Bead Journal January

I finished my January Bead Journal Project! My first ever. Yay.

I really love this quote from Bette Midler. It's so true of life. My art is the sequins and fringe in my life and it gives me a path to balance out those tears of human spirit.

Above is a side view and below is an open view.

The green is flexible polymer clay by Sculpey. The quote was scanned in my printer, flipped horizontally, printed on a silicone baking paper and applied to the yellow Kato clay. It was baked, and while still hot, I applied liquid polymer clay and adhered it to the green clay.

I was going through old sketches looking for something to symbolize the tears among the sequins and found a sketch I did in 1967. I cut it up a little to give it some dimension and then applied a gel medium to adhere and seal it.

Above is an "open" side view.

I think the transfer was the hardest part for me, but I like the experimenting with different mediums. Most of all I like being able to express something meaningful to me. This past year from January '09 to January, 2010 has been hard, painfully hard, and this piece says it all for me. Nothing is black and white, there are smooth patches in with the bumpy roads; times we go in circles, there a rough edges that leave uncomfortable feelings, broken hearts, wounded souls, mistakes and hurts we can't undo, empty spaces, dreams lost.....but then, there are the moments that save us. Those little beads of joy, glittering sequins of love and a fringe full of life's moments of gratitude.