I've got a Handle on It!

Well, as of today, one of my secrets surrounding the next BJP is out of the closet since I don't think you'll have any trouble deciphering what that orange blob has become...


I like this color scheme so much better...switching out the hot oranges and pinks for this ivory and pale pink combination... I also had my stitching friends over on Saturday and they were a ton of help. Just talking through the challenges and the meaning of this piece to me led to lots of breakthroughs -- you know who you all are and I am very grateful to you...

I've been wanting to try out the beaded coils technique from Nancy Eha's Bead Creative Art Quilts book and, it turns out, that the handle of my cup was a perfect application for this method.

I started out using a piece of raw cording and basted it into place --


I then couched it all around with a silk thread before I started beading. This made sure I had a uniform size all the way around and any areas that had fattened out, were fluffed back up again.


I then began beading all around, using Nancy's technique for compensating around the curves and Voila!


A handle for my cup. This technique was really very easy and very fun! Though I wanted my handle to be ivory, the rainbow colored coils in Nancy's book are really fun and exciting.

There are a number of other techniques in this book that I hope to try out on future pieces. Nancy also publishes a FREE beading e-newsletter and just published a new book titled Bead Creative Like Crazy, which I have not looked at yet...sorry.

But, Nancy is having an Embellished Tiara challenge which I have decided to enter; photo deadline is September 30, 2009. Maybe you'll join me??

Though I did manage to get a handle on my cup, I have not managed to get a handle on photographing this piece! The light cup on top of the dark background is presenting its challenges...I had a heck of a time just with today's pics...every time I get the lighting right for the background; the handle is overexposed...aaggh!

If you have any tips for photographing in this situation, I'd love to hear from you...My next idea is to make sure it's a really cloudy day???

Changing Course Mid-stream

I've been busily beading away on my April bead journal piece...


And I feel pretty good about my accomplishment but I'm beginning to sense that something is wrong...


Like fingernails-on-a-chalkboard-wrong...

Sometimes your go-to palette, those colors that attract you over and over again...

just don't work...


It's sad, but true. I'm off to re-think this piece a bit.

But don't miss this post by Dancing on Temple Tops called A Mother's Touch -- about an exhibit she saw that focused on the interaction of sewing and mothering in China, Korea and Japan. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did...