These are 2 mandalas I made several years ago. I am very inspired by the Southwest - its colors, symbols, geography. Although I was born and raised in Massachusetts, my family (except for me!) has migrated to Arizona, so I get to soak up the atmosphere on my visits there.
Here are my two latest mandalas, January on top, and December on the bottom. January's mandala is a bit tricky to describe. I started out with some leftover beads from a bracelet I made. I had no ideas for a theme, so I just started beading in the middle and worked out. As I beaded, I thought maybe I would make another ying yang mandala, so you might be able to see the swirl outline going through the center. But that idea didn't really develop. Then suddenly a butterfly showed up on the left, and I thought of change and transformation, appropriate for the new year. But it still wasn't a theme, because on the other side of the piece I simply put together embellishment beads in groups that I liked! I will say I had no clue the mandala would be so intensive to work on, but as always, it had a mind of its own! 
For December, I wanted something less intense than my depression mandala, so I beaded on some beautiful fabric by Laurel Burch. I kept the beading simple and let the design speak for itself. 
I just wanted to update my blog. I am diligently working away on my mandalas. I decided to show the first half year together. Besides the fact that they are round, I don't really see any theme. However, the one I made for December has water in it, and the current one I'm working on is another yin-yang design. When I decided to do the bead journal project I made a pledge to myself to finish a lot of incomplete projects. I have been doing just that! An interesting thing I learned about myself - I don't like to make clasps! I have 5 projects that are completely done except for the clasp. So I guess they're not really complete.
One of my goals for this year is to work on projects of my own design. I live in a place that has great bead stores, lots of classes, and a great bead guild that brings in lots of national teachers. Hence, I have many beautiful pieces, but they're all designed by others. I would like to explore my own design abilities. I also want to make more non-jewelry pieces. I recently started beading prayer bags for people I know who are ill. I like this idea and want to explore it more.
I have 3 month's worth of pages to share. This first one is September, and is my interpretation of the view to my neighbor's house. This was a fun page to do, and I wanted to capture the bright colors that inspired me to bead this .
October is in memory of my mother-in-law, Shorrie. After she died, several years ago, I was given a bag of some odds and ends that were hers. I recently looked through the bag, and decided to use some of the items for a journal page. The stones had been glued on to a bracelet and had fallen off. The pins are - top - a 10lb weight loss pin from Weight Watchers. She was a life member and probably had a lot more of these pins somewhere. The pin on the right is a life member pin for Hadassah, a Jewish women's organization. And the final pin is (I think) a nursing pin, although it has an anchor on it, so I'm not sure (if anyone knows what this is, please tell me). Above the nursing pin is a ring with a little glittery chip. I included that to represent love and marriage. Family was everything to my mother in law. I have included her initial, "S" on the bottom.
And finally, November. What can I say about this page? It represents Depression, an insidious and unwelcome disease that plagues me. I ran out of black thread (just my luck!)and decided to just leave it as it was.
I went to visit my mother and sister's in Arizona a few weeks ago. They live in Scottsdale and Anthem . I had a wonderful visit. This first photo is at a restaurant called Orange. It is a very funky place and has delicious food.
Here is a picture of my mother, resting on a bench during an art fair. She was still recuperating from foot surgery and could only do a little walking. So instead of looking at the art (which was great) she got to people watch, another kind of art in and of itself.
Here are my sisters, Sharon, on the left, and Toby, on the right. They are both wearing earrings that I made but you can only see Toby's. They are a design from a bead and button issue and very fun to make. She flattered me by wearing them because this girl is into Diamonds!
And finally, I had a pedicure, and the reason I took this photo of my now nice feet is because inside the white flower is a sparkly Swarovski flatback crystal!!! How cool is that?
I also visited 2 bead stores, Scottsdale Bead Supply and Bead World. SBS used to be in an old adobe house, crowded with all kinds of treasures. It had a personality and was fun to shop at. They have now moved into a large, brand new building with absolutely no character and no appeal (My personal opinion only). Bead World is a store in a shopping center, long and rectangular, but friendly and welcoming, plus the staff was delightful. I would go back there in a heartbeat.
I work on a portable bead tray, since I don't have a designated place to bead. I often sit in the living room on one of the chairs or the couch, at the kitchen table, or downstairs in the basement. I see I have a lot of beads here, but don't really see any projects, just a beaded bead I'm trying to figure out how to make.
I store my seed beads in the front hall closet (which I converted to a "crafts" closet years ago). I store size 11 beads by color, then put all triangles, 8's, 15's, and delicas in their own bin drawer. 
I recently moved my beads to one of my son's bedrooms. He is away at college and rarely comes home. As a matter of fact, it took him several hours to realize that something was "different" about his room. Since I'm only using a corner, things are still pretty crowded. The top photo shows some storage of beads and several containers of unfinished projects. I also have a huge bin of unfinished projects, a little embarrassing....
I was walking this morning and appreciating the color in some of the trees. Yellow and red stood out against the blue sky. In Michigan, the blue sky usually disappears by 11 am, but today it blessed us with its presence. I thought how beautiful the trees were, and how it is strange that they are at their most beautiful just before they die. So vibrant, so full of energy. They reminded me of the sometimes lucid and alert period that a person often goes through just before they die. And how that few minutes is often such a gift to the family, because that's what they remember. So, as we enter the winter season, one I dread because the trees have shed their leaves and look like skeletons, and because the sky is gray all the time, I will remember this walk and the beauty of the color and hold it with me through the long months.
It's been a full month since I posted. I have my September and October journal pages done, but November is turning into a challenge. I can't seem to motivate myself, or decide on anything - fabric vs. stiff stuff, one set of colors vs. another set. Every time I start I don't like what I do. So I am just waiting for a sign, an image, a light.
I have moved my beads into one of my son's bedroom. He was pretty surprised when he came home from school for a weekend and saw half his room filled with my beads. But he's not home a lot, just an occasional weekend, and I really need a place to call my own for my beads. Of course, moving them meant total reorganization, and I'm still not done. Maybe that's what's gotten in my way, that everything is different and not comfortable yet. Plus, I can't decide between storing beads in flippies (fliptop containers) or plastic bags. Seems like such a silly thing, but it makes a difference in the amount of space they take up and how I see the beads.
This past weekend I went on the 4th bead retreat with my beading group. One of the women has a cottage on Crooked Lake, near Petoskey, Michigan. As you can see, the view is lovely, and the beading lots of fun. We spread out all our stuff everywhere! We bead, we knit, we laugh, we eat, and have a great time. In the picture on the left is Kathie beaming in the red jacket and Wendy seriously into her work. The colorful dolls are "Dottee doll," which I found on another blog and fell in love with the idea. I made one for each of the women on the retreat. They were going to be my October journal page, until I reviewed the rules and realized I could not manage to either make them the same size or general shape as my mandalas. So, I'll just make them anyway and have more memories of the weekend.
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.
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?!
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.
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.
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.
These are 2 mandalas I made several years ago. I am very inspired by the Southwest - its colors, symbols, geography. Although I was born and raised in Massachusetts, my family (except for me!) has migrated to Arizona, so I get to soak up the atmosphere on my visits there.
For December, I wanted something less intense than my depression mandala, so I beaded on some beautiful fabric by Laurel Burch. I kept the beading simple and let the design speak for itself. 
Here is a picture of my mother, resting on a bench during an art fair. She was still recuperating from foot surgery and could only do a little walking. So instead of looking at the art (which was great) she got to people watch, another kind of art in and of itself.
Here are my sisters, Sharon, on the left, and Toby, on the right. They are both wearing earrings that I made but you can only see Toby's. They are a design from a bead and button issue and very fun to make. She flattered me by wearing them because this girl is into Diamonds!
And finally, I had a pedicure, and the reason I took this photo of my now nice feet is because inside the white flower is a sparkly Swarovski flatback crystal!!! How cool is that?
I also visited 2 bead stores, Scottsdale Bead Supply and Bead World. SBS used to be in an old adobe house, crowded with all kinds of treasures. It had a personality and was fun to shop at. They have now moved into a large, brand new building with absolutely no character and no appeal (My personal opinion only). Bead World is a store in a shopping center, long and rectangular, but friendly and welcoming, plus the staff was delightful. I would go back there in a heartbeat.
I work on a portable bead tray, since I don't have a designated place to bead. I often sit in the living room on one of the chairs or the couch, at the kitchen table, or downstairs in the basement. I see I have a lot of beads here, but don't really see any projects, just a beaded bead I'm trying to figure out how to make.
I store my seed beads in the front hall closet (which I converted to a "crafts" closet years ago). I store size 11 beads by color, then put all triangles, 8's, 15's, and delicas in their own bin drawer. 
I recently moved my beads to one of my son's bedrooms. He is away at college and rarely comes home. As a matter of fact, it took him several hours to realize that something was "different" about his room. Since I'm only using a corner, things are still pretty crowded. The top photo shows some storage of beads and several containers of unfinished projects. I also have a huge bin of unfinished projects, a little embarrassing....
This past weekend I went on the 4th bead retreat with my beading group. One of the women has a cottage on Crooked Lake, near Petoskey, Michigan. As you can see, the view is lovely, and the beading lots of fun. We spread out all our stuff everywhere! We bead, we knit, we laugh, we eat, and have a great time. In the picture on the left is Kathie beaming in the red jacket and Wendy seriously into her work. The colorful dolls are "Dottee doll," which I found on another blog and fell in love with the idea. I made one for each of the women on the retreat. They were going to be my October journal page, until I reviewed the rules and realized I could not manage to either make them the same size or general shape as my mandalas. So, I'll just make them anyway and have more memories of the weekend.
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?!
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...
