Common Ground on line: Painting Exhibit Opening

The Common Ground Class Schedule is now on line and accepting registrations.

Common Ground on the Hill Traditions Weeks 2011 Registration and catalog are live online now at

 www.commongroundonthehill.org/11reggateway.html  

I am teaching a peyote stitched beadwork necklace with plated leaf pendant week I which is July 4-8, periods 3+4 (afternoon). Photo of the necklace is in a previous post.

I also paint with a lively group of artists on Thursday nights at the Towson Arts Alliance. We will be having a show of our works April 15- May 14; opening April 15 6-8PM at the Framing Gallery in Towson 406 York RD. Come on out if you are in the area. Joanne

Beadwork teaching at Common Ground

I have been remiss in working on my blog and my beadwork in the past few months. I have had 4 eye surgeries since November and am just getting my vision straightened out so that I can bead again. I have made a new necklace teaching sample using peyote stitch to suspend a gold plated leaf. I will be teaching this necklace at Common Ground, a wonderful composite of traditional and non traditional arts and music held at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD the first 2 weeks of July. My class will be the first week July 4-8. Come live on the campus and fill your days with a selection of classes and your nights with concerts. Great for the whole family. Check out www.commongroundonthehill.org for more info.

"Three Apples" Update plus Peacock Bracelet

"Three Apples" Update:

I am thrilled that my Machine Embroidery "Three Apples" won third place in the Adams County Arts Council Show and that it did so competing against "real" paintings. The exhibit continues till Sunday at Schmucker Gallery on Washington Street, part of the Gettysburg College campus.

Peacock Bracelet:

I was allowed to choose a summer pendant from Art beads and decided on the Russian Black Onyx Peacock. I thought that I  would feature the peacock in a bracelet and surrounded it with a band of peyote stitching in black seed and fringe beads with accents of orange, yellow, lime green and turquoise repeating the colors of the peacock feathers. I also stitched 2 feathers in brick stitch to dangle off of the focal bead. The closure is a vintage German glass button and bead loop. When I use loops as closures, I like to alternate medium and small beads. I feel this enhances the curvature of the loop. Enjoy! Joanne

Disclosure: The Peacock pendant was kindly provided free-of-charge by Artbeads.com, within the frames of Artbeads.com blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.

Boro Toggle Peyote Beadwork Necklace

When I first saw the boro glass toggles on the Artbeads website, I thought that they could be a design element in themselves. I have worked a basic beadwork necklace with short peyote tubes looped to strung bead sections with loop in loop hinges. The hinges provide flexibility as well as places to relieve stress without wearing thread. I have done the necklace in two portions with duplicate catches so that it can be worn as a short necklace and bracelet set or as a longer necklace. The boro toggles can be placed anywhere around the necklace and act as focal points within the necklace. I especially liked the toggles with an internal contrasting spiral. In this case, I used an aqua toggle which is the main color for the beads in the necklace. The toggle has a spiral of yellow which I also picked up in the beadwork as accent beads of yellow as well as orange for spice. And I did have a few pieces of yellow striped aqua furnace glass which I also included, placing the large holed furnace glass on short strips of seed beads so that they have some sliding movement. This was a fun piece to design as well as wear. Now I need to go play with my new puppy. Joanne

Disclosure: The boro glass toggles were kindly provided free-of-charge by Artbeads.com, within the frames of Artbeads.com blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.