THREE SLEEPING MOONS 6

The vintage beads I found on Ebay are finally being put to good use!  I'm curious to see how the strong colors of the first moon will influence the other two.  Who's next?  Probably 'medium moon' ....I'll save the baby for last! 

THREE SLEEPING MOONS 5

I'm getting to point where I'm going to have to start thinking about the 'design' of this piece...or do I? Perhaps I'm hoping it will sort of take care of itself as I go along and I suppose that's possible but I kind of doubt it.  It's just that I'm having so much fun making it up as I go that I kind of hate to 'commit' myself.  Maybe I just need a little more time and  few more rows and THEN I'll have it all mapped out...or not!

SLEEPING MOONS 4

I can spend hours looking at beads, trying to decide the next color, bead, pattern.  It's a bit frustrating not having access to ALL of my beads as we are at our winter home in the desert and, of course, the beads or stones I think will best fit are located in our home in Kirkland Washington.  An opportunity for a trip to Ebay!

THREE SLEEPING MOONS 3

 

I switched the stitch to right-angle-weave in order to curve the beads around the right side of his face and cheek.  The little blue disks are vintage sequins I found on ebay; they help to transition in and out of the curves of his face.  I'm almost done with this guy then on to Moon #2!

SLEEPING MOONS 2

In an effort to get the beads to tighten around his head, I switched to a smaller number 11 vintage bead (top photo) - traveled around the face twice and then had to switch to a 15 Charlotte (bottom) to really begin cinching it in around his face.  The vintage 11 bead is close to the Aiko color except more transparent.  Unfortunately, I only have a bronze color Charlotte but I think it will do.  The idea is to bring the beads over more on one side of his face than the other.  I'm struggling with that now.....TBC....

THREE SLEEPING MOONS 1

I love to begin a new piece...the first beads sewn around the face always seem to change the character of the it in unexpected ways.  I like the way the small dark blue beads bring out his expression...I can almost see what he's dreaming!

Three Sleeping Moons

I have this idea;
what if I use E-6000 and glue three faces onto a piece of Lacy fabric and free-form embroider around them to create a small piece of art?  My bead choices so far is a mix of sizes and colors from 6* bugles, 11 Delicas, 15* Charlottes, vintage sequins, African spacer beads, pearls and some rubies tossed in too!  I doubt I'll use all of them but will start beading around the faces and see what comes up.

BEADED HEAD UPDATE 5

While art can be subjective, for me, creativity is the ability to put together an unlikely combination of ideas to find a useful solution to a problem.  A sense of satisfaction comes from executing a task in a technically skillful manner with an outcome I feel proud to display.  Unfortunately, this head didn't achieve that goal.

It started out okay but began to look sloppy as I tried to figure out how to bring the beads up the back of the head and over the top of his scull.  I had a vision of a head wrapped in tiny beads like ancient chainmail.  His ears were too big and made it difficult to navigate from front to back.  A more skillful bead artist could have figured it out.  Perhaps I'll give it more thought and try and again some time in the future.  

In the meantime, I'm itching to get to some bead embroidery using faces, heads and vintage beads.  

TO BE CONT....

PS

Beaders...please feel free to offer some suggestions on how I might have been more successful!