I've been busy this week!!

As I work more on Ganesha, I am getting happier and happier with the results. Ganesha is a happy piece! I was at a series of workshops this week that are put on by the Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild and had the opportunity to show this piece to several members who "oohed" and "aahed" appropriately over it. Ganesha just looks happy, and I feel really good when I work on this piece.

My friend, Sharon Hessoun drove up from Akron, Ohio to take classes with the guild and spend time with her dogfriend, Molly. Sharon took classes from Wednesday through Sunday - then hearing the weather forecast for freezing rain - drove home ahead of the storm. We were planning on going to dinner at La Shish Restaurant, Sharon's favorite place in our area - the piping hot pitas delivered to the table with the garlic paste are worth a drive from anywhere in the country!

One of the classes that I had the opportunity to take was with bead artist Marcia DeCoster who taught "Cuffed Elegance" which is a free-form peyote bracelet with folds and splits and lots of craziness (thanks to Little Bear for that word - it really is the correct word for this awesome bracelet). I used size 8 beads, size 11s, hexes, cubes, triangles and everything else in my bead box! This piece is mostly in the khaki greens, but with pink and purple thrown in - just a touch of red. Putting the bracelet resulted in one of those "D'uh, why didn't I think of that?" moments! If I do say so myself, it turned out awesome!


My other class was to learn these components to make the "Terracita" bracelet, also by Marcia DeCoster. Using size 11 and 15 seed beads, crystals, and pearls to make these awesome components to start the bracelet. I love it.

Ganesha - gets crowned!

Ganesha is a happier Deity today! He was crowned yesterday and today he feel like a shining star! I used a gold plated daisy spacers to add lots of texture and richness to his crown. Now I just have the background to complete in the silver lined gold beads. I am using these again for a couple of reasons:

• I like the richness of the beads.
  
• I like the way that they appear different colours when light hits them.
  
• I purchased 1/4 kilo of them when I was scheduled to teach a class and I was making kits. The class was cancelled and I have 1/4 kilo of these beads.

Looking ahead to my next projects, I am thinking of a picture of Casie - my dog on some rocks - put together very similar to projects ala "The Lone Beader" with layering, etc. I do have to get more colours of 15's to complete the dog - so that will wait for a while.

I am also working on my largest flat bead embroidery piece - It's going to be called (at least for now) "North American meets South America" and it's 8 inches high by 17 inches wide. I know, I know - I really need to get a life!!!

Ganesha - gets happy feet!

That's a better picture - Ganesha now has happier feet - and they are certainly better looking than my first attempt at beading his poor feet. The next step is going to be his crown. After doing a "Google" search for Ganesha images on the computer, Sunil and I found out that there were 40,600 images to search from, and that his crown is actually very ornate - which I will try and reflect that in my beading. This will certainly be an "experimentation" (which was a word that I heard in a movie last night "Since You Went Away"- 1944 with Claudette Colbert, a young Jennifer Jones, an older Shirley Temple, Joseph Cotton and Robert Walker.)

I'm already thinking about my next piece - still looking for that perfect cross and still not finding exactly what I want.

Ganesh continues to evolve!

Ganesha and Mooshika have more colour than before! I am going to remove the feet and do them again - I do not care for the way that they have turned out (especially now that I have finished his hand). I know that I can do better. The garnet necklace lays better since I have gone through it a second and third time. I just have the finishing of the head, the circle behind it and to decide what the complete background will be.

Ganesha is coming along nicely!!

Ganesh - textures and colours collide!

Ganesha is really coming along nicely. He has some great colour, texture and lines. I added some blue sequins with Swarovski crystal flowers for a great kick of sparkle. Should his anklets be silver or bronze? Many decisions left for this piece - background? Moon behind him or just a circle of colour? Crown - golds, bronze or red?

Mouse is still waiting for his garnet to fall. I'll have to search to see if the mouse has a name.

Ganesha - gets a Garnet Necklace!

Ganesha, my good friend, received a royal necklace yesterday. It's 3mm garnets, brought all the way from his home in India (via one of the many beadshows that I have gone to). Ganesha was properly thankful for his gift that he bestowed one upon me - a weight loss of 3.6 pounds this week.

The mouse sits quietly hoping that a garnet will fall in his direction. Only time will tell.

Thank you Lord Ganesha for my gift.

Ganesha - gets royal colouring

Ganesha - a good start

Finished!

Star of David is introduced to Ganesha

I wish that this scan would show the colours a little better in this piece. The background is actually a pale blue and a midnight blue. The star is grey and hematite seed beads - or two shades of grey. The star is actually two pieces that have been woven together and sewn to the background of the curls. This piece is 7x8 inches. All I need is several more hours of beading and it should be finished. This is the most serious of the icons that I have worked on - and I don't know why I chose serious colours for it. The rich colors just seemed to work the best. I originally wanted to have a silver star, but after about 4 hours of work on part of the star - it just didn't look good, so out it all came.

My series of religious icons is growing. Last weekend, I was invited to a wedding of one of the doctors that completed his training in my program, Dr. Nikhil Goyal. As much as I would LOVE to go to his wedding - it's in India and way out of my budget. I took the icon that was on his invitation - Ganesha. I just learned the following about Ganesha: "By ancient tradition, the elephant-headed god, GANESHA , is always worshipped first in every ritual or festival. Ganesha has a pot belly, is short and is usually portrayed in a sitting position with one leg folded and the other touching the ground. Around his waist, there is a hooded snake. In his four hands, he carries a noose (human bondage to desires); an axe (destruction of all evil); a modak or sweet (joy) and a lotus (human evolution). His trunk, usually turned to the left, represents OM, the origin of the cosmic universe. Ganesha is the lord of all learning, the arts and of finer skills."

Obviously my Ganesha is a different model, because my Ganesha doesn't have a snake or axe or a noose. His trunk turns to the right. Sunil (another doctor) told me that Ganesha travels on the back of a mouse, which is why there is a little mouse in the picture. The bindi will be a red crystal and the necklace with the smaller red crystals as I was told that they are very important.

P.S. Here is a great view of Ganesha on his mouse - http://www.saigan.com/heritage/gods/godimages/108ganeshas/m4.html