November and December leaves

I didn't get as much finished on these two as I had intended, but they're mostly done.  November is the Dia de los Muertos piece.  My leaf for this one is Cheiranthodendron pentadactylon - Monkey Hand tree - a truly unique and wondrous tree with a long spiritual tradition in its native MesoAmerica.  The leaf is small, in the lower right corner, but just to the right of that I beaded a seed pod from the tree.  The rest of the beadwork is pretty much just following the design of the fabric - I meant to add more, but didn't!  December brings out the Madrone (Arbutus menziesii) berries.   The madrone is beautiful at anytime of year but stands out on the hillsides at this time when covered in bright red berries!  December 18 marks the feast of la Virgen de la Soledad de Oaxaca.  I depicted her with a madrone leaf on her skirt!  She's still missing her crown and I wanted add some madrone berry clusters and attempt some bead depiction of the bark - that what's missing there.  So now I'm on to next year!

Beaded Tree

I went to a bead class yesterday to learn to make a beaded Christmas tree. As you can tell I haven't finished yet. Aside from wishing I'd started with smaller beads at the top I'm pretty happy with the way it's turning out. I don't know why I put such large beads at the top. I think I was just getting caught up in the colors! 

The second picture shows two of the trees the instructor made. Admittedly they look somewhat better! But I'll keep practicing and pretty soon mine will improve. I have to practice making wire curls - it's kind of difficult and painful on your fingers! I'm going to finish this tree and Thursday when my daughter comes to visit I'll show her how to make one and I'll do a second one for me. I think I want to do a blue and silver tree next but I'm going to use just small beads for it!