Wow, this last week or so has been a strange one. I was supposed to have been down in LA last week for a 3-day business meeting. I did a bit of scrambling to get stuff done before I was to leave on Tuesday. On Monday evening I got a phone call telling me that the trip had to be postponed due to illness. I was teaching a class when I got the call - when I got home that night I did a bunch of schedule rearranging and now here I am, needing to get a bunch of stuff done before I head down to LA on Tuesday. Deja-vu all over again!
Since I was home I managed to do a bunch of project "stuff". I completed the little vessel I was beading, and it's in my Etsy shop. Here's my Tropicana Vessel.
The color on the beadwoven collar really pops! I've often been asked whether I make the bead - usually a leaf bead - to go with the vessel or if I make the vessel to go with the bead. I made this vessel based entirely on the leaf. Sometimes I make a leaf to go with a vessel. And other times, it's just serendipity - I make a vessel and happen to have the perfect bead to go with it!
I've made a tiny bit of progress on my Bead Journal January Vessel. I plan on taking it and my beads down to LA with me in case I have time in the evenings to work on it. Here's the latest addition.
I'm finding that I bit off a lot more than I can chew on this one - way too ambitious! I think February's vessel will be a bit lower key in the beading department. But I think part of the issue is all the things I have going on in my life right now. I'm working on another felting project that's been very time-consuming and it has a deadline! All of the wet-felted parts are done now - I just have to make some glass objects to go with it, then assemble the piece. I can't show it to you yet - it's a special project that I'll talk about more at a later time.
If you know anything about my work, you know that I love trees and leaves. I take mom to Starbucks fairly often during the week. There's a tree that I can see way at the end of the parking lot when we sit in the window, and it caught my eye awhile back. I'm going to use it for inspiration - maybe on a felted item, maybe on a bead... maybe both! Here's the tree - you just might see something like it showing up in one of my Etsy shops. (I think I'll leave off the BevMo sign, though...)
And now I'm going to go add more beads to my BJP January Vessel while I'm plunked down in front of the Grammy Awards. Have yourselves a happy and creative week!
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9 comments:
That's a wonderful vessel and January will be too. Sometimes I've been too ambitious too but always am glad once it's finished. I love trees.
I am in awe of your vessels. What is your secret? i can do flat felting just fine, but using resists are not my forte. I have tried to make two hats this year, which look better on photograph than they do in reality, i had to reinforce them with needlefelting.
Thank you, Sandy and Jasmine!
Jasmine, if you have to reinforce them then you aren't felting them long enough - or you didn't use enough fibers. I didn't felt my first vessels long enough and they don't stand up as solidly as the later vessels do.
Your vessels are so beautiful! This is the first time I've had time to come back out here since I found you on OWOH and I'm really enjoying seeing your creations. I've made felted vessels and done a teeny bit of beading but nothing like yours - they are just gorgeous!!!
Thank you, Jill! I'm really hooked on felting - to the point where my torch time has dwindled down to only when I'm teaching classes... yikes!
The beaded collar really does pop on the vessel, love the combination of textures .
I tried my first "vessel" this week needle felting and then trying to wet felt it and can appreciate your perfect symmetry even more now....really hard to keep the shrinkage even for me and ended up with a very thick, heavy, misshapen vessel...but I return here for encouragement that it is "possible" and will not give up .
Thanks for the inspiration .
(I'm a tree lover too)
Those are wonderful!
What a gorgeous 'pot'. Such a good combination of textures.
Thank you "krex", "Cat", and "fiona"!
I don't do any needle felting when I'm creating the initial vessel, it's all wet-felted after laying out many layers of roving. My vessels are anywhere from 5 to 8 layers of fiber.
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