As the saying goes, better late than never! In keeping with that theme, I reveal my first piece in my 2011 Bead Journal Project. I have decided to name this series "Pieces of Me" Each month I will do a 4 inch heart shaped piece in bead embroidery to journal special people or things that have a piece of my heart. For my first page, I decided to honor my Grandchildren. I used recent pictures of Kileigh and Ethan. The picture of Kileigh was taken by family friend Catherine
Massoglia of Catherine Massoglia Photography. Kileigh was a little over 3 in this picture. The picture of Ethan was taken by my Daughter Jess after his little dude haircut! He was around 16 months in that picture. I may be biased, but aren't they just too cute?
I love the colors in this piece. I used a soft matte brown seed bead, turquoise blue seed beads, a lovely mix of seed beads, some glass rectangles in turquoise blue and some brown rectangle beads along with some soft turquoise 6mm firepolish beads. I laminated the 2 pictures and hand sewed them onto my pellon. I then edged them in beads right through the plastic of the laminate. The mix of beads I used has several shades of gold, cream, brown, purple, maroon, steel blue, soft brown, and some size 15s mixed in as well. I threw together whatever I thought would work. I think it all works well together. I added the bead mix one bead at a time. This is a very tedious and time consuming technique, but it has to be one of my favorites. I love the random look of it! Oh so worth the time it takes to me. In the very top of the piece, you will see 2 very inconspicuous flower shaped grommets. My plan is to sew the completed heart onto ultra suede and thread ribbon through the grommets to hang them.
