Fire and Wind

Here are the two necklaces that I finally came up with for the
Earth, Wind, Fire, Water show in Gresham. Take in is tomorrow and runs until December 11th. Each one of these necklaces has been reworked, restarted in different forms and changed from the original ideas I had for them. I'm happy with the way they turned out and hope that everyone at the show will be too.

The Tao Speaks

While cleaning out things I came across my Pocket Edition of the Tao te Ching. I opened the book at a quite appropriate page relating to the past few weeks.

Chapter 75
"When taxes are too high,
people go hungry.
When the government is too intrusive,
people lose their spirit.

Act for the people's benefit.
Trust them; leave them alone."

Stephen Mitchell, Tao te Ching, 1988

Dreamweaver

This is my Dreamweaver. I purchased the face about 12 years ago and had this basic idea for using him. Originally I was going to use red beads in a rectangular frame, but that changed. I like the round frame and the black beads work better. The frame measures 16" in circumference and it is all bead embroidered. It took me over 300 hours to do and don't even ask me how many beads I used.

The piece is about color, texture and movement. Even though the beads cover most of the surface, you can still see some color underneath. That represents those strange dreams just under the surface. The mirror is the Void, the place we don't want to see and from which things come forth into our nightmares. The doll's hand is there because I like it and it creeps out some people. hehehe

I have put in some fun things in the background to try to find. A squirrel, a flower, a snake and a zen garden. I want to add more embellishment to the beads around the face, but that is a future project....and you know how that always goes. ;)

October Page - Bead Journal Project

Autumn is my favorite time of year and Halloween is my favorite holiday. Here is my page for this month. I made this pumpkin as a sample for a class years ago and when cleaning up, I found it. It sat on my table for about a week before I even considered it for this month's page. Added the moon and cat for the right atmosphere and lots of black beads, of course. The drop beads in the edging represent the colors of autumn and the falling leaves. The spider is there because this is the time of year that they spin and spin those beautiful webs. (I have this HUGE web on the outside of my front window and enjoyed watching the resident spider spin it up.) While beading this page, I remembered the fun times I had during the many Halloweens of my childhood.
Happy October, everyone!