Bad Blogger

I've been a very bad blogger but I haven't been slacking off - just busy busy busy with fabric and beads. I've made a bunch of beaded dolls that will be listed on etsy just as soon as I can figure out how to make my photos look decent on that site - here's just a sampling of them -

I've also been working on the two classes that I'm taking a joggles.com. It is really a fun process for me because I can work according to my own schedule, though it does take a bit of self-discipline to do the lessons. I'm taking the Encrusted Crazy Quilt class from Sharon Boggon who is incredible even though you can't really tell from my feeble attempts. I am learning far more I think than I would have at a regular 6 hour class. Sharon really gives us a lot of information and it is great to have something to refer back to. I'm printing out the classes as they are posted and keeping them in a notebook. So far there are over 100 pages! That's how in depth she is at teaching the process of crazy quilting.

These two blocks are after lesson two - Because of the Thanksgiving holiday I haven't gotten to lesson 3 yet which is block embellishment. I am really looking forward to trying my hand at ribbon embroidery.

The other class I'm taking is Alma Stoller's Art Fabric Picture Frame class. This class is lots of fun as well though much freer than the crazy quilt class. Our first assignment was to 'make' some fabric - using either muslin we had altered ourselves or commercial fabric we were to cut it up and sew it back into a flat sheet that we'll use to make our frame. Being an over achiever, I had to do it both ways.

I'm behing in this class too and need to do surface embellishment with free motion embroidery which should be a lot of fun.

It's almost time to work on my December Bead Journal Project page. I have so many ideas spinning in my head for a December page - perhaps I'll do a page showing how fractured my mind seems to be in December.

If you want to see more of the beaded dolls, you can always check my flickr page to see what I'm up to. Thanks for visiting. It always makes me smile to check my site meter and see that people from all over the world have visited.

November Page

I completed my November Bead Journal Page in 2 sittings so there aren't progress photos of this one. I started Thursday after work and finished it at 2 this morning. The past few weeks have had challenges and one of my not so great characteristics is that during times of challege, I tend to get rather stubborn (to put it mildly). And so the November page is titled "not everything is black and white" (or don't be a pighead). It didn't change my perspective on the world much but it did make a me laugh a lot and that in itself is a very good thing.

The altered shoe

is done - I've looked at it for too long and am not sure that I even like it anymore. I guess it's like cooking Thanksgiving dinner and then not being hungry. But the deadline fast approaches, so off in the mail it goes tomorrow.
Lots more photos here

"Come to the edge, he said.
They said, we are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They said, we are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came.
He pushed them.
And they flew."
- Guillaume Apollinaire

The Beaded Shoe

Before I start my November BJP page, I wanted to finish this beaded shoe. I studied dance for many years as a young girl, but unfortunately due to orthopaedic problems I was not able to continue. A shattered right metatarsal requiring surgery was the first of a long string of orthopaedic procedures that has left me with feet that look quite a bit like those of mummies dug up in ancient Egypt. When I learned of an art call for an altered shoe, a little light went off in my head about the beauty and pain of ballet and I began work on this shoe. Well, first I had to find a shoe. Pointe shoes are not inexpensive but I found a source for used ones (for decorative purposes) on eBay. The shoes I am using were practice shoes from a ballerina in the Phoenix ballet. It amazed me how different shoes are now. When I was dancing, the toe box was a chunk of wood - we danced with our toes directly onto the chunk of wood - with a bit of lambs wool for cushion - the new shoes seem not so torturous, though the shoe was still a trick to bead with its' leather supports and solid wood (?) toebox. I broke many a needle pushing and pulling it through the leather with pliers - not quite the image one thinks of when imagining someone sitting and beading a lovely satin slipper and my fingertips are like pin cushions as I have yet, after 53 years on this round earth, learned how to use a thimble. The shoes are almost done. I have to let them sit on the work table for a bit before I'm ready to finish them - but since the deadline for submission is looming, I can't let them sit too long.

But here is the almost finished shoe - I tried to portray the rigidity and formality of ballet juxtaposed with the randomness of injury - I don't know if I 'got it', but I certainly enjoyed trying. The completed shoe will be up in a day or so but for now here is the work in progress.