Still there :o)

For some time I've been getting messages from my body through various disconfort and even weird dreams, and so I went to the doctor, and the doctor found I had a woman chronic disease. nothing disastrous, but a condition serious enough for the Social Security to reimburse the treatment at 100%. I know I'm being unreeasonable but I've just realized that some day, I was going to die, and I'm feeling very afraid. I'm surprised because somehow the themes I was thinking about for my various bead/textile projects relate to illness.

On the other hand I was going to work on the remembrance theme for TIF. I'm old enough to remember the dismantling of the Berlin wall, the invention of the credit card (on Visa cards there is a holographic bird), the birth of my daughters, nephews and nieces... But this little voice kept nagging me. I'm also old enough to remember other events, like feeling that I was living in Hell and nobody would ever come and rescue me. Grace has courageously tackled something similar for her January BJP piece. I really admire her for that (amongst other things).

I feel I must do something on fear, I've been trying to do nice things since I began BJP and even TIF, I felt it would be rude to expose some emotions in the face of other people... But now I feel tiredness won't leave me until I face fear.

Apart from that, I'm OK :o)

Art thou an artist ?

Painting by Banksy

Have you ever wondered if you were doing art or craft or just having fun ? Have you ever stared incredulously in a museum at something that you thought would be better placed in a charity shop ? Have you ever stopped in your track with your heart beating maddly in front of an object that nobody seems to care about ?

If so, you MUST go and read the wonderful, insigthful and hilarious "Brief History of Western art" by Sandra Wyman here.

Enjoy !

Take It Further February

Sharon B has posted the guidelines for February's challenge.

You can choose to work around"what you are old enough to remember"or around the following colour palette.

Sumptuous surfaces

I have enrolled in Sharon B's "Sumptuous surfaces" course via Joggles.com.

In week 1, we must think about the design we wish to embroider and do some research on paper. I wanted to do something with the colour blue and began doodling around "blue eggs", a meditation on the subject of self protection. Also around tonglen which I sometimes practice.

Then, probably because Sharon B is Australian and also because I am reading a history book about textile dyeing, and am bewildered by all the weird interdictions that have been enforced in the past, I decided that I wanted to do a hommage to Helen O'Connell's discovery. She is an Australian scientist that has revealed 19 years ago that a special part of the female of anatomy is quite different from what we had been led to believe for the past centuries. If you feel comfortable with anatomy you can read more here. There was a documentary made on the subject which I saw a few years ago and dreamt about...

And so this is my design : 3 blue eggs and an anatomic border. The concept is : I am mother to two girls and protection of my young includes ensuring that they are in good physical and spiritual health and are not afraid of who they are. As a teenager I remember meeting artist Heidi Story in school and how she told us that she hadn't dared represent the middle part of bodies until she was about 40... Power over women is inflicted on their bodies and also on representation of their bodies. I have found it difficult to represent only the anatomy, so I see that I am not a very liberated woman...

January TIF/BJP

Sense of direction

This is my January effort for the Bead Journal Project and the Take it Further challenge. Remember I was going to do a potato plant using the colours of TIF and inspiring myself from this design of the website Tête à modeler :

However, January is the month of resolutions and beginnings. I have spent a lot of time thinking about Christine Kane's suggestion of choosing just one word for the year and explore what it means to you. As I couldn't make my mind, it occured to me that what I need at the moment and have been needing for some time is a sense of direction. So my little potato flower transformed itself in a kind of 8 points compass rose - that was the idea anyway. Maybe it looks more like an Impatiens flower bud.In the process, I took much much more space than for my usual BJP pieces, which I have found annoyangly small lately. Impatience, need for space, confusion and sense of direction have been my themes for the month.

I am also preparing for a retreat beginning of February, and this piece mirrors the one I did for October BJP after my last retreat.

Leafy bracelet

I just finished this "Leafy inspiration" bracelet designed by Linda Frechen and published in Bead &Button No.80 (August 2007). I made a few technical mistakes but I think it's quite nice.

Presents in the post

Look what I got recently in the post, aren't they great ?

Drawing by Estelle

Beaded ornament by Grace