Jason's Progress...

Jason is almost finished with this. It's the first of 5 projects he is doing for the final exam in his art class.

Progressions

Latest project updates for me and Jason:

Happy Thanksgiving!

I worked on "Fire" quite a bit today. As you can see, I'm not using as many of the flames as I originally planned - I like it better this way.

First "Fire" Progress Update - 2nd Quarter BJP

I started beading my second quarter Bead Journal Project pages. I changed my mind about using all of the flames after I drew them on the interfacing, so only about half or fewer of them will be beaded in red. The rest of the background will be yellow and orange. So far, things seem to be moving fairly quickly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jason's Art Project

Jason took some great pictures the other day at the park. Here's one of the original color photos:
These were converted to black and white:


Here's what he's doing with the first one. He enlarged it to an 18"x42". It's for his art class final exam.

A glimpse into the creation of a project...

Somebody on a beading forum asked me how I planned my BJP. It's funny how this evolved. I started out knowing I wanted to participate in the Bead Journal Project. I had been drooling over bead embroidery for a while and made my moon embroidered bracelet. The only rules of the project are that the 12 pages for the year be the same size and that they be beaded in some way.

I initially decided that I would do 4x4 squares and then mount them together somehow for display. I didn't know how to do a "book" like some other journalers are doing (check out the BJP blog and then the BJP Flickr pages for more drooling).

Once I bought my interfacing and started thinking about it, I decided that I would just keep my "pages" together and hang them that way. I thought of lots of things I could do - different colors for each square, scenes from my recent trip to France...then I saw a bead quilt that had squares beaded in different colors but with outlines that when they were all put together, made a picture. I liked that idea, but didn't want to copy. I am not sure where the leaf idea came from, but I decided that I would do four of them in quarters on the whole 16x16 grid.

Once I had my leaf and the size of each quarter, I started doodling. Somehow, I ended up with something that reminded me of wind, and voila! the theme had been born! I think just as hard as coming up with the theme has been choosing what color schemes to use. If I hadn't already drawn the leaves on the interfacing, I might not have even included them, just going with the elements. After finishing the first one, though, I am very glad I decided to just go with what my original idea was.

After the entire project is done, my ultimate goal is to mount it under the glass top of a handmade mahogany coffee table. Not sure if that will ever actually happen, but it sure would be gorgeous!

Kassie

BJP - 2nd Quarter Teaser

This one's called "Fire" so I pulled out all of my red and orange seed beads and some accent beads. The fun part will be choosing which ones get to be used. :)

I drew out my pattern on paper and then transferred it to the interfacing with carbon paper. Then I went over that with colored pencil. Here's a picture of one of the 4 squares that will make up the quarter:

New Car!

We just got this 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid in Opal Silver Blue Metallic. It's a beautiful little car! It looks silver sometimes and blue sometimes, depending on the sun, which is pretty cool. My 1998 Mazda MX-6 (which I love) has a bad transmission, so we had to replace it. This one is averaging around 40mpg, so between the gas savings and the repair savings, it's not costing us too much.

BJP Quarter 1 Finished!!!

Here are my June, July, and August Bead Journal squares, entitled "Air":

Because my entire project has 16 squares instead of 12, each quarter will have four 4"x4" squares, each making up an 8"x8" square like this one. I am so glad to have this one done and am very excited to start on my next quarter, which is entitled "Fire".

Last night's work (BJP June-Aug)

I had a few hours to work on this last night while I watched CSI and ER. Tonight's "Family Night" at our place, so I'll be able to do a little more, I hope.

My mother-in-law liked her necklace. I gave the trellis bracelet to my buyer's husband, but I haven't heard from her yet. I think it turned out the best of all of those bracelets I've made.

BJP Update & New Work

This is what my BJP quarter looks like now. Not much progress since I posted last, but it's been busy around here (my standard excuse). :)

I finally finished this special order a couple of days ago:

Finally, my mother-in-law's birthday is today. She gave me this cloisonne pendant a while back and wanted me to put it on a chain or simple string of beads. I made this necklace for her last night:

Nothing fancy, but it suits her, I think. My crimping technique needs work. I hope she'll like it, though.

Almost Done! BJP 1st Quarter

Not much longer now, I think! I'm getting excited to be done with this quarter and get started on the next one. So far, beading the inside of the leaf seems to be going faster than beading the outer sections.

BJP Progress - more color!

I finally finished the outside and started on the inside of this quarter's pages. I was getting tired of blue and white! :)

Robin asked, and I realized that it's been a while since I mentioned it, so here it is:

This quarter measures 8"x8" and the entire project will be 16"x16". My ultimate goal with it is to make it the top of a mahogany coffee table with a glass overlay.