MY SUMMER VACATION - Part 2

Arriving first at my father's home in the Bay Area, I'd've thought there'd be no trouble finding a computer for downloading the TAST stitching assignments. First stop in my quest the local library. Closed! What library is closed on a weekday??? Still early, I drive to the next library, a main library, and I should be early enough to find a parking space on the square surrounding it.

Hah! Circling the third time, I notice all the people waiting for the doors to open. All the people turn out to be teenagers. I'm thinking summer programs. I think again, "They're there to swoop down on the computers!"

Yellow pages give no promise of cyber cafes or nearby places for renting computer time. I'd call a friend, but I don't have any still in town. If I knew any of Dad's neighbors, I'd be knocking on doors. I briefly consider ringing random doorbells. Thankfully common sense prevailed over my increasing anxiety. Does anybody ever suffer withdrawal from homework? Finally, in the deepest, darkest, post-midnight hours of my despair, the answer comes: senior center!!!

Early morning finds me there (it's within walking distance!) delighted to find an entire room filled with computers. Apart from engagement in intriguing conversation with other users, I was easily able to print out 3 weeks of stitches.

Sorry to say, I never got back to the Bay Area until time to fly home. Typically during the summer, I'd get to Tahoe maybe once a week for shopping and errands. It's only a 10 mile drive, but involves a boat trip to a public landing with limited parking just to get to the car. Factor in windy weather and my limited stamina for getting up and down the granite steep to our cabin... I made my way to the South Tahoe Senior Center once, but the two computers there were occupied. I didn't bother with the library since it was still vacation time.

I savored the time to work on the stitches I had and also the beaded journal pages. When not absorbed in those activities I was reading. Thanks to my LED book light, I can read whenever insomnia strikes. I finished at least a dozen books, including several historical perspectives of

Native Americans. Obviously this was on my mind while working on this piece:

What could be more appropriate for this sampler than Arrowhead Stitch! I used that predominately along with Sheaf Stitch in cotton and silk floss and perles. The teepees I created with ink stained Tyvek leftover from "Rock Island". As I folded and manipulated the Tyvek, I thought about the early Lakotah women assembling their lodges and dismantling them again when the tribe changed encampment. The color of the Tyvek fabric seemed just right for the buffalo hide covers. The entry flap of the right teepee is open to show the interior blackened by smoke from the lodge fire and a little piece of fuzzy yarn is supposed to be the buffalo robe used for sleeping. Eagles, big horn sheep, elk, grizzly bears and trout were at one time prevalent in all our western mountains. Native peoples wintering there would have made their way to the plains for seasonal buffalo hunting. Having had to fell two small lodgepole pines this summer, I have new regard for those long, straight teepee poles that had to be dragged from camp to camp.

TAST 30: Buttonhole Wheels

Go Fly a Kite! Why not kites, colorful, simple or fancy?

My kites always seemed to land in trees; still kites evoke for me images of happiness.

Bead Journal Project

July

Seed, Delica and buglebeads embroidered on moire. The focal point is a vintage, design under glass cabochon from Germany. The floral called for a formal look, so my effort an attempt at scrolling lines with different golds and irridescence for a Baroque look . I tried not to clutter the background and let the flowers come to fore. Colors here are not accurate. Background fabric is a creamy ivory, and the golds are much warmer than appear here. The darker beads are more purple but with definite gold flash.

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...

Turquoise Spiral Necklace

Turquoise Spiral Necklace
Originally uploaded by Fiberdabbler.

Technically this is an FO, a Finished Object, except it wasn't one of my targeted UFO's that had been sitting around awhile. In the midst of my knitting frenzy, I had a persistant urge to bead. True, I had acquired the materials for this project last year; in fact, right after I rediscovered the pattern in Bead and Button #47, February, 2002. Truly I confess there was a delay since my earlier posting about this piece. I misplaced the magazine -- again.
The only change I made from 's design is lengthening the rope so the necklace would slip over my head. The same #8 iris beads in the rope are within the gem chip section, but the chips are so dense, the sparkle doesn't show through. I will probably add a few to the surface to lend greater cohesion to the two sections. By the way, the chip section is a continuation of the seed bead spiral. You can't discern a twist because of the shape and size irregularity of the gem chips. Oh, and except for using 1 or 2, I eliminated the rose quartz from the soup mix.

Spiral Rope with seeds & chips