BJP - Bead Journal Project 2014 - "I and Eye" - March

Eye sing - it's SPRING

The sun is shining, the skies are blue - springtime has come!

Materials:

Cotton fabric, glass beads, paper beads, plastic beads.

I wanted the background to be 100 % springtime compatible, so I bought the printed cotton fabric especially for this piece. The sales lady, when measuring and cutting the fabric, said: „How nice, you are buying something for the spring season!“, and we shared a happy smile. That was in February, cold and grey, with just the tiniest hint of spring in the air.

 

Most words were stitched without any preparation.

For „Spring“, however, I roughly sketched the letters with basting thread,
otherwise I would have been stranded with no room for half the word.

 As always, a curious look at the backside:

BJP - Bead Journal Project 2014 - "I and Eye" - February

mEye name is SABINE

Here's my February piece, a true journal page. The idea is based on a little incident that happened on Tuesday, February 18.

We all know that language develops and changes, that's how it should be. Only, does language have to become poorer in the process? Let me pick out one example, the word HALLO (for English speakers: The pronounciation is something like "hullo"). Since years now, there is a trend in Germany to use that no-brainer for each- and everything: Greeting one another, calling after someone, reprimanding children, expressing astonishment, dislike, anger ... The intonation more or less indicates the meaning.

Which takes us back to my February bead piece: On Tuesday, someone called "hallo" in my direction in order to catch my attention. In this particular case, I made an exception and reacted. But I was not amused and made it clear that my name is Sabine, not Hallo. It didn't sink in the first time, so I had to repeat what I had said to make myself (faintly) understood. Looking back, I am quite content that this happened, because it led to a 6 x 6", colourful beaded journal page that I enjoyed making.

 Glass beads and paper beads on silk

Corner

Let's take a look behind the scenes:

 Reverse, fabric is still pinned to frame

Reverse, finished piece

The reverse images started me thinking about what I will do with my BJP 2014 pieces. I would really like to put them into a fabric book. The precondition is that I stick to only slightly three-dimensional work, with surfaces sturdy enough to stand up to some weight. Still ten pieces to go - we will see what happens.

Cheerio for today, and thanks for visiting my blog!

BJP - Bead Journal Project 2014 - "I and Eye" - January

Eye am looking at you

My January piece is finished at last. It only took a few evenings to do, but I started late. My motto for this year is "I and Eye".

I and eye - these two words don't have one single letter in common, yet they sound the same when spoken. I am intrigued, and I am wondering where the adventure of substituting "eye" for "I" will take me.

The longer I muse about my motto, the more I realise that it could bear more emotional explosive for me on a personal level than I bargained for. I will stick to the theme anyway, although there will be no poems this year, and I may not comment in depth on each and every piece.

However - language and beads are both great toys, and I will definitely take them and play. Each piece will show some bead writing, always containing the word "Eye" instead of  "I", as already mentioned. I will include paper beads throughout, older ones that I made for another project originally. I will probably also make some new paper beads for variety. Each  piece  will be 15 x 15 cm = 6 x 6", like last year.

It should be fun to make the BJP 2014 series up into a fabric book. To make this possible I will have to keep the third dimension of my pieces in check.

Materials: Silk; light, iron-on interfacing; paper beads; mostly glass beads; button.

Still pinned to the embroidery frame, reverse side

Still pinned to the embroidery frame, front

Iris and pupil

Eyelashes

A corner

There is a lot of invisible work in this piece: Extra threadpasses. Independent of the type of beadwork I do, I invariably work with double thread to start with, and then I just go on and on.

That's it for today. On to the February piece!

BJP 2013 - Here comes the Sun - December

Cheerio, BJP year 2013! I am thoroughly surprised to see where this year's pieces have taken me. When I started out in January, I had no idea what the details of my Sun theme would be. It seems to be a rule that, once you put your mind to a subject, it will develop more or less by itself. That's what makes working in a series so interesting. Nevertheless, twelve pieces to a series are enough. Let's move on and see what we will dream up in 2014!

 

Sunset

The sun is descending, it is sinking so deep,

lavishing colours, preparing to sleep.

But wait!

I must put things straight:

Did I just say: The sun goes to bed?

That is not true, let me say this instead:

The sun is on duty 24/7,

'cause there's no trade union up in High Heaven.

Imagine! No pay and never a break,

no coffee, no lunch, always awake!

During the day we get plenty of light,

a blanket of darkness all through the night.

Everyone's happy and freely admits:

Our beautiful sun spoils us to bits!

Thank you, dear Sun! Please continue to shine

on our noses, inclusive of mine!

 

That's what sunsets looks like from the reverse side. Did you know?

A few words of gratitude:

First and foremost, thanks go to my (long deceased) teacher, Cäcilie Ahrens, who introduced us ten-year-olds to the basics of the English language during one school year. We had the greatest respect for Ms Ahrens. A number of pupils even lived in constant fear of her. She was a great teacher who guided us with firm and, not so obvious, loving hands. May she rest in peace, although I rather suspect that she is up in heaven teaching angel-classes discipline, and testing their vocabulary.

Second, but just as important: Thank you, Robin, for nudging me into the BJP 2008/2009 in the first place. You know how much that helped me.

BJP 2010 - Heartsquares - December

While the last 2013 piece is prepared and awaiting my full attention, I will give this final 2010 Heartsquare a chance to be seen:

The fabric is a total blanc, so to say, open to any kind of interpretation.

So - here is the result.

BJP 2013 - Here comes the Sun - November

No long story today, because it is late at night, or rather early morning. I am very glad to say that I finished my November piece, so here it is for you to see:

 

Missing the Sun

 

How come, month of November,

that, for as long as I remember,

you and I do not agree?

Dreary grey is all I see

while you are ruling thirty days,

which strikes me as a joyless phase.

On top of that I know you've got

a friend on our neighbours' plot,

an oak – in summertime a beauty –

that now considers it its duty

to let its foliage tumble down

(decay-resistant, hard and brown)

much later than all other trees.

Oak Tree, you are such a tease!

And your acorns – lots of them –

don't drop down close to your stem,

no, you aim them, one by one,

maliciously and just for fun,

at my tired, soggy lawn,

be it midday, night or dawn.

The squirrels cannot store them all,

that's why I have to spend each fall

collecting what you shed and throw.

Today I'll have another go.

November! Oak Tree! What is wrong?

The sun, these days, is weak, not strong.

Is that why we don't get along?

The pale winter sun

Some leaves of the said oak tree, picked off my lawn

and reinforced with iron-on interfacing

Not amused!!

BJP 2010 - Heartsquares - November

My October piece for 2013 is finally coming along very well. I just took some photos of it still on the frame. All it needs now is taking off the embroidery frame and doing the beaded edging. Having said all this, do you expect me to give you a preview? Ha, wrong! In the meantime, here is my November 2010 piece:

That's the fabric that inspired the beading,

... and that's the beading that was inspired by the fabric.

Thank you for coming over to my blog, and, hopefully, see you again soon.

BJP 2010 - Heartsquares - October

This fabric square is the base of the beading, although, in this case, there doesn't seem to be an obvious connection between fabric and beading in the way of matching colours

I did not make the netting especially for this BJP piece, it was a leftover from some project I had worked on at least two years before. In any case, I was happy to integrate it.

BJP 2010 - Heartsquares - September

The colour scheme could be a hint to the colours of "golden autumn". I can't remember whether I made that association back in 2010. Most likely I simply enjoyed stitching those shiny beads and hearts to a likewise gold-coloured, shimmering fabric scrap.

 

Talking of oldies but goldies: You might like to have a look at the blog post before this one on the subject of unfinished objects - Big Sigh!! Do you know that nagging feeling?

BJP 2010 - Heartsquares - August

I had fun with one of my best-loved colour combinations:

Nice ... the fabric is pretty on its own, without beads.

Nicer ... the beaded piece, with the fabric still shining through.

Nicest ... that will be when lazy me finally made all the raw BJP 2010 pieces into something finished, like for instance a wall decoration, textile-art embellishments, brooches, pendants ...

BJP 2010 - Heartsquares - July

The colours are white and silver, rather wintery, but as it happens this is the July square. Besides beads, it also contains something from the hardware store: Hexagon nuts. Shiny and new, they are rather decorative.

The prepared fabric

Finished Heartsquare

BJP 2013 - Here comes the Sun - July

I had this piece of black silk – the blackest black – that I wanted to use. How do sunlight and black go together? Not very well. So, what could be the theme? A cloudy day? Not dark enough. An eclipse? Still not dark enough. But wait ... WHAT IF ...

OFF! Sun and Earth going to Pieces

 

What if ...

life was no more teeming,

with all of us forever dreaming

an icy dream on pitch-dark plains

neither touched by droughts nor rains,

nor by sound or laughter,

even aeons after

the sun burst into splinters,

followed by eternal winters ...

What if ...

there were no nights, no days,

no colours – yellows, reds or greys –,

no light at all from any source,

just vicious storms and winds so coarse

blowing, raging, reeling,

nowhere love or warmth of feeling ...

What if ...

long after our sun's forgotten,

the earth extinguished, lying rotten

to its lifeless, frozen core -

somehow, one day, another door

would open in the universe

to eliminate the curse,

revealing worlds with brandnew features,

other suns and unknown creatures ...

... that would be the greatest thrill!

What a pity that we will

be no part

of that new start.

Finally, I want to say:

Let's be grateful for each day

that we are granted on this Earth.

At every moment it is worth

all our love and constant care.

Of that we ought to be aware.

This planet is not our toy.

Put up a signboard: „DON'T DESTROY!“

Some detailed photos:

You find the story of this shard below.

My favourite shard because it comes from a set of china used during happy family times.

Four colourful shards.

Bits and Pieces.

Leaves and Flowers.

The Poem

I wrote the poem just before a big thunderstorm broke forth. The air was stifling, damp and thick, electrified. The sky looked menacing. The sun was concealed. All sounds were strange. I had been at a loss of how to put my theme into words, but suddenly, in the middle of this threatening atmosphere, the poem came, and I had to grab pen and paper to write it down ...

 

The Piece

Materials: Silk, iron-on interfacing, beads, shards, electric light switch, wire, cable staples.

The making-of held surprises as well as mishaps, for example:

When digging into the boxes of my mosaic shards, I cut my hand and swore most un-ladylike. Good that no one was near enough to listen.

Every now and again, when I had forgotten to file a particularly sharp edge, the thread would snap without warning, beads would fly in all directions. Poor things, they met their unglamorous end in the depths of my carpet flooring, and finally in the vacuum cleaner.

„100 % off“ was a lucky-surprise find in the mosaic-stash section „Shards with Writing“. It is part of a plate that I bought at a junk shop for mosaic purposes years ago. All over the plate, it had said: „100 % coffee“. Unfortunately, I tried to be too perfect when clipping the edges with my mosaic tongues, and so broke the shard in two. But never mind, I think that fits the theme.

Actually, I think the piece looks much too cheerful and decorative considering the disaster it is supposed to describe. But what can you do when BEADS are playing the lead ...

Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a happy time!