Dark Hopes

Just finished this one last night. Focal bead is a blue goldstone cabochon, and the other elements include a pewter charm, silver plated rounds, coated hematite cubes, dyed freshwater pearls, and Japanese glass seed beads.

Wanna see it closer?

And here's the collage of different angles and such:

I've got all the fixins for my next one - so that would mean more later.

The Rule of Darkness is No More

The final box in the series of three is finished - and I've already got a strange little one going with a large blue sandstone cab smack in the middle.

It's still overcast here, and it's been snowing off and on - the photos were taken in the kitchen, so the light is not all that great.  But here it is:

And this is what it looks like open:

The summing up:

Wanna see it up close?

Like I said, I'm already at work on this gorgeous cabochon-centric piece, so there will be more later.

So here are the three pieces, side by side, and that inspirational quote one more time:

The full quote has been attributed to "The Holy Book of Destiny,"
"And when they seek to oppress you
And when they try to destroy you,
Rise and Rise again and again
Like The Phoenix from the ashes
Until the Lambs have become Lions
and the Rule of Darkness 
is no more"

Like the Phoenix

I finished the second one yesterday morning, but I wanted to wait until I could get some decent photos - but I think we're in for a long period of overcast, drizzly days. So here we go.

Here's a collage of some different views:

Wanna see that close-up?

Working on the third one now, which means there will be more. Later.

Rise & Rise Again

The first one is finished. The pearls for wisdom, the hearts for love, the star for hope - below the surface, love and wisdom form the basis, tangling roots, genesis for what is to come. Hope for love and wisdom realized.

Wanna see it up close?

More later.

Back to Work and YAY!

So I have my tiny canvases and I've already got my focus and theme for my next series. I really thought it was going to be Mookaite Angels, but they will have to wait.

Influenced by Maureen Murdock's excellent book, "The Heroine's Journey," seen through the lens of the events of my life at present, I became fixed on the following quote from Russell Crowe's Robin Hood movie - "Rise and rise again."*

That's what we do. Over and over. We rise and rise again. It's rarely as epic as overthrowing a tyrant - it's often as small (and huge) as overcoming doubt. It's every day stuff. We revisit the same themes in our lives, in a continuous spiral, a dance of life passing through joy and pain and love and loss and putting our heads down and just bulling through, getting each job done and moving to the next with as much grace and grit as we can pull together.

To honor those passages, this particular series is "Rise, and Rise Again."

I love the first stages of putting a piece together - going through all my beads - and I mean ALL my beads - Asa says it's like watching a child at Christmas plundering presents. Letting the elements come together, making conscious and unconscious choices, refining the selection to something manageable, then letting the whole thing tell me what to do. Then the real fun/work begins.

So here's the Fun In Progress pictures.

 This is after the first culling.

Second culling.

Current piece:

The joy is in the doing, the making, the realizing. I am joyous today.

So, more later.

*The full quote has been attributed to "The Holy Book of Destiny,"
"And when they seek to oppress you
And when they try to destroy you,
Rise and Rise again and again
Like The Phoenix from the ashes
Until the Lambs have become Lions
and the Rule of Darkness 
is no more"

YAY! Boxes! YAY!

A few years ago I had an Etsy shop, from which I sold lots of goodies. Near the end of my time with Etsy, I wasn't selling much at all. One of the things I sold, and sold very well, were these little trinket/treasure boxes.

(click to embiggen)

I had a finite number of boxes to decorate - I had found them at a thrift store - and I couldn't find their like on the internets to save my soul. I had two left, and agonized over which of my embroidered pieces I should use to finish them. And so they sat on my project shelf. For about two years now.

Then, on a whim, I went image-surfing and I FOUND THEM!!  The very boxes!! I'm so happy I could squeak!! I had to order $50 worth, but that wasn't hard for me - I got two dozen velvety black and one dozen so-soft dove grey - and I am beyond jazzed!!

So now I have 38 little canvases on which to splash my beady imagination - and a decision to make. Should I brave the waters of Etsy again, or strike out in another direction, with my own website or perhaps a Square Market shop . . .

But first, to the drawing board!

Which means, of course, more later.

Project Runway Season 12 Finale

The last two episodes of Project Runway's twelfth season, the big finale, have concluded, and big congrats to Dom Streater, who proved her mastery of textile AND clothing design with her interesting and wide-ranging collection.

I had my problems, though, trying to narrow in on inspiration for this one. There were only two things I knew for sure. One, it would be a bracelet, and two, it would be patterned.

Now, with pattern work you have a few options: loom work, square stitich, flat peyote, two-, three-, or four-drop peyote. I started off thinking I would work with one of Dom's more colorful textiles - I tried charting it six ways to Sunday and didn't like anything I came up with. I started looming a piece, got about an inch loomed and hated it. I started a flat peyote piece but the colors just weren't working for me.

I pushed it all aside and gave myself a few days off. I came back and looked at Dom's collection with fresh eyes. I found myself drawn to her black and white prints. Once I honed in on my inspiration, the rest was easy. I charted out a pattern and by the next evening I had it finished. Worked in just two colors of gilt-lined opalescent seed beads, the strength of the graphic really pops.

So here it is.

Now here's that inspiration:

Summing this one up:

I decided to give the runway a rest - even though Runway All Stars is doing a third season. I've got some art beads to make, and some bead embroidered Mookaite angels to birth.

That would mean more later.