bjp 0114 - in the pink

Well, January is a funny month! You'd think that I would find it depressing, but no I'm feeling "in the pink" and am looking forward to all the exciting challenges 2014 has to offer. Change is not always good, but I've decided to embrace mine and enjoy the new experiences. I'll stick with my leaf series, but probably end the year in September. That makes me happy, because it means that I've already completed my first three pieces (due to a late start in 2013). Yeah!!! I'm well on the way to accomplishing my goal. All that being said, let me introduce my January leaf!

I'm teaching my first Paper Bead workshop at BeadFX on January 26th, so I thought that it would be a good idea to include one of the first ones I made. It makes me happy, it's pink and white, and fits my theme (recycled paper from an old needlework pattern book). The shells are from an ugly old necklace of my Mother's, the buckle from a discarded watch strap and the sparkly earring, little butterfly and various metal bits, from my swap stash. I love these little goodies! I don't always remember who gave them to me, but they are still very special and precious. Most have flown to Canada, in various swaps and trades from all different parts of the world. It proves that people are very generous, and our world is united in a love of sparkly stash!!!!

In this section, you can see the bottom of my focal, more of the earring, and a few old necklace components. And now the full piece! Tada!!!

The focal is a fabulous vintage button, and one of those gifted to me by my sister at Christmas. She knows how much I love vintage and she happened to find the button in a very cool knit/coffee shop in Sault Ste Marie, ON. I should remember the name, but I don't, but do remember that it has "Motley" in the title. I really should remember because a) I visited the shop before it opened, and b) I may be able to teach some workshops &/or sell some stuff there in the future, and c) it's owned by my brother-in-law's, nephew's, wife. Sheesh! I promise, it's only a momentary loss of memory. The name will probably pop into my head soon after I publish the post. Stitches used include back, stacked, boucle/bocche and peyote. The leaf shape was traced from one I collected in the fall. I have no idea what tree it's from. Oh, one more thing.....pink is not one of my favourite colours, although I do like the duller tones! I chose it because of the focal. More later.......

bjp 1113 - dark and delicious

The leaves have all fallen from the trees, but are still alive in my imagination. I've given a nod to Mother Nature and painted my November leaf with the colours of the season. Sinfully rich, red, gold, bronze and rust, with just a touch of orange for contrast. The dark purple was a result of choosing the shell at night, in a room without proper lighting. I thought that it was either bronze or dark gold!!! But as I like to say, embrace the imperfections and then go with it! Someone once told me that if you don't like an element in a piece, add it a few more times, and all will be well! So I did exactly that and I think it works!!! Red and dark colours seem to be almost impossible for me to photograph properly, despite taking photos outside on a couple of different days. I just couldn't fully capture the lush, richness of the piece. Perhaps a photographic lighting course should be one of my 'must do' activities for 2014. Nah! Sounds too technical (at least, right now), so I think that I'll just embrace my own personal "imperfections"! All that being said, I think that 2014 will be a year of exploration, beading and paper. I'll try to fit some stitch in too, but probably in conjunction with other media. As I've mentioned previously, I just love my techniques!

Now more about the leaf! I started out with a rusty bottle cap that I found on the ground quite a while ago. I liked the band of red, so wanted to include it as the focal. Also included are a variety of beads from the stash, bugles (standing up this time), and a few bits recycled from old necklaces. The beauty of those old pieces, is that they just give and give and will end up in many future projects. But I digress! Stitches used are my regular posse of peyote, back, stacked and boucle/bocce stitches. For a texture boost, I also added a strip of Robin's ruffle stitch. There's not a lot of room in the leaves for me to go really crazy, but I still like the direction I'm taking, even though it forces me to be a little more conservative with my choices. No promises, but I think that I'll take this series into the BJP for 2014. An unexpected bonus of being a BJP participant, is that it has trained me to think in series. That will be a big help, if and when I submit my work to galleries. They do like cohesive series!!! I wonder what December will bring? By the way, here's a clue to my next post: