Common Ground Chinese jump Rope Necklace Class

Attendance was light but I had a wonderful group of students. Here is my completed Chinese Jump Rope Necklace of Beaded Beads and Natural Touch Resin Beads. This one can be worn long or wrapped double. Joanne

Beadwork at Common Ground

I am packing my car preparing to head on down to Common Ground at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD. I will be teaching a beaded bead necklace I call Chinese Jump Rope. Students will learn 4 types of beaded beads based on brick, peyote, square stitches as well as right angle weave.

While I attended an overcrowded city junior high school, “temporary” (still there today) classrooms were erected in the girls’ play yard. That left only the margins around the buildings in which to go outside during lunch break. Girls were never allowed access to sign out sports equipment so we devised games that could be played in small spaces with equipment that we could carry with us all day. One of these was “Chinese Jump Rope” in which we looped rubber bands together to stretch between the ankles of two stationary players. The “jumper” would then hop in and out picking up one or the other of the rubber band ropes and perform intricate foot manuvers that involved passing one or the other “ropes” over the other. During a trip to China, I actually saw girls out of our passing bus window
 
I have interspersed the beaded beads with polymer clay beads by polymer artist Grant Diffendaffer. To keep the kit cost down, students will be using resin beads by Natural Touch instead of the artist beads.

Selection Of beaded beads to be taught at Common Ground:

Beads laid out with Natural Touch Resin beads in preparation for stringing into necklace:

Last year I taught my Falling Leal necklace and had great success with students including a 10 year old.
This is my most recent Falling Leaf necklace just completed. The faculty exhibit in Peterson Hall has several of my Falling Leaf necklaces on display as well as my Magnum Opus "Clubbing the Night Away" blogged here Sept 2009-Feb 2010. Keep cool. Joanne

Hybrid Felting

 I just returned from a wonderful workshop on Hybrid Felting given by Anne Vickery Evans as part of the SDA (surface Design Association)/SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) conference in Philadelphia, PA. Hybrid Felt also sometimes known as Nuno Felt is the bonding together of wool fibers with other fibers and/or fabrics. This is me using a thin layer of wool roving to attach small squares of colored silk charmeuse to a background fabric of hand dyed silk gauze.

Felting Wool Boas 2+New Beadwork

I have been remiss in not including in the felt boa shots my own example. I did mine in all white expecting to dye the entire scarf after felting. However, it turned out so Victorian in white that I am loath to mess with it. I am toying with the idea of lightly tea dying it for an antique look.

I have also included my latest beadwork ventures. My love in beadwork is using brick stitch to actually draw figures or motifs. I am including "Swingtime" a brooch I did a while ago based on  a Fred and Ginger partnership. I just completed "Top Hat" and "Putt'n On The Ritz", brooches after a sole Fred.

I have also purchased several stoneware pendants from Artbeads and used the motif etched and painted in the pendant to create a surround for the focal bead.

Photos Felting Wool Boas

Here are the photos of us felting wool boas on a center strip of silk chiffon:

                                          

Thursday Felters group

I'm back from a wonderful tour of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam. I am still sorting photos as I had to buy a new hard drive to take all the new photos.

Back into the swing of artistic creation, my felting study group had  a fantastic session this Thursday. Renata Moskovitz taught us all to felt a lacy boa like scarf with a long fiber wool on a strip of silk chiffon.
I can't wait to get back to beading with all my new pictorial resources. Joanne

More Artists Community Service

Continuing on with the felting warm innersoles for homeless and needy people. We felted and cut over 80 pairs on warm innersoles:

Happy Holidays to all, Joanne