BJP Blog Disappeared

As a blog writer for 6 years now, with words and images forming a journal, mostly of my creative endeavors and process, it would be a major calamity if anything happened to Beadlust. Sadly, I've learned the hard way, the on-line work of countless hours can disappear in a matter of seconds.

That's what happened to the 2013 Bead Journal blog.  Good for a year, with thousands of posts and pictures by a hundred+ participating members, it suddenly disappeared. You try to go there, and you get this message:

Blog has been removed

Sorry, the blog at bjp2013.blogspot.com has been removed. 

This address is not available for new blogs.

I don't know who removed it.... not me, not either one of the other administrators.

Sometimes a blog gets accidentally deleted by the administrator. That's an easy fix. On your dashboard there will be a list of deleted blogs and an opportunity to restore it. Whew!

The first time a member contacted me to say our BJP blog was removed, it was listed under deleted blogs on my dashboard, and with a click of the mouse, it was back on line. But a few days later, it was gone again. This time it is not shown under deleted blogs on my dashboard. It is also not shown on the dashboards of the other administrators.

What happened to it? Somebody (a hacker?) got into it and must have first cancelled us as administrators, and then deleted the blog. I am beyond bummed about this. It makes me crying sad and crying mad.

I posted about it on the Blogger "help" forum, and for a short while was hopeful when a responder posted that the blog is still on the internet and might be accessed again. But then I heard nothing more.

I guess nothing is permanent.

Beadlust as a Book!!!!!

What if your blog suddenly went away,
disappeared into cyberspace
leaving not a trace?

Think about it...
what kind of loss would that be for you?

I don't know how often it happens. But I do know it happened to Allison Aller (Allie's in Stitches) a couple of years ago, all of her pictures, all her words, all her wonderful blog tutorials gone forever. Ever since I heard about her loss, I've wished for a way to back up my blog, a way to keep a hard copy of it.

Now there's a way, a very easy and delicious way!!! Blog2Print does all the work for you and produces a very nice looking book that will include as many of your posts as you wish. I'm going to write a little about the easy step-by-step process. But first let me show you how the first volume of my blog book looks.


This is the cover style I chose from many options. There is an opportunity to upload a picture for both the front and back cover of your book. I suggest using a picture that is sized for printing at about 300 ppi for best results.


This is how a page spread looks when it's mostly pictures. The page size is 8.5 x 11 inches. You will have a choice of compact or snapshot page arrangement. Compact, just as the name implies, means that pictures will be grouped together to save space, resulting in text and picture alignment issues. Choosing snapshot, as I did for my book, means the layout will be exactly as it is on your blog.


This is how a page spread looks when it's mostly text. Note that all formatting from your blog (italics, numbered lists, indenting, bold, font style and color, etc.) will appear in the book just as it does on your blog.

My book is 300 pages long and full of color pictures. The high quality paper is thick enough so there is minimal bleed-through and very white, making the pictures and text look quite crisp. The cover is a laminated hard-board and the binding seems sturdy.

Since I've been blogging for over 4 years and tend to write long posts with lots of pictures, I decided to include only the first two years in my book, Volume 1. I can't begin to describe how pleased I am with the results. It makes me happy!!!!! I love having a written journal of my creative process, thoughts, projects, influences and even some non-art related happenings. Too look back, even just flipping through the pictures, is such a treat. And it takes away that nagging little worry about my blog disappearing.

Since it turned out so well, I've gone ahead and made a second book with blog years 3 & 4, another 300-page tome! It should arrive December 6th, an early Christmas gift from me to me!

The cost? Well, I chose the Cadillac version all the way. Yep, it was expensive, but the enjoyment I have from this book is well worth the $110 price tag. You can save quite a bit by selecting the compact page arrangement. The greatest savings results from printing in black and white rather than color. For me color is too important, but it is an option.

Important! If you should decided to make a similar book of your blog, now would be a good time to do it. Through November 29th, Blog2Print is offering a 15% discount. Use this code: b2p4theholidays

Blog2Print works for Blogger, WordPress and TypePad blogs. The process is very easy. You are asked to choose a cover style and indicate color or black and white. Then you enter the date range you want included in your book and decide on the blog order, from oldest to current or the reverse. You indicate whether or not you wish to include the comments.

You can input whatever title you wish to give your book and also optional side text and cover photo. Then you get to write a short introduction or dedication, if you wish. Next you tell it to upload your blog, review the book as a pdf file and order! Oh, yes, there's also a time when you can edit the book, deleting any posts you don't wish to include and a way to add the comments to specific posts. It took me about a half hour to complete everything. I received Volume 1 about a week later!

I don't intend to twist anybody's arm, only to share my deep pleasure at having my blog in print!

6th Photo Challenge ~ FUN!!!!

Mortira over at Inspirational Beading, invited me to participate in a candid look at the past in a "photo challenge"... What fun! How could I resist?

The idea is to go back in blogtime to your earliest posts and identify the 6th picture you posted. The next task is to critique your own photo, explain what you would do differently now, and then pass on the challenge to 10 other bloggers. I'm not big on passing along, because of the sense of obligation that might be felt, so the challenge is extended to anybody who's interested!

I started blogging in 2006... (Yikes! Time flies!)... My 6th photo appears here in my 3rd post, dated May 9, 2006.

The post is about a 4-day workshop I taught at Valley Ridge Art Studio in Wisconsin... Beads, Books & Paint was all about creating a hand-bound book with painted decorative papers and bead embroidery inset into the cover. I still vividly recall the glorious time we had. Exhausted and exhilarated, all of the students left the last day with a finished book, which you can see here (worth the time to look - they're fabulous!). And below is picture #6... my students victoriously holding up their finished books!


Wow! This is bringing back so many wonderful memories for me!!!!! What a treat to see these smiling faces and review the beautiful books they made. We were utterly exhausted, having worked all day and well into the evenings for four-loooong-days. Yet, we all had a great time, got to know each other and felt a huge surge in our creativity as we worked together. How can I critique this photo when it is brimming with such realized potential?

Not easy, yet there's much I've learned in nearly four years about photos and blogging... Looking at my 6th photo, here are a few pointers that come to mind:

1. Save a LOT of frustration by centering photos and not trying to format them in blogger like books with text on one or the other side of the photos.
2. Size photos before uploading to 105-200 KB at 72 dpi, so that they will be click-to-enlarge. I wrote a post about taking, editing and sizing photos here.
3. Learn Photoshop or Elements or some other photo editing program. Take a class or on-line tutorials so that you can crop, correct errors, sharpen, delete background shadows, etc.
4. Add photos to a post AFTER it is written and spell-checked. I add them in the "edit Html" mode, as they are easier to place without Blogger inserting automatic code that flubs up the spacing.
5. When taking photos, allow time to pay attention to details. Remove distracting elements. Be sure your primary subject is well-lit but not in glaring light.

Just for fun, I returned to my original of the 6th photo and re-worked it a little in Photoshop. It wasn't a great photo in the first place. I obviously didn't pay attention to details as two of the faces are hidden and the back lighting in the room did nothing for the photo. Below is the revision (the best I could do with a poor original image), which unlike my 6th posted photo, is sized correctly. I also used shadow/highlight and the dodge tool to lighten the faces a bit.


OK, now it's your turn!!! If you're reading this and have blogged for a while, please accept the challenge to take a look at your 6th posted photo!!!! And if you have a moment, leave a comment here that you've done so... With pleasure, I'll come take a look!

Why Blog? - - - And 3 More Short Subjects!

Why Blog?

While reading Willow Manor last night, I stumbled on her post (here) about comments and whether they are an obstacle or catalyst to readers. Willow has over 1,000 followers and it's not uncommon for her to have 50-100 comments per post. It boggles my mind, yet I can see why people like her blog. I do too.

Anyway, some of the 125 comments on the post about commenting (LOL) and her more recent post (here) about blogging being a transformative moment for her, got me to thinking (again) about why I blog.

For me, blogging started (3 years ago) as a diary or journal... just a place to keep a written and visual record of my life. My husband partakes and is interested in only part of my life... I needed to honor the other parts in some way (I guess)... and blogging became the way. Besides it was technically challenging and fun.

Somewhere along the way, in a barely noticeable progression, my motivation began to change. Rather than doing it for myself, I began to respond to the blogging community by trying to tailor my posts to my readers, finding subjects and adding images that I hoped would appeal and draw comments. Ah, comments! Yes, I craved them and thrived on them, the more the better.

Now, in the past few months, I'm noticing another shift in motivation. Do you recall my recent post about witnessing (here)? One of the email responses to this post called it deep listening. Isn't that a great term? My recent shift is toward trying to develop a community of deep listeners.

OK, I don't mean that every post and every comment needs to be deep. (Wouldn't that be a headache!) But that the general focus of the community (both me posting and you commenting, or just reading) tends toward witnessing, deep hearing and inner truth. Yikes! That sounds a bit daunting. Yet, I think it's my motivation at this time.

A Few Reader Thoughts about Witnessing

Susan said: Interestingly enough, my online blogging has helped me connect better with my family and friends who choose to read. Those non-stitching friends have begun to understand what I stitch, why I stitch and how important it is in my life. ~Me too, including my husband!~ ...my public witnessing of myself and my own feelings leads to others witnessing not only my feelings but their own as well. Some of my favorite online exchanges have occurred because of my most private, public posts. ~Again, me too... This is what I mean about building a community of deep hearing people!~ If someone is interested in witnessing my life, they comment. If they aren't, they move on. We tend to attract those who have the same values and are struggling with the same issues. We ... tend to group ourselves and that is a beautiful phenomenon. So, rather than us choosing our witnesses, our witnesses choose us. They choose to spend the time getting to know us and writing a meaningful comment -- because they care and they want to -- and those feelings are real and very, very healing, supportive and loving. ~How true, Susan, and well said!

Jacquie pointed out that witnessing for her is a validation of time spent pouring out my heart of hearts. ~I agree and also think blogging can be self-validating.

Penny says: witnessing, when it comes from the viewers heart and spirit, when they are really and truly engaged with what they are looking at - can be a motivating process. It opens not only me up to them, but them up to me and that is a gift that they give to me also. ~That's how I look at it too... as an exchange and as a gift.

Pegnard wrote: Am I willing to share my spirit, in a spirit of aloha, on a blog? I started one, but don't write there too often yet. I hope people will be kind. I've experienced so much joy from reading other blogs, felt such a kinship. I'd like to share back. ~Again, it's the exchange thing... the sharing back... the give and take of blogging that appeals to me now.

Carolyn emailed: ...we only expose ourselves to those we completely trust to like us even after they see/witness "who we really are." And that usually only means one or two special friends and no one else, especially family members. Blogs allow us to safely allow others to know who we really are and safely identify with like emotions and feelings. ~Yes, I think there is an element of anonymity or distance that makes blogging feel safe. The level of safety, developing slowly for me as I wrote and read, is quite high now.

Sabine wrote: Blogs, and especially the BJP have a lot to do with letting people witness through art and thoughts presented, and they have a whole lot to do with trusting people. ~I agree, trust is so much a part of this.

Post, comment, witness, exchange, trust, validate and transform... that's what blogging is all about for me at this point.

Teaching in Phoenix - Bead Museum is there!

Right around the corner... October 1-5, I will be in Phoenix, Arizona teaching bead embroidery and giving two presentations!

Oct. 2nd will be a whole day at the Bead Museum! I've never been there previously, but have heard lots of praise for their huge collection of beads and beadwork and the way it's displayed. This museum is currently the only bead museum in the country (in the world???), since the one in Washington DC closed. A few months ago the economy almost forced our only remaining bead museum to close its doors. Fortunately, various Bead Societies and private concerns around the country donated sufficient funds to keep them going for a little while longer.

I'm telling you this, because IF you have the time and can get there, this may be a good opportunity to see the museum! I'll be teaching a 1/2-day Beaded Button class (great introduction to bead embroidery), giving a slide show about how glass beads and buttons are made and signing books... That's Oct. 2nd at the Museum. The contact information is here, on my website.

If you'd really like to go deeply into bead embroidery, consider taking my 2-day Improvisational Bead Embroidery class on Oct. 3 & 4, also in Phoenix but held at the Farm at South Mountain. More than a techniques class, this one is all about tapping into your original, creative self through beading. A side-benefit of taking the class is that you get to attend my presentation about Visual Journaling with Beads, Fibers, Threads and Fabrics for free! Contact information is here.

Introducing A Friend's Website & Blog


This is my neighbor, walking-buddy and friend, Gayle with her husband and pupdog. Gayle asked me to build/design a website and blog for her herbal farm business. I'm no website designer, but together we developed a simple site, which is now live!!! At Bountiful Herbs Farm, you will find natural, hand-made soaps and many other wonderful things your body and home will love. Enjoy cooking and gardening??? Gayle likes to share favorite recipes on her blog, Herb Crazed... plus useful gardening tips. Thanks for giving her a visit and a taste of what it's like to receive comments!!!

Witnessing Art… from Your Heart

Today I invite you to pour a cup of your favorite tea or coffee and sit with me for a few minutes to ponder the concept of witnessing.

Although I am no expert on this topic, I have a sense that it may be one of the most important benefits of being in the Bead Journal Project and (on a much larger scale) the whole idea of blogging.

Let me digress for a moment. Many years ago I took a life-changing class called Process Painting. The idea is to hang a large sheet of paper on the wall, stand very close to it, grab a paint brush and, with a minimal palette of Tempera colors, paint marks on the paper. It is not about proper painting. Rather it is about inviting an inner truth to come forward through the paint… spontaneous and uncensored, quick, gutsy, raw and private.

Our teacher says:

Don’t step back and judge… Stay with it, up close.
If you put one more color on this paper, what might it be?
If you paint one more thing on this paper, where might it be?
If you have one more thing to add to this painting, what might it be?

She encourages us to paint with the self-promise that we will NEVER show our paintings to anybody…. not ever! Nor are we allowed to look at our classmates’ work… not at all, not for the entire three days of the class! This gives us an exhilarating freedom to open the closet door (no sugar-coating) and to let go of having to do it right. We paint like children, without constraints.

But a few weeks after the class, I break the rule. I trust my best friend, Liz, completely. She loves me as I am. She rarely shows any sign of judgments. She is always supportive about my art.

My paintings are strange. They don’t look like anything I’ve ever done before. They frighten me a little. They are not pretty, yet they are extremely compelling. There is an element of strength that I do not recognize as belonging to me. I want Liz to know these things and to help me understand the paintings.

So I invited her to witness them.

Although I have broken the rule, it feels really great to unroll my paintings and pour over them with Liz. We talk about every detail of my paintings. She honors me with her caring attention and witnesses parts of my inner being that I keep hidden (even from myself).

I do not show my paintings to any family members. I do not show them to my boy friend. I do not show them to other art friends.

Why not?

I am afraid they might judge, critique or analyze them psychologically. When I put my most inner being on paper, it needs to be respected and accepted exactly the way it is. If I do not choose my witnesses wisely, I may be swayed into a position of non-respect, non-acceptance and judgment. And that position can be a huge block to creativity and satisfaction with life.

Now here is an odd thing! I sense that most of the Bead Journal Project members and other blog readers are like Liz. Whether my work is raw or common, many of my blog viewers/readers tend to witness, encourage, seek understanding and share their own personal experiences through their comments. If they verbalize a judgment at all, it tends to be positive. In fact, I am quite surprised by the amount of witnessing I receive through my blog and how important it is to me…. When, through my art and words, the authentic me comes forward in my blog, I often feel tenderly witnessed. I see the same type of witnessing in many comments on other blogs as well.

Conventional wisdom proposed by my process painting teacher (also Julia Cameron in the Artists’ Way and even Pat B. Allen in Art Is a Way of Knowing), suggests that we grow and heal, become authentic and find peace through the process of making art or journaling, especially when we keep it entirely private. At the most, we must choose our witnesses carefully. Wait!!! Doesn’t my experience with blogging go against this wisdom somewhat? So it seems to me.

I find this very curious. It also seems odd that I trust and look for witnessing from the blogging community more than from my family and friends.

I’m very interested to hear your understanding about the concept of witnessing and how/if it applies to your experiences sharing your BJP pages, other art or personal stories and thoughts on your blog. Do you seek and receive witnessing from your family and friends?

* * * * * *

By the way, I looked up the meaning of the word witness and found this:

Verb: To witness is to take note of something, to observe or to gain knowledge about something.

Noun: A witness is someone who has personal knowledge of something or can attest to a fact or event.

Word derivation: from Old English (1300’s) wit, which meant knowledge.

There were also two other slants on the meaning of witness… religious (to preach) and legal (to give evidence in court). These are not relevant to my use of the word in this post.

Blogiversary Giveaway!!!

Comment to Win!

Lusting for beads must certainly have its origins in the garden with Adam and Eve. But, for me it began in 1985 and has grown more acute with each passing year. When I wrote my first post, three years ago today, there was nary a moment of hesitation about naming my baby blog ~ Beadlust!


Today, in celebration of Beadlust's 3-year blogiversary, I'm having a giveaway! Three weeks from now, I'll find a magic way to select three readers who have written a comment on today's post! (Please be sure I have a way to reach you.) Each winner will receive a gift package containing an archival giclee print (signed & numbered) of Rosie, The Uncaged Hen and a little goodie bag of vintage beads from my stash. Whooo-hoo!

This is just a small way for me to tell you all how much your support and readership means to me. I'm not so clever and entertaining as many blog authors and don't post nearly as often as I'd like... Yet, you check back and make wonderful comments and enrich my life more than I know how to say. Thank you!

BJP Presentation ~ Seattle ~ May 21st


For those of you in the Seattle area, I'll be doing a PowerPoint presentation for the Northwest Bead Society featuring BJP work from our first year! Guests are totally welcome!

Visual Journaling with Beads, Fibers, Threads and Fabric

View over 200 beaded journal pieces by 42 artists participating in the 2007-08 Bead Journal Project! Compelling and inspirational, this unique beadwork tells stories, reveals emotions and follows important events in the lives of the artists who create a visual journal each month during the year-long project. In this presentation, you will see the best of the best!

Date: Thursday, May 21st

Time: 7 pm
Location: Greenwood Masonic Lodge
7910 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle (driving directions here)

If you are in the area and participated in the BJP last year or are participating this year, PLEASE COME and bring your BJP pieces for show and tell!!!!

Allison Aller and Baltimore!

Above is one of Allie's samplers for the classes. She offered a choice of kits for curved piecing of the block ~ black, white or green. I chose black because I thought it showed off the flowers beautifully! My block is nearly finished... I'll post a picture of it soon. If you think Allie's sample block is pretty, you'll enjoy regular visits to her blog, Allie's in Stitches, which is tops for gorgeous pictures, tips, tutorials and inspirations!

Susan Elliott (Plays with Needles), with her fabulous photography and way with words, has captured the fun of Allie's visit to Baltimore and our experiences taking her classes much better than I could. So, please check the links! There are even a couple of pictures of me...

Allie is a breath of fresh air on a peaceful spring day, with much more to offer her students than techniques! Here are two important things I learned from her...

"Keep lots of white space on your calendar!" If we want to do our art in any significant way, we must learn to keep our calendars white. Duh! Yes, of course. The difficult thing is doing it. One way that Allie does this is to set aside the hours between 8 am and noon EVERY DAY for herself and her art. Prolific writers and painters are known to keep a schedule like this too. Me? Well, I've never really tried it... Guess it seemed too much like a job. Allie just MAY have converted me to the idea!

Allie calls her work "surface sculpture." I LOVE this term. It applies to our beadwork too.

One reason I went all the way across the country to take Allie's class in Baltimore, is because I taught there last fall and totally love my students, who in turn, totally got it about bead embroidery! They are embroiders, a chapter group of EGA, and very skilled at stitching with threads. Many of them enjoyed my methods of improvisational bead embroidery so much that they've continued making more pieces since the class. It was such a joy to see them again and to see their bead embroidery! Below is a dear-to-my-heart piece by Bobbi Pohl!

Wildflower Season!!!

I returned home from Baltimore last week to find our wildflower season in its peak! I adore wildflowers - all of them, from the tiniest little blue ground cover to the rarest of the rare Fairy Slipper Orchid (Calypso bulbosa) shown below! Be still my heart... I'm in heaven!


The calypso (fairy slipper) orchid is native to Canada and the Pacific Northwest U.S. However, it is extinct over much of its range and is now quite rare. It does not survive contact with man and readily dies in cultivation. The beautiful flower head is about the size of a quarter. I counted 8 of them on our walk yesterday!!!!



These are Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon meadia). Along with companion butter cups, they grow in abundance on our property. I took the picture below right out our kitchen door! Could we be more blessed?!

How to Make Your Photos "Click-to-enlarge"

Many times I am asked how to upload photos on a blog so that they will be click-to-enlarge. Today, I will answer that question for all Blogger (blogspot) blogs!

We are talking about digital photos, either taken with a digital camera or scanned and saved as a digital file. I’m going to keep it fairly simple, yet hint at the technical reasons behind my method.

Simple basics

Are you going to print your photos? Or, are you going to upload them to your blog? These are two very different things. Decide before you shoot your pictures!

Have you ever printed an image from the web and it was all pixilated? You could see the little squares (pixels) of color on the print? That’s because to print photos requires higher resolution than the web.

Many of today’s digital cameras offer the possibility of very high resolution. You can get an idea of the resolution possibilities of your camera by looking at the designation on the front. Is it 3 megapixels, 8 megapixels, 11 megapixels? The higher the number, the higher the possible resolution.


High resolution (or high number of megapixels) is good for printing your photos, yes! But not good for the web. Ever open an email with an attached photo that's so bloated you can’t get any idea of the whole thing, even by scrolling up and down, back and forth? Yes? Me too. That photo might print well, but it has too many pixels for the web.

My suggestion, if you are taking photos just for the web? Pass up those expensive, high megapixel cameras, and get one that offers around 3, which is perfectly adequate for web pictures!

What size images do you need for Blogger to engage the click-to-enlarge feature?

This is the rule:

To upload a photo that will
click-to-enlarge in Blogger,
your image size must be
more than 100 KB.

If it is way over 100 KB or if it is some amount of MB, it will click-to-enlarge, but it will also be gigantic, take a long time to open and begin to fill up your total photo space allowed by Blogger.

If it is under 100 KB, it will not click-to-enlarge.

Note: this is the current Blogger rule... be aware that they change the rules from time to time!

How can you tell the size of your image?

In my documents, find the folder with your image in it. On the top toolbar, click on view and then click on details. You should now see the image name, followed by a number, which is the size of your image. It maybe expressed in KB (kilobytes) or if it’s extremely large in MB (megabytes). Far to the right you will see the dimensions, which are expressed in pixels.

Other important image size considerations.

The size of an image is expressed in both total kilobytes (or megabytes, if it’s huge) AND in pixel dimensions. A third variable is the resolution. It’s nice to understand the relationship of these three variables, but not necessary.

Most digital cameras have a way to adjust these variables. Look for mode or settings. If you are taking pictures for the web and not to print, set your mode as closely as possible to the following:

Resolution: 72 ppi (exressed as automatic in most small cameras)
Size: 640 x 480
Format: jpeg (may be expressed as normal; do not select tiff)

These settings will give you images that are perfectly sized to be click-to-enlarge on Blogger as long as you don’t crop them.

Cropping

If you crop your images, it will reduce the size. Cropping may reduce the overall size to less than 100 KB, in which case they will not be click-to-enlarge.

After cropping, save your image and check the file size as described above. There are photo editing programs you can use to increase the size of your cropped image to over 100 KB. If you don’t have such software, there is another option.

If you know you will want to crop a group of images to show detail and you still want them to be click-to-enlarge, do this. For these images only, reset the mode on your camera to higher file size. Shoot your pictures, crop and check size. Should be OK. Don’t forget to reset the mode on your camera.

What if you are taking pictures for both the web AND to print?

In that case, you will need a simple photo editing program that will allow you to resize your images. Set your camera mode to a higher resolution and size, suitable for printing. My camera mode is set to the following:

Resolution: 72 ppi
Size: 2560 x 1920
Format: jpeg

This gives photos that are about 2,000 KB each, large enough to print, even in books or magazines. However, they are about 20 times too big for the web! Remember we want them to be just over 100 KB each. I use a photo editing program to resize them.

How to print these directions?

Click on the title of this post. That should open a window which has only this post in it and not the other posts on my blog. Then go to file and click print.

Or, highlight the entire text of the post, go to edit on the upper tool bar and click copy. Open a blank word document, go to edit on the upper tool bar of the new document and click paste. Then save and/or print from the word document.

Hope this helps!
Robin A.

Comments Off...

Listening to Saturday Night Blues on my favorite radio station, KPLU, I’ve just been catching up on a few special blogs. One of them is Layers of Meaning. The author, Serena, has disabled comments on her blog.

Can’t help thinking about that… What would it be like to blog with “comments off” and “counters off?” Wouldn’t there be a sense of freedom?

Years ago, I took a “process painting” class where the underlying assumption was that we would NEVER show our work to anyone. The idea was to work on a large canvas, painting up close and personal, never stepping back to judge or evaluate our work, and never looking at the paintings of others in the class. My paintings were different than anything I’d ever done or have ever done since, and it was an amazingly liberating experience. Yes, I do have them still. I only showed them to one person, and that was someone I trust with my darkest secrets.

Turning off comments and counters is different from that painting class, because I know people might still find and read my blog. Yet, similar to the process painting, there would be less of a sense of responsibility to meet the needs of known viewers, and less of a desire to please them, rather than myself. For example, right now, I’m feeling pressure to find an image or two, suitable for this post. (Maybe you’re thinking, “She COULD show us her paintings!” Me too, but I’d have to find them and photograph them, and their associated memory of freedom might then slip away… so instead you get a photo I took from the tip of San Juan Island during a storm last winter.)

Surely turning off comments and counters would make blogging more of a diary writing experience. The sense of community (that is boosted with every one of your comments and every time I see another country’s flag on my counter) would be lost. I adore being part of this community in all of its struggles and victories with the process of art. Without that, I’m not sure I would blog. But Serena does… and she does it well… and for a long time, starting in October 2003. I wish I could tell her how much I enjoy her writing and images.

Another blogger I greatly admire is artist, John Stewart, who does A Drawing A Day. While comments on his blog seem to be enabled, I’ve never seen one posted. To that end, I posted one today. Maybe he gets a ton of them, but doesn’t approve them to be posted, which would make it look like he doesn’t get any.

Writing and answering comments does take time. Yup, sometimes a lot of time (especially when you have to retype the code over and over again). So I guess more time for art would be another small advantage of “no comments.”

For now, I’m keeping both comments and counter enabled, because I love the dialog, the feedback and the support. It’s great to feel connected to people in Canada, Australia, UK, Columbia (most recently)… as well as closer to home. Maybe our blogging and through it our sense international connection contributes to world peace in some small way.

“If we have no peace,

it’s because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”

Mother Teresa

Answering Your Comments &
Question About New Beta Blogger ~

My picture post for today (about beaded treasure bracelets) follows, so please keep scrolling down after you read this....

Your comments mean so much to me... I value and appreciate them and YOU! So, thanks to all of you who take the time to add your insights, reactions and thoughts to my posts.

When I first started blogging, I spent quite a lot of time tracking down email addresses so I could respond to each comment with a private email message. Now, partially because I see it's a custom among many art bloggers and partially because the days just don't have enough hours, I'm responding to most comments by adding my own comment to the post. Many times your remarks deserve a full reply. I do my best.

IMPORTANT: If you have asked me a direct question, please return to the post a day or so later, and you'll find my reply in the comment section.

Has anyone out there tried Bloggers new version in Beta? If so, how do you like it? Is it any easier to upload images? Does the "category" feature work ok? Given your experience, would it be better to wait a while before I change over?

Now... BEADS!