Transferring

Just to let everone know, I'm transferring my blog to wordpress.  The url is the same, just wordpress.com instead of blogger.com (so, http://www.joancromley.wordpress.com/).  I'm trying to blog more, really!

Fabric bowls

I've been making fabric bowls for everyone this Christmas.  I even added coupons for a bowl of their color and size choice to some!  These green bowls are for the kid's teachers (green and white are the school colors).  I just cut 1" strips of various prints, sewed the ends together to for a long strip and then wrapped it around clothesline, folding the trailing edge under so it hid the raw edges.  The wrapping is what takes the longest, but it's easy to do while watching TV!  Then I coiled the rope, sewing it together with a zigzag stitch on my sewing machine.  Presto!  Bowls for everyone!  I did Christmas prints for the other presents.  It's interesting how the prints look so different once they're wrapped.  I had some red and green large design fabric that I thought was cool, but it didn't lend itself to small projects easily.  Cut it into strips, wrap it and it was a perfect blender between more red or green prints!  I'm really hoping they take me up on the coupons, so I can try different colors.

 

I sew, I sew...

Still trying to get Christmas presents done.  The good news is I seem to have stopped breaking needles (yeah!).  As always, I have way more projects than time will allow.  I'll have to see what gives - projects or my sleep!  I am finally doing a little bit of beading, a crocheted bracelet that was ordered.  It's a bit more bling than my usual, but I like it - it has AB finished faceted beads,amethyst triangles and pink and blue seed beads (all AB (AB=Aurora Borealis, a shiny multi-colored finish)). The large beads I'm using have a clear base- I might feel the need to try the black based ones in a bracelet for me! 

Diversions

I think part of the reason I've postponed blogging is I hate dealing with the pictures.  I know they really help you see what I'm doing, but they just take so long to upload and get placed.  So, I'll try when I can, but I'm giving myself permission to do posts without them sometimes, because otherwise I don't post at all.

I've been busy working on Christmas presents lately.  I'm sewing a variety of things, including my finger (just the tip, through the callous thank goodness!).  That's what happens when you sew without the presser foot in place, and trying to get things in place as the needle's flying!  I really need to remember to take my lead foot off the pedal.

 I'm recently hooked on the clothesline basket fad.  I don't have the books, but I have perused the net, coming up with some good info.  It's pretty straightforward - you cut fabric in strips, wrap them around clothesline, and sew it together with a zigzag stitch in a coil.  There are some options - cutting the strips on the bias vs selvage to selvage, turning down one edge of the strip so it covers the raw edge (which I favor) or leaving them exposed so they ravel slightly.  You need to use cotton rope, which I've found locally at our Fred Meyer in the laundry section at the cheapest price - they have the same rope, different brand, in the hardware section for more $!  I'm using up some of the prints I've had stashed for years (probably decades) and it's totally functional.  Flat, they make great coasters and trivets, or you can angle it as you go and make bowls.  I've figured out how to turn the bowl and sew it backwards to give a nice flat rim.  Yes, I can hear you saying, "Where's the pics?".  I haven't even taken any yet!  I'll try to do that before I ship them out.

My other projects are hero dress-up stuff for nieces and nephews.  Mask, belt, gauntlets, capes and shoe covers.  Lots of satin, and satin stitching.  I'm sure DH would love to have the dining room table back!

Bead work has suffered seriously.  My July BJP needs finished, let alone the other months I'm behind, and I already signed up again!  A few pieces I've been wearing, and decided they need some flaws fixed, mostly involving clasps.  I've been inspired by Silver Parrot to make the length adjustable with links (also has me wondering about links made from shrink plastic).  Now I just need to find the time, and my desk, to work on it!  I also have an order for a crocheted bracelet, found the beads I want for the outside curve ( I usually use 15/0, 11/0, 8/0 and 6/0 or 4mm to make it squiggle), now to pick the rest and get it done! Along with the at-least 20 something other things I need to do - like feed the cats and fish!

Trying... Feb, March take 2

Ok, so here's the pictures, in a form that should enlarge. I was trying to play around with uploading the pictures in html and then typing, but guess whatever I did didn't work! I've tried typing and then adding pictures, but it still adds them at the top, so I have to move them around. Sigh. That means the other post I've got ready to post won't enlarge either. Crud. At least I checked these, they should enlarge.

March projects

I've finally gotten whatever glitch my pictures files had taken care of. It's frustrating when the computer freezes when I'm trying to upload pictures! Now, I've learned they won't enlarge. It seems to have a problem with the pictures I took that month - when I go to load them, it makes IE freeze. Sigh!



This is a necklace I made for my sister. She showed me a picture in a magazine, I took a picture of the page and this is what it inspired. Not exactly like the original, which is good! It had goldstone chips, copper beads, glass beads in a couple sizes, charms and freshwater pearls. The necklace has 2 extensions, so it can be worn short or long (or in-between). I made earrings to match. I don't normally do stringing, let alone multiple strands, so it was a nice stretch for me. I've got one for myself on my project list now, and maybe one in bluestone for my Mom!



This pendant is made with stone cabs from a local valley. I got them from a mom who's becoming quite the rock-hound, and she gave me some cabs to "play" with! This was her thank-you. I backed the cabs with foil so the background didn't show through the stones. It's backed with grey ultrasuede, and strung on satin cord that's tied in 2 sliding knots, so it's uber-adjustable. Now I know why some of the beaders make pendants like this - they are fairly quick, a nice instant-gratification kind of piece.
She gave me a piece of petrified wood, and lots of clear-ish cabs from the local rock-hound valley, which is near to where she lives. I'm going to have fun seeing what they turn into!

BJP for Feb, March

I have actually been able to keep up with my BJP pieces so far (grin). It helps that they are fairly tiny! My button for Feb started with a red double spiral with a gold dragon charm sewn on top. I love dragons. I even had a big latex mask of a white dragon head, that I put on an armature and displayed like a trophy head! I kept it until the latex started to deteriorate. If I find another one, I might have to buy it to put in my "studio" (that's such a pipe dream!).

March's button started with a small ceramic orca, that I wanted to have leaping out of the water. I'm using my scrap beads (that's my challenge for the year), and don't have many color choices at the moment, so the water is greens and blacks. I did a small (minuscule) section of Ndebele for the "spray" from the leaping orca. What is up with spell check not knowing "orca"? Calling them "killer whales" is like saying a racial epithet for me!

April's button is started. It has a crab claw that I found at Padilla Bay. The girls and I hung out there one afternoon over Spring Break. The tide was exceptionally low, little brown shells everywhere, and we flew a kite that hung out like a balloon, just followed along whoever was holding it. A few days later there was an explosion at one of the refineries across the bay from there - killed 6 people. (Update - it's now 7) It's horrific to think about what those people went through. I will definitely be using the black beads I have left in my scraps.

January BJP

Woohoo, I'm still on schedule! This is still the first month, so that's a good thing! I have 2 months to finish from last year, so I'd prefer not to get behind from the get-go this year.

I have the incredible shrinking BJP pieces - they get smaller every year! First post-card sized, then half that size, now large buttons. In a way that's good, since I wasn't counting on doing this year when I planned how to mount the previous 2 years worth, and I just have room on the outside edges for the buttons!

So this is what I started with - a large wooden button (extra cheap Christmas clearance), a cardboard circle to put over the holes, a circle of felt to use as stabilizer under a larger circle of calico, and a squiggle scrap of felt for on top. My "theme" per se this year is to use up my bits and bobs that need a good home, and perhaps use some of those "I want this for me but I'm not sure how to use it" stuff. This is what I started with - the felt circle is basted on at the circumference of the button, so I know my main beading area.Here the beading is done, to slightly larger than the basted circle (now removed). I have stacked up the button, cardboard circle, and half a cotton ball.This is the back side. I trimmed the felt close to the stitches. I've turned under the edges of the circle and ran a gathering stitch around the edge. The calico edges were treated with Fraycheck, so they won't unravel while I'm beading.This is the finished button, top and side views. The side view is tilted a little, sorry.

This worked up lickety-split, I'm really looking forward to doing the rest!

Quick Ckeck-in

What's new:

signed up for BJP 2010, probably doing largish covered buttons for my pieces - once I get the last 3 done from 2009!

working on the hand challenge from BAD, turning out Way Cool. I need to find a clear acrylic base and rod for the base - this piece would be worthy of a competition.

made more crocheted bracelets, pink and green/white, need to string the next one (purple/red). I gave 10 bracelets for Christmas, got some nice comments.

I really would like to post more regularly, especially with pictures. Of course, I also need to loose weight, eat healthy, exercise and bead on a regular basis - I'm not making any promises on any of it!

Yet Another Part

The little local paper actually printed the press release from Land of Odds! Here are the pictures from July of Yamka's construction. I had a lot to get done yet! Her shoes and skirt were done. The cab for the turtle needed sewn on, and the rest of her was yet to be beaded! You can see in the pictures the pencil lines for her face. You can't see any of that blue material on the finished doll. The shots on my desk show something I'm glad I did - I made a banner of all the sample pictures from Robin Atkin's latest book, and have them right where I can see them for constant reminders of different ways to use beads. Sometimes I just seem to get in a rut, doing the same pattern, and looking at that helps break me - "oh, yeah, a bugle path would look great, or what about a row of those 8 oughts flat". I still haven't tried a pinwheel flower, though I really want to! I just haven't had the right place for one yet. If you haven't voted yet, please go to the Land of Odds website and look at the great entries!

Doll Competition press release

TOPIC: Joan M. Cromley of Sedro Woolley, WashingtonSelected Semi-FinalistAll Dolled Up: Beaded Art Doll CompetitionView, Vote and Evaluate These Beaded Art Dolls On-line Through 1/15/10www.landofodds.com/store/alldolledup2009contest.htm
"Yamka Wuti Kachina" by Joan M. Cromley


Fourth Bi- Annual, 2009
ALL DOLLED UP:
BEADED ART DOLL COMPETITION
Theme: Earthen Mothers
Presented by:
Land of Odds, Be Dazzled Beads, The Open Windows Gallery, and
The Center for Beadwork & Jewelry Art718 Thompson Lane, Ste 123, Nashville, TN 37204615-292-0610Contact: Warren S. Feldwarren@landofodds.com

More information at:www.landofodds.com/store/alldolledup.htm


Synopsis:Joan M. Cromley, of Sedro Woolley, Washington, and her doll "Yamka Wuti Kachina", selected as 1 of 6 semi-finalists in our national Beaded Art Doll Competition.
Creating a Beaded Art Doll requires an extraordinary mix of multi-media talents by the successful artist. It involves the design of a 3-dimensional doll form. It requires an imaginative application and manipulation of beads resulting in a tactile, visual and emotional representation of the artist’s goals. This year, these goals are focused on the theme: EARTHEN MOTHER
The Fourth Bi-Annual 2009 All Dolled Up: Beaded Art Doll Competition -- sponsored by Land of Odds, Be Dazzled Beads, The Open Window Gallery and The Center for Beadwork & Jewelry Arts in Nashville, TN -- sought out beaded art doll artists nationwide. This competition primarily focuses on the design skills of the doll artists; it’s not merely a beauty pageant.
Six semi-finalists from across the country were chosen by a panel of experts from The Center for Beadwork & Jewelry Arts from 12 wonderful entries.

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.

Yamka Wuti, part 1

Now that I'm officially allowed to start sharing pictures, I figured I'd start close to the beginning! These pictures were taken 5/28. The phoenix and butterfly were stitched separately, then added to her skirt. I stitched the phoenix body with additional layers of felt for the body, then did a layer of fringe on the wings and tail. The butterfly picture is before stitching, showing the layers of felt. I'll stitch the outline, tack down the pieces of felt, do the beadwork and remove the outline stitches. I've learned that trimming the pieces with the blade of the scissors against the beads, so it cuts one blade-width away, allows me room to sew one row of beads to anchor the piece to the foundation (in this case, the skirt piece). I cut paper patterns in this case, making sure they fit in the area of the skirt that they needed to.

On my other projects, I was cutting the pieces of felt to fit the design, tacking them on the foundation, and then beading. I've learned that doing it as a separate piece allows me to let the beads dictate the form better, so it's more even. It's also easier to do it in layers than to try to get everything even and then realize half-way through the beadwork that it's off by half a beadwidth on one side.

All Dolled Up press release

http://blog.landofodds.com/2009/10/02/all-dolled-up-beaded-art-doll-competition-2/

It has pictures of all 6 finalists, and snippets of the stories. I am so glad Sulia took so long that I changed tactics, since there's another tree spirit, very well done (Willow). Mine is at the very bottom. I felt a little wierd sending her off, but I'm just tickled that she made the cut!

skill vs vision

While I was recently sick, I spent some time channel-surfing (the only thing my brain could handle). I chanced upon The Runway Project, where designers compete against each other for a shot at the big time. The particular challenge they faced was to make a costume for an imaginary film, done in a certain genre. And they had to be done in one day! They pulled the best and worst, and critiqued them. The best were really good - they had decided on a story, and the costume fit the story. The craftsmanship was good, and the costume's added to their story. The worst were ho-hum, couldn't tell where they fit in any story. But what struck me was a judge's comment - "She has good skills, but she doesn't have a vision" or something similar. How many times have we made something by following someone's pattern, or while you're making a piece you're just going through the motions? Are those pieces really art? When a piece talks to you, tells you what it's story is, and you manage to make something that really reflects that story, it just sings! It's made me affirm to myself, that what I make should have a story, that everything about it should reflect/add to that story. That my "major" pieces should not just reflect my beading skills, but be able to let someone see my vision about that piece. Skills only get you so far -the vision is key!

Split Salmon, revisited

The split salmon cuff that I finished last year, is having a re-do. I decided the lining was too hot to wear comfortably (nuagahide), and took it apart. Now it's mounted on some canvas paper (Celitcat uses it), and will be framed. It's easier to see the difference in the sides with it flat, though the beadwork was done densely so it would work when curved -it's a little too tight now. Another lesson - larger designs get lost when curved, and I definitely need to use chamois or ultrasuede for lining. I'll post a pic when it's done.

Yamka Wuti

Four months later, she's done! Yamka Wuti (Flowering Woman) got entered in the All Dolled Up competition, just barely in the nick of time! Major stress, but definitely worth it. I was ecstatic that she made it in the running. Now I get to finish a stand for her, and send her in! She made it to the top 6! There were 12 entries. I'll post a link here as soon as it get's published on the net. Voting counts for 25% of the final score, so please tell all your friends when it becomes available.

Now I get to finish my BJP pieces, starting with April. I'll have some mornings to myself soon, so hopefully those will go fast. I've signed myself up for a hand challenge. I'm considering taking 2 copies of Jenna's hand, back to back, minus the thumbs to make an octopus. I have some green wool felt, and lots of sea-ish colors (of course - they're my favorites!). Hopefully you'll be seeing more results from me!

Inspirations

My mom has a book that gave me some great inspirations for beadwork. It's about flowers made by knitting or crocheting. The diagrams for the crocheted ones could really be useful to make them with beads - substitute 3 beads for a double crochet, 2 for a single, etc; or as a size guide for doing peyote or brick stitch. Sorry the picture's sideways! Some of the samples are very realistic, and done in beadwork would be stunning as a pair of earrings, or on a neckpiece. I would like to try some, and use them for dimension on some pieces. Another when-there's-time project, to file away for later!

In other news, my doll's got her skirt on, so she's about half done. The skirt was done with calico over artist paper and lined with chamois. I'm working on her torso now.

Computer Glitch

We're back from our adventure, and besides the usual getting back into a routine, I'm faced with a cranky computer and weeds that suddenly grew overnight taking over my gardens. The computer is slowly getting fixed, and the weeds are slowly getting beaten back, but that leaves little time for wading through the almost 300 pictures from the trip, and I've got a beading deadline that I WILL NOT MISS! So bear with me a little longer please. I'll post when I can, but it may be intermittent for a few more weeks!

Cool Quilts

Thursday I got to go to the La Conner Quilt Museum. This is not a "traditional" quilt place - the do have some, but the 2nd and 3rd floor has exhibits of art quilts - and these really qualify as art! I've linked their website to the title.

Karen Franzen's exhibit on the 3rd floor didn't allow pictures - her work is so unique! Layers of sheers, with different elements on different layers - it's a really neat concept that would adapt well to polymer clay. Unfortunately I don't have much time to play with that!

The pictures are from the 2nd floor (Sheila Groman)- there were crazy quilts, more traditional style quilts, and pictorial quilts. The hand quilting on these is fantastic! Her stitches are so tiny, I tried to take a picture with my thumb as comparison, but it didn't turn out well (trying to juggle too many things). It was great to have some unstructured time, and refresh my creative side.