MARCH BEAD JOURNAL PROJECT PIECE

Mad March Hares

We have a saying in the UK 'mad as a March hare'. It derives from the behaviour of hares in their breeding season, which starts here in March. They appear to box each other and jump in the air. If you get up early, you might be lucky enough to see them leaping about in a meadow. I've only seen hares 'boxing' once and that was a long time ago.

I've used 'boxing' hares as my theme for March but, being a geriatric martial artist, I've changed their sport and awarded them both black belts! I've tried to represent the idea of the Vernal Equinox (20th March this year) by balancing day & night, sun & moon, silver and gold. The sun and moon designs on the hares' bodies were influenced by Huichol Indian beadwork.

I made a lot of mistakes along the way. Painting the cotton with acrylics and not washing it out (as I've done previously to get a lighter effect) made it very difficult to get the needle through. Fabric paints would no doubt work better, but I wanted to use what I had to hand. I should also have painted the shapes of the hares black before beading them. The gold and silver beads look different on the dark and light backgrounds and the hares look a bit transparent. There were all sorts of other little problems, but I won't draw your attention to them! Hopefully I won't make the same mistakes again.

The beads I used for the edging are from a broken rope of jet beads that belonged to my great-grandmother. I hope she would be amused that I've recycled them in this way!