Saturday, February 23, 2013

The Adventurous Egg

YAY!  Today is the day of the "Freeform Peyote Choose Your Own Adventure Reveal!"

The wooden eggs I found stashed away in my bead closet are 1 1/4" to 3 1/2" in size.  Seeing as how I was facing a time crunch I decided to start with the smallest ones and I plan to eventually to cover them all with beads.

 Egg #1:  Two different views:

Egg #2:  Experimenting with changing the beading path from horizontal to vertical:


 Egg #3:  Green! 



Adventurer Roster:  Visit these other blogs to see what my fellow adventurers have created:

Mandi Ainsworth - Adventure Guide
Karen Williams - Adventure Guide

Bobbie Rafferty
Sarah Meadows
Katherine Gale
Mandy Duffy
Leanne Kirsch
Jean Hutter

Nancy Dale
Judy Riley
Natasha Wiegelman
Pam Chesbro
Stephanie Woods
Romana Tschunko


Bette Greenfield
Mary Harding 
Melody Marie Murray
Shirley Moore
Marj

Sally Russick
Therese Frank
Tanya Goodwin
Christine Altmiller
Lea Paličková
Ivona Šuchmannová

Jennifer Chasalow VanBenschoten
Kay Haynes
Tammy Bowman  
Alisa Lehman
Lori Callahan
Tami Norris

Jane Kettley
SaraBeth Cullinan
Tami Norris
Julie Schmidt Bowen
Tammi Clapper
Cynthia Machata
                                                                                                                   

Friday, February 22, 2013

A Creative Confession

I have a confession to make, but before I do I would like to say a big "Thank you!" to Karen Williams at Baublicious and Mandi Ainsworth at Bead Circle for creating the "Choose Your Own Adventure Freeform Peyote Challenge and Blog Hop."

This isn't the first bead challenge that I've entered, but it the first one that I have actually completed.  I know that sounds strange, especially since I've been beading for so long and have had my work published in books and magazines since 1998.  But there it is:  something I've been secretly embarrassed about for a long time.

Every time I've ever signed up for a beading challenge my brain, my muse, my creativity, all of it, just shut down, and after an number of false starts I would drop out, drown my sorrow in chocolate and ice cream, and secretly be depressed about my failure.

The problem has always been with a spiteful creature I call "The Anti-Muse," the inner critic that takes over and starts hurtling all sort of abuse and insults at me until I give up and the little jerk wins.

There is an unfortunately predictable pattern here:  first comes the excitement and the brainstorming as I mentally bead up several projects that I think I want to try; then, after selecting the one fabulous project that is going to astonish and amaze everyone, and pulling all my materials together I sit down to start making my masterpiece, and...

...nothing.  Nothing except The Anti-Muse and a brain that has been wiped clean.

But this time something was just a tiny bit different.  

One of the questions the ill-natured Anti-Muse asked me was just exactly why I needed another over the top piece of beaded jewelry that I would never have the opportunity to wear.  "You are, after all," she sneered "only a schlub, a stay-at-home mom and chauffeur." At that point I was ready to quit.  But before I did I rummaged around in my bead closet until I came upon a box of wooden eggs...

And for now, this is where my confession ends.

Tomorrow is when myself and the other 32 participants are allowed to reveal our challenge pieces so you'll have to wait until then to see some pictures of what I've been working on in all shades of greens, golds, purples, and violets.  I get up and leave the house fairly early on Saturday mornings so it will be late afternoon before I have chance to post them.