After two days of working, I've finally stitched one blossom. That's it. Just like the Charlie Brown tree in my front yard...
I've noticed that my process has changed fairly significantly since I first started these bead journals. When the month begins, I begin beading in my head. As the days progress in the month, and I still haven't had time to actually sit down and bead, my mind continues to stitch and bead and create. By the time I am finally sitting down to stitch, I have a complete design already beaded in my head; with much of the same emotion as if I were sitting down and stitching improvisationally.
Once the beading begins, I find that I don't necessarily follow ALL the details in my brain, but I improvise as I stitch and bead along. I wonder if anyone else experiences this?
Here's the first blossom on what promises to be a bead-full journal piece. It was important for me to include one silk cherry blossom in the Japanese embroidery "style" in order to pay homage to that part of myself. 
And, as I stitched this blossom, I realized how rusty my Japanese embroidery skills were. I first used flat silk, but ripped that out and ended up with a soft twist. It's not my best work, but it IS representative and that's what I'm going for right now.
Oh, and allow me to introduce Blossom, this beautiful little hand-made, fabric doll that was given to me by a friend in Japan. Blossom had a big job this morning of keeping the wind from blowing away my work during the photo shoot.
I also went researching beaded cherry blossoms to see what I could find. I didn't find too much in any of my books, but I did find something I could modify.
In my search, I came across this beautiful purse, stitched by Masami Sato. This purse, called Cherry Blossom (go figure!), won Best in Show in the Bead Dreams competion in 2006.
And I also found this cute felt brooch by lupin on Etsy.
Well, time to go for a run and then get back to my blooms...
Remember, the point is not the speed at which you bloom, but the fact that you keep on blooming.
It's a famous quote, I'm sure of it...
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
One Blossom
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12 comments:
Hi Susan, It's finally turning to spring here, and the sun is OUT! So, we should be seeing some flowers here very soon. Your cherry blossom is lovely....great bird also. It reminds me of our stellar jays. They kind of look like blue jays on steroids, only with no white at all. They're almost blue black, especially on their heads. Have a happy, blooming day!
Love the Blossom figurine. LindaSonia
I love to play with needles too! So far most of it is in my head. I want to try embroidery but I just cannot seem to actually get down and do it. I love your beautiful blog. Count me in as a fan.
In my blog, you'll often see me say "and I'm going to do x,y and z" with this motif - and then the next entry I'll say "I ended up doing a, x and z" because of this reason.....planning then changing as I go.
So I do it too!
Hmmm...I churn about an upcoming project but don't try to finish it in my head first. More like I am just preparing the soil with lots of thought...and the actual stitching is the sprouting and blooming.
Neat to hear how it happens in YOU!
And I truly lust after that beaded cherry blossom bag. Wow, thanks for finding it for us.
I've started to work like this on my own JE designs. All gets planned in my head and then changed as I go along. Sometimes it works better than others, but I guess it'll improve as I go along.
I like your quote, if it's not famous I think we should make it famous.
You won't believe this. Actually it sounds pretty stupid. Somehow I just envisioned you sitting down with needle and beads and creating your wonderful works of art. It never ocurred to me that you would plot your course and actually draw your page before beading. I'm pretty much a fly by the seat of my pants person. Think I'll try drawing my next page before a lay a needle on it.
that little Japanese doll is a sweetie - just like her owner! This is a fab piece and I just love that quote.
Your silk cherry blossom is so beautiful! And Blossom is such a sweet helper!
So interesting to read about your "process" in creating these pieces. I find I don't do a lot of planning anymore, but rather tend to sit and let things flow as they will. Sometimes it works... sometimes it doesn't... I should probably put a little more effort at planning!
Love the inspirational beauties you found as well! The beaded purse is amazing! But it's the sweet little felt brooch that I love!
Some lovely things there, looking forward to seeing that piece progress. What's the fabric? Is it printed, or did you colour it?
I do a lot of mental planning and then the frustration sets in when I try to make the piece look like the image in my head. To save my creative energy, I have been trying to plan less and stitch more spontaneously but it is a hard way to work sometimes.
wow. isn't that beaded bag something? I have done a little beading and, I have to admit, it isn't my thing. But I sure appreciate the beauty of it! And your cherry blossom looks so pretty!!
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