Friday, November 21, 2008

Bead Journal Project ~ Christy, Donna & Lunnette!

Only about half of the 260 participating members of the 08-09 Bead Journal Project are active on the Internet. I'd like to introduce and show beading by three who are not... three who do fabulous work but do not have a web presence!

Christy H, Bead Journal Project participant 07-09
This is Christy H! She works full time, lives here on San Juan Island, is a mother and grandmother. We met through our husbands (both then were fire fighters) but quickly found that we had stitching interests in common. She encouraged me to come to the Quilting Retreat on Orcas Island three years ago, which began a bond that has grown, flourished and wandered into mutual beadlust!

You can see some of Christy's BJP pieces from last year on her BJP member page, here. She's still working on finishing, with the final piece underway now. Below are her recently completed pages for February through April. They are 3 inches square and solidly beaded.

Bead Journal Project, Memories & Dreams by Christy H
February ~ Memories & Dreams ~ features a heart-shaped piece of fossil ivory, a gift from her Aunt... old and new ~ it's all about relationships that claimed her heart in the past and her heart dreams for the future.

Bead Journal Project, Little Christy by Christy H
March ~ Little Christy ~ features a sea turtle for her love of the sea and yellow/orange colors for the exuberance and joy of her childhood.

Bead Journal Project, Moon & Sea Spiral by Christy H
April ~ Moon & Sea Spiral ~ this one is all about seeking peace and calm, also about the sea, sea shells, peacefulness.

Christy is now working on May, the final piece for last year's BJP! She has many ideas for the current BJP and plans to get caught up soon.

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Donna H is Christy's Mom. Gradually, we got both Donna and Christy's sister, Kathy, hooked on beading too. (I'll introduce Kathy and her work in a later post.) Donna, a very young, energetic great grandmother, lives in Cabo San Lucas (Mexico) during the winter and Homer, Alaska during the summer. She and her DH, Ken, drive back and forth twice each year, with side-trips to San Juan Island on the way. She quilts, sews and beads!

Bead Journal Project participant, Donna H, 08-09
Donna joined the BJP for the first time this year. Her idea for the year is very intriguing to me! She's making a color wheel! It won't be a totally ordinary color wheel. She intends to stitch the sections together and then bead across the seams, blending the adjacent colors to achieve an almost seamless wheel of color rather than the traditional color block wheel! Below you can see what she has done so far... September through Dec. The pieces are about 3 square inches each and placed next to each other for the photo but not yet sewn together. (Be sure to click this one!)

Bead Journal Project, color wheel in progress by Donna H
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Here is Lunnette HH! She, Christy and I get together nearly every Tuesday afternoon to stitch and bead. We have the most wonderful, comfortable, quiet, appreciative and non-competitive relationship. I cherish our time together more than I can say!

Bead Journal Project participant, Lunnette HH
Lunnette is mother to two grown boys, a volunteer firefighter (for nearly 20 years!), part-time clerk at our drugstore and an avid quilter. For last year's BJP, Lunnette went small because she didn't want beading time to interfere with her quilting time. You may remember her buttons (here and shown below)!

Bead Journal Project, buttons by Lunnette HH
Having enjoyed the journaling aspects of the BJP last year, she decided to go bigger and combine her beading with quilting, photo transfers and surface embellishment this year. She's making hexagonal pieces, each of which showcases something about her life, her passions and/or her joys. They are about 6" across and she will make them into a quilt at the end of the year. She's right on target so far, with three completed.

September ~ features her extended family with lots of subtle meanings to the way she's embellished the photos and her fabric selections.

Bead Journal Project, Family by Lunnette HH
October ~ honors her career as a volunteer firefighter on San Juan Island. As you can see, the "doors" open to reveal more of the story. The County's volunteer fire department recently celebrated its 50th year and Lunnette celebrated her 19th year of service! This is the piece that gave me the idea to make a "book" on the surface of my Nov. piece (butterfly, see in progress here).

Bead Journal Project, Firefighting by Lunnette HH
Bead Journal Project, Firfighting (detail) by Lunnette HH
November ~ the month of our annual quilt retreat, this piece showcases Lunnette's long-standing love for quilting and two of her quilting buddies (Christy H and Krispi S, both of whom are active BJPers this year and last year).

Bead Journal Project, Quilting by Lunnette HH
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I feel honored to bead with Christy, Lunnette and (when possible) Donna... to know them, to share a passion for beading and to introduce them to you! I will twist their arms a bit to get them on some one's computer, somewhere, to read comments you make about their work!

16 comments:

  1. Oh, I'm GLAD you shared. I don't mean to *shout* , but I hit the Caps Lock button by mistake and didn't see it until later, so I thought it worked that way too to add empathises! My spelling was never that good either, and I just don't care.

    It is fun to see the differences each woman has brought.

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  2. What a delight to "meet" Christy, Donna and Lunnette. Thanks so much for bringing them on to the WWW. It was so delightful to see the wonderful BJP pieces -- they are fantastic.

    Jackie

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  3. How nice to put faces with the beautiful beadwork I have been admiring. I truly covet those beaded buttons. LOL.

    Robin, you are a peach to make sure their work gets seen.

    Arline

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  4. I love the individuality of each artists journal choices, not just the individual colors and unique shapes, but the different aims of each one....I hope these gals can eventually get online so they can join our lovely cyber-community!
    and thanks for showing their work, robin...you are such a sweetheart!

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  5. Thanks for introducing me to more amazing artists. The multimedia bead work shared here is mind and bead expanding! Quite fabulous!

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  6. So cool having faces to put with their work! What outstanding work they are doing. The color wheel is a fabulous idea! Thanks Robin!

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  7. Cristy, Lunnette and Donna,

    what a great idea of Robin's to tell us a little about you and let us admire your work. We would have missed a lot by not seeing your wonderful pieces! I do hope Robin will update us on your BJP progress as the year moves on, it will sure be worth it.

    Sabine

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  8. Thank you SO much for sharing the art work of these ladies, Robin! they are all beautiful - all 3 of them personally (their portraits) and their art! Thank you!

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  9. Please pass on a big Hello to Christy, Donna, and Lunnette and let know them how wonderful their work is. But most of all, I just like their happy smiles!

    Susan

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  10. Thank for introducing these ladies and their work. What unseen talent is out there - their work is beautiful and each one unique.

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  11. Wow what amazing women and amazing beadwork! I wish they had blogs, because I would be following them to be sure. Such diversity while using the same basic materials. The talent of people out there in the world is unbelievable! Thanks for sharing.

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  12. Wonderful pieces and talented ladies.

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  13. Robin, Christy, Lunnette and Donna! Thanks for sharing your art with us. Robin - you're good to do this for them and good for us to be able to meet them. I love seeing everyone's different styles. You're lucky to have them close by to "play" with! Enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving.

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  14. Robin, thank you for such a nice posting. Very generous of you. It is nice to see the face with the beadwork too! Each of their beadwork is amazing! I would definitely visit them if they decided to blog.

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  15. It's great to get to know these artists and their work, thanks for sharing Robin.

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  16. Thanks to share Robin, I am so happy to see all their BJP pieces, it's so beautiful, color wheel is a great idea and I remind me the buttons 2008. Super!

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Thanks you for joining the discussion on this post today!