Art Spirals - beading

Beads assembled

noreply@blogspirit.com (Rachel Murphree) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:02:05 -0700

They're all assembled now. Culled from lots of other beads in bags, sorted by color, a nice pinch of each into one bottle per palette color, I can see I'm low on purple, which is VERY hard to believe! Hmmm...a shopping trip, again, is in order??

From Palette

Bead paint anyone?

noreply@blogspirit.com (Rachel Murphree) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:29:00 -0700

Isn't the start of a new project invigorating? I just LOVE it...so much so that I often don't finish a project just to hook into the excitement of a new one.

I had this heavy foamcore/cardboard shape from a collection of bath gels, dyed cotton batting and had fun with my embellisher.

And here's the first "paint" and the sideview. Click on the photos for a more detailed view.

The Mommy Glove wins!

noreply@blogspirit.com (Rachel Murphree) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:56:00 -0600

From The Mommy Glove-- Finished June 2008 -- prize winner October 2009!!

The Mommy Glove won the Lelaroy Williams prize in the Arts International show, sponsored by the El Paso Art Association, in October 2009. And it came with real money! Imagine! Yes, that's me with an artistically draped double splint covering my broken wrist.

Here's a closeup of the case with the mirror back.

I've blogged about this before. Items had to be for sale to be included in the show, so I decided to put a price of $16000 on the glove, so that it wouldn't sell. I definitely want to keep it! Click on the picasa album address to see pics of the glove in progress.

Background ready and a quandry

noreply@blogspirit.com (Rachel Murphree) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:59:46 -0600

From Felted peaches

I strip pieced a background from a recycled silk skirt and cotton fabric. I meant to have the lines be more random but they ended up looking uniform, kind of. Now I'm working on samples to figure out how to attach them with thread painting to the background.

And now for the quandry. Here's my yoga tree.

From YogaTree

It started out as a Bead Journal Project 2" square concerning yoga. You can see the square in the middle. I decided to put it on this beautiful piece of hand dyed fabric from Anne Marie and stitched my heart out on the tree and embroidered the trunk. Then I thought I would like to make it as though you are looking through an arch and seeing it. So I added more fabric to it, don't like the seams, but that's what happens sometime, my project gets bigger than I expected. anyway... so then I've sewn on this beautiful vintage trim (from a vendor at IQF) and I've stitched it on several different ways and I'm not happy with any of them.

So I've decided to lay it out and try two ways and see what you think. What do you like, or how should I handle it? I don't want to cut it before I know I'll like it, so that's why I'm trying the trim, but I think seeing the rest of it outside the arch makes it hard to visualize. Hmmm...maybe I could stitch a stucco feeling/looking background and put it on top of it, creating an arch opening in the stucco top piece. hmmm..

anyway, here are some ideas.

From YogaTree

Here's another of the squares done for this project, this one celebrating a winter play day. Shh, don't tell anyone, but this is as far as I got on the BJP project....

From A Year in Beads

Baby Shoe beading

noreply@blogspirit.com (Rachel Murphree) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:33:33 -0600

One side benefit of reorganizing -- and this is a HUGE side benefit, is that I found my beaded baby shoe start. I beaded this five years ago, intending to bead a baby shoe of one of my daughters, and it's been lost for almost all that time. Not for lack of hunting, I assure you! anyway, here 'tis, and I'm so happy to see it again!

From BabyShoe

and the shoe for which it was made (as the vertical top piece)

From BabyShoe

Tried but didn't make it...

noreply@blogspirit.com (Rachel Murphree) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:33:00 -0600

From Mommy Glove Pics for submission

So what do they say? Collect your rejection slips because they make you stronger? Well, that's what I'm starting to do!

I submitted the Mommy Glove to Interweave's Beadwork VI: The Beaded Book and I was asked to send it in, but it didn't make the final cut. I blogged about it earlier last year. I'm thinking that it didn't meet the "show your love for books" theme they were wanting. In reality, it shows my love for my kids -- insert big grin. I see that now. Ah, hindsight! don't you love it? I'm hoping it arrives home soon, safe and sound.

And, if I can figure out a way to display it attached to something heavy and bulky, I may just submit it to our International Arts show in town, and put a hefty price tag on it (since pieces entered have to be for sale). Pieces aren't guaranteed to be secure, and I don't want somebody to stick it in their pocket and wander off with it. Any suggestions??

Belle Butterfly

noreply@blogspirit.com (Rachel Murphree) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:15:00 -0600

From Fiber Art

Here's my entry for the Clothpaperstudio Wild Woman pin swap, hosted by Wendy. I am so spoiled, I know, but I bought a Huskystar embellisher machine last weekend, and had such fun creating the fabric of the wings of this butterfly. Then with the addition of a trim given to me by a friend, from the textured collar and trim of her old coat, to make the body of the butterfly, and then beading for Belle's body and hair. Fun, fun!

I think I'll be moving on to a series of Barrel cactus women. I see one on my way down to the kids' school, and it spots make it look like a face...and of course the spikes and flowers are just RIPE for bead embellishment. so that's my next thought....

Finit! The Mommy Glove finished

noreply@blogspirit.com (Rachel Murphree) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:00:00 -0600

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?

Step by step -- Beaded landscape

noreply@blogspirit.com (Rachel Murphree) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:55:00 -0600

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.

When Will Mommy be done?

noreply@blogspirit.com (Rachel Murphree) — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:16:41 -0600

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.