Actually, it's my June Bead Journal Project. I finished it during June, but I wasn't sure what it was about. How can you journal and not know what you're journaling--unless it's some kind of automatic writing directed by an other-worldly spirit. No, this is definitely not spooky, spirit-directed, automatic beading. I did it myself, and I decided how to do it.
In the end, this page seems to be about repetition and how repetition--or maybe the familiar--can be comfortable and satisfying. I don't want to think that I'm in a rut, but there are many times when I enjoy the familiar. Music in the background is one example. I have fewer than 15 CDs, and I seem to play about five of them over and over. None of this iPod shuffle stuff for me, playing songs in random order, calling my attention to the music instead of what I'm doing. So it's repetition, with a few variations.
Technical Details:
The foundation is Lacy's Stiff Stuff painted with dilute Emerald Dye-na-Flow.
The beads are 8/0s, 11/0s, 15/0s, charlottes, Delicas, cubes, hexes, and fringes. There are more than the usual number of larger, individually purchased glass beads.
The stitches used were backstitch, couching, and stop stitch. Most of the beads are in what Robin Atkins describes as the "wallpaper stitch."
The page is 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.
I used C-lon thread in the color Seafoam.
What I Was Thinking:
Well, that's the whole issue. I was thinking a lot of stuff, but my thoughts changed as I stitched. Some of the thinking stuff resulted from an irritating incident at the beginning of June. (Notice how politely I put that.) But the irritation passed, and I moved on to a very busy month, which continues to make me wonder where June went. I kept stitching the wallpaper stitch, and I enjoyed it. By the time I was half finished with the page, I was quite intrigued by the ideas of repetition and variation. So I kept repeating and varying.
Issues That Came Up:
I began to see how challenging varied repetition could be. Interesting thought.
I enjoyed using these larger beads. They were part of a group purchased for a Hope Stone (see previous post) a couple of years ago.
The color of the beads signifies absolutely nothing, except that I hadn't used it before in the BJP.
It's interesting to see the limited range of values in this page and the May page.
So here I am at the beginning of July wondering what this month's bead journal will be about. And what color it will be. It's time to start digging in the bead stash.
