Category Archives: Color

March Beaded Journal Page

Well, after 3 months, my March page is finally finished. I’ve gone through a lot of changes since my original idea and beading start, the biggest change being a physical move to a new home.

I’ve named this page “Looking Out from my Healing Place”. The tree represents a journey of healing that I took after my divorce 4 years ago. There were a lot of twists and turns in this journey but I was always reaching for the sky and growing. My tree has grown in strength and wisdom and now it is time to look out upon the world with awakened eyes and find out where this person that I have become will fit. I don’t have one face because there are 3 aspects of me, who I was, who I am now and who I will be. My past, my present and my future self. Which face is which? The tree roots are not yet firmly in the ground but I have hope that they will find their place, too.

Many thanks to Robin for her inspiration with this twisted tree branch stitch. The timing of receiving her new book, “Heart to Hands Bead Embroidery” was perfect for what I needed to express with this piece. I wrote about that here.

I have just begun my April page. The colors are much more vibrant than my March piece. Right now the title that has come to me is “Home is Where my Heart Grows”. Stay tuned for photos of this work in progress. I started this piece watching “Ethics and the World Crisis – a Dialogue with the Dalai Lama”. What an amazing human being he is.

More Progress on my March Beaded Journal Page

Here’s a peek at the progress I’ve made on my March journal page. I enjoy creating the texture of the tree bark. As I bead each twist and turn, I contemplate all of the twists and turns I’ve taken in my life up to where I am right now. I think I will make some fringy roots that will hang free. As I’ve only been in my new home for 3 weeks, I’m not feeling especially rooted right now.

Beads and Yarn

I have a secret. I love coming home from a bead show, dumping all of my purchases into one big pile on the table and running my fingers through all of my new beads. All that beautiful color and texture! Even though I buy from different vendors, my purchases reflect ideas and images I’ve been thinking about lately and they all seem to match in one way or the other. Do you experience the same thing?

I’m thinking of a bead embroidery cuff for the face cab from Earthenwood Studio. Isn’t it fabulous?

My dumping/ooh-ing and aah-ing ritual reminds me of when my kids returned from trick or treating on Halloween night and all the stashes got dumped on the family room rug. First, Mom or Dad would go through to pick out any suspicious looking items (and the Butterfingers) and then the trading would begin.

Here’s some detail of a strand of unique snakeskin jasper and pearls I couldn’t resist along with amethyst and peridot. A lot of my stone bead purchases were made from Momminia of Cold Spring, NY. A husband and wife team, Marlene and Steve Goodrich are quick to share their in depth knowledge about any of their stones. So, buying from them is both an education and a treat to the eyes. Even though my daughter isn’t at all into beads like I am, she listened intently while they named the different stones and where they originated. Here’s some faceted rhodolite garnet. We couldn’t resist that amazing raspberry color. It will go fabulously with black, I think.

Last but not least, my yarn purchases from my Michigan trip in March. I also discovered a yarn store called Knitting Pointers, right down the street from my new home, and I visited there last weekend. I couldn’t resist the pale muted colorway on the left.

The brand name is “Poems”. What a perfect name for what these colors inspire in me.

“I want to make poems that look into the the earth and the heavens and see the unseeable.

I want them to honor both the heart of faith, and the light of the world;

the gladness that says, without any words, everything.”

-Mary Oliver

The Birth of a Studio, Part 3

I worked most of the day yesterday organizing and finding a place for everything in my new studio space. I am feasting my eyes on this new creation as often as I can because a) I can’t believe that one of my dreams has finally come true and b) I don’t think it’s ever going to be this clean again. There’s even vacuum marks on the rug! The rug…..which is probably the one thing about the space I don’t like. I have visions of spilling a tray of beads and……..oh dear…….well, you can imagine the rest. Maybe someday we can install a ceramic floor or even a hardwood floor down here.

The space in front of the heater on the far wall is where I want to put my metalworking table. I have a few options I’m looking at, including an offer to have a table made for me!

Here is the beadworking area. I was able to fit all of my beads on the shelves and portable storage units for easy access.

My good friend Amy, who has a fabulous studio BTW, told me about this nifty cube storage unit that’s perfect for organizing polymer clay. I just loved sorting the little squares by color and lining them all up in neat rows. Thank you, Amy!

My light tent has found its home on a drafting desk in the corner. The box under the table contains the lights, waiting to be set up. The pegboard leaning against the left side of the table will eventually be screwed into the wall above the heater, I think. So, my tools will be hanging behind me. I’m not sure how that will work out but I’m going to try it out because I can’t place the table against the heater. My sewing machine is also waiting for a home somewhere in my studio. I have been very drawn to quilting books lately so it might come in handy for some future pieces.

Here is the beading command center. My mosaicon hangs in a place of honor above my table. I enjoyed creating that piece so much! Resting on the portable storage units are a couple of beautiful Native American design needlepoint pieces created by my Mom.

I store most of my seed beads in the Tic Tac style storage containers. They’re sorted by color and placed into clear rectangular storage units, fitting quite nicely together. I also have a lot of tubes that I store in a pen caddy. Each 3-sided unit is standing up on the table next to the wall.

This weekend I will be looking for a task chair and some lights! Stay tuned for more studio stories…