I give you the "Taj Mahal"

Well, I certainly took my time with this piece.  From what I can tell I have been working on the Taj Mahal on and off for just under 5 years, yes - 5 years.  Why so long?  Other pieces kept getting in the way, but I needed to finish this.

I love the pictures I have seen of the Taj Mahal and was inspired to work on it from those pictures.  Several of my favorite residents from over the years are originally from India (giving me the inspiration also for Ganesha, another bead embroidered piece) and what better way to acknowledge the changes in my life due to them.

August 2009 through May 2014

I shouldn't feel so bad that it took so long.  The original Taj Mahal took over 20 years to build, and includes marble from around the world.

You can see progress photos of this work through time by visiting the link here:
http://thebadliz.blogspot.com/search/label/taj%20mahal

The Taj Mahal started construction in 1632 after Mumtaz Mahal died during the birth of her 14th child.  The Emperor Shah Jahan described the Taj Mahal:

Should guilty seek asylum here,

Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.

Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,

All his past sins are to be washed away.

The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;

And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.

In this world this edifice has been made;

To display thereby the creator's glory.

April Bead Journal Project

April's bead journal project is a little harder emotionally than any I have done. This is for my brother. My brother, Jim, passed away four years ago from complications from his liver transplant (received in 1991). I acquired a piece of snakeskin that he cured a long time ago and it's been hanging on my bulletin board since shortly after his death. I thought that it was time that I do a piece for Jim.

I cut the snakeskin to basic triangle shapes to fit on the background and glued them down. I bezeled around a 1907 Indian Head penny that I am pretty certain that he provided to me at one time or another, and I have put the picot edging that I have on all my journal pages.

But I know that it's missing something and I just can't put my finger on it. Colour? Jim wasn't very colourful, but he appreciated the beauty of nature. He enjoyed being outside, loved camping, fishing, and hunting (at least until his body told him that he couldn't do it anymore). Jim collected coins and stamps also.

It's kind of interesting that Jim will be gone 4 years this summer and I think I have been more emotional about it in the last month than I have since shortly after his death. Hormones on my part? I don't know what it is (I'm sitting here with tears blinding my typing - good thing I know where the keys are) all about.

But back to my project - I am going to have to search through my stash of beads and find some that Jim would appreciate being on his own month - kind of makes him a calendar boy, eh?

p.s. April 20th - After thinking it over, I must have taken the picture and written about it for a reason. This piece is complete.

Neuschwanstein Castle - seite drei

Und wir haben Schloss Neuschwanstein, with (mit) much (sehr) more of the castle (schloss) completed. This castle is being done in layers, with many of the towers being two (zwei) to four (vier) layers of interfacing thick. The towers (turm) that are not completed are a different layer than the brownish red charlottes that is in between them. The stone colour (farben) around the door (tur) is also a different layer. The outline that you see in red (rot) is placement lines for some of the trees (baum) that will be in front of the castle.

Not far from the castle is the great Bavarian town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where I learned that I don't care for skiing on the Zugspitze. When you are skiing for the first time - yes, even on what they considered the "bunny hills" - and you fall; when instructors kick their skis off and come running to see how you are, you know that you should be really hurt (I was) and that you don't belong on skis. I spent the remainder of my ski week in the resturant "Sonn Alpin" with Colonel Check, drinking hot spiced wine and expressing our dislike for skiing.

March Bead Journal Project

March! March is a month that is completely unpredictable in metro Detroit. It could be nice and sunny with beautiful temps or it can rain every day or it can snow the entire month. This March was pretty cold, with lots of snow; but we always celebrate the coming of spring. For my March Bead Journal project, I looked at the celebration of spring with my Goddesses that were designed by fellow Buzzard, Debb Pflanz. The background is a mix of vintage sequins and size 15 seed beads (and a few size 18 seeds).

Neuschwanstein Castle - seite zweit

When I was taking art classes in high school, my work with perspectives sucked. As an adult, 30 years out of high school, my perspective still sucks. The difference is that I don't really care now. I love my castle. And my friend Sandy called me a "queen" today - she titled me the "Queen of size 15s" - although we all know that the title belongs to her.

When you go to Bavaria to see Schloss (Castle) Neuschwanstein, don't forget to stop in a nearby in nearby Linderhof to see another to the famous castles in the area.

Neuschwanstein Castle

This is Neuschwanstein Castle, located in Bavaria, Germany near the village of Fussen. The foundation stone was layed in 1869 and construction was finished in 1886, after King Ludwig II untimely death. The castle receives over 1 million visitors per year, and during the years 1984-87, when I lived in Germany, I can't begin to count how many times I visited the castle. My first visit was during the summer of 1981, when I traveled to Germany with my friend Tricia. Want a great meal in the shadow of the beautiful building? Check out The Hotel Mueller and check out the views from the Sun Terrace. It's wonderful.

My castle is about 6x4 inches, pretty small for such a grand castle. With the background, I think it will end up about 8x10 inches or so. The castle beading will be completed using all size 15 seed beads.