Meditations In Shades Of Gray

I finished my March BJP in March, but I am tardy in posting it.

When I started thinking about working with gray beads, I wondered what people would think this color--or non-color--symbolized. Much of my thinking took place on a long car trip. That's a good time to think about beads. It keeps a grandma anxious to see her grandsons from asking, "Are we there yet?"

I see the sparkly gray beads as understated sophistication. I'll wear a gray, bias-cut evening gown and carry a gray beaded purse when I go out dancing with Fred Astaire.

I did love working with these gray beads. Who knew there would be so much delightful variation in what many people regard as a non-color? I loved the way the beads took off in their own directions, seeming to weave in and out, over and under.

Technical Details:

The foundation is Lacy's Stiff Stuff painted with a blend of black and white Dye-na-Flo.

The beads are the usual combination of 15/0, 11/0, 8/0, and 6/0 seed beads. There are some cubes, hexes, triangles, and niblets.

The only stitch used in this piece is the backstitch.

The page is 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.

I used Nymo D thread.

What I Was Thinking:

Gray, in all its variations, is beautiful. To smile when looking at so much gray is the triumph of an optimistic outlook and a cheerful demeanor. I smiled when I sewed these beads.

Issues That Came Up:

The beads wanted to do Art Deco instead of the swirls I imagined. I love Art Deco, so that was fun.

I felt so smart that I mixed black and white paint to make gray instead of using just watered down black. Maybe I'm learning something!

Part way through the project, the page looked like an aerial view of a rail yard. Yow! Interesting! It may mean that I'm going on a trip!

What in the world am I doing with about forty kinds of gray beads? I only used about thirty. Get a grip, Marty! Keep that bead budget under control!

After using C-Lon thread for February, I went back to Nymo (because that was what the gray thread was). I do like Nymo better than C-Lon. For some reason, it feels better in my hands.

In response to comments in my (long ago) previous post:
1. Carol gets the extra credit points for explaining grey as "tomahtoish." We midwesterners think of it as gray.

2. Carol and Barbara and Arline commented that this angular design was out of the norm for me. I did not think of that until they mentioned it. No kidding! I didn't even know I had a norm! They challenged me to look at all of my own work to see what kind of beading I usually do. What a treat to be encouraged to look at your work as others do!

3.In February, Bobbi asked if I were planning to work in a monochromatic color scheme for the rest of the pages. The answer is probably yes. I love working this way. I like to focus on the shapes, the sizes and the finishes of the beads. Plus I find combining colors very difficult. Of course, if I worked with a variety of colors more frequently... I have a friend who has a living room that is all in shades of beige and tan. I love going to her house. It's so relaxing to sit there, with limited stimulation.

I should also note that She Who Shall Not Be Named (See below to find out if you are She.) has been harassing me about the monochromatic color schemes for a year. Ok, maybe harassing is a strong work. She challenges me to move out of my comfort zone. See, dear, no bugle bead paths for February or March.

How to Tell if You Are She Who Shall Not Be Named:

Did you call me Shrimpmom when you were in seventh grade? If the answer is Yes, you are She.

Meditations in Shades of Gray--Or Is It Grey?

Gray or Grey? I always thought it was gray. But then grey started showing up in art related writing. Or maybe British writing. Whoever can explain why there are two different spellings and when each should be used gets a lot of extra credit points. But since the points will be in a gray (or grey) area, we don't know whether they're worth anything.

I decided to use gray/grey (hearinafter known as gray) for my March BJP. This has been the most interesting color (if it is one) to work with. I know that many people associate gray with dull, dreary, blah. But I thought about gray beads as understated sophistication.

You may wonder what I know about sophistication, either understated or overstated. To be honest, absolutely nothing. Except for how to spell it. But I wanted to work with gray beads anyway. I visualized a glamorous 1930s woman, in a bias-cut satin evening gown carrying a gray beaded handbag.

My first thought was to use some sort of swirly design to counteract any perceived severity from the gray. The beads, however, didn't want to swirl. Instead they wanted to play Art Deco. So what I have are straight lines. I'll finish this next week and then share the final result.

If You Want to Be An Athlete,

don't get glasses like mind. I really like these glasses. They're very lightweight. They're rimless so they don't block my face.

But they've broken three times in the past year. Last spring it was the left earpiece. That was replaced. During the summer, it was the bridge. That was replaced. This morning it was the right earpiece. That was replaced with an almost matching one the optician had in stock. A matching earpiece should come in tomorrow.

You may wonder how an ordinary grandma who closely resembles a little old lady would break her glasses so many times. I wondered that, too. And then I realized...

It's my athletic career. I play contact sports. Hockey. Soccer. Football. Hide and Seek. With my grandsons, ages 8 and 6.

The first incident occurred last May when we were playing soccer in the backyard. I was in goal and the only member of my team, playing against the two boys. My older grandson moved the ball down the field while my younger grandson distracted me. My older grandson gave a powerful kick. Blam! Right in my face! Who would believe that someone with my amazingly fast grandma reaction time could get hit in the face? It was an athletic anomaly.

When I went in to get my glasses adjusted a couple of weeks later, the earpiece broke. My excellent and extremely cheerful optician Mr. Steve replaced the earpiece while I wondered how in the world I could have broken it.

Fast forward two months. One Friday evening the bridge of my glasses broke. Just broke. I dug through the drawer to find my substitute glasses. There were two pairs of old glasses. I couldn't see very well with either of them. For sure I couldn't see any needles, thread or beads. It wasn't my favorite weekend. On Monday I trooped back down to see Mr. Steve.

"How could this have happened?" I asked him. He smiled and ordered another bridge. Within a couple of days, I was ready to start beading again.

Then one day last fall, I had a thought. Could the broken glasses have anything to do with getting hit in the face--in the glasses--with the soccer ball? Duh! Double duh!!

And then the right earpiece broke today. This time I knew why. It was hockey. Or maybe football. Or maybe hockey and football.

This past weekend my grandsons and I were playing hockey. We play in the basement (no ice and no skates) with a wiffle ball and plastic hockey sticks about two feet long. Our hockey games do get exciting. We were scrambling after the puck (wiffle ball) in front of the net when Blam! A hockey stick right in my face. Er, right in the glasses. No harm done; no goal scored. But I realized I'd need my glasses adjusted. Later we played football outside, with a football smaller than a grapefruit. But my amazingly fast grandma reaction time let me down again. Blam! A football right in the glasses. No harm done; no touchdown. But the glasses really needed to be adjusted.

So this morning I went back to see Mr. Steve. And after the glasses had been adjusted and cleaned and I was putting them on, Snap! The right earpiece. I am now nicely dressed in glasses that are silver on one side and bronze on the other. But I can see.

And I'm not going to give up my athletic career. I'm just going to speed up my grandma reaction time.

February BJP - Tranquility

So maybe I've been so tranquil during the past month that I haven't felt the urge to blog... Just a thought...



I started my February BJP February 1 and finished it February 28. In the meantime, I did a few other things, in part to delay the completion of the BJP until the end of the month.

I had decided in late January to use light blue beads and to meditate on the concept of Hope for my February BJP. A few days into February, I made two discoveries. First, the beads were sending feelings of Tranquility instead of Hope. I paid attention to the beads. February would be Tranquility. Second, I was working so quickly that I decided to slow down my beading. I wanted to savor the feeling of Tranquility for the entire month.

Slowing down was easy. I cleaned the house (including vacuuming!) for my book group meeting. That was snowed out so I was left with a clean house, a dessert, and a free evening. I made a couple of small beaded cards. I made three pairs of slacks and a pair of yoga pants. I temporarily perfected my pants pattern. I studied Spanish. I watched Olympic curling. (Who knew it could be so exciting?) And on February 28 I finished Tranquility.

Technical Details:

The foundation is Lacy's Stiff Stuff painted with a mixture of blue and white Dye-na-Flo.

The beads are 15/0s, 11/0s, 8/0s, and a few 6/0s. There are some lentils and some diagonally drilled cubes that are important parts of the design. There is one small blue heart.

As usual, it's done in the backstitch and the stop stitch. There are several rows of twisted beads.

The page is 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.

I used C-lon AA light blue thread. I'm getting used to the C-lon thread, but Nymo still feels more natural to me.

In a departure for me, I started with some segments of circles drawn on the foundation using a compass. You can see the resulting curved lines in the completed page.

What I Was Thinking:

It was very interesting to find that the beads changed this month's theme for me. I considered two types of journaling. My assumption at the beginning of February was that I would journal (bead) about my chosen topic. In the end, I found myself responding to the visual stimulation of the first beads stitched. Robin Atkins has written about some different ways of bead journaling here.

I enjoyed thinking about what tranquility means to me. Peace, calmness, serenity, harmony, peace of mind, composure. And not getting into a twit over unexpected occurrences. I like tranquility. I was glad to have tranquility last the entire month.

I'd like to do a page using grey beads. But what would that color tell me? Right now I'm thinking sophisticated but subtle. Maybe I'll start with a small pin.

Issues that Came Up:

Ok, so I ripped out parts again. That's ok with me. Because I create the page in parts, without an overall plan, there are occasionally sections that detract from the whole. I am very willing to "edit" these parts as I complete more of the page.

This size is working well.

I felt guilty about going so long without blogging. But I didn't do anything about it.

And I was rooting for the Canadian hockey team in the Olympics. Do I dare tell my grandsons?

A New Year--January 2010 Bead Journal Project

My January Bead Journal page has been completed. And, yes, I did edit my improvisation. If you look two posts below, you can see what the page looked like before I edited it. I'm pleased with the changes.

I had decided to do a page about the new year. I started with the assumption that I would use white beads--clean, fresh and pure. A new start. But then I realized that none of us start a new year without bringing our pasts along. The new year is colored and shaded and toned by the previous years, even before it starts. While we may not be able to erase those previous years, we can use our crayons and markers and paints to change the appearance of the past years.

What I mean exactly is that by the way we think about and talk to ourselves about the past, we can change the way we see it. We can change the way the past affects us. In fact, we can actually change our brains--physically--by the way we talk to ourselves.

And so if we can change our brains, it was fitting that I change or edit my improvisation.

Since I would be entering the new year with both the richness and the detritus of the past, white would not do. Ecru was my color of choice. Included with the ecru is a tiny bit of grey and some not-quite-pink. Not-quite-pink has a great deal of meaning for me. If you want to know more about it, read this post and this post, which contains the entire rant.

Technical Details:

The foundation is Lacy's Stiff Stuff painted with titian buff acrylic paint.

The beads are 6/0s, 8/0s, 11/0s and 15/0s. There are some drop beads, bugles, triangles, hexes, and three larger beads.

It's almost entirely sewn with the backstitch, but there some beads sewn on with the stop stitch. There are three rows of a twisty stitch, two tight and one taller. I don't know the name of this stitch, as I saw it in a Japanese beading book.

The beaded page is 2.5 inches high and 3.5 inches wide.

I'm not exactly sure what kind of thread I used. It looks and feels and sews like Nymo, but the tiny print on the bobbin says Belding Corticelli. I got several bobbins of it at The Dumpster Diving Place for 10 cents each. They were dirty, so I had to throw out the first layer of thread.

What I Was Thinking:

I found ecru to be a very pleasant color to work with. It's tranquil and relaxing, and there are a surprising number of variations. About halfway through the page, I found myself thinking, "This is pretty. 2010 will be a pretty year." I was a happy beader, and I could embrace and cherish the things that make my new year ecru instead of pure white.

And now for the editing business: First, thanks to everyone who offered feedback, encouragement, and suggestions in response to my question about editing improvisational work. As the page neared completion, I felt the diagonal lines on the left side weighing the page down. Weighing my year down. I decided I could take action to prevent that. So I edited my page the same way I try to remember to edit my thoughts. I didn't erase it; I edited it.

Issues that Came Up:

I had a terrible time deciding what size to make my pages this year, so I decided to go with a 2.75 inch square, the same as last year. I cut the Stiff Stuff, painted it, and basted the outline on the Stuff. When it came time to stitch, I couldn't do it. I needed a new size for a new year. A rectangle 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches fit on the already cut piece of Stuff. So that was it.

Every time I use acrylic paint on fabric or Stiff Stuff, I am reminded that it makes the fabric or Stiff Stuff harder to needle. You'd think I could remember that.


Thread Update: According to this website, Belding Corticelli makes Nymo thread.

I'm excited about starting my February page next week. I've already picked out the colors, and this afternoon I'll paint the Stiff Stuff. But this time, I'll dilute the paint first.

How Old Is This Zipper?

I have a lot of zippers. More than I need to last a lifetime. A fair number of those zippers are more than 30 years old.

From 1969 to 1978, we lived in Meadville, Pennsylvania. At that time the headquarters of Talon was in Meadville, and Meadville was known as "The Home of the Hookless Fastener." Talon was a (the?) major zipper producer in the US, and one of our neighbors was an engineer at Talon. At the factory, there apparently was a box of not-quite-perfect zippers, and employees were allowed to take what they needed. Our neighbors knew that I sewed, and the engineer would bring me reject zippers from time to time. These zippers were perfectly functional. There might be a misweave in the zipper tape or the zipper stop might be put on backwards. Occasionally the color of the teeth did not match the color of the tape. These zippers were not packaged. I have a pretty good group of unpackaged zippers.

I also have a nice collection of packaged zippers from the last millennium, and this zipper is one of them. Some of them were mine to start with, some came from my mother's stash, and some came from thrift stores. I don't know exactly how old this zipper is, but there are a few clues that a zipper detective could use to find out.

Look at the top picture. This zipper is priced at 50 cents. It's a bargain! Today a 12 inch zipper would cost more than three times as much. You wouldn't even need a zipper detective to determine when a 12 inch zipper cost 50 cents. All you would need would be an economist and/or a statistician and information about the rate of inflation. If you are one of those persons, go for it! When did this kind of zipper cost 50 cents?



Look at the next picture. The package says that the coils are two continuous nylon coils, and there is a warning printed on the zipper tape about using a hot iron. I don't remember ever seeing this warning on a zipper tape before, but I don't think that means the zipper is a new-fangled 21st century item. Today polyester is used instead of nylon in zippers. I know I shouldn't use a very hot iron on these zippers, but I don't pay much attention to my iron temperature. I've never melted a zipper.



The last picture explains that the zipper is "Magically Self-Healing." This was a new concept when the nylon coil zippers first came out. Anyone who has tried to repair a metal zipper and ended up using rude language understands the appeal of magical self-healing. Note also that the second numbered point says strong. This is also important. Some of the early nylon coil zippers were magically self-splitting.



So how old is this zipper? Late 60s or early 70s?

Want to know more about this history of the zipper (and who wouldn't)? Check out this American Heritage article by Robert Friedel. After you read it, you may qualify as a zipper detective.

This zipper, whatever its age, is going into a pair of khaki slacks.

Editing an Improvisation

Can an improvisational work be edited? If it is edited, is it still improvisational?

The work in question is my January Bead Journal page, as pictured. Maybe it's done, and maybe it's not done.

It's improvisational bead embroidery--embroidery done without a plan. It develops as it is stitched, until the page is covered. The page is now covered, and the question is whether or not it can be edited and revised--ripped out and re-stitched--and still maintain the character of improvisation.

My considerations:
1. The page does not look balanced to me. I can visualize a couple of changes that would improve the page. After the eighth grade, anything I've learned about art has come from books. I don't have a natural feel for what would be balanced and what wouldn't. So when I improvise, sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't.

2. The unbalanced page conveys a different impression than what I was feeling and thinking as I stitched it. That leaves me mildly annoyed. It's not a true journal of this month. Or is it? (The meaning of this page will be revealed later.)

3. I am perfectly comfortable ripping stuff out. Lots of stuff. I personally believe that every needleworker should have a seam ripper in every room. I have six seam rippers. That leaves the bathrooms without seam rippers, which I think is probably ok. If I had all the thread I have ripped out rolled into a ball, it would squish quite a number of people when it rolled down a hill.

4. I already ripped out some beads. But that was before the page was covered. Can I rip out more now that it may be finished?

So here's the deal. Nothing is going to happen this morning. Later in the day, maybe. Stay tuned...