New Beginnings

Long time since I posted anything.. 

For those who don't follow me on Facebook, I have moved from the USA to Australia ~ Long story, but I had to move closer to my children, and so here I am.  I live now in Murwillumbah  in the far north of New South Wales, just south of the border with Queensland, and the famous Gold Coast.

None of my art supplies or my dolls are here yet, but the crate that holds all of my beads and other art supplies, as well as my dolls, has made landfall & all being good and well, it should be here in the next week or so.  It first has to be cleared through customs, I hope they manage to get everything back in the crate, as Joe and I packed it pretty tight ~ had to be to prevent things from sliding around while it was out there on the ocean.

This is 'The Keeper of Faces'  she is my first Art Doll made using assemblage & she was so much fun to make that I want to make more.

Her body was made from a small drawer, this allowed me to attach her head over the drawer pull, she has 'barby' hands which are attached with wire to small pieces of dowel and beads that form her 'arms'.  Her legs are polymerclay over dowel for strength.  Of course I had to use beads, and I had such fun gluing her beads on that it was hard to know when to stop.  I guess I will be doing more of this kind of beading LOL

She has a story, and it's attached to her back

I added 'LIFT' arrows so that she can be picked up without touching the beaded areas ;)

Before I set off on my newest adventure in life ~ moving back to Australia ~ I managed to finish a couple of UFOs that had been sitting for a long time.. 

The first is 'Mother & Child' I like how she she sits without the need for a stand ~ I weighted her bottom end with lavender seeds..

The question here is......   'Do these beads make my butt look big?'

 This guy is Joe's Polar Bear...  He was a labour of love, a gift for a wonderful gentle man, enjoy him Joe  ♥

 I have a few beads here, I and might pull them out tomorrow and see what happens, my hands are sitting idle and I don't like that!!

The Beaded Rock - the timely end of a UFO

I am not going to admit how long this has been sitting around as a UFO but it has been a while & some of my friends may have seen it in person at a certain event here at the beach ;)

It began life as a 2.5"x 2" rock which I beaded over using peyote stitch & then the fun began, making tiny sea anemones.. I added lots of embellishment using tiny shells, pearls, drop beads & lots of tiny fringe/stacks.

I have taken pohots from all angles so you can see all the fun details..

FULL FRONTAL
FROM THE RIGHT

FROM THE LEFT

BACK SIDE

FROM ABOVE

I hope you enjoy this piece, it sure was fun to make even if it did take me a long time to finish LOL

Layne's Legacy - Beading For A Cure

Layne's Legacy is an annual beading challenge dedicated to raising money for the National Colorectal Cancer Research Association in honor of Layne Shilling, a member of the online group All About Beads, who lost her battle with colorectal cancer in November 2002.

The premise of the challenge is simple: participants purchase a kit which contains a variety of beads. Each kit is identical. At least one of each bead type must be used in the finished project and the beader can only add one other type of bead to the project (but as many non-bead items as they wish). The completed works are as varied as the beaders who created them. from the website of Layne's Legacy

Although I frequent All About Beads, I did not know Layne but felt this was a cause worthy of my time.

My favorite methods of beading are bead embroidery & 3D sculptural bead weaving, so of course my piece combines the two..

Here is Dragonfly Dreaming:
The area inside the frame measures 5"x7" & the dragonfly is 5" long with a wing span of 5"

This is the kit that we all started with..

Small beginnings - I stitched a line of size 11 beads down over the lines of the branches

I covered the line of beads with whip stitch, using a combination of beads from the kit & leaving space for the art bead to sit.

The body is done, size 15s make up most of the body - My added bead type are the size 15 purple. Size 11s round out the area where the wings & legs attach & then 8s for the head. I also put a piece of wire into the body area & tweaked it just so, causing the tail to lift slightly & then added a blue Swarovski Crystal to the tip of his tail

I covered the head area with black/purple 11s adding a mouth & the 2 large rose montees for his eyes, here you can still see the 8s in between the darker 11s

To get the right scale for the wings I printed out some dragonfly wings that I found online - I forget where ;)

The wings were made using goldfilled wire & I guess it is a version of square/brick stitch but as I made it up as I went, I am not really sure. When finished they were each about 2 1/2 " long and would not sit as I wished them too, they were too floppy & we all know dragonflys do not like floppy wings..

Finally I resorted to painting the undersides with Mod Podge - 3 coats before they were firm enough to sit above the rest of the beadwork.

Here he is drying his wings after the 3rd coat

I also added some swirly green sequins over the 'leaf' area on the fabric, here is a close-up of the Art Bead & some of the embellishing.

Close-up of the dragonfly, you can't see from this angle but to make his legs, I added black beads from the kit to where the wires from his wings came out on the other side of the body. The wires pierce the fabric and are secured on the back of the fabric.
Bird's eye view, allowing you to see the 3D effect of the dragonfly

I used a light tent in full sunshine to get my photos - if you photograph beaded stuff, one of these is a must - my Tide Pool at the top of my blog was also photographed in my light tent)

Here is a photo that Joe took while I was taking photos, I think it's kinda neat, so I included it for your pleasure.

This piece, along with all the rest of the wonderful creations will be acutioned on E-Bay next year - I will post here when that is ready to go live..

February BJP finished

I have to thank the Lone Beader for this one, as her style of bead embroidery inspired me to try something similar. I used layers of felt to make the Mermaid & the fish stand out from the background fabric..




Here are a couple of progress pictures so you can see what I did, the top side of the Mermaid is about a 1/4 " thick and the lower side is flat, so hopefully I have achieved a 3D effect with her & the fish..



I'm not sure about the face of the mermaid but hey she does have a great head of hair LOL

Her tail is ruffled with sculptural bead weaving, this last picture is the most true to life colour I think.... Now onto the next one

You can see this picture enlarged at my webshots allbums as my pictures still won't open to larger images even tho they are HUGE :(

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2995530400063161327oyswoK