APRIL BJP PIECE

This month's piece is all about self-indulgence. Being saddled with the month as a name, it had to be all about me!

There were some comments about animal totems which set my imagination going. I found illustrations of spirit shields and totems and decided to have a go at creating one for myself. My spirit animal has to be the fox so I started with a little portrait of the vixen who visited us regularly. The backing material has a design which suggests the spiral of life and was given to me by a friend. Another friend parted with some clear golden stones, which took on the shape of a fox's paw print. The portrait is edged with amethyst chips which were a gift from my younger son and his wife. Amethyst is my favourite stone and I love all shades of purple. The 3 little stars are 3 very special people in my life, including all their loved ones. The piece of tiger eye is from a visit to Cape Town at a difficult time for me. The gold ladybird represents some unexpected successes and an awakening of my fascination with insects. I included the gingko leaf  as it was one of my first efforts at bead weaving. The rest of the decoration took care of itself.

Apologies to everyone for not being very active in commenting recently. I bust a rib - taking a photo would you believe!!?? - and have been feeling very sorry for myself. I've not been able to drive or sit comfortably for a couple of weeks. Posting this has been a small achievement on the road to recovery.

MAGIC MOMENTS

Newly emerged dragonfly

Newly emerged Elephant Hawkmoth

Feeding orphaned hedgehog on goat's milk

Orphaned blackbird

I'm here and waiting!

More foxes 

Fox in winter - acrylic painting 3' x 3'

'Spirit of the Birch Wood'

Loomed fox head mounted on a silver birch log. 

The base is decorated with beads and a carved wooden fox bought in Japan

Sometimes I use a brush instead of a needle ....

on a box canvas:

A small acrylic portrait of an adorable Australian puppy

A large acrylic painting of 'my' foxes

or on a stone:

This one is life-size - we call him 'Livingstone' our trompe l'oeil cat

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! 

FEBRUARY BJP PIECE 

Phoenix

This piece has been great fun to do.  The background is a piece of old cotton painted with acrylics. I washed most of the paint out again to leave a smoky sky. I roughly sketched the shape of the phoenix and the points of the flames with a washable quilting pen and then sorted out a palette of beads. Once I'd done the bird's head and added the jewelled collar, the rest developed as I went along. The bugles and daggers seemed made for the wings and the tail feathers grew after the legs had been done. The flames are a gradual mixture of golds, oranges and reds using beads of varying sizes. The tail decorations were made  separately by threading bugles on to wire and fixing a flat paua shell bead at the end of each one to pick up the colours of the body. With a thick needle I made 5 spaced out holes near the base of the tail and threaded the pieces of wire through and secured them together at the back. The rim of multicoloured beads was added after stitching on a backing piece to cover the mess of threads!

Slightly tongue in cheek symbolism - I can imagine myself as the phoenix rising from the flames of a tough few years. The bird also represents me trying to fly almost exactly a year ago! I stepped out at the top of the stairs in the middle of the night thinking I was going back into the bedroom - we now have a night light on the landing! 

January Bead Journal Project piece finished!

If you look closely at the fourth branch down on the right side you can spot the pale green 'spirit' bead - there's always one!