FROM MY BEADING BOARD:

Aghhh, challenges, challenges! It seems like it has taken me eons to complete this scrumptous lion.

Try beading without the use of your thumb ~ what I found was that there was no way I could create a tension in my work.

Sometimes, during one's advanced years, there is a certain stubborness that surfaces....

See below....

What's On My Beading Board Today?

He's just wonderful!!
I was browsing the web one day, came across "Amee Runs With Scissors". OK, now if you came across that as a name for a shop, wouldn't you check it out? Of course, so I did. Amee does some fabulous multi-media work but this old gal fell absolutely in love with her lions.




Alas, I couldn't locate an actual outlet shop for her so I contacted her and asked if she ever made these fellas for sale. Well, no, she hadn't...so I pleaded (and I'm really good at that) and Amee agreed, making me 4 lions with the most fabulous, individual personalities you ever saw. I couldn't wait to get started on one...but other work got in the way. Finally last night I poured the accompanying beads onto my beadboard and began.

Follow this guy as we proceed together to a finished piece. I'm thinking he needs to be called "It's A Bad Hair Day". What do you think?

Find Amee at: http://www.ameerunswithscissors.com/home



NOTE: Double click on photo for close-up view.

2/15: WHAT'S ON MY BEADING BOARD TODAY?

People ask me: "How do I know what I'm going to bead?" So here are some musings of a bead addict...

Let's see...I have one of Kim Cavendar's (kimcavender.etsy.com) fun and funky faces (I'm

in love with these gems!). I see a smattering of Lisa Peter's (lisapetersart.etsy.com) rustic

raku, a beautifully matrixed turquoise I found in Quartzite, AZ.There are some of Heather Power's (humblebeads.etsy.com) Humblebeads - her colors are "so yum!" And an indian maiden I started on one of my trips that

I have yet to finish - I want it as a necklace; she is being worked on very soft, fluid goat leathers. I think she'll be fun...one of these days!

Starting a project, for me, always includes just about the same sequence of events. Rarely do I ever have a picture in my head of where I'm headed with my beads. Occasionally I will have a combo of colors I want to work with so that's a start. But more often I fill my board with a good handful of focal piece choices, let them kinda stare back at me from the board and in a short amount of time, one will jump out at me; that's the one! Then I go about choosing the colors to go with that center piece. I have no pattern in mind; I just wait for the beads to start "talking" ~ and they invariably do!

Occasioanlly I have a "start" that never seems to go anywhere. Ever been there yourself? Or, I have a "start" that seems to be a struggle no matter how I try to work with it. I don't struggle long - I have learned if it's that forced, my creation is doomed. I never, EVER take apart anything! It's against all I believe in. I have a basket sitting by the window and when I get one of these little orphans, I toss it in the basket. The basket never gets full because eventually, more often than not, I will find a use for each little wad of beads and generally when I do, it becomes a prominent addition to the new creation - "Here's to free-form beadweaving!"

There are no mistakes ~ only lessons.