Beadjournal June

My June entry for Robin Atkins' bead journal project (a group of artists are creating a beaded journal page a month, ala the quilt journal project but with beads). My pages will be 5" x 5" and then mounted on some paging format, unless I decide to do something different. June's piece is inspired by the fields of corn and soybeans growing around my home.

Full view, including roadside flora.

Detail of flowers, includes Swarovski crystal, vintage beads and buttons, and mini ceramic pea pods.

The rows of plants trying to grow in the dry ground.

The fluffy white clouds filling the sky.

My Half Day Off

Butterfly, machine embroidery on Pellon, background is this wonderful 70's print I found at a yard sale 8 years ago. Part of a larger piece in progress.

Blue beadwork, 6/0 and 11/0 seed beads. Work in process, we'll see what happens next :)

Articles written, projects submitted, shows hung, I had a whole half day of school's out on Thursday before I got back on the road. Lots of stuff coming up, deadlines for Bead International, the basket show, the FAVA show, the Quilts = Art = Quilts, the invitational Kenyon show, you get the idea. Plus the project for Lark. When do I sleep? I'm not sure yet. :) I sure am having fun though, lots of ideas racing through my head.

The worst thing of it at the moment is that the machine embroidery turned out so well and was so fun that I am eager to make more. Which means coming up with another piece, including finding the source material, etc. I did find a cool book on the ocean at the library the other day, lots of wonderful coral to be inspired by, and I need to go back to find another book on flowers. And still staying on track with everything else (though the embroidery can be part of quilts for the shows, but still...)

Oh and the best thing? Despite the sizable size of my stash, there are a few shortages (such as a good supply of yellow 6/0 beads and more blues for skies and threads for embroidery) so I get to go *shopping.