Yamka Wuti, part 2

Rings N Things was in town today, so I managed to talk DH into going to town and getting stuff at Costco while I drooled over beads. I didn't get much (it all fits in my hand) but the gemstones always make me wonder what to do with them. I'm never brave enough to buy a whole strand of large beads, I'd never use them all. They did have a table with Czech pressed glass, something different for them. I picked up a few strands of different pressed glass, since I know I'll use those. And some glazed ceramic tiny skulls, just for fun (they cost one quarter of my total purchase!). Some shell teardrops, silver filigree ovals and a strand of moss agate 4mm rounds rounded out my haul.

Carol asked where my embroidery techniques come from. I'm self-taught, being fortunate that I can usually figure things out from a book or magazine. I have some of Robin Atkin's books, the one from Sherry Serafini and Heidi Kummli, and a trove of magazines with labels for projects of interest. My "style" of beading with felt comes from looking at Lone Beader's blog, where she wonderfully shows her work in progress, and a desire to incorporate my particular beading heritage -I'm 1/64 Iroquois. The Iroquois beaders made trinkets for the tourists around Niagara Falls with raised designs. One way of raising the design was to put something under that part of the design to raise it, like a piece of paper bag. I used a piece of felt to raise part of a BJP piece, and that got me hooked - then I started adding layers, like Lone Beader (she does entire pieces in felt, with loads of layers stitched together). I'm slowly learning how I like to do it for my "style", by beading a layer, adding it to the next, and building it up like an applique quilt. I like doing pieces like that, and I'm hoping it becomes my signature style, something that when someone sees one of my pieces, they recognize it as mine.

These pictures are from June. The phoenix and butterfly are attached to the skirt piece, and the turtle is started on her back. I ended up taking the turtle back off, so I could slip the skirt over her head when it was stitched together. It wouldn't have slipped over her legs, and barely fit over her head! The skirt is calico over artist paper. I stitched the first few rows on top and bottom, then tacked the edges in and stitched over them for the remaining rows. The bottom border of the skirt has rainbow stripes, a stripe of alternating white and purple beads (rain), a bugle stripe (running water) and fans that look like thunder clouds. My original intention was to make feathers from tiny 15's, to put on a belt over the black at the top of the skirt. It would have looked cool, but there just wasn't enough time for me to fiddle with it. I did make up a few samples, and the idea may make it another project.