Bead Embroidery – Subject of Jan. BJP Revealed!

Thanks to everyone who gave comments about my January BJP, an abstract portrait of a person. Many of you were right on target with your impressions! I feel good about my work, because it seems I was able to communicate fairly well about the characteristics and personality of this person.

For this piece, I chose four different batik fabrics, each to represent a specific aspect of this person’s character.


The pale pink represents her soft side. Most of the time she is a gentle, loving person… not exactly sweet, but kindly and generous with her time, knowledge and affections.

The flowered pink/red represents her playful, almost childlike, nature. She’s eager to discover, to learn, to have adventures and to be surprised. She also loves flowers, especially wildflowers… not to grow them so much, but to pick them and have them around her.

She’s also pretty grounded, especially in her mature years. She has an inner calm and sense of security. She also has faith in the fundamental good of the universe, herself and her husband, her family and her friends. Her creative and artistic expression derive from this source. The red/brown fabric on the right seems to convey these aspects of her personality.

She can be a bit prickly at times and sometimes given to bursts of temper (which generally subside quickly). During the winter months, she gets grumpy when dark days seem never to end. Perhaps she is afraid the sunshine will never return. Under her display of anger, there is always fear. I think the third fabric from the left has that feel to it. (Although you can’t see it, I used it for the pointed thorns at the top of the piece.)


The birds (two of them) have two meanings. On an everyday level, she is enchanted by all birds, loves to watch and hear them. On a spiritual level, birds represent freedom and innocence, also strength and resilience beneath apparent fragility. Both birds look inward on this piece because they are singing their song of love and acceptance to her.

The ruffles are the loving and accepting energy that flows from and within her big heart. Yellow bubbles (sequins) are laughter and fun, again offered from her heart to the world around her.

The blue spirals are the source of creativity and the branch fringes represent roots. She is framed in blue, which represents sky, calm and spirituality.


Who is she? This is a self-portrait. During January of 2008, this is how I saw myself.

What an interesting challenge it was to do this piece. I had to remove my intellect, lock out my thinking (and critical) mind, which wasn't easy. Yet it was really fun to work on it! I'm wondering if any of you are curious to try it?

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HELP!!! I need a good wholesale source for a bulk order of gold-color and silver-color stick pins (hat pins) and clutches. I've been searching online for an hour and can't find anything at all.