Jewelry for the Gallery

Here is an intial picture of the jewelry I have made for the gallery in New York. However, I'm not going to send most of it, because I realize that the owner wants to sell the work at a lower price than I suggested to her for most pieces. Actually, I came up with a price based on a formula she shared, but the prices came out shockingly high. That's beadwork for you. It's so time-consuming that you just can't make money selling it. So I have reorganized what I am going to send and taken the more expensive pieces out. I don't have good pictures yet of what I'm substituting, so that will be another day.

If anyone has any thoughts on what you would pay for these pieces, or as a beader, what you would price them at, I'd be happy for you to share them!!!

End of the School Year

Our boys have been sharing an apt. this past academic year, but the lease is up soon, Jason is graduating, Sam is moving to another apt., and we decided to make a trip to start bringing stuff home.

I love getting pictures of my three men together - left to right is Jason, the graduate (math, with honors), Dennis, the aerospace engineer professor, and Sam, the law student.

Beading Areas

When I read Marcia DeCoster's blog this morning, she referred to Bev Herman's blog about what her beading tray looks like. I believe several readers then took pictures of their beading trays, including me! The top photo is the coffee table next to where I sit, and the bottom photo is my beading tray. I'm working on several projects at once and kind of push things into the corner when I'm done or going to work on it soon. I am making a right angle weave/square stitch bracelet with fire polish beads in a quilt-like design. I made one, and then decided there was too much thread showing. This is definitely an influence of my friend Deb, who can't bear the idea of thread showing. She won't even do certain stitches because you can see the thread. It never used to bother me, but now that I have found a thread I like, One-G, I'm getting to like the thread to match the beads more.

What I have been doing all winter

I feel like my blog has gone through a period of drought. But in fact I have been beading more than ever all winter long. I have been making pieces for a gallery that is open for the summer months. I will take pictures the next day we have sun here, hopefully tomorrow!

This is what I have learned. Making jewelry that I think other people will like is very hard. Making jewelry that doesn't have thread showing, or looped over a bead, or cut down to the edge is very hard. For every one piece that I am satisfied with, I have usually made 4 or 5 other pieces. I have worked every day since January and feel I have very little to show for the hours I have devoted to making the jewelry. I don't feel it represents the best work I can do, and I am sure I am overly critical of myself.

In terms of the time and effort I have put into the projects, I will not earn a cent. But I hope the gallery will! In order to do this work, I stopped reading, am behind on my Bead Journal Project, and was unable to complete the most recent round of Use the Muse contest.

However, I really wanted to do this. I wanted to see if I could meet the challenge, really a personal challenge, of committing to something and following through on it. When I post the pictures, I will be curious to see what the feedback is. Until then....

Meeting BJP members

I've had the privilege of meeting two Carol's recently. Above is Carol from Of Beads and Birds, whom I'm sure many of you know because she posts such nice thoughts on our blogs. She lives in Indiana and I was there the other night visiting family. So we arranged to meet, and we had a great visit! Carol is on the left and I am on the right.



A few days earlier I met another Carol, but we didn't take any photos :). I noticed from her blog that she lives in the same community that I do, so I contacted her and we were able to meet. I went to her house and met her two adorable children plus her husband. Carol is incredibly artistic and I was in awe of her talent.



Two Carol's, two great bead journal artist's, and two wonderful people, what more could one ask for?

Debbie's blog give-a-way

Debbie is a new blogger and is having a blog give-a-way. Check out her site.

I've not had my regular computer for a several weeks now, while it's being de-bugged for viruses, so I haven't posted, since I don't want to introduce any new viruses on this computer. I've been beading non-stop for weeks now, and once again most things are ending up in my UFO bin. But I am determined that there is meaning in this struggle I am having. That I will somehow plow through whatever blocks I am having and begin to generate ideas, designs, color combo's, and actual pieces.

I'm still not reading - tried the books on tape thing and found it too distracting - I had to listen too hard, and I'm actually finding myself not missing them. This is actually a good place for me to be in. Without the distraction of daydreaming through books, playing detective to mysteries, I'm focusing on one of my goals for the year, to really push my beading and see where it takes me.

I'm also having a "C is for Challenge Month." C as in fewer calories, no chocolate, no cake, no cookies, no candy, fewer carbs, but yes to carrots, creativity, control, and cardio. Oh, also no coffee. The cravings are still there, but I just keep telling myself no C's this month. I'm hoping to feel better at the end of the month, more energetic, and maybe will have lost a pound or two so I can get back on track with weight loss. I haven't started my February BJP yet, but I bet you can guess the theme! Can you think of any more C's that might help motivate and inspire me?

And my reward for the C month - a 4 night cruise full of (hopefully) sunshine and warm temperatures. In preparation, I am studying how to use my Canon camera. I got one of those Canon books for dummies, and I've now correctly set up my camera. Marching right along....

A Different Kind of Reading

I was reading Susan E's blog and she mentioned listening to a book on tape. Lightbulb! That's how I can still read books and bead. Thanks, Susan, for planting the suggestion in my mind!

Reading

I love to read, always have. I love books, holding them, turning the pages, reading words that become stories. Ten years ago, when I did the Artist's Way, there was a week of not reading. I never thought I would be able to not read for a week. Much to my surprise, I found myself so productive in other areas that I didn't read for 6 months. I'm at a point now where I'm going to eliminate most reading from my daily life. I made a rough calendar of this year, and realized that if I want to accomplish my artistic goals, in addition to my regular work and responsibilities, something is going to have to be cut. So I will still keep a list of books I want to read, especially as favorite authors release new books, but will save them for later.

Among my favorite authors are Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, Susan Hill, Arnaldur Indridason, Aimee and David Thurlo, Margaret Coel, Steven Torres, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Louise Penny, Archer Mayor, Deborah Crombie, Elizabeth George, Peter Robinson, Charles Todd, Karin Slaughter, Donna Leon, Andrea Camilleri, and John Lescroart. As you can tell, I like mysteries.

Here's to making room for my art!

Use the Muse Contest

The Big Reveal (the focal piece) has been revealed, and if you click on the link it will take you to the winners and galleries of submissions. My piece is above, it is a large (very large) brooch, which, alas, did not win any category, but was a lot of fun to make. There is a lot of fantastic bead work and artistry to see. Enjoy!

snowflake

For the last few days we've been getting snow flurries, although they haven't added up to anything. A tradition in my bead group is to make a snowflake in December. My snowflake is designed by Sandra Halpenny. I made it yellow and white, with gold firepolish beads so it would be bright and cheery. I have 3 snowflakes from previous years, maybe I'll take them down and photo them to post here. Also, on the day we make the snowflakes, people bring in treats to share, a cheese ball and crackers, candy, lemon cake...and we have a delightful afternoon before breaking for the holidays.

Winter is Here

There are two leaf pick-ups in Ann Arbor in the fall. Everyone rakes their leaves into the road and you can barely drive. Here is a pile of the leaves that the city trucks have picked up from our street. This was just a few weeks ago, and now the leaves are gone, and the snowflakes are coming down.

I am working extra hard not to be depressed with this transition in seasons. The gray skies really get me down. I already took one trip to AZ, where my family lives, for some sunshine. Over the years I have realized that taking a trip in November and February/March to a sunny climate really helps. It would even help if Michigan winters had some sun, because the temperature is not the issue, it's the sky. Expect to see some bjp on this, whose next season is coming up in January.

Bead Inspired

Above, bracelets without clasps.


I made this bracelet for my mother years ago. The plastic snaps have broken and the color on the leaves has faded off.


A pathetic snowflake and a herringbone experiment.


Thought I could make something out of this, but am now stuck on how to finish.



I don't believe this bracelet is supposed to twist and turn. In fact, it's supposed to lay nicely on your wrist with a bit of a curl, just a bit.


My tension is way off on the bracelet above. It's supposed to be flat and the herringbone is supposed to look braided. In fact, the thread snapped at one point.



This is supposed to be diagonal square stitch that automatically curls. Mine is straight as can be.



A peyote freeform idea for a bracelet. I just don't like it.



The title of my blog is "Bead Inspired," but lately I haven't had much inspiration. I've been working on a lot of various projects and am unhappy with most of them. Sometimes I have high expectations of how something will turn out, and I'm pretty disappointed when it doesn't. Depending on the project, I will pursue it further, or I may just throw it in one of my unfinished project bins.

One thing I am frustrated with this blog is that the pictures always are above my writing. I have no idea how to start writing above the pictures, even if I write first. So I always feel that I am going back in time, rather than moving forward.

With no further ado, I present a series of unfinished projects, above.

Use the Muse Contest

I don't know if we can show the "Muse" yet for the contest, so I'll show part of my project. This is only the top half of the piece. I bead embroidered on stiff stuff and then attached it to wool felt. For this contest I felt freer to use beads that were not in the kit, such as the yellow beads. The colors in the kit are not ones I would normally choose (actually, I would never choose them), so for me the challenge was two-fold, designing a piece for the contest, and using colors outside my normal palette.

Photo Thursday

There is a very nice group called Photo Thursday. Every Thursday a theme is suggested and people take photos related to the theme. Todays theme was Simple. There were photos of rocks in water, sunrises, a meadow, a boat on a lake. It's very fun to browse through these pictures. I haven't joined (yet) but I'm thinking about it. It's another way to see the world, literally, as people on the group come from all over.

Rotating Jewelry

I remember when my kids were young, we would rotate toys and books, so that just when the kids started to get bored, you could take a new group of items out and it would be like they were brand new. I had the idea to do that with my jewelry. I simply have too much, and I don't see it anymore. However, when I started sorting it out, I realized that I really do have too much-lots of class pieces, lots of pieces from magazines, or my exploration of a stitch. There are some beautiful pieces, as well as items I just don't like anymore, or that never quite fit right, or the color combos don't work.

Then I had a realization - the jewelry represents my learning curve in beading. I put almost all of it in bins, just kept a few pieces out that I really like. At first I was really depressed, because the jewelry represents years of work. Then I felt a sense of exhilaration, like I was ready to move on and develop my own style. It was a sense that now I can move into a different stage, using what I've learned, but making it mine. I've wanted to do this for a while but have been held back by fears - I'm not good enough, I can't design, I'm not really an artist - you know, all those stupid things our censor tells us. Well, I'm going to just swat that censor away and plow ahead.