Bead Arts

So, I’ve managed to end the year still on schedule! I spent the month of December thinking about how the word beaver makes me giggle in a very juvenile way, and realizing that I really didn’t want to do an actual portrait of a beaver on my beaded page for November’s Beaver Moon.

What to do, what to do? A friend had shown me how to do simple needle felting, and I ended up using that technique to create a log that had been “gnawed off” by a beaver. It was fun to try something completely new. I used an off-white pipe cleaner for the armature of the log, and letting the ends stick out does look somewhat like chewed off wood. Ok, that’s a stretch, but I’m happy with it!

You can find links to more of the Bead Journal Project’s participants on Robin Atkin’s blog.

You can also click on “Bead Journal Project” under “categories” in the right-hand sidebar (of my blog, that is!) to see the past five months’ beaded journal pages. Here’s a link for last month’s page.

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Hunter’s Moon

Even more warm browns and golds! I spent the month of November reflecting on the month that had just passed and creating Hunter’s Moon. There isn’t really any hunting symbolism that really appealed to me to bead, so I decided upon the pawprints following a trail…or are they creating one?

You can find links to more of the Bead Journal Project’s participants on Robin Atkin’s blog.

You can also click on “Bead Journal Project” under “categories” in the right-hand sidebar (of my blog, that is!) to see the past four months’ beaded journal pages. Here’s a link to last month’s page.

bead-embroidery, beads, beading, bead-journal-project, mixed-media

Harvest Moon

At last! The warm browns and golds that I love so much! I spent the month of October reflecting on the month that had just passed and creating Harvest Moon. I think I’m going to have a very hard time with the moon for October, which I’ll start the first week or so of November. It will be the Hunter’s Moon. It’s not that I have anything against hunting, having grown up in a school district that took the first day of deer season off without any sense of irony. It’s just that there isn’t really any hunting symbolism that really appeals to me to bead. Oh well, hopefully I’ll think of something, or else I’ll just make it an abstract.

You can find links to more of the Bead Journal Project’s participants on Robin Atkin’s blog.

You can also click on “Bead Journal Project” under “categories” in the right-hand sidebar (of my blog, that is!) to see the past three months’ beaded journal pages.

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And the winner is…Grace Danel! Grace is one of the participants in the Bead Journal Project, and we are so proud of her! Her 6 x 4 inch piece is called Justine.

Margie writes about the piece:
“Grace Danel’s bead embroidered piece uses a very muted, amethyst purple with bright yellow, and creates one of the most usual, and successful combinations. She very consciously limited yellow to a few distinct focal points. Her piece won by slim margin because of how successfully she used a wide variety of purple, violets, and lavendars with yellow. She combined an amazing array of tones and tints in exquisite balance.”

You can see all the other winner’s at Margie’s website. I think many of the pieces are amazing, but I have to be honest that I’m somewhat biased towards Grace’s since we’re both involved in the Bead Journal Project.

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Sturgeon Moon

Once more, I spent this month working on the moon for last month! It’s not that I’m behind…I decided in the beginning to work on the month that has just passed, hoping to gather more inspiration while I’m experiencing it! You can find links to more of the Bead Journal Project’s participants on Robin Atkin’s blog.

You can also click on “Bead Journal Project” under “categories” in the right-hand sidebar (of my blog, that is!) to see the past three months’ beaded journal pages.

mixed-media, bead-embroidery, beads, creativity, bead-journal-project

You can find links to more of the Bead Journal Project’s participants on Robin Atkin’s blog.

Click on “Bead Journal Project” under “categories” in the right-hand sidebar to see the beaded journal pages I’ve done for previous months.

bead-journal-project, beads, beading, bead-embroidery, journals

Strawberry Moon

True to form, I did June’s page this month! I just don’t like to work on the current month…I have to think about what the previous month was like in order to really come up with imagery that suits both the name of the moon and my own quirks! You can find links to more of the Bead Journal Project’s participants on Robin Atkin’s blog.

Click on “Bead Journal Project” under “categories” in the right-hand sidebar to see last month’s beaded journal page.

bead-journal-project, beads, beading, bead-embroidery, journals

Is there any beader out there who has not heard about this project yet? If so, bookmark this site, and make sure that you get in on it next year (I am counting on this becoming an on-going event!). I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate before it was too late. Robin Atkins, beader extraordinaire, has modeled this project on the Quilt Journal Project that many are already familiar with. The blog homepage for the project is the 2007 Bead Journal Project. From the blog site:

About the 2007 Bead Journal Project
We are 239 women and 1 man who are dedicated and committed to creating 12 bead journal pages, one per month, for a year, starting June 1, 2007. We live in 13 different countries, including 37 states in the USA. Our primary goal during this process, is to stretch our creative and technical limits. The BJP is all about visual journaling using any media and techniques, as long as it includes beading. We are free to structure our bead journal pages any way we want, as long as all 12 are the same size.

I have chosen to do the names of the moon for each month. Researching this, I found that there were many alternate names for each month’s full moon, so I put together a list of the names I liked the best. I also decided to do the moon for the previous month each time. I’m not sure why…probably just because I really wanted to start with May, which is the “Flower Moon”. So here is my offering for June:

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Have you heard about the 2007 Bead Journal Project? It’s a group effort started by Robin Atkins, and I’m excited to be taking part in it. All I want to show you today is a little tiny corner of the piece that I’m making…more later!

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