Barbie Boobies

Yes, the title says it all! Meghan got some Barbie clothes for her birthday, and they were on little plastic torso forms. I of course kept them, cause they look like something you could use for something. I had out my air-dry clay, and used the form as a mold to make this piece. I'm thinking use them as a form to mold felt, and bead them - a study in breasts lined up in a shadow box. A friend of mine has a thing called Feel Your Boobies on her Facebook page, I recently finished the square for the breast cancer quilts, and there are beaders I follow that are currently fighting the disease; to see perky little Barbie boobs seemed appropriate somehow. A soaper friend has ideas for the forms as well.


This is Ver's face. I finished painting it today, while caring for a sick kid at home. Meghan thinks she needs a crown. I have some broken jewelry pieces that would work, so we'll see!

Aiyah!

There I was, happily sewing away on a new shirt for me, ignoring the complete beady mess I had laid aside on the bed, when Louie (our completely adorable, frisky, crazy black cat) walked on my bead board, spilling it onto the floor! I had at least 10 different colors on it, in neat little piles. Did I mention how much I HATE bead soup? So, I've picked the beads up, have them in a bowl, and will sort them out (Yuck!) probably (better be!) soon. They are the beads for my competition doll. Then as I'm cleaning off the bed so DH can get some sleep, I spilled my sewing box. Thank goodness the pin box was closed! I was afraid of what I'd do to the computer, I seem touched tonight! BTY, the picture came from an article on spilled beans, hopefully I managed to link it to the picture!

I did manage to get a pair of pants finished for Jenna, and all but the hand sewing on another pair of pants for Jenna and a shirt for me. We're going to Georgia in June, and I want cool (in both the weather and fashion sense) stuff to wear.

Ver isn't finished (big surprise). She now sports a very bright, kinky hairdo, courtesy of some copper pot scrubbers that I dismantled. Her stocking top shirt is slightly coppery and just needs sleeves. The stuff for her skirt is painted, I just have to figure out how to make the skirt. Her feet - now that's still up in the air. Oh, and a base, she needs a base. And finish the cuffs on her gloves. And possibly a staff/scepter/stick thingy. And so on and so forth.

Deadlines Approach

I managed to start and complete a project! I've done a square for Jeanette Shanigan's bead quilts for the past 2 years, and needed to get this year's done. This year the theme is hearts. I managed to take pictures of the process.

I started with the required square of pellon, and some red silk. I decided on a crazy quilt look, and drew a rough pattern. The silk was cut to size, and fray-checked. I sewed the silk to the pellon following the pattern. The next picture is part-way done. I filled the spaces around the heart, leaving the silk in the heart spaces, but continuing the "quilt" lines. I finished with a small fringe with a lt blue fringe bead. It will go in the mail tomorrow. Yeah, something done! I can't seem to get the final picture to straighten out! You'll have to tilt your head.

This is my next deadline. Her working name is Ver de Gris (verdigris). She's for the ReStore's art show - needs to be 75% "waste stream" stuff. Did I mention I need lint? That's what I'm using to stuff her, and I've run out. I still have about 60% of her other leg to stuff, and her hands. One arm still needs to be attached. Her face is roughed in. I have a Tyvek envelope, some excess empty lamination from school, and assorted odds and ends collected for clothing. Anyway, I'm going for copper, new and aged tones. I was thinking of using old Easter grass for hair. I need to have pictures ready in 2 weeks, so I've got to hustle. I'll post the finished pictures, I promise. Needless to say, my BJP is on the back burner for now.

Running out of ...

my mind? time (daily)? beads (never!)?

Would you believe...

LINT!

Yep, I've been working on dolls (notice it is now plural!) and stuffing them with lint! It started as an entry into a contest for the ReStore, a building recycling place. 80% of the piece needs to be from the "waste stream." Well, what goes in my waste is different from other people's for sure. I made the doll body from a pair of jeans that weren't suitable for rags, let alone wearing. I started stuffing with the lint I'd saved, and my friend saves hers for bird nesting stuff so she gave me her stash. It packs so firmly, it's great. So I got inspired to work on my beaded doll, and now her legs are stuffed, and awaiting finishing work. I'm in the midst of making "shoes" for her from material that looks like rain on windows. I've run out of lint, and still need to stuff the legs for the denim doll! So Sue has decided to do extra laundry this week, so she'll have some to give me Friday. What a sweetie! I'm painting the face of the denim doll (with paints that are 10 years old!), and need to figure out clothing. I have various broken kid's jewelery beads, a Tyvek envelope, and lots of #6 plastic for shrink art. I'm stumped on material for clothing, but I'll figure something. I need to do it soon too, it's due end of March. And then there's Feb BJP - not started (see pic of fabric and beads -that's as far as I've got). And the heart square for the breast cancer quilt - not started. And my beaded doll - behind schedule.

What I did get done is a bracelet to match the blue and silver necklace. I'm currently working on one in blues and green, and have the materials to start one in purple and pink. I work on those while I'm watching TV some nights. Now if I could just remember to take pictures during the day...

January BJP

Well, I didn't get the necklaces posted to Etsy. I wore the blue one Sat, and the one circle keeps flipping over - seems I twisted the crocheted part when I put that half the clasp on, so it doesn't want to stay put. I'll need to take off the clasp and re-do it. I also want to check the green one for the same problem before I post it as well. I am half-way done with the matching bracelet for the blue one.

I did manage to finish my December BJP piece! I took pictures of the whole process, so pardon if it takes a while to load. I started off with the theme, and it took me a while to figure out how I wanted to do it. This area was hit with lots of creeks flooding and mud slides at the beginning of the month. I wanted to portray the mud slides, with rocks and trees being swept away, the water, and the snow that made things worse. This is the finished piece, with a side view to help show the texture.

I started by layering felt and tacking it down for height . The chosen colors for the month were a shimmery blue, translucent AB orange and some sequins. I started with the orange, adding stone chips and some larger beads. I used various lengths of stitches, inspired by Robin's latest book. Each picture shows another thread finished (yes, I use long pieces!). I added the sequins to show the water splashing up from the mudslide, using varying fringes. Next came rows of the blue, following the mudslide, which helped the fringe stand up more. I was worried it would be hard to work next to the fringe, but it wasn't that bad.

I used plastic pearls that I won't let myself use in jewelry (way too cheap!) but worked in this case since they won't get any wear. I put them in rows, and added green sequins on the one side. The green sequins are the footsteps my daughters and I took through our neighbor's pastures to make sure they were ok after their driveway flooded unexpectedly. Over 2 gates and a barbed wire fence - it was an adventure!

Necklace Series

Well, this week didn't go as planned (do they ever?), so I didn't get any work on my BJP. I did manage to finish 2 necklaces. I purchased some chip board circles and ovals from a specialty scrap book store a while ago, intending to cover them with beadwork of some kind. These are my first 2 creations using that chipboard. I did the beadwork on fabric, which was gathered around the chipboard and backed with material that had been gathered around poster board. The edges were then sewn together. The necklace straps are bead crocheted and have a magnetic clasp. The beadwork went pretty quickly, and I'm looking forward to making more. I have a silver and African turquoise one in the works, but I'm not liking it so far - I'm either going to embellish over the silver, or frog-stitch most of it (frog-stitch is take it out (rip-it, rip-it)). Hopefully these pictures will enlarge when you click on them - if not, check out my Etsy site in a few days, I intend to post them with some detail pictures as well. The face on the green necklace is made from air-dry clay, painted with acrylic paint and coated in 2-part epoxy for a glassy finish.

Soup Anyone?

My work space has been under construction lately. The wall behind my desk had to be opened to deal with some leaky pipes, so my stuff was put in the living room while the work was done. It's now back in place mostly - the desk is back but my stacking drawers are still MIA. Since the wall was under construction, and the window next to it needed re-doing (we are replacing all the inside casings and trim with real wood) both projects got started. Unfortunately, it hasn't been warm enough to stain the trim pieces, so we still need access to the window, which my desk usually sits right up against. In the midst of moving, this bead soup was created on my bead pad. I am not one for creating bead soup. I have my beads in little piles so that any extras can be scooped back into their containers. I hate the thought of sorting out soup - not enough patience/time. I also don't want to stash it away to never be used again - not enough money. This time, I know that all those beads (plus many,many more) will be used, so I don't mind the mixing. Actually, looking at it is pretty cool, and gives me some more ideas about using them (hence, I took a picture). It's got me thinking that maybe mixing soups isn't bad, leading to more creative results. But I still can't get over having to sort out leftovers! I've even considered buying other artist's soups to use for free-form peyote (something I really want to try). It's definitely a love-hate thing - I love the combinations, hate having to deal with left-overs. Anybody else have strong opinions about soup?

I've actually gotten a little beading done - I've crocheted straps for my other chipboard pendant, with just enough beads left to do a matching bracelet. I was having problems with the thread not being strong enough, so I doubled it. It didn't make the crocheting much harder, and I don't have any worries about it's strength. I'll post pictures when it's put together. I haven't put a bead on my January BJP, but it will definitely be about swirling water. Our area had a lot of creeks overflowing and mudslides last week - my girls only went to school 2 days because of it. This picture was in the newspaper - it's one end of my access to the highway into town. The other end had water in places as well. The snow clogged drainage ditches and diverted water in weird ways. It's back to normal now, so maybe I'll be able to post a finished BJP next week!