I love, you love Valentine

First off, I want you to be proud of me: I did NOT spend acres of money at the bead shop this week, but called them and had them send me just the two vials of beads that I needed. I spent $4 on shipping which was less than I would have spent on the gas to get there. Yay me.

So I have been sewing away on my latest project: I love, you love Valentine. It gets its name from the drawing on the cloth that I did where I made a border out of the declension of the verb "to love". (I love, you love, she loves, they love ...) I have a couple of ideas about including some "reconfigured trash", but for now I am still in the beading stage. Here is a view of one of the corners: (those center, dark, sort-of maroon/fuchsia beads are the ones that came in the mail this week!)

Now this is what I keep calling 'line beading' in my mind: one stitch, one bead, all in a line. It is very mediitative and I love it. Onward! I'm off to bead. Remember Martin Luther King. Here's an idea: What would you say to him if you could sit and talk to him for a bit? I think that I would thank him for his dream and for being willing to go public with it. I would tell him about my dream. And I would also ask him about his history with infidelity and all. Why do we work like that?: all full of good ideas in one part of our lives and all, well, without faith in other parts of our lives. It is something that I think about. As I bead and all. Have a good Monday.

October Bird detail pics

So, I was looking over October Bird and I realized that I didn't give you any detail pictures of some of the trash embellishment - to say nothing of the beading. So here you are:

Slanting from the upper middle across that right hand corner there are stack of seed beads, (see tutorial below, back in November, I think), surrounding chips cut from those fake credit cards that the banks send you hoping that you will go in debt to them soon. Because there is so much silver and blue here in the sky, I cut the silver printed fake numbers from blue background cards and GLUED them down with a bit of dimensional paint, (don't be shocked that I didn't sew them - I didn't want bead or thread to distract from the shine and detail of the numbers). (Hmmm, do I have some agenda, even elitist agenda about stitching down everything?? I'll ponder that.) (Google "slow art". Lots of talk about that recently.)

Just below that section, and again in the photo below, you'll see these great clear plastic/wire spirals. These are made from the wire with which some toys are affixed to their packaging. Also in these pictures you can see that silver swirl which is silver, (candy wrapper), paper cut to size and also glued down.

Credit card parts, packaging wires and candy wrappers are the "trash" embellishments on October Bird. I am going to enter Ms. Bird in a nature/art show at Waterfall Arts in Belfast Maine. Try www.waterfallarts.org/ February or March I think. Meredith said that they are thinking that they might have hundreds - 1500!! - of entries, all less than 12" x 12". It will be art about our human footprint on Earth. By putting throw-a-way trash into my pieces I hope to keep how much we toss - that is NOT bio-degradeable - into my/our minds. We have choices.

Paul McGurren is writing a dismal/brilliant series of articles about what we put into our landfills, and how it all gets processed. Try http://freepressonline.com/ Yuk!, but fascinating and abominable and gross and very brave of Paul. If we don't talk about it we won't have access to our healing imaginations. There must be a better way. I am not sure that we can make art of it all - though I do my best.Well, I am off to work on Valentines. I will show you how I am doing the next time that I write. I ran out of one of my bead colors and will have to see if I can get more next week. I hate that: I go to buy a $4 tube of beads and see about 1000 other beads, and their sisters that would work well too.....$$!! But I'm going to be a good girl this week. At the bead store.

New projects - Valentines

-yawn-

Well good morning!

That was quite a long winter's nap! Lots of Christmas projects in that last month or so, and naturally I cannot go showing peoples' presents on an internet blog!

On to new stuff after I brag and show you the completed October Bird:

Cool, eh?

I had so much fun doing her.

Next are Valentine's done in the same way: draw on fabric with permanent markers and then bead to my heart's content. Here's a start on Valentine One:

That is the center heart, and below is a bit of the border.Gotta go. See you soon.