8-Year Giveaway!

On this very day, eight years ago in 2006, I took a big plunge and started blogging. Here is my very first post :) ...

My cat, Hollie (age 11 now), is still our trusted companion, although mostly inclined to sleep, and with much darker fur. In fact her body is so dark, it's only her face that makes her recognizable as a Siamese. As you can see, she likes to sleep on Robert's shoes, under the coffee table.

I've posted 297 times in the past eight years, which only amounts to an average of slightly over 3 per month. There's always a wait-list of posts I want to write, pictures that need editing, subjects worthy of research and sharing... but time? Well, that's a fleeting sort of thing... so I never get around to posting as often as I'd like.

Thank you to all of my followers! You and your comments keep me posting. It's true. I probably would have stopped years ago if it weren't for you.

By way of thanking you, I found two pristine copies of  One Bead at a Time, my first book, which has been out of print for several years now (although available as a free download PDF on my website).

To celebrate 8 years of blogging, I will give away these two books, one each to two randomly selected readers who comment on this post. Even if you already have this book, please comment to enter... you can give the book to a beady friend, or request another of my books when I contact you. This giveaway ends on June 1, 2014.

Again, thank you and bless you for your support during the past 8 years. Now that I'm semi-retired, I hope to be better about posting more often: step-by-step photo tutorials, and posts on informational/inspirational topics. Keep beading and stitching... it's therapy!

Oh, and please, don't miss my post from yesterday, showing exceptionally fine bead embroidery by Becki Applegate!

The Best Reward.... Ever!

I've been teaching a two-day workshop called Improvisational Bead Embroidery for more than 25 years now, teaching both techniques and process to more than 2,000 women + a few men. In every workshop, there are one or two students who really stand out, who learn the stitches quickly and easily, and who embrace the idea of working intuitively. Often, they are the quiet ones, the ones who focus on their work and get a lot done in class, who don't ask many questions, but who pay rapt attention to all that I say and demonstrate.

Sometimes a promising student sends me an email with a photo of the project they started in class, which I always love to see. But the most gratifying reward of all, the thing that makes all the prep time and all the travel time worth while, is when I meet a student again and they bring the finished piece, the one they started in class, to show me in person. That is the best reward for teaching... ever!

Last week, I taught a group of 19 ladies from the Camano Island Quilt Guild, a very lively and talented group, many of whom will make me proud in the future! See how focused and hard-working they are?

One of the students, Becki Applegate, of Whidbey Island, took this same workshop one year ago when I taught it here on San Juan Island. At the time, she was definitely one of those stand out students, and she later joined the Bead Journal Project, continuing to make compelling bead embroideries.

When I asked her why she was taking the workshop for a second time, she said she was tired at the end of the second day (a year ago), and had not been able to absorb some of the things I taught, especially the finishing techniques. This time, since she already knew all the basics, she figured she could conserve her energy for that last segment about how to finish various types of bead embroidery, how to frame, line, back, sculpt, etc.

That is gratifying to a teacher, for sure! But even more gratifying, in this case, was seeing the finished project, Becki started in my class a year ago. She gave me permission to photograph it and show it here. Below is the front of her beaded pouch. It snaps closed at the bottom center.

Below is the back of the pouch. I especially love the patchwork design with the gradation from orange to yellow beads. As always, you can click on any of the pictures to open a "slide show" of enlarged versions, which better reveal the details.

Below is the front and back, how it looks when the pouch is open and laid pocket-side down, showing all of the bead embroidery. Becki uses many size 15 seed beads, which is how she gets so much detail into a small pouch (about  3.5 inches wide).

If you flip it over, you can see the pocket inside, suitable for a special treasure or photo. The pouch is lined with Ultrasuede Soft Premium, a synthetic leather. The color is "Carrot."

I couldn't be happier or more proud of Becki and the beautiful bead embroidery she is doing!

African Beadwork, Part 1

Recently I had the pleasure and good fortune to meet a woman who lived in South Africa for most of her adult life, with an interest and means to collect vast quantities of quality beadwork. She has cataloged the work and keeps it stored in museum-quality, climate-controlled, acid-free drawers and shelves, made just for this purpose. As she is a private person, I'm not giving her name or location here. But she gave me her permission to share some of the photos I took while viewing the work. In two viewings so far, I have already taken over 200 photos!

When I see this beadwork, I am in awe. We have so much to learn from it, both in design and technique, not to mention the sheer magnitude of some of the pieces. I tend to make something that may take 2 or 3 days of work, and be very proud of my achievement. But it dwarfs compared to the time it must take to make some of these pieces!

OK, so for today, here are some beaded items made by Zulu women in South Africa. I will begin this series with two back aprons (buttocks covers), stitched on leather and worn by men. These were probably made in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The weight of these aprons is considerable... maybe 30 pounds each.

Please click on the picture so you can see the incredible detail! Imagine how long it would take to make this! The three woven panels look like peyote stitch to me, although I didn't pry the beads apart to examine it closely. After making the panels, they were stitched to the leather. All of the other beading on this piece is surface edge stitching, stitched directly onto the leather.

I like to imagine the story about this piece. It would have been made by a young woman for her husband. But, what was the man like, and how did he feel wearing this? Compared to aprons worn by other men, was this one a "stand-out?" How did it end up in the collection of a foreigner?

Here's another one... also very impressive.

And here are some details of this one. Notice that some of the surface edge stitching on this one runs vertical. Some aprons and women's skirts were embellished entirely with this vertical edge stitching. One of the woven panels has become detached, as you can see, but otherwise this apron is in perfect condition. In my opinion the beads were all traded/imported from the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia); many of them are size 14s.

Here's one more picture, showing extreme detail of the edge stitch... I think we can figure out the thread path from this photos (again, it's easier to see when you click on the picture for an enlarged version)... I'm going to try.

This post shows only 2 of the MANY fabulous pieces I photographed. My next post will be all about a Zulu woman's skirt. Talk about heavy with beads! Talk about heavy with design details and techniques! You will be wowed! Here's a little sneak peek at it...

Please let me know if you like seeing this work... I'm in awe of it, and could write several posts, showing some very beautiful and unusual designs and techniques.

Donkey Tale - Update

You may recall my friend, Donkeyoti,

and my story here about how she went from a not so good home

to a good one near to where I live now,

where I could walk to visit her and give her carrots.

Three weeks ago, I learned her owner was moving to Montana, 

and looking for someone to take Donkeyoti.

Not again.

I wonder how many new owners she's had,

how many times she's had to adjust to a new home?

Then she was gone, moved to Orcas Island.

Fortunately, I was able to get her new owner's name.

So today, Robert and I got on the interisland ferry,

and went to see her new digs.

  

As soon as she recognized my voice, she ran to the fence,

smiling (as only a donkey can smile),

nuzzling me,

accepting sweet words of praise and skritches all over her head.

We are pals, both of us so happy to be together again.

Then her new keeper came out to talk with us,

about how clever and full of personality Donkeyoti is,

and how quickly she's learning verbal commands. 

It was hard to leave, knowing I won't visit her nearly as often.

But I could see her new keeper already has a great relationship with her

and is providing a good home. She is in good hands.

* * * * * * * 

Did you miss this post?

Mighty fun wool applique, embroidery, folk-art designs by Sue Spargo!

Maybe I could do a portrait quilt of Donkeyoti
using Sue's stitches and techniques!?!

Fanciful Wool Applique by Sue Spargo

Just in the nick of time, the second to the last day of the exhibition, my quilt/bead buddies and I went to see the show at the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum. WOW!

Sue Spargo's quilts on the 2nd floor just caught my heart, wrapped it up, and sent it to heaven! I've always been attracted to folk art, the whimsical, fanciful, happy, colorful art, which I assume is made by people who are equally whimsical, fanciful, happy, and colorful. 

While I loved every single one of Sue's quilts, I think this one makes me the happiest. Look at all these little chicks (36 of them!), jauntily dressed in their best, and headed toward a big hoopla somewhere to the left. Sue calls it "a small study sampler," and names it Bird Play #1. Here are some of my favorite players.

(I apologise for the shadows on the bottom of each of these detail pictures, caused by my hands and camera, and for the inaccurate colors, especially of the background. Picture them much brighter, more highly saturated colors, and the background is blue, not grey!)

Sue's technique of using hand-dyed wool, cotton fabrics, hand-dyed velvet, silk thread, Perle cottons, buttons, and beads to applique and embellish her little chicks (each about 3" high), lends itself so well to creating character. And birds are a great subject for "character," with their colorful plumes, spots, stripes, combs, feet, etc.

After making Bird Play #1 in 2013, Sue further developed her techniques in a larger wall quilt called Bird Dance, which is another piece at the top of my favorites list.

Once I had admired each of the 30 birds and photographed some of them (see below), I began to notice the background, the way she layered and stitched the background blocks, how they compliment the birds, balancing the entire composition, keeping the birds from appearing to be "stuck" on the background. Pure genius, if you ask me!

Although birds lend themselves to folk art and fanciful design better than any other subject matter, Sue also gave her talents to various animals, leaves, flowers, and circles. Here are a few examples to show what I mean.

This is Travel Journal, with impressions of Italy, Vietnam, South Africa, and Australia.

My favorite animal here is the camel. As you can see in the circle of critters, the camel is upside down. I've left her that way for you to see in detail. As with all of the pictures, you can click on the image to view the stitch details in a larger size.

Sue had many small study samplers in the show, several of which were of leaves. Here is a detail from one of them. The machine quilting on all (or most?) of her quilts is done by Janet Joehlin. It's worth noticing because it doesn't compete with the applique at all. One automatically studies the applique first, before even noticing the quilting, which is (in my opinion) exactly as it should be.

Many of her quilts also include flowers, another subject that lends itself well to this design style. Here is a detail of one of them.

If you've been drooling over the stitches, the bullion loops, the Italian knotted border stitch, the Palestrina knots, the woven picots (bird beaks), etc., if you've been itching to learn them (as I was), there is good news! Sue's book, Creative Stitching, How to Create Vivid, Lively Textures Using 50 of my Favorite Stitches, tells and shows you how to do them with easy-to-follow drawings and photos. It's available in the gift shop at the La Conner Quilt Museum, or through Sue's website, here. Sue also teaches classes. She's teaching 4 one-day classes in La Conner this fall, all of which are already full. But they are taking a waiting list. Guess who is on it?! She teaches around the country and sometimes out of it. Her schedule is here.

I have only two regrets: 1. that I didn't get to La Conner at the start of the show, so I could go see it again, and maybe again, posting about it in time for local readers to go see it too, and 2. that I didn't know about her workshops before they filled.

Her work makes me happy. I'm happy posting about it. I was happy working with the photos. I am happy just thinking about all those little chicks heading left, bless their little hearts!