BJP 2014 February Ta-dah

My second beach hut is for my husband. I am lucky. I know I am loved every day. There had to be hearts somewhere and the roof seemed the right place. When sad things happen such as illness and loss he has always been there with a hug giving shelter from the storm. Some elements were deliberately placed whist others bits just happened. He is a gardener and birdwatcher so naturally a flower and a bird were needed. I was so unsure how to create a bird but a leaf bead made the perfect wing and so a  gull ended sitting at the top.

 We are parents and our two boys are in there twenties now but when they were younger we went on holiday to Suffolk and we bought giant rubber rings from the beach huts in Southwold which were great fun so a beaded rubber ring leans against the door. These are all placed on a background of stripes. There were always going to be stripes I never thought of anything else. We are fundamentally different I tend to be messy and struggle to be organised whereas he is amazingly organised and tidy so the beaded stripes are all in a row as neat as I could make them.

 That just leaves that funny bit under the roof. I wasn't sure why I chose black beads to begin with. To me they signify sadness  and we are happy, we have fun, we laugh and we are good together. So what does it represent? He sees pitfalls and problems which is sometimes a positive when planning projects but he worries about the what ifs and uncertainties, often things that don't occur to me, so that black cloud that appeared is the part of him that will always make him worry about this and that. I am an optimist, he is a pessimist, I am messy, he is tidy but over the years we have rubbed off on each other and I couldn't be happier that he is by my side, almost forty years on since our first kiss when I was fifteen. So here are our beach huts side by side.

BJP 2013 ~ November Ta-dah

I love the look of  hydrangea flowers as autumn fades into winter. The beautiful shades of blues and pinks turn to the colour of vintage linens and lace. Earlier in the year my Mum moved from her home of 50 years and I unpacked boxes that had been hidden under beds and in cupboards. In one of the boxes were pieces of lace saved by my grandmother and her sisters for one day. I sorted through boxes of beads and broken jewellery also saved for one day. So although I never knew my grandmother and her sisters I do have photos of them and I feel I have a connection with them as I see their handiwork and the pieces they saved and my Mum saved as too precious to throw away.

My grandmother, Muriel, is in the middle with her older sister, Gertrude, on the left and her younger sister, Letty, on the right.

Imagine my delight as I realised I had the perfect place for one piece of lace and some of the beads. One day had come for a piece of lace that was just the right size for my November felt leaf and I had beautiful antique cream lustre beads that could make a pretty border.

 

I didn't want to cover too much of the lace work and I wanted to develop the circular shape of the large hydrangea heads and have the smaller flowers that make up the larger heads. I added wooden beads to complete the circle of lace flowers and then added cream and pink individual flowers in another circle.

 

 

I added a few more flowers with larger beads in the middle.

 



I hope my grandmother and her sisters would like my finished leaf.

I can't resist showing one of the small boxes of beads I came across for 'good children' and some of the glass bottles I'm filling up as I sort the beads.

 

 

 

I have nearly finished my December leaf and I am collecting together everything I need to display all the leaves together so hope to finish before the New Year :)

BJP 2013 ~ October Ta-dah

It was a set of mugs given to me by friends for a birthday that inspired us to plant a Toad Lily in the garden. The flowers are small but so exquisite especially against the red leaves of Autumn.

They are so precise in the centre but goodness knows how I would create them in beads so I put it off and started with a red autumn leaf and a bud.

Next came the petals before finally trying to work out a way to bead the centre.
The flower in the middle has a tube which divides into three and around it six filaments and anthers so I made a tube of size 6 green beads with three clusters coming out of the top using size 15 beads and I used the same size beads to make striped filaments with a size 6 bead at the top. Not as pretty and exact as the flower but I quite like my quirky centres.

I wish I could have made the flowers more delicate or perhaps I should made the autumn leaf larger.

So this is my October leaf capturing a bit of autumn colour and the Toad Lily in beads.



BJP 2013 ~ September Ta-dah

Beading a Helenium for my September leaf caused me to inspect the flowers closer.

The way the centres develop is fascinating as they start with a brown dome across which waves of yellow pollen spread until a sphere is created. I love beading a bead and knew the same technique would work well as a centre. I just used a felt bead and covered it three quarters of the way.

I decided to needle felt some background flowers before adding bright red beads for the petals.

The final addition was a picot edging.

The branches are filling up and I've got some fabric for the background but apart from embroidering the stems I'm still not sure how to add the months and names of the flowers. Any ideas?

Perhaps a border or tags, printed or sown. Well I have a few months to play around :) Happy days.

BJP 2013 June ~ Ta-dah

June is when our iris flower next to the pond. They inspire me to draw, paint and to pick up my camera. They have a page in my garden scrapbook.

We have had a heat wave here in England in July but when I took my photo in June they were covered in raindrops.

When I started to work with felt I made a felt picture but it just sat in a box with other felt picture experiments until I had the idea of using it as the base for my June leaf.

I didn't want to cover too much of the felt so started by outlining the petals and then added a beaded edge.

Not so much beading this time but I like the blend of the felt and the different coloured beads.

On to July!

BJP 2013 May ~ Ta dah

May is about remembrance for me so the forget- me- not was the starting point followed by apple blossom.

My sister passed away from cancer on the 18th May 2009 and her birthday was the 1st of May. We shared a love of flowers and gardens so when I walk around the garden in May I love seeing the drifts of blue forget-me-nots. The garden we grew up in had two large apple trees and the apple blossom in my garden always triggers many happy memories.

So on the leaf are forget-me-nots and apple blossom but it wasn't until after I had finished that I smiled at the border I had done. You see May was the month Mum moved after fifty years in the same house. Some of the furniture and 127 boxes were moved to her new bungalow. I watched boxes being packed, loaded and unloaded and then we set about unpacking them all. Now doesn't that border look like boxes? Totally unintentional I just thought the colour of the bugle beads went with the background felt colour but now when I look at the leaf I see boxes. The leaf will always remind of Mum's move and the best thing is now she lives just around the corner instead of nearly 200 miles away and she is happy settling into her new home.

BJP 2013 April ~ Ta-dah

When I started my tulip because the shape was simple I thought I would finish it in a couple of days.

 In truth I would bead a petal and then undo it as the colours didn't work or the beading looked messy. Simple ideas show up mistakes! The colours on the tulips in the garden just blend so beautifully the beaded version was always disappointing. I think if I had more colour choice of the tiny beads I would have found it easier. But after much trial and error I think I have something I'm happy with. I wonder how I will feel about it at the end of the year? In contrast to the stop start nature of beading the petals the bugle bead border was a breeze and I like the random mix of colours.

And for you April I have taken a photo of the first four leaves on my rough sketch. Still not decided on background material and whether to add words. I do love Linda's words and thoughts she includes in her art.

 

I'm really looking forward to catching up on everybody's blogs with a cup of coffee after being away and planning for my May leaf.

Being away at the moment is going to my Mum's house from which she is moving  after 50 years. As I mentioned last time I am looking at my family history and was delighted to find an old family bible in a drawer. By old I mean published in 1625 and with names and dates going back to 1704. Couldn't resist including a couple of  photos.

Happy beading :)

BJP 2013 January~ Finished Ta-dah

How did my January piece develop? The initial inspiration was the Winter Jasmine in the garden so a colour scheme was chosen and a desire to learn barnacle stitch to create the flowers got me started.

 I also wanted to follow Robin's idea of improvisational beading so tucked away a thought at the back of my mind. Me and New Year Resolutions.
Well I got this far and couldn't decide whether it was finished.

I liked the little felt leaf shapes that appeared on the one side but also wanted to have a solid block of beading. Just couldn't make my mind up to add more beads or not. Finally I decided it just didn't feel finished and continued beading.

 

 

 

The thing that strikes me at the end is that their are two very different sides just like me. On one hand I love being creative, going with the flow and putting off all the chores and daily organisational tasks and yet on the other hand I like things to be sorted and to have a plan. The underlying structure makes me feel calmer and gives me the freedom to be creative. Up until now I hadn't made any New Year Resolutions apart from the obvious one of losing weight but have decided on two more now.
1. Enjoy the time sorting out the messy corners that appear and tying up those loose ends for the calmness it brings.
2. Enjoy the time learning new skills and being creative for the happiness it brings.
One of my favourite quotes is by Pablo Picasso " Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." However as much as I need art and being creative I also need the more mundane things to be in order too.
Am I happy with my finished piece? Yes, I think there is a balance. I had wanted that free flowing side to encroach on the structured side just as in life I wanted more creative time and to forget the ordinary daily stuff. However in truth I'm happier when things are in balance. The time spent sorting, organising and planning is just as valuable as the time spent being creative.

Well, I never thought I'd be writing that about myself at the beginning of January:)

BJP 2013 January ~ On the way

I have been beading away and then unpicking. Sometimes because I would like it neater and sometimes because the leaf or flower ends up too high or low but I'm getting there.

I bought  different sized beads thinking I would find the little 15's fiddly and want some bigger ones to cover the ground but the little ones are my favourites at the moment. They line up so neatly whereas the cubes twist and turn. Funny, generally I'm not a perfectionist with knitting and crochet, rather than undo mistakes, I leave them in to make it unique and the house is certainly not neat and tidy most of the time.
Already thinking about February. There are snowdrops peeping up in the snow.
:)

Thank you

Joining the Bead Journal Project for 2013 gave me the impetus to start a blog of my own at the end of 2012 so a big thank you to Robin and all the participants of the BJP 2012. Today I have started by own blogroll and there have been three other blogs apart from the beading blogs that I looked at regularly during 2012 and inspired me with my felting, crochet and beading so I wanted to say thank you and share a few of the makes they inspired.

Fiona at MarmaladeRose makes stunning wet felted pictures enhanced by lots of machine stitches and hand embroidery. I occasionally have added a few beads but have been unsure about adding stitches so most have remained simply as a felt picture as with the snowdrops below. Thank you Fiona and perhaps in 2013 I will be a bit more adventurous with the stitching.

Lucy at Attic24 crochets brilliantly coloured blankets, cushions and has great tutorials for all sorts of beautiful hooky creations. Over the last year I have been learning to spin with a drop spindle and made a knitted cushion and was inspired by Lucy's flower tutorial to crochet a flower to decorate the cushion and added a beaded rosette as the centre.

I am now following her bag tutorial to use the wool I spin on my new Lendrum spinning wheel. Lots of texture as I am just learning but I love being able to use what I spin no matter how many bumps and lumps there are.

I also loved following Lucy's hexagon pattern to make a circular cushion. I just need a few tiny squares to fill in gaps on the side. Thank you Lucy.

Jessica at Such Pretty Things  for providing a bit of sparkle and making me think about the palette of colours I use when being creative and the photographs I want to take. I love seeing the photo journals of her trips antiquing / vintiquing in Paris, London and America. It brings back happy memories of visiting thrift shops when we lived in Fairport, Rochester, NY for a couple of years.

Thank you to you all and best wishes to everyone for 2013.

Brick Stitch Rosettes

After beading a bead with peyote stitch the next stitch I had a go at was brick stitch. Dorothy Wood's book ' The Beader's Bible' has instructions how to make brick stitch rosettes. I started using a felt ball as the centre and used the rosettes to decorate some of my felt fairy cakes / cupcakes. This is the latest one with a Happy Birthday flag for a friend.

Over the years I have made several felt fairy cakes. Some just as decoration, some as pincushions and some with message flags for friends. The cakes with the felt 'cherry' and beads are one of my favourites.

The very first fairy cakes although slightly wonky fill a cake stand in the dining room.

The later mini cupcakes are on a mini stand on the welsh dresser in the kitchen.

They make me smile.

Beading a Bead



Once I had made one it was very tempting to make another one because you're sure the next one will be better. Soon I had a growing line of beaded beads and I realised I needed to think of what to do with them. 



So far I've used them to hang from twigs and as and a 'cherry' on top of  fairy cake pin cushions. No doubt some will find their way to the Christmas tree next month.

If you want a go and you're not sure what to do this is where I got started with the 'Bead a Bead Tutorial' http://youtube.com/beadsfriends

~

The second felt bag

This is the first felt bag. No beads needed for this. Just a pattern from Lisa Lam's  first book 'The Bag Making Bible'. I used 'The Reversible Bucket Bag' pattern with a few modifications. It is a slightly different size because you never quite know with wet felting how big it will end up and it is not reversible but has a lovely shocking pink lining instead. It hangs on a dining room chair with the current knitting or crochet project ready for me to grap to take out.

Whilst I was finishing this bag I knew what I wanted to make next. A felt flap for Lisa's 'The Oversized Fashionista Bag' and I wanted to add beads to decorate the flower centre on the front. I just needed to decide how.

So various ideas were tried.

And here is the finished bag. I made the main flower centre by covering a button with felt and then sewed concentric circles of beads around and then added a picot edge of beads to finish off. The smaller flowers are a flat circular bead with one ring of beads.

And yes there is a third bag on the way. This time a beaded dragonfly.