End of the year

I have spent much of the day working on my January necklace.  I will finish it in January so I think that counts. I am pleased with the way it is looking.  It is fairly close to being completed.  Of course the final test is putting it on and seeing how it hangs and wears.  That may require some revisions.

Real World

Tomorrow the real world intrudes in all of my creative fun. Campus is open after the Christmas holiday. I have to prepare to orient a new administrative assistant. I also have to look for materials for a lab I didn't expect to teach. It is the downside of being the chairperson - if I can't find someone to teach a class I get to do it.

On the creative side I do need to take a break from my January beading project. It needs to rest where it is for a few days before I decide how to finish it up. I am thinking about my February project. The two things which got me through this last year were friends and family and my Buddhist beliefs. I haven't quite figured out how to represent my amazing friends, family and students. I have a few inklings of ideas but nothing even close to jelling. I do have a clearer image of "Buddhist necklace.". I bought this remarkable silver pendant. If I can download the image from E-bay I will. It is going to be much more of a statement necklace than I usually make. I want to learn the right angle weave. I really want to learn the cubic right angle weave but we will see how that goes.

I know I am working ahead but my life becomes crazy when classes start. I am also still fighting fighting an endurance problem so we will see how much energy I have for creativity. I need to do something creative every day to feed my soul. What remains to be seen is how much.

Update on January Project - Rethink the Pink

I have discovered a new design tool - the camera on my cell phone.  For some reason I can see the project differently when I am looking at a picture.  I can see the contrasts and flow of color.  With the choker completed I tried to arrange the leaves.  I didn't like the "flatness" of the way it looked on this picture.

So I played around with it some more and came up with this. I liked continuing with a different type of leaf and using the same colors.




 

That led to this.  I am working on some larger leaves for a focal point in the center.  I like the way it is going on right now.

Bead Journal Project

One of my favorite Bead Artists is Robin Atkins.  Her blog is Bead Lust, one of the ones I follow.  In 2007 she started a bead journal project - make a project every month, all of the pieces about the same size.  There has to be a bead element in each project.  This year I decided to join it and journal about my past year.  I looked at past journal projects and assumed that I would make pieces about 3" x 3" so they were something I could really accomplish.  I experimented with my first piece and decided that I am not enough of a graphic designer (don't think that way, have a hard time letting a flat piece evolve) to make twelve projects in that format.  I briefly thought about beaded dolls but didn't really want to do that.  I settled on beaded necklaces.  With each necklace I will learn a new technique. 

I have started working on the first piece.  I know that since this is a bead journal about my experiences of this past year different issues with cancer and treatment  will be the focus.  January, though, had be about the pink.  Any woman diagnosed with breast cancer automatically becomes part of the community of pink whether they want to or not.  My reaction to that was "I hate pink."   There is also a lot of controversy within the community about the whole pink thing.  The current name of the first necklace is "Rethink the Pink."  That is subject to change. 

The technique I decided to learn was the St. Petersburg technique.  I had tried to learn it before but never quite nailed it.  The major component will be leaves but each leaf is different.  There will be a couple of leaves with the traditional "breast cancer pink"  but each of us are different so I think each leaf should be different and definitely all shades of pink/burgundy/purple.

I haven't decided if I am going to put any green in it.  Does that make it too trite?  I haven't decided yet.  I also have all kinds and shapes of pearls to incorporate.  Here is a close-up of the leaves and a very simplistic preview of the necklace.  I am not crazy about the shapes of all of the leaves so they may or may not make it into the necklace.