Ahh, summer solstice...

"On the Cliffs" by Henry Ryland

...the longest day of the year, the shortest night.  The wheel of the year turns and the traditional anticipation of summer is taking hold... 

I adore this painting.  It reminds me to keep looking forward, to be filled with anticipation and a searching soul. For reasons unknown ~ as I'm not much prone to ritual ~ I'm going to walk today (with dawg) to one of our special places, say some thank you's along the way to leafage, birdsong and the glorious sea air that surrounds us.  A quiet celebration with only two feet and four paws yet one filled with gratitude ~ deep, deep gratitude.

Happy solstice, my friends!

For a beautiful photograph of sunrise this morning at Stonehenge in Salisbury, England, look here.

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June returns on the tide...

Had a brief stroll down memory lane this afternoon...came upon this sea glass that I beaded into little bundles back in 2007...my very first improvisational bead embroidery, the June page for the Bead Journal Project of that year.  It's all about water and I named it  Driftwood.  For that BJP I was exploring a sense of place, my relationship with where I live.

Size 4" x 6"

I love that I can look at it today and know  e-x-a-c-t-l-y  why I placed each bead, each object, where I did.  I cut my beading teeth, so to speak, on this piece.  Holey driftwood.  Perfect for pushing a bead needle through.

Driftwood needs some barnacles, don't you think?  And every tide should bring some pearls to shore.

See this corner - this is very special to me because it is, quite literally, where my beadwork turned a corner.  Those lime-colored bugle beads are surrounded by the first size 15 (extremely tiny) seed beads that I ever sewed onto fabric.  It's uneven, sewn all higgely-piggely but I am quite fond of it anyway.  You know how that is when you're really nervous to try something but then when you do you find that it changes the way you work...forever?

Me and size 15's...we're best buds now.

Back to this stroll I was on today...it began with an effort to look through my stash of fabric, see what I might have on hand.  That's when I realized that I primarily have a whole lot of Indonesian batiks, collected back in 2007 for the above project.  These may not suit an upcoming project coming in on this June's tide.

More about that - and turning new corners - is for another post...

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