July BJP Done!!!

Wow I'm really getting excited! I've finished July and now all I have left is August! The picture on this is a little dark. I tried fooling with it but I'm not much of a photo editor! My Mom died on July 14, 1999 and I wanted to do this month's poem for her. What Came to Me by Jane Kenyon makes me cry every time I read it. For me, it's all the little things that are the hardest after someone dies. I couldn't figure out how to interpret this poem in beads but knew that I wanted to use yellow fabric as a background because yellow was her favorite color. When I found this fabric in my stash I decided to just bead the outlines of the flower. I think it came out really pretty! The picture doesn't really do it justice - the beaded outline that looks brown is actually a pretty light purple color. So now it's onto August and then I'm officially finished!

What Came to Me

I took the last
dusty piece of china
out of the barrel.
It was your gravy boat,
with a hard, brown
drop of gravy still
on the porcelain lip.
I grieved for you then
as I never had before.

~Jane Kenyon

Bead Journal Project 2010

Probably if you're reading this you are already a BJP participant and already know this stuff! Just in case you aren't and inadvertently stumbled on this blog, I'm going to repost what I shared on my other blog!

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This past year I've been participating in the Bead Journal Project. It's a 12-month project where you create a beaded journal piece each month. When I started my beading experience was very limited and I was really worried because I didn't feel like I was creative enough to do something every month. I was also worried because I'm a horrid procrastinator and tend to give up on things. Happily, while I did procrastinate, I haven't given up and I've found that I love working with beads and I'm a little more creative than I thought. All very positive things!

August was the last month for 2008 and the next project year will begin in January 2010. If you're interested, check out the links below and consider joining next year. I'm definitely going to and my daughter has enjoyed watching me do this so much that she got interested and will be joining also. If you'd like to look at what I've been working on for this year you can check my stitching blog. The links below will guide you to pages of other BJP participants. Look at the work and hopefully you'll be inspired to join!


The Bead Journal Project starts in January, 2010.

Registration starts October 15, 2009 at beadjournalproject.com/reg.htm.

No experience is necessary! The goal is to create one visual journal piece a month for a year that includes beads.

Participants work can be seen at beadjournalproject.com/bjp.htm.

June BJP

I'm getting close - just two more to finish! June's project is dedicated to my daughter Jill as she was born in June. The following poem by Robert Duncan is one of her favorites. I was trying to figure out how to interpret it and asked Jill for her thoughts. It took her about 2 seconds to sketch something that I really liked so I went with that!

Often I Am Permitted To Return To A Meadow

as if it were a scene made-up by the mind,
that is not mine, but is a made place,

that is mine, it is so near to the heart,
an eternal pasture folded in all thought
so that there is a hall therein

that is a made place, created by light
wherefrom the shadows that are forms fall.

Wherefrom fall all architectures I am
I say are likenesses of the First Beloved
whose flowers are flames lit to the Lady.

She it is Queen Under The Hill
whose hosts are a disturbance of words within words
that is a field folded.

It is only a dream of the grass blowing
east against the source of the sun
in an hour before the sun's going down

whose secret we see in a children's game
of ring a round of roses told.

Often I am permitted to return to a meadow
as if it were a given property of the mind
that certain bounds hold against chaos,

that is a place of first permission,
everlasting omen of what is.

~Robert Duncan