BACK IN SEPTEMBER!

I'm off on vacation, packing more supplies than clothing. I won't often have access to a computer, so I'm going to miss your blogs and eye candy. It is my hope to do the July and August bead journal pages and not get too far behind in our TAST adventure. I'll also be working on the More Options in Hardanger EGA .

ROCK ISLAND: TAST 25

I could fib and say this is a WIP, but the truth is I worked long and short stitch on an earlier experiment gone awry. Back when we did the woven and whipped wheels, I envisioned a tidepool filled with starfish. It was my first time playing with Tyvek, which was to be the rocky base for the pool.

All right, you have to picture upside down. I painted sky about a third of the way and left the rest in the neutral beige aida as that part would be beach. You can see the horizon line where my water begins with running stitch and woven waves. I recycled a used priority mailer, spraying it with various inks I had just gotten and was hot to try. I used the heat gun I bought probably 5 years ago for the first time and watched with delight as it bubbled and crinkled. The piece has been trimmed by half, but you can see how much of it utilizes the concave side of the bubbles, because, remember, this was going to be a tidepool with lots of little pools and rivulets. I added seaweed, white caps and crashing waves
and a few shore plants before I learned how tough the tyvek was to stitch through. I decided it would be an awful chore trying to hand stitch urchins, crabs, wheeled starfish -- the entire ecosystem of a tidal pool. I abandoned the project.

I've been pressed for time this week, but I did want to practice the stitch of the week and thought sky could be quickly worked on the aida. Obviously my pearls were not heavy enough for a dense covering, but it's blue sky. I haven't done long and short since my crewel days in the 70's. I've never liked this stitch because I think it takes a gentle, patient and skilled hand to render it properly. I know it's a vital stitch, but if not executed nicely and carefully it looks like, well, like my dandelion, I mean sun. And I must tell you that sun is only there out of the sense of guilt I felt for just doing the basic canvas version. My hats off to the many of you TAST'ers who created wonderfully clever and beautiful patterns and designs this week as well as L & S fillers as fine as any Japanese master.

As I mentioned time is short. I'm frantically gathering supplies for TAST and BJP to work on while I'm away.

DRAGONFLIES ON THE HALF SHELL

This is my June beading, my first page for the 2007 Bead Journal Project initiated by Robin Atkins. If you haven't already heard of this undertaking, do take the time to read a brief description on the BJP blog site; it appears at the top in the left margin.

Thinking I might make a cloth book for these samplers, I'm making my "pages" rectangular with a one inch margin for binding. One of my goals with this project is to experiment on different beading surfaces and trying as many techniques as I can. I could well change my mind and do a decorative box to hold these pages, which I suspect may become heavy, especially if I do them back to back.

Okay, so you're wondering about the title, right? I cut a piece of craft felt and gathered my stash of purple and blue beads because I have more of them than anything else. I confess, I picked up a few more accent type beads at the craft store while I was there for something else, and you know you'd do the same thing! It was a focal bead I applied first and because it was 8 or 10 mm, I put size 8 seed beads to either side. I looked at the irridescence and thought it would make a great dragonfly. So I made one, then another. Then I went about surrounding them until they merged. At this point their irregular shapes made me think of an opened oyster. I suppose I was also thinking of another fave seafood sadly no longer available, abalone. If you've never tasted the meat, you've at least seen the shells. Those are the colors I wanted to bring out.

Laying down beads around the dragonlies I practiced 3 methods, couching, add 3/back 1, add 5/back 2. I decided the 3/1 system looked best for me, and I tacked down to the previous row as needed. My tension was too tight, but I left it that way because I liked the irregular surface that presented: wavy, like the lines themselves. By the way, the dragonfly tails end with 3 delica that are close but not the same as the surrounding color. They are laid in such a way the dragonflies might be emerging.

After the wavy, inner shells, I tried to be more careful with tension. I added the next color in the same stitch to bring the two shells together, but changed stitches after the first row. On the right I built a ruffle from comanche stitch; on the left I worked it into peyote, incorporating beads of different colors and size. At the bottom I alternated stitches with lines of color to change direction of the beads.

This is a much more dimensional piece than the scan allows, and the colors change with different lighting. My intention was a small composition of color and texture. I'm happy with the resulting design and hope it invites playful interpretations. Do you see two faces or masks or heads? Do you see a butterfly or exotic bird that has taken on a couple of passengers? For me it's enough if you find a pleasing arrangement of shiny beads.

Below: I have a goodly supply of purple and blues. I'm ready for a change of pallette and an excuse to buy more beads...