Monday, April 19, 2010

March 2010 BJP AMD - The Reveal


The final piece! I'm thinking of calling it "Grape Expectations"! This piece is actually a lot brighter, but I SEE it was a little difficult to photograph! This was despite the fact that the photo was taken outside on a sunny day and that I had already tried to lighten it up by adding white, cream and lavender touches. Beads, buttons, wire spirals, a flattened glasses frame, an old brooch and even a safety pin play a part in the construction. Bead stitches include peyote, stacked, flower, fringe, back stitch and bocce/boucle. Perhaps the darkness of the piece was reflecting back my mood during the month of March. That's when an evil virus took hold of my computer and my hard drive had to be reformatted. Oh well!!! Live and learn and don't forget to backup your files. April is sure to be much brighter!

16 comments:

kaiteM said...

i like the view from the window effect, that's nice. |<.

Anonymous said...

Wow, and I don't see too much darkness in the photo at all. This is wonderful!

Crazy Mama said...

wow...it's really mesmerizing! i look around, but i keep coming back to the window, wondering what kinds of fantastical things are going on outside. it looks like a lake with a sunlit reflection out there, with a grassy meadow surrounding it. that's what i see anyways. it's really wonderful! i love it!

beadbabe49 said...

The photo is well done and thanks so much for the story about how you made this piece!

Cyndi L said...

I loved seeing all the detail shots before seeing the finished piece! Gorgeous job, and not dark at all :-)

Sara said...

It's lovely. I think I'm "seeing" it backwards....I feel like I'm looking outwards - from inside the door - to where everything is just a little bigger, brighter, more interesting (the glasses, the flower, etc.).

Penny said...

How fantastic -- your combination of colors, beads and even found objects worked perfectly. It was fun to read the 'history'!

Anne Marie - Toronto said...

Thanks for your compliments, everyone! I admit that I got a little lost in the window view as as well. People seem to be SEEING what I SEE in this piece. That makes me very happy! I'm glad that the glasses helped me to SEE the piece clearly. LOL!

Robin said...

You DID it!!!! You posted your parts so they came out in order! And the reveal... OMG, I couldn't WAIT to get there... Never have I read a post so fast or taken so little time with the pictures... Of course, I went back after the reveal to really look at all the scrumptious details. You know how I feel about your work, and this is no different, except maybe even MORE, because of how you worked more of the "me" factor into it. Immediately before writing this comment, I found myself thinking about the safety pin and wondering what it's "holding together" up there in the right hand corner of your piece. Does it perhaps attach a bit of hope to your dark March?

Purple beads (also paint, thread, anything purple) are hard to photograph. I've never been satisfied. Maybe it has something to do with the visible spectrum available in RGB digital color.

I would LOVE to touch this piece. I want to stroke the broken glasses.

Robin A.

FredaB said...

Beautiful piece of work. You are a great beader.

Hugs

fredaB

Anne Marie - Toronto said...

Robin,

As usual, your comments mean so much to me. I tend to create in a bit of a vacuum, so the reaction of others is still a constant surprise. I'm glad that you're responding to the writing as much as the beads, because it means that I've been successful on a couple of fronts. As for the safety pin, that was a last minute (chuckle) decision. I thought the piece needed to lighten up (at least in that corner). I'm not sure that it means "hope", but rather a return to my normal optomistic outlook. The glass was half empty in March and I wanted it to return to half full. LOL! BTW, next time I'm in Vancouver, we'll get together and I'll bring some pretties for you to play with.

Freda, Thank you for your lovely compliment!

Unknown said...

There are so many pieces I see and think OH I would love to have that to look and touch or I think wow I wish I could bead like that... this is definitely one of those pieces. I love your story describing how it came together and the finished piece is absolutely stunning. Thank you for sharing your beautiful bead work.

Rachel Murphree said...

AM -- this is just STUNNING! you do a fabulous job with slowly revealing the piece, the text is just right/write, and composition works SO well. The larger flower brooch piece is balanced by the beads at the top left; the line made by the glasses (LOVE that touch) draws us into the arch, we move our eyes all around arch with the outer beading, and then back into the arch to see what the view is. WELL DONE! love it. would really love to see it in person. congrats.

Anne Marie - Toronto said...

Thank you Whytefeather! I do love to share! I personally believe that the story behind the piece is as important as the piece itself. The beads will attract the eye, but the story will keep people listening.

Thank you to you Rachel for your compliments and concise critique. I lucked out when I found those beads in just the right colour. I knew that I had to balance the weight of the brooch, so just played around until I was satisfied. Of course, it involved going out to buy more beads, but like THAT was a hardship! If we ever do the meetup in Houston (smile), I'll bring it along for show and tell. Catch you later!

Zinaida said...

Wow! It is just stunning peace!!!

Marty S said...

Just fabulous--and all those things everyone else said! I enjoyed reading about your process.
Marty S
Crackpot Beader