Had you guessed yet?

Presenting....Autumn Equinox. Equal parts Daylight, looking back toward Summer, and Night, looking ahead toward Fall and Winter. Both bleeding a little into each other, as a matter of course where the Earth is concerned.

The Daylight side is warm, soft sunlight- the Night side is the gentle evenings of late Summer and early Fall.

Form and Daylight Face both gifts from Sharon 'Harry' Solly. Contact her at goatmom1@charter.net to ask her where to see her faces and cabs.

Night's face is Lapis Lazuli. She is every bit of 8" tall, and is the September offering for the Year Long Calendar Dolls Challenge at Beaded Art Dolls

Things are poppin' up all over!

Despite the lack of rain, our misty mornings seem to be just enough to cause a mushroom explosion. Many of these are over 12 inches across, and the local bunnies and other wildlife seem to find the large brown ones tasty. I know the white ones are poisonous.

I am so not brave enough to try them myself, as the bunny population seems much diminished in the last weeks- maybe the mushies, maybe not.

Anyhow, here are some wonderful pics.

What is it?

Here's a clue; it will be one of the Year Long Calendar Challenge pieces from BAD (beaded art dolls).

Dreamtime Lightning

The focal on this piece was found as a bit of rock in the desert surrounding Ayer's Rock, a sacred place for the Australian Native folk we call aboriginine. A friend picked it up, brought it back, and when polishing it, found these lightning streaks of opal running throughout the face. None of it had showed when he picked up what looked like a brown rock, but he felt that he just had to have it.

Back in the USA, I was visiting their gem and rock shop, getting to know them to the point where I was the person selected to watch over their shop while they went on vacation or to a show for the weekend. This stone called to me over and over, and I would take it out and hold it when there were no customers.

My friends gifted me with the rock, in exchange for the gift of my time.

Opal is supposed to be 'bad luck' if you are not born in October, or if it is not a gift. As I am a February baby, it is most fortunate that it was a gift to me, and I have treasured it as such.

For years, I didn't know what to do with it, except keep it with my other crystals and such. Thanks to Harry (Sharon Solly), I learned to use the TTT- Terrifically Tacky Tape- to cab around it, letting light shine through the opal bits from the back, and turn it into this happy piece!

The rope is Kumibeado (yes, there is another tut with better pics and easier-to-see bead colors, done in pdf format, in the works) and was finished over a 4 hour period, while listening to Dave Barry's 'Talks Back', ready by Artey Johnson on CD. Cackling madly from time to time, was I!

I wanted a more organic-looking end than either just a bead cap, or a peyote beaded end with traditional toggle shape would have given, so just went with beading over the end tightly enough to hold the peyote on (with a few stitches back and forth through the kumi for good measure), then adding a loop at one end, closing tightly at the other. It stays quite nicely, and but is easy to remove. Doubleclick on the pic to see it up close and personal.

Kumibeado- gotta love it!

Now I have to figure out a stringing for the Cellini look.....

Sylph is finished, free to fly!

The doll I worked with in her creation, Sylph, is finished today.

She flies in the window of my studio, bringing fresh, clean air to all she meets.

Her smile is one of gentle benevolence, and satisfaction at her Life.

Her trails are those of the gentle soaking rains, soft covering snowfalls, the chill refreshing mists and the quiet enveloping fogs.

She came into being during the Global Warming Challenge at Beaded Art Dolls, suggested by Robin Atkins.

May she find her place in our world...

New Beads

One of the happier things about getting gas in my car is driving right past our LBS (local bead store). Alice often gets in new beads, and these are some of them. I needed new bead colors ( needed is not exactly the right word- LOL) for a kumibeado class I will be 'teaching' at the Mid-Southeastern Beaders' Retreat in Nashville, TN, next month.

The 4 tubes of 6o blue did not photograph true, as I was impatient, and did it in the afternoon. They are more purpley, and look to be a true indigo, in person, as well as being Matte Lustre finish.

The 6o gold are RED-gold, with an AB finish, again, Matte Lustre. I am experimenting to see if the color or finish remain true, or will change with chemicals or skin. I don't mind using them on bead embroidery that will get little handling, but don't want to use them on jewelry or a doll that will change appearance as the bead finish wears off!

Still, the $20 I saved by getting gas before the prices spiked (thanks, big oil distributors in Western NC) was better spent on beads!

Happy Beading, all.