I'm a Winner!

A little while ago (time seems to have lost it's meaning lately - it's just go, going, gone) I won a giveaway on Lisa's blog Pursuing Art...Life and Dreams and then time got away from me and I didn't post it when it came in the mail. Now Lisa has written asking if I got it. I didn't realize it'd been THAT long but it has. I am so sorry Lisa. I usually make a post (usually only a little late) and then let the person know I got it and share the post link. I am sooo sorry. It was totally rude of me. Lisa gave me some wonderful stuff too. I thought I'd just won the doll and face but she sent me vintage and other beads and everything came tied up so

I could use the packaging in future projects.

Lisa is the type who remembers little details such as a poppy I'd asked if I could draw from her blog months ago. She sent me the photo of it. And no Lisa, I haven't done that yet either. No more classes for me for a while. I evidently need a breather to clear my head so I stop forgetting so much.

January BJP Page

I finally finished my January page. (No you didn't miss one,
I still don't have December done).

This page came about as a real journal entry. In January two women made my family miserable so I thought I'd put it down in beads.

One of the women who made us miserable is my son's principal where he is interning as a teacher in San Diego. He teaches both science and math which is supposedly a much sought after skill. His principal liked him well enough at first and wanted him to try for getting known as a star teacher (any teachers out there will know more than me about this but I understand less than 10% of teachers get this). But, they had a run-in when my son didn't want to kick one of his students out for not trying and being a problem. (I guess a lot of the kids are problems in this school and that's why they come to it in the first place). He was against it because the boy had started shaping up and was now doing his work on time and participating in the class - in other words he'd turned around and my son wanted to give him a chance. Well, the principal didn't and said with his parents being well-educated they could take him elsewhere. My son doesn't believe in helping one kid less because his parents are better supposedly in some way - a kid who needs help is a kid who needs help. Then my son didn't watch the Presidential inauguration with the students which he found out later the principal wanted and when she questioned him on it he said he would think it's a momentous day when race doesn't make the day momentous anymore. So, he will be finding a new job next year. That one person can kick him out of the intern-teacher's program. His student's love him, by the way because he IS fair to them. So his being a great beginning teacher doesn't count if politics becomes involved.

The second woman was a family friend from Italy (currently lives in Vegas)who was visiting my daughter and her family. To make a long story short here, the woman's daughter jumped on the family dog and grabbed him around the throat while he was chewing a bone. The little girl either got nipped or scratched (the girl says scratched) on the face and had a few bleeding spots. My daughter stopped the bleeding right away but several hours later the mom wanted her daughter to go to the emergency room where she demanded a plastic surgeon even though the doctor on duty said no stitches were needed. The next day they went from my daughter's home to their own. And then a call came that the dog was to be picked up for quarantine. It turns out (by the animal control's own admission) that the mom wanted the dog killed not just quarantined even though under these circumstances the usual thing is to quarantine a dog at his own home. Well the dog was taken for 10 days, no rabies showed up and he went home (they would not kill him no matter that the mom was calling all day every day for them to do that). The reason this was a really big deal is the dog belongs to my grandson who has anxiety problems and ADHD and more and the girl's mom knew all this. She turned on my daughter's family as even now she is trying to sue them and this after they sponsored her husband to become an American, helped them buy a car, and so much more.

Well, I decided to make a page depicting the two women who caused so much heartache. January's page was to be red so I skipped December for the time being and went for January. I was certainly "seeing red"! My granddaughter had the molds and polyclay for the faces so we made them when I was visiting. The red beads for the hair were a gift from my oldest sister as were the short bugle beads. The 18 ought beads I got with a gift certificate my daughter gave me a couple of years ago so I was able to keep up my use of gifted beads. For once I didn't cover the fabric completely. It just didn't seem to need it. I felt like it was the right color and had the right design to go with the mood of the piece. I'd told my sister I felt like making them like voodoo dolls but she said to just blow them to the wind rather than hold onto them and their hurt so I added all the little swirls for that.

This is probably the most direct journaling I've done so far in the project. It just made sense to do it. Now what to do for December in red-orange? Hmm...

Inchies

The theme for this week's inchie is Dots. What better way to express that than using a dotee doll! This is the smallest one I have made so far.

I glued a batik fabric with dots on it to a piece of card instead of making a stuffed body for the doll. Otherwise I feel like I've stuck pretty closely to the heart of these dolls. This was fun to make and now I am off to post it on The Inching Artists.

I am still working on catching up on my bead journal pages. I finally gave up on the TIF challenge. I just can't keep up with everything I want to. It was stressing me out till I wasn't able to work on anything. Someday I hope to try that one again.

Pink Artist Doll Is Done

The Pink Artist doll is done. Her name is Love Squared. I have a few pictures but there are many more on Girl Gone Thread Wild's blog . Be sure you go check her out. So many people contributed squares.

It's amazing how many want to help others. Some do it by joining in on walks or runs for cancer cures. Some help by making money to contribute through bake sales. There are just so many ways but this call for two inch artist squares was right up my alley. Obviously is was a call many answered.

But the one who started the whole thing off and actually made the doll is Monica Magness of the above mentioned blog. She did such a super job. Her ears must be hurting from all the applause she is getting. I don't think anyone could guess how the doll would come out but she is so perfect. Monica used needle felting for the hair and face. Oh, I can't beging to describe how she did it. Just go over to her blog where she tells all.

The crown for the doll was made be another artist Grace Beading who is also a member of the Bead Journal Project. She did a wonderful job as did the artist who made the box and well, like I said, just go on over and see it all.

The first picture shows one of the squares I made for the doll. It's the second from the right on the top row. Monica (actually her husband Jeff) took lots of pictures so everyone could find their square on the doll. The other pictures show front and back but they don't show her base which is beautiful too. Go and see.

Spirit Doll Update

It's done at last! The spirit doll I was making for my sister which you can see the beginnings here is now done. I am so happy with how she turned out. I think my sister will like her. She loves flowers and though I didn't intend to make flowered fringe and hanging loop that's the way they turned out.

I finished a rosary for her daughter-in-law today also. There is a bit of a story to it. Almost two years ago my nephew and his family (living in Japan) had to flee their house in the middle of the night due to a fire. They barely got out with their children; they couldn't even save the dog or gather any belongings at all. When they were finally able to get back in they found two items unburned - a rosary of her father's and a crucifix over a door. That's it!

My nephew asked me to make a new rosary for his wife from the broken one that survived the fire. It was old and a man's style so I asked each of his sisters and his mother for 10 - 6mm beads of their own choosing and asked my nephew to send 6 - 8mm beads. I supplied the centerpiece (a fish pendant of the Hill Tribes Silver that Fire Mountain Gems sells) and silver wire. The crucifix was cleaned and reused from the old rosary. My husband drilled two holes in the bottom of the fish pendant and I blended the beads everyone sent. I'm glad my sister sent a packet of mixed colors as that helped in the blending. Now I just need to make a bag or paint a box to hold it. I plan to use my fish stamp I made and showed here to go with the fish centerpiece. I figured it should fit with the way the Japanese seem to love fish in one form and another and another!

February TIF Done

I have finished my February TIF challenge. I
haven't yet made a dotee doll so chose this as the form I would use for this month. The challenge was to think about what we remember from days gone by and I took that to mean things that are not with us anymore. My conception is for two things that are gone from my life. One is letter writing. I might get an occasional card but I really don't get handwritten letters and haven't since before my dad died. The second is that I don't have my parents anymore. This is something everyone loses at some point so it doesn't have to do with modern times versus old times. It's universal but leaves a hole just the same.


I handled these themes in this doll form by printing off a letter from my mother dated about 30 years ago and some some scanned in envelopes addressed to my dad over the years onto ExtravOrganza. I also printed off a picture I took of some pencils and a pen. I layered the organza over a blue checkered fabric for the body and sewed up the doll on the right side. I wanted more color to show than was available in the printed images and cloth. I had to take the purple thread off a bobbin in order to put red thread on so I used the purple thread for hair adding some beads to the mix. Because the thread holding the pencil tassels looked weak, I added some needle weaving and red beads. I added the heart for my love for my parents.

I made some paper beads with the outside layer being some postage stamps I had saved and used them as part of the hanging loop.

I am quite happy with my little doll and she is now hanging from my peg board cupboard above my work desk.

Spirit Doll Update

It's January and it's time to get busy on my projects again.

This is how my doll looks at present. I've beaded the front sides of the wings and now have to do the back sides. Then I can move on to making a fringe at the bottom of the doll and a beaded cord to attach to her head so she can be hung. I think of her as more of a tassle-to-be.

Spirit Doll

Hi everyone! I have been busy with everything but my BJP page.
I am out in California right now visiting with my children and
grandchildren. I went to a memorial service for my brother-in-law and am making this doll for my sister.

I chose some fabric I liked and a pattern from Kivett Studio's site. I liked the idea of a butterfly being the emergence of new life. I painted the face directly on the doll with orange and pearlescent white acrylic craft paints mixed together. I drew the face with a marker pen and dabbed varnish over it to make it
permanent.

Then I started beading. First I went around the face. I used a magenta metallic bead at first but the finish rubbed off right away (disgusting how it did that) so I changed those beads out with a bright pink. Then I went Robin's route and just started adding beads. I sewed on the sequins but later removed them since beading around them didn't work too well and I thought they would look better on top of the beading instead of surrounded by it. I am getting close to being done with the doll and will add a beaded hanging cord of some sort to the head and fringe to the bottom of the doll.


I outlined the wings with a colorful silverlined bright mix of beads. I tend to want to fill in the wings with the mix but everyone who has seen the doll so far says they like it with the edge finished but the fabric showing. Should I go with what I feel or am I adding too much beading? What do other beaders think? Most of the people who have seen it tend to like less beads than more so I am not sure. Any suggestions here are quite welcome.

My cat has enjoyed the process as you can see. She loves sitting in small containers and playing with my beads. She doesn't know a diet of beads isn't good for her!