The Taj Mahal continues....

I posted about my tapestry of the Taj Mahal in November here and thought it was time for an update. I have made great progress on the building itself - including the door area, which I think looks really good. All of the building has been completed in size 15 seed beads - fairly small.

The sky, clouds, trees, and ground will be completed in size 11 seed beads. The reflecting pond in front will probably see me working again in size 15 beads to try and put in a reflection of the dome. That's going to be a challenge that will be fun to see how it works out. The dome (which I will complete after the sky is beaded in) will also be in size 15s.

The other thing that is new in my life is tattoo #3 - I had the above tattooed on the back of my neck. It is the word "love" in stylized Arabic writing and I "love" it. Why this? All you need is love. Right? But why in Arabic? In the area of metro Detroit that I live in, it's a heavily Arabic community and I have known Arabic people for most of my life. I respect their religion, beliefs and many are friends that I know that I can count on (as I have friends in all religions and non-religions). In this day and age of mistrust and hatred of things that are not generally understood (why is it that if we don't understand, we must hate?) Also, it's beautiful! Why would I choose a Chinese symbol that everyone is choosing and having tattooed - I want something different. If you are in the Metro Detroit area and looking for a great tattoo artist, call Liquid Chaos in Dearborn Heights at 313-299-3435 and schedule and appointment with Mark Matias.

Christmas traditions

I haven't felt very festive this year for some reason, and according to a pyschologist on the radio, as long as you admit it, it's not an issue. I didn't decorate the house, no lights outside. I will say that I don't decorate much, but I do have trees, ornaments and display items. On Christmas day, I realized that there are family traditions that I miss.

For as long a I remember, we had a small angel chime with 4 candles.You would light the candle and the angels would turn and hit the chimes and a wonderful tinging noise would fill the room. I have one that I bought in Germany. My sister had one on her table and it took me right back to standing by the table when it was first lite, on the crochet table cloth that always covered the table. That made me think of a few other things:

Peppermint ice cream - Not peppermint flavored, but vanilla ice cream with chunks of peppermint candy. That was a must on the table. I actually found some this year at the store (and a low fat version). One taste and I was 10 years old again.

Money Cake - growing up we always had "Money cake" - it was a simple round cake with clean washed coins inserted into the cake and then it was frosted. It was mostly pennies and nickles - and a quarter! I felt I was rich if I got the quarter. Years later I discovered that tradition came from my father's side of the family. He used to mark the plate that the cake sat on so that he knew how to make the cuts so that everyone received a coin.

Metallic Paper Chain - this was something that my sister usually did. We have these strips of metallic paper, about 1.5 inches by 8 and she would put them together in a chain that was hung on the mirror that I now have in my house. I bet that my sister still has these.

Another item that was on the mirror would be all the pictures that were sent with Christmas cards. This tradition is one that I still keep. But as the numbers of persons who mail cards decreases, so does the number of pictures. Fortunately, Facebook handles that pretty nicely!

German Christmas Pyramid - I do love my pyramid. My deceased brother Jim bought me one as a wedding present for my first marriage, and I kept it. I should display it every year along with all the nutcrackers that I have collected over the years. But alas, they are in a box in the air raid shelter.

New Years Eve - Mom and Dad would have another couple come to the house for beverages and snacks. At midnight, we were all on the porch in NW Detroit with fire crackers and noise makers. About 1am, there would be a pizza delivery; provided that us kids could stay up that long. As adults, my brother, Jim, built a canon that would fire with black powder and make a wonderful noise. Sadly, we haven't had that out since he passed away.

Ah, a short trip down memory lane.

Inspiration comes from many places

Much of the inspiration that I get is from movies that I watch on Turner Classic Movies, such at a movie that I watched in November called "Queen Christina" starring Greta Garbo from 1933. During much of the movie she is dressed as a man - as those are the clothes that she is most comfortable in.
In the picture from above, this is one of the few scenes she is dressed like the Queen that she is. Barely visible in this picture is a pendant that she is wearing. It's moments like this that I love being able to "stop" live TV and really look at something. I drew the sketch below based on what I saw in the movie. The stamped metal piece is part of a "challenge" that the Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild is doing.
I grabbed some dyed Lacey's Stiff Stuff that I purchased last spring and cut my pendant out and have started embellishing my piece. It's about 4 inches across and is promising to be quite elaborate when it's finished.

Once I get my Christmas gifts completed, I will return to work on this and the Taj Mahal, which has not been lost and forgotten - It's coming along wonderfully!!

Mid-December 2011

Where did the year go? I don't really know.

Since my last post, I took a Maggie Meister class through the Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild. That was in mid-November. What a fun and entertaining instructor. We laughed so much. I don't think that Cynthia and I are going to be allowed to sit next to each other for classes ever again. The class that I took was the "Iside Pendant" and it turned out wonderful. Maggie's combination of stitches as a great "aha" moment for me and it accured in the first 20 minutes of class.

I've been really busy at work and really busy at home. I have been making holiday ornaments for my co-workers and have a small stash earmarked for different people. Hopefully this weekend, I can finish my present for the boss (who does where my jewelry) and a few more ornaments.

What's up in the world of Liz??

At Bead and Button, a group of beaders thought it might be fun to have a hat/hair accessory beaded contest and guess who won first place with this littl number??

Dot Lewallen and I compare our beaded handbags.

Excitment at Bead and Button sitting with "rock star" bead artists - Huib Petersen, Beverly Ash Gilbert, June Huber, Sherry Serafini, Amy Katz and myself signing copies of Beading Across America.

This is pulled from the Bead and Button Show facebook page - it shows
Denise Gillitzer Uttke and I talking about, what else, beads!

Bead Cruise 2011 - relaxing on the beach in Jamaica - ahhhh, lobster red tonight. And that was me, not the entree...

This necklace started out as a hat accessory and ended up a really pretty necklace.

Fatima's Fantasy

I submitted this to Bead and Button this year to teach. Now that I know it wasn't accepted, it will be sent to the magazines to see if they might be interested. If they aren't, well, I can always sell the pattern and teach it local. There are lots of opportunities in the bead world!

Bead Embroidered purse - made in the USA in 2011. It might be my favorite.

Taj Mahal Bead Tapestry

Above is a picture from August 2009, when I first started working on the Taj Mahal. And below is how it looked last night:I've been working on the Taj Mahal for over two years - on and off since August 2009 - mostly off because I like working on multiple projects at a time, but a comment on my Facebook page recently made me pull this out of it's hiding place, fortunately, all the beads I have been using are in a project bag. So it's time to work on it again.

Why the Taj Mahal? It's just a stunning building - very distinct, very gracious and beautiful. One of these days I will get there, perhaps when I retire (even though everyone that I know from India lives in the USA now).

The size of this piece is about 8x11 inches. The building itself is being beaded with size 15 seed beads in shades of cream, silver and gold. The circles in the sky are guidelines for the blue sky and white clouds. I am thinking of the trees being a little more dimensional, but haven't completely decided. The towers (minarets?) and the dome have an additional layer of interfacing to give a little dimension there. Did you know that the word minaret is taken from the Turkish and Arabic languages for lighthouse? I didn't either.

When I finish the piece, it will be framed in a shadowbox and will hang somewhere in the house. Of course, unless someone loves it enough to buy it. Many of my bead embroidered pieces are framed around the house - some are pictured on this blog post from 2009.

Collections!

Marcia posted recently about collections. While we all have a bead collection, I was thinking about other collections that I have: certainly I have a moose plethora (how many times came you really use that word plethora?) - so much that I have told friends and family that the moose collection is officially closed. But they still keep coming! Here are a few!

The first picture shows three moose tiles that I have been gifted over the years. They hang in the hallway of my home.

My "Welcome" Moose lives just inside the front door.

My Moose planter was a gift from fellow beader and traveler, Rosanne Garvison.  Thank you Rosanne as this moose hangs out in the dining room

Little Moose cookie cutter hangs under a cabinet in the kitchen while the cutting board moose below sits on top of a door frame.

Mr. Styling Moose was a gift from my beading buddy Sandy,

 who gifted him to me a couple of years ago.

Below is a shelf in my studio with:  glass moose bought on my Alaskan cruise in 2009, a toy moose from my friend Deb, a stuffed moose from Alaska, moose patch also from Alaska and a tiny jointed moose which was a gift from a co-worker many years ago.

Gracing the walls of my bedroom are a series of moose greeting cards that have been framed nicely

What's in your collection!?

September Update

I had a really nice post about our summer vacation camping in Michigan, and then our new travel trailer but all that is pushed aside by some news that really caught Alan and I offside.

Alan was laid off effective this Friday. With the demise of the Michigan tax incentive for films shot here (thank you Governor Snyder, I knew that I didn't like you), the Grace and Wild film lab had a short future. Between tax incentives and digital photography, film is quickly going the way of the 8-track player and it took my husband (and several others) employment with it.

Now we knew that this might be coming, but we were hoping that it would hold off for at least a few years so that our house would be paid for. It's going to be tight, I'm going to have to hold off on extra spending, shoes, beads, etc. We should be okay, it's the period of uncertainity that we have until he finds new employment.

Big Sigh! But I have friends that I can vent to, bounce ideas off of and drink with. I will be okay - although the dogs are worried about the Milkbones....

Here's the post that I started to write about the new trailer: About 6 years ago, my husband and I were very excited that we could buy a small travel trailer - a 21MB Ameri-lite. We were really excited. It was self contained, it was everything that we ever wanted in a travel trailer. At least, for the first few years. We made a few modifications - we took out the dinette benches because the storage under them was under utilized. Alan found a recliner chair that was RV sized on line and bought that to replace one bench, and my beading spot was in an office chair that we bought at Ikea (who doesn't love Ikea). Taking the benches out allowed for more room to move, but not much.

It's still a nice trailer - but Alan wanted...more. He wanted more space, he wanted a couch and a slide. When we went camping in July, he saw what he wanted. It was a hybrid travel trailer. A hybrid is a cross between the traditional hard sided travel trailer and a pop-up trailer (with canvas ends). After our vacation, he started haunting CraigsList to see what he could find. And he found it.

He found a 23 foot Surveyor hybrid TT that fit all our needs:

We could tow with our current truck
It had a slide (or wall what do go out) with a couch
It had a queen size bed for us, and a double for guests.
In bad weather, we could fit more than 2-3 persons inside - probably about 6 now.

Maiden camping voyage is this weekend and we can hardly wait!!

Beading Across America Book Signing Event

Thanks to the magic of the internet, one of my friends was able to find a picture of the book signing event at the recent Bead and Button show and I was in it. Thank you to Cindy, who has allowed me to use her picture here!!


Seated from left: Huib Peterson, Beverly Ash Gilbert, June Huber, Sherry Serafini, Amy Kaatz, Liz Thompson (me wearing my winning hat!)