This is the Beaded Carousel Horse Lamp that I made for our local Bead show, and tried to enter it into the "500 Beaded Objects" challenge. However, after paying to have it professionally photographed and put onto a disc..when they received the disc they were unable to "open" it. So, I went back and had it done again, and emailed to them. However, it did not get there on time...so...Anyway, it took me 485 hours to complete. The body of the horse is two layers of beads. I wasn't happy with the first layer..too flat..so I added the second. He is quite a charmer if I do say so myself.

This was a cloth wall hanging that I made and submitted to a "Beading on Cloth" challenge. It was not accepted, the general concensus was that there was not 50% beads and that my painting in the background overwhelmed the beading. However, my friend Bea insisted that it was hers no matter what the outcome....so she is now the owner.

I was looking through my notebook I keep on the beadwork that I have completed and decided to include some of them here in my Journal. These photos are of the Hat, Evening bag and Gloves that were accepted and published in "Salon" A Wearable Arts Magazine. What a thrill that was. Origanally I just beaded the bag and hat, but my husband insisted that the set needed some long black gloves. Great fun.

Step two, I first made my mermaid out of fimo clay..I must say she turned out really cute but I took her out of the oven too soon, thinking I needed to let her slump around the buoy,....wrong...what was I thinking, its just foam after all..she fell apart and melted my buoys in places...so typical of my "doing". So I turned to homemade air dry clay...it flattend out a little more than I wanted so I re-did the clay and made her face over..the body will be covered with beads so I am not concerned about the flatness there...at least for now....anyway, I hope it all works out. I'll keep at it.

More snow!!!! It's really getting old now. Such a dark and gloomy day. But...a good day for the bead room and some quiet music. I am also working on a new project..called "DRIFT" Buoys around the Bay, A flotsam and Jetsam Art Tour. This is being put on by the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies. They collected stray buoys from around Alaskan beaches as part of their clean-up program. So, why not use them in Art? Homer is a very Art heavy... Art community, so it just evolved naturally. You could choose up to 10 buoys...which seemed very daunting to me, so I chose two. I studied them for several days before I decided which one to start on. I already had an idea for one, and now the second one is in the "thinking it through" stage.(Did I actually say I was ..thinking it through? When have I ever done that...successfully?) They will of course, involve BEADS. I am going to post step by step photos of them as I progress. I've started on the first one...TWICE! The first attempt was a disaster, but , using air dry clay it seems to be going better...at least it seems to be. They have to be able to be put outside, so I will have to use a heavy duty marine varnish on the clay pieces. The finished pieces will be installed around our little "hamlet by the sea" for a period of time, and then they will be auctioned off at the 2010 Coastwalk Kick-Off Event in June.

I wanted to include the photo I took of the Volcano this evening. Its a little hard to see but its there if you look hard right in the center of the photo. The water was so smooth and glassy, just beautiful.

Well, hard to believe, but we celebrated our 40th anniversary today. Time flies by so fast. We went out to dinner last night and had a great meal at Cafe Cups. I hope we make it to 50. Thats my goal, and I hope we get there with Jacks health holding steady. It was such a pretty day today, although we drove up to the top of Baycrest and looked out over the Inlet and Augustine Volcano was putting out a pretty serious plume that went straight up. Nothing on the observatory website about it yet. I am including a view of Bishops Beach and the sun on the Mountains across the Bay. Beautiful..no wind..cool but nice.