SALE SALE SALE

There's only one thing for it. When you don't know which way to turn, it's probably because you can't see over the pile of stuff in front of you.

SO CLEAR AWAY THE PILE!!



Having a huge clearance sale at my Etsy shop will go a long way toward motivating me to get on with new projects. You can check it out HERE. 29 items on sale and most of them at 50% off!!

I reorganized my sales display at the bookstore - and realized how really scattered I've been. I've had my fun with experimentation - now it's time to settle in to what I do best. Not saying what that is just yet, but let me just say I'll be in the gemstone zone for a while.

My March page will be decidedly different from all that has gone before. Minor inroads have been made. It's inspired by coloring books, stained glass, and a paint-by-number set. The fun should start any minute now.

Ahem.

Le Funque Bleu

I'm in one of those just-can't-shake-it moods. Been going on now for over a week. Can't settle in to any one project. Nothing seems to hold my attention. I guess it's time for a hefty dose of
SARK!!*



This was the first SARK book I ever encountered. I was working at a bookstore long years ago, and one of the promotions they were running was for this book. They gave the more bodacious among us these giant buttons to wear that proudly proclaimed us to be Succulent Wild Women. This was about the same time I was asked to read & review The Artist's Way** for the bookstore's newsletter -


That was over ten years ago. I think it's time to refresh my memory. I'm hoping that somewhere between these two I'll find my fire again. Right now I'm just a puddle of inert blue goo.

*Inspiration #12
**Inspiration #13

I Said I Would

And so I have. Here is my first (and probably ONLY) beading video. It took me about two weeks to figure out all the software, storyboard the thing, narrate it, add music, edit, figure out YouTube, etc., etc. It's not quite what I wanted it to be, but ya gotta stop somewhere. I forgot a lot of things, omitted others by choice, yanked out my hair at one point, but I kinda like it. And it was most definitely a learning experience.

If anything goes by too fast, remember you can hit the pause button.



I seem to have misplaced my list of supplies and bead colors, but as soon as it surfaces, I'll post it here retroactively. And just to recap, here is my finished page for February:

Imbolc/The Quickening Moon


Imbolc is the Gaelic celebration, now for St. Brigid, but originally dedicated to the goddess Brighid, that falls on February 2nd. I chose to focus on the healing aspect of this goddess and so each corner of the page features a healing stone. Clockwise from the upper left they are amethyst, quartz crystal, picture jasper and hematite. Each stone has its own healing properties, but they all promote the soothing of anxiety. This is something I really need.

I wanted this page to be all about healing. I placed my figure in the center of a triangle. I have an emotional reaction to triangles. Something about a good solid base tapering up in a symbolic reach to the heavens. Aspirations, I suppose.

So there's my little persona sitting in the middle of the triangle, just radiating all this health and energy (if you see it, you can be it kind of deal) surrounded by the healing energies of those stones flowing all around.

I have my March page planned out - now it's time to chose colors, which I'll be glad to get into. Nothing I like better than ignoring my current slate of projects which include:
1. A crocheted rope to showcase one of my polymer clay cabochons I've turned into a bead embroidered pendant
2. A bead-encrusted dragon I've had waiting for embellishment for almost four years now
3. A mermaid doll
4. A bracelet for a spring-themed challenge at Etsy
5. Adding beaded manes and tails to some ponies (Monet and Vinnie)
6. Covering a glass chess set in peyote stitch using size 15 seed beads

Now I'm off to the laundromat (taking the bead crochet with me).

More Inspiration

It's a 2-fer today. First off at Inspiration #10, Margie Deeb has a new book coming out soon, and I have my copy pre-ordered. This looks to be her best yet.



Yummeh.

Next at #11, Lume di Luna has an AWESOME gallery, well worth the browse. My favorite part of her splash page: "Where Beadwork is an ART" -



She proves her declaration very, very well.

Work on the February BJP page is moving right along - I'm still embroidering, and at the same time trying to storyboard my little movie. Do you have any idea how boring it is to WATCH someone bead? Tedious stuff. I'm doing this primarily as a slide show with narration and music. Windows Movie Maker isn't the most user friendly or intuitive program I've ever seen, but I struggle on. This month's page has me incorporating bugle beads - something I haven't done yet with my pages. I realized as we head into the final quarter of our journals that there are still a few things I need to try - techniques and materials I want to explore.

I'll get there.

Indecision

To climb down, to jump, to sit still. If only all choices were so simple.

There's a poll over at the Bead Journal Project, sounding out interest in doing the Journal again, for a second year. I find myself very conflicted about this.

Personally, this has been a very rewarding project. On one hand, I'd like to do it again, just for the schmooze factor. I've enjoyed watching how others of My Kind create and produce art from beads, and I have learned much. It has been fun, and part of me never wants the fun to end. But on the other hand . . .

One of the most appealing aspects of working on the Bead Journal Project, for me, has been its finite quality - that it would have a distinct beginning, process, and ending. Knowing my time would be limited gave me the discipline and impetus to pour it on, pedal to the metal, and dump all I had into it.

Other projects now beckon, other opportunities for growth present themselves, new challenges are begging to be met.

I figured if I started blogging about this, it would help me come to a decision, and it has.

I want this past year to remain something very special in my memory - a unique, once-in-my-lifetime event. My primary goal has yet to be reached - that of sticking with this to the end, so there's still time to savor this experience. However, I don't want to repeat this same challenge. For one thing, I'm concerned I'd devolve into cranking out "wallpaper" by trying to match the intensity of what I've already done and falling short, having exhausted my BJP coin, as it were.

It's a case of "been there, done that" and did it well enough that I don't feel the call to do it again. I need to find new worlds to conquer - whether they be interior or exterior. I suppose my decision is made.

When we reach the end of this adventure in May, I'll be sad to say goodbye but at the same time happy to turn my face to the next horizon, the next jumping-off place.