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!