Sweet, sweet spring

An explosion of petals everywhere I look!

How I love this time of year ....

purple-leaved plum in the parking lot at the post office

variegated dogwood, 'Blue Muffin' viburnum, 'Midnight Masquerade' clematis, and a

spritely pink volunteer aquilegia in the front garden

a rose and her bud in the back garden

street rose gone wild behind the grocery store in Friday Harbor

and my favorite petal of all, snoozy in the back of the car,

riding with her new cotinus bush ['Royal Purple' all a'bloom]

and baskets from the Thrift

for the new studio digs  ...

More on that wonderful story in the coming month.

HAPPY SPRING

to all my pals in the northern hemisphere

(and a beautiful autumn to you southerlies)

bead sketches : month four

April's quartet ...

which felt more like a kind of poem evolving than a

weekly exercise in making;

more like a continuous thought that moved quietly from

one color palette to the next - which I will explain further 

at the bottom of this post.

Without further ado ...

Once again I'll note the source, or the word prompts, or where my inspiration came from

below each photograph (with links, if applicable).    

~ New beads! called 'Rose Petals,' which started as an exploration of mandalas but grew into

a green study revolving around this term  ~

~ I wondered how I might create a different twist on an old tradition ... ~

~ Off-loom bead weaving can be an incredibly meditative activity & a welcomed mental state of

mind it was this month, so I included a short journey with the freeform version of

this stitch in order  to practice mixing bead sizes & shapes  ~

~ In March of 2015, I had rather an amusing *failed* attempt at dyeing with madder and only

achieved apricot colors.  Since then the shade has grown on me & I've wanted to use some of

that cloth in a beaded piece.  A water-inscribed twig of driftwood, some pearls

and a few magic stones later ... 

: : : :

Now, about that evolving thought I mentioned earlier ...

I didn't realize until I took this quartet outside to photograph her that there is a certain

calm

running through this batch that I haven't seen in the others.  This month

feels like one cohesive journey tied together by an invisible equilibrium.  Am I 

making sense?  Its as if I'm starting to work out some triteness, some of those cliches that

crop up when doing improvisational bead work.  There was definitely more of an ease this

month, a kind of level of intention that never left me.  It's hard to explain but let me tell you

what I did at the beginning of the month:

I drew a card ...

a prompt card from my dear friend India's "wander cards for wonderers."

The words were

so

utterly

perfect 

I kept them in front of me on the beading table for the entire month.

It is where I held my focus.

And from that came a great, soothing calm

along with an unmistakeable affirmation to keep paying attention

to that which is most important.

: : : :

To view all of the  52 weeks : bead sketches  posts, starting with the most recent,

CLICK HERE