next mandala

A little while ago I was sitting on the front porch. Today is a magnificent day, temp in the mid-70's, a breeze, not a cloud in the blue sky, and the trees are full of leaves. All of a sudden I run inside and grab my box of blue beads. Surely there must be a blue that matches the sky. And then the green beads box to match up the leaves. Then I notice the daisies peeking out behind a tree, yellow-orange beads. Some kind of purple flower is up against the daisies, the purple bead box. I have my mandala for Sept! The beautiful colors of nature. And Sept. is just a few days away, I'm so excited.

new seed beads

I found these seed beads at a LBS, Toho 2204, raspberry lined olivine. They are gorgeous! It's my new favorite color. It's like a watermelon, green on the outside, bright pink on the inside. The olivine has a brushed matte finish, and the raspberry seems to be opaque and shiny. Who knew one could get so excited about a color?!

better photos of mandalas

I have better photos of my mandalas (well, cropped better) that I wanted to show. I didn't want to delete my previous post with the mandalas because there were comments. Everything I do on this blog is a new experience...

The top mandala is June, then July, then August. Thanks for your patience!

class with Sherry Serafini

Last weekend I took a class with Sherry Serafini. Sherry creates the most gorgeous bead embroidery bracelets, collars, earrings, and brooches. But more than the beauty of her work, she is the nicest person. She radiates interest in you, your work, your abilities. Over and over again I saw her talk with people who were stuck or unsure of themselves, gently supporting them yet pushing them to be comfortable outside their usual level. She taught a group of very experienced beaders, so it wasn't the beading that was uncomfortable for people, more it was the freeform nature of how she works, the lack of coloring in the lines, starting in the center and working out rather than having the whole piece planned. Since starting in the center and working out is similar to the mandalas I draw, I was in my comfort zone, but what surprised me is that my piece became very symmetrical and even looking, which is totally contrary to how I usually work, so in that case I was outside my comfort zone. And still am! It's just so fun to learn new things, to spend 2 days with a great group of beaders, and to be in the presence of true creativity and inspiration.

3 Mandalas

Here are my first three mandalas. The one immediately above this writing is June.
In the center is July,
and at the top is August.

Backwards, upside down, just like my yin-yang mandala, just like me and my life sometimes. As long as I have water I can float and I know I'll be okay.

Struggling with theme for August

I have been struggling this month for the theme of my journal page. To me, a theme, although not necessarily a design, is helpful. But August is a difficult month, with a lot of negative associations, and so thinking about a theme has been hard. I've journaled about it in writing, talked about it with friends, gone to bed every night thinking about my journal page. Then today, I believe everything came together, and when it did, it was effortless, it just flowed into my mind, I picked out beads, got my fabric, and am set to go. It's funny how things work out. I guess I just needed the time, and in doing so sorted out a lot of issues, put them in perspective, and started to move on.