She Waits

"She Waits", 4x6", is one of my first caged cabochons that I was entirely pleased with. I'm happy with the effect of the seed beads creating a sort of veil over her forehead, and I think the color scheme goes well with the beautiful ceramic face, given to me as a gift by my friend Larkin Van Horn (http://www.larkinart.com/). (She's also the one who taught me to "cage the wild cabochon"!)


Here's a side view, so you can see how dimensional the piece is.


And here it is framed to 14" x 16". This is the only one of my beaded pieces that is currently for sale ... through the Copper Shade Tree Gallery (http://www.coppershadetree.com/), or here's a direct link to my page on their website ... http://tinyurl.com/6hcxd6.

What Would Nancy Do?

"WWND?", 6x4", was a piece I started as a textural experiment, using different sizes and shapes of beads. Coincidentally, I made and wore the little "WWND" beaded pin to a quilt-art meeting where I knew my friend Nancy Dickey (http://www.nancybdickey.com/) would be. I wanted to both tease her and honor her for her fine, meticulous beading work. Then, once that joke was done, I decided to incorporate the little pin into this Bead Journal Page. It's not exactly a work of art, but it was a lot of fun, and took many, many hours of beading fun.

Eye of the Beholder

"Eye of the Beholder", 6x4", was created on a base of black ultrasuede, something I probably would not do again. The gold painted lines do not want to stay solid on this material. I also don't like the edge treatment I tried on this piece. However, I do like the "eye", which I purchased from a taxidermist, caged with seed beads, and surrounded with bugle beads.

Little Sun

"Little Sun", 6x4", was painted then beaded. I like the combination of "encrusted" beading for the seed area, and the lighter beading in the petal area, allowing the wash of paint colors to show through. Stacked beads worked well for the seeds, I think.

Desert Tortoise

"Desert Tortoise", 6x4", began as a painted cotton fabric background (Setacolor opaque paints), with the shell created by choosing irregularly-shaped polished rock beads. The desert flowers always seem so brave to me, so they had their say with tiny red sparks of color against the dry landscape.

Carnivale

"Carnivale", 6x4", was my June Bead Journal Page for Robin Atkins' 2007 project http://beadjournalproject.blogspot.com/. It has a base of black sweatshirt fabric, machine-needle-felted with fibers, and embellished with a hand-needle-felted "button". The beads seemed like explosions of light from a fireworks display to me, and so it became "Carnivale".

Rusty Grove

I can't show the entire piece before it goes into a show at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in October, but I thought I'd post a "teaser" just for fun. Here's a corner of an art quilt begun with gelatin plate prints, enhanced with hand-painted and -rusted cottons. Hand embroidered, machine quilted.

Art Girls Beading Day

Well we really did have a Beady Day at my house on Sunday ... Honest! Only you couldn't prove it by these pictures. Gloria showed her gorgeous jacket, which was part of her ensemble that won Third Place, as well as Viewer's Choice, in the Rosenberg Cotton Fashion Show. This was fabric that she had hand-dyed, discharged, stamped, and painted. Her finishing techniques are exquisite, too.









Martha is our Tie-Dye Girl, and was checking out some of the pictures Gloria brought back from her Maine vacation with her granddaughters ... some of which we snitched to use as inspiration for fiber art.


Mary Ellen brought her collage piece to finish ... here it is without the edging finish that she added later that day. I think it's beautiful even without the finish! Below is a closeup of the collage by itself.



Patricia asked me to take a photo of the latest polymer clay bracelet I bought from her, for her portfolio. The photo isn't the greatest, but the bracelet is a show-stopper ... literally! I have people stop me all the time and ask me about it. She made it expandable, which is why it's different from most bangle bracelets. The gorgeous colors are achieved by her technique of Mokume Gane'.



And last but not least, we awarded Patricia "Best Laugh of the Day" with this photo ...



... and not a bead to be seen!

Oh my poor Blog!

It's so sad ...



untended ...



and drooping with neglect ...



that my friend Cathy has "goosed" me to revive it ... so here I am to do it. Thank you Cathy, I really didn't mean to be gone for so long!