My April BJP surprised me quite a bit. I used the bracelet on the left as inspiration, liking the way the netted beads waved and flowed, creating a fullness and heft. However, I didn't take into consideration that I would be beading on a round wooden ball with a 1" diameter.
I started with a netted base on the wood ball in a pretty purple, just because I like the color.
My idea was to add rows of netting (a process in which the number of beads used increases on each row, creating the wavy look), that reflected my mood for the day. I used Matsuno beads, which are gorgeous colors, but kind of squarish beads. As much as I loved each color, seeing the colors next to each other the rows looked terrible, no flow of mood or color at all.
Trying to capture some of spring, the gray days, feeling blue about the weather, seeing green start to come out in the trees and grass.
Here you see a lot of gray, some matte, some transparent as if trying to let the light in. But in the end blackness won out, and although it's hard to see, there are 3 rows of netting on the last row, giving a heavier look on that row.
Another view.
Because I was unhappy with how the bead looked and disappointed that I wasn't getting the flow and rhythm I was looking for, I decided not to finish the bead, and just filled in the empty spaces with more purple beads. If you look on the far right you will see some firepolish. That was an effort to see if I could get more light in the bead, hoping it would shine through and catch sunlight. But when I decided not to finish the bead I just left it alone.
I feel that this is a true bead journal piece. I had an idea but the beads took over. I thought the colors were pretty but they didn't look pretty together, instead they really reflected my kind of down-in-the-dump mood over the month. A lot was going on in April that we/I had no control over, and it was a very long month after a very long and cold winter.
