August: Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu. "May All Beings Be Happy and Free"

Somewhere on this computer sits a couple of pics showing the progression of my August piece. I do have one progression post of this piece it's here

No matter, you can see the whole piece. It's titled: Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu. "May All Beings Be Happy and Free" I practice meditation and yoga and this chant is one of my favorites for the sound and it's message. Click each pic to see giant detail.



The lotus is pretty stylized, 3 white petals, 3 lavender petals. Mostly this was done because of the size of the center bead (a yellow jade) and the number of beads around it being divisible by 3. I would have liked to have more petals but it would not have worked out in terms of total size. The triad also represents Mind, Body and Soul or Father, Son, Holy Ghost: whatever spiritual triad one can assign to 3's. I used brick stitch to craft the flower, I wanted it to be smooth over textured.

I added a teeny Swarv crystal butterfly, it's light green, faceted and very hard to see in the pic but it's there. It symbolizes flights of fancy, fleeting beauty that comes into our lives.

I wanted to represent the lotus in water, as water is the symbol for life. In dream analysis, spiritual growth, actual life: we must have water to survive. The bead embroidery sewn in circular spirals represent the eddies of life, Each of the colors indicate life is some times clear, sometimes muddied, some times sparkling. Each spiral begins with a sequin, reflecting back that which you look for.

I can't seem to stop crowding my embroidery stitches, I'd love for them to lay down perfectly...like some of the other beaders work I've seen (wowie!). As I finished the first couple I realized that life isn't smooth, the mounded spirals feel like drops of rain? plopping into the water of life, giving rise to important moments in our lives.

The brown ultrasuede is the mud from which we spring. Growing upward from the muck.



This photos shows (somewhat badly) the ability of the flower to curl it's petals upwards if I choose.

I finished my August piece about the second week in Aug (yes, I beaded like a madwoman). And then I found myself with nothing to bead. Sooo, I began thinking about a cover for my journal. I decided that I'd work on a front and back cover in between monthly work. I had an idea for the cover and began working on it. As of today I am almost done with the center section which is 3 12 inches in diameter. So much for taking all year to incredmentally doing it.

Here is a teaser.



I probably won't show the whole pic of it until next year...and maybe by then the cover will be something different. Who knows?

Random beady thoughts

Tomorrow I WILL post pics of my Aug piece. For crying out loud I've been done for weeks. I'm so done I've begun working on a cover piece.

It's been so hot here that on the weekends I'm staying inside and not even venturing outside until evening. Then there is no light to light a piece and the flash is horribly hot so everything washes out.

Saturdays are basically my beading day. I spend a lot of time beading and not doing much else, maybe reading when I need a break and for sure a nap. Usually my 18 yr od and my 15.5 year old are out and about or they're entertaining themselves so they don't need much of my attention. The DH lets me bead unmolested so I'm pretty lucky. Sunday is the day that I realize I have no more time to laze around and I do errands or maybe if I'm really motivated I'll clean something.

Speaking of that cover piece (I guess I'm skipping around here quite a bit eh?) I had to go to the LBS today. I walked in the worker there called out my name with a hearty hello. Made me feel guilty because I don't go in there very much. Mostly it's because they don't carry any seed beads to speak of. They do have some opaque indian seed beads but the quality is so bad there is no way I want to use them. Besides the Michaels has Toho's now so I don't even look at the seed beads at the LBS. But today I needed some orange beads for that cover piece & they are much closer than Michaels.

I rarely use orange. It's just not one of my colors. I bought some 3 mm glass beads, there is about 50 or so beads on the circle of thread and it cost me 4.99! And they aren't crystal.

Which leads me to internet shopping. I prefer to buy transparent and silver-lined beads. Mostly I do not buy Delica's - way too expensive since I don't sell my work. And I like the slighly larger size of Mastumo 11's. But because they are not totally uniform I end up doing brick stitch because it looks more uniform all laid out. Not to mention having only 5 grams to work with vs 30 grams for less money.

Because I'm on a budget I'd rather have the variety of color than going for fewer, more expensive beads. I long for the day when I can do a whole piece with just delica's and hang the price. And I'd better lay out more time since Delica's are smaller.

LOL, this post is so boring I'm about to fall asleep. So good night!

August beginnings

I find myself with an idea and as I play with it I begin to go with a totally different idea. When you look at these 2 pics you'll see glue spots and an inked ring. (Don't worry, the ink & glue is water soluable). My idea was to use 4 face cabs representing each of the 4 directions with a lotus in the middle.

I never even got the beads on it. I used the inked ring to help with placement and then set the faces on the material. No matter how I looked at it, it wasn't hitting me in the gut as right, it was all resistance to it.

I removed the cabs, and began beading the lotus in the middle. These 2 photos are where I was on the 25th of July.






The lotus signifies for me the blooming of life out of the muck (which is nicely represented by the fabric). I've been a yoga teacher and my path to yoga asana and mediation continues to blossom, although often in turbulent waters. That at least is the bare bones of my Aug page.

Now, I have added swirls and currents so I owe some photos for more progress. Hopefully Sat.

Duh, which blog am I posting to?

LOL, what a dork I am. Last night I posted to this blog (I thought) a short progress post. But what I really did was post to the main BJP blog.

Maybe it was the giant headache yesterday that rattled my gray matter so I didn't notice I was posting to the wrong blog. I posted a post to my main blog this morning and after 30 mins realized it was in the wrong blog (still thinking I posted to my main blog and was horrified to realize I'd posted it to the main BJP. I deleted it and posted it to my main blog.

So Aug starts with me not paying attention so it doesn't surprise me that my lotus flower journal page has turbulent waters.

I worked on it last night for about 30 mins but couldn't keep myh attention on it. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to sit down and bead, bead, bead and post pics.