. That was 7 years ago. And I was going to do it on leather. Well life intervened along with many other beading projects, knitting, etc., etc. I determined to bead it for this project however. I even drew a picture of it last year thinking it would be November.

That is inspiration #1, #2 is a picture from a stitching magazine that was almost exactly like what I envisioned. (Stitch from the UK) and #3 is pictures I have taken from flying in a small plane. I am trying to capture how the hills look from the air. Finally #4, since receiving Margie Deeb's new color book I have been trying to pay attention to color and how a picture can be represented in beading.

Here are a few pictures.

First time at the beach, she really loved it! I will post more on my photobucket page too. Juno is 7 1/2 months old in this picture.

And my bracelet. This took me about a month and I just kept at it. The base is peyote and the rest are different components. There are a couple of buttons with beading around them. I had a lot of fun with this project.

Happy beading everyone, Nancy