Art Spirals

It's finally done, and yet it doesn't seem like it took long at all. A wonderful 9 months of work -- how fitting. I'll explain the symbolism of the piece.

Mommy is who I am now (at least partly) to my two girls, ages 5 and 7. So this glove describes memories of being a mom. First, the four silver butterflies on the M are for the four miscarriages we had prior to our first child. Both girls are represented with ever growing butterflies on the first and ring fingers. The white owl under the O of mommy is for Harry Potter -- I've read the first five volumes to them and we've loved them. The blocks are for toys, the silver large hand and four small hands to the left of it are for growing hands and my hand training them. The doll, is obvious. She has a piece of beadweaving half visible under her skirt that reminds me of learning this with my sweet older sister, Marti. The heart and sequins in bright colors above the word Mommy are for living in this colorful border town of El Paso. The triathalon symbols in the yellow area symbolize our girls' love of this sport -- and they're quite good at it too!

Now, on to the fingers. The thumb is for my older daughter who loves lizards and nature...see the lizard charm where the thumbnail would be. The first finger has a paw for our older dog Cody who died last year. The three stars in a row are for Orion's belt. I remember teaching them that constellation when they were still in a double stroller and we had both dogs hooked up to the front, like reindeer, and we were pretending we were Santa in his sleigh.
The third finger has frilly and iridesent and pink stuff, see the little purse?, for the dress up phases they both went through, and the younger one is still in. The ring finger has a silver snowflake embedded in it and cold blue/ice colors for the snow that we have fun playing in in the mts of New Mexico. And the pinky finger has a fish on it, for our two fish in our new pond: Bertrick and Fishy. Also the sign language letters are: TLC and my older daughter loves learning sign language, she did that all through first grade.

I am considering submitting it to our local Arts International show (for artists in TX, NM, and the mexican state of Chihuahua), but it says that all submissions must be for sale. Of course I don't want to sell this, it's too personally meaningful for me. However, now that it's finished, it's the memories and the process of doing it that are more important to me than the finished piece. My girls though, will definitely want to have this when they get older. So I guess I could submit it with an outrageous price tag -- $7000?? -- and I'd think no one would buy it. Hmmm.... The bead competitions that I've found so far, don't seem to mind if it's been displayed on a blog already (there has been some talk involving quilts onthe Quilt Art group) and the piece doesn't have to be for sale on them. So maybe I'll do those too/instead. Any advice for me?

I've had an idea floating in my head for awhile using funky resin beads from a vintage 60s necklace. The beads are in colors I'm not used to using: reds, yellows, oranges, but I'm loving them now. So I was originally going to bead the whole thing, but then thought...make a landscape collage from fabrics and then embellish to the hilt! So for Father's Day, my dh took the kids ice skating -- wonderful thing to do when it's 105 degrees here (yuch) -- and I had some me/art time for the first time in weeks. it felt wonderful. So I auditioned various fabrics using the black and white photo trick to see if the values would work. here's some of my process and the finished result:

The black and white and color versions of the same fabrics. Values are too close together and the sky is too bright.

Covered the sky with a gauze hanky, it muted it, but the flower design of the hanky gets in the way and there isn't a blank gauze area big enough.

So when things started working right, I forgot to take pics along the way. Here's the finished product (at least pre beading), fused down with a lovely piece of handdyed fabric from Anne Marie (Thanks!) as the lake.

I think the values work: dark in front, medium, light and lightest in back near the horizon. and I used white netting over the sky to tone it down.

And now on to the FUN part -- BEADING! and it's a good "carry in the car" project for the next couple of weeks of mini vacations.

Yes, that's the big question. Any day now, children, any day...

Here it is in its latest incarnation:

From The Mommy Glo...

The pinky and index fingers are done...on the index is a pawprint in "Cody Colors" for our dog passed last year; the stars are for Orion's belt and the memory of teaching that constellation to the girls. The sign language is a current study for one daughter and it reads: TLC. And the fish is for our new pond. Follow the album link above for more in progress pictures and closeups.

And this weekend I found a hand statue that will be perfect to display it on:

From Garage Sale F...

For many other cool garage/estate sale finds, click on the album link above.

I've been making progress on my Mommy Glove, quite excited about it actually. I'd really like it to be finished, though, because I have a fabulous idea for another project, and one that is completely outside my normal comfort zone in terms of color and design...one hint...the delicious orangish yellow background of these glove pics is the foundation for my next piece. I feel like it's close to being done, but yet I know that the remaining fingers, edges, and putting it together, making the armature, etc. will take a long time.

Close up. What's new is the whole background for "mommy" -- that writing is intentionally childlike. I added extra light pink to the lines of the M on the left, so that it would show up better. I'm quite in love with bugle beads lately, and I haven't been before. One of my favorite parts is the question mark.

Peyote ruffle, such fun to do, to be the "frilly" finger of the glove. The dress up purse, the pinks, the glitzy iridescent of the vintage button...all represent imaginative dress up time that's still a huge part of our kids' life.

Snowflake and cold finger...the girls LOVE snow since we hardly ever get it here in the desert southwest. See my Beaded Mini post on the joys of snow.

Fringe, etc. around the baby doll. Between the doll and the green fringe, is a sample of beadweaving I did four years ago on a visit from my sister, and I incorporated it here...it's hidden, but I know it's there!

Want to see a slideshow of the Mommy Glove pics?

Look at this wonderful doll, created by Lume di Luna. Isn't she stunning?

and Luna C. Bede's project is stunning: http://lunacblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/wow.html

And don't miss this blog of bead weavers that have Etsy shops. http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/. They run regular competitions and the cutest little pony is the winner in the latest one. Which one is your favorite?

I took off the signlanguage motif and addded a half pekinese border...love this beading stitch.

And here's the triathalon logo that gave me fits while it was in progress. I ripped out the bicycle rider 9 times before I was satisfied. The outline is a filled chain stitch, this is another fun one that I learned from Bead Embroidery (see left border for info), a chain stitch, thread over thread, with an orange bead sewn in the middle of each chain. Without the pale yellow size 15 background, it looked overdone and garish, but I really like it now. Those 15s aren't TOO horrible to use, given the right reading glasses!

I've cut apart the glove, finally. Decided to make beading easier and more fun. I'll then reassemble the piece. So this is the glove thumb, with a lizard for my older daughter entangled in vines. This was such fun to do. The embroidery stitch is "fern stitch".

Looking at it offline, I thought perhaps the sign language charm was too close, and now seeing the photo online (amazing how that works) I realize, of course, move it. So I will!

I ran across these surfing this a.m. and they made me smile. Looks like they'd be fun and easy to do. From Victoria at ArtntheHeart:

http://artntheheart.blogspot.com/2007/12/beady-people.htm...

And while I'm at it, here is another beady projects I think is fabulous from Jann Block:

http://jannblock.blogspot.com/2008/01/february-page.html

Enjoy! Rachel

Well, over the past week or so I've been moving my seed bead collection into the 4mm thick bags recommended (and sold) by Robin Atkins (http://beadlust.blogspot.com/) and I'm really excited about how easy it is to store, sort, really SEE the beads as opposed to dealing with various bags, tubes, etc. etc.

That led to wanting to create a place where I could kind of "catalog" -- well, hey, I AM a librarian you know! -- what beads I had in each color.

And THAT led me to actually DOING some of the stitches in the Embeadery book (by Margaret Ball) that I mention in my books I'm reading now. And it's really wonderful, since I'm getting to PLAY with all my beads in little mini pieces on one piece of fabric.

So here are my browns, kind of boring lines of each bead, until I remembered the book. The line with the line vining around it is the threaded backstitch.



The one I love the best, and without trying it here, I wouldn't have thought to put it into a "real" project, is the one at the top of this picture. it's the half pekinese with size 2 bugle beads in each loop. I love the look. Hope you can see it in this photo. The bottom two are variations of blanket stitch with larger beads put in there. not as pleased with those, but it was improvisational and I have a record of those beads for when I go shop!


Doing this makes me feel I'm really learning the craft and makes me feel a tad virtuous, in a nerdy, beady way!

As I'm working on beading this glove, I intend for the entire top surface to be beaded, I'm realizing two things: I need to make more slits in the sides to be able to manouever better, and the lining paper is getting all twisted and curled and torn, not from beading but from "smushing around" inside there. I'm thinking of cutting the whole thing flat, adding new paper, beading it and then stitching it back up with a picot stitch and beads/fringe. what do you think? I think I can make that part of it fit into the whole thing, so that it won't have a jagged stitched together look. The full view.

Close up of the hands area. It represents the many hands I need, and also the growing hands of the kids and my own hand. The "blocks" are cool vintage beads from an estate sale necklace...not sure what they are made of .. bakelite? they're not plastic.
We had four miscarriages before we had our older daughter, so that's what the four butterflies on the M represent. That's from a vintage piece of jewelry. And of course the flying butterflies growing bigger and bigger are our two young girls.

I just love this heart with the bugle bead brilliant rays around it...it feels mexican to me, for some reason, must be the strong colors, which is appropriate since we live on the border.

isn't this doll baby adorable? estate sale find complete with the crocheted dress. 'course it represents the time they played/play with dolls.