My Studio Wall

We've been doing lots of renovating/redecorating at home lately. Charles has been out of work and between looking for a new job and practicing his guitar, he's been tackling chores around the house - boring things like re-caulking the bathroom and the windows and fun things (well fun for me) like texturing and painting walls. He even rebuilt my range and painted it black. His industriousness rubbed off on me and I've been doing a ruthless purge and organizing of the studio. While most of the projects aren't ready for viewing quite yet - one wall of the studio is ready and I'm so pleased with it. It features art from some of my friends and some of my own as well. It makes it a pleasure to step into the studio, even when I don't think I have the energy or enthusiasm to work. The wall makes me all warm and tingly - reminding of good times with friends and sipping on a cup of coffee and looking at the wall for a few minutes usually gets my muse fired up to get out the supplies and work - even if I only have a short time available. Like Martha would say 'it's a good thing'.

Slow but steady

I've had a summer cold - or allergies - or something that has made it difficult to sit and bead - having my head bent down at 'beading angle' causes incredible sinus pain so I can only work for short periods of time. I've been working on the May Bead Journal Project page a little bit every day for the past couple of weeks and am finally nearing completion which is a good thing because I already have a plan for the June page.

And on to May

I was stumped for the May Bead Journal Project page. Sometimes the most difficult thing is just beginning. I fondled many beads many times looking for inspiration, remembering what Robin Atkins writes in one of her books about just picking some fabric, picking a bead that speaks to you and sewing it on. But it just wasn't happening. Due to many forces the beads weren't singing to me - the only ones I gravitated to were dull, gray, sad little beads because my world seemed pretty gray and dull. And so, I brought out a little pile of sad gray beads and found the little slab of cut stone with some gray in it. Then I of course needed fabric and as I went through my stash I realized that I don't really have any dull, gray, sad fabric but I did find a fat quarter of some dull lavender and grabbed that. I set about to prepare my surface, pre-washing and ironing and tacking on the wool felt backing and began to sew the focal bead when I read the words printed on the fabric "Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid". I hadn't really even noticed the print on the fabric before I sat down to work with it. But the words 'be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid' began to make perfect sense for this piece. I started with the knotted up, enclosed focal bead and then started to 'be bold'. It will be interesting to see where this goes.