April Page

Every year I come home from ArtFest with all sorts of little treasures - mostly gifts and trades. I usually put them in a box and never give them another thought until I'm doing a major studio clean/renovation and come across the boxes and think "well I can't really throw this wonderful stuff out but. . . ". So I close up the boxes and put them back in the cupboard where they stay until I come across them again. This year I decided to incorporate some of my favorite ArtFest treasures into my April Bead Journal Project page. This entire page is quite a departure from the norm for me. Everything about it is pretty random - the color scheme, the 'theme', and again, as always, I don't know where I'm going with it. The orange button with my name on it was my name tag from the event. I cut the back off of it and did a rather free form peyote stitch around it. The square collage in the center is by Randi Feuerholm-Watts. She didn't come to ArtFest this year but participated in a collaborative project that I was in and sent her pieces along with some one else. The 'theme' of this years' ArtFest was "sea monsters" and I really liked Randi's interpretation of that. The slumped glass is from Nancy Drew (yes, that's her real name) and the little button with the painting of the girl is from Sunny Carvalho who taught one of my classes. The small beaded button is from a woman named Sage and all the little polymer clay women remind me of my friends that I only see once a year at ArtFest. My friend Suz made us all 'sea kelp' fuzzy knit scarves - the ruffle is symbolic of the scarf I chose in pastel colors.

I have a whole bag of treasures I gathered at ArtFest - It will be interesting to see how I incorporate them along the way.