No, this is not the challenge yet, but, the winner is....

I was really torn about which photo to use. The ones that were suggested in the comments were the ones I was thinking about, too. Tomorrow, I am making a bead that looks like the mailbox with the red flag. Well, maybe not the mailbox, but a bead in black with white and a huge blog of red. I am also going to make a turtle! I wish I had some glow powder. That would be fun because the turtle is a solar powered light.

Here's the photo I used, and here's the bead. The bead was very hard to shoot, so the pictures aren't very good. It's so much prettier in person. I honestly wish you could see it. It does remind me of the picture. I have to post this in the group yet, so you get to be the first to see it!
This is a shot of the city at dawn. It was about 6:30 AM. It is so pretty at that time. Yes, I am an early bird!
Doesn't this remind you of dawn? I'm going to show a brighter photo, too, just to show some of the details, but, I feel that this photo shows the bead best.

I Need Your Help!

As some of you know, I am taking an online class about Finding Your Voice As a Glass Bead Maker. Our teacher, Sylvie Lansdowne, gives us an assignment each week to help us develop our creativity and expression in our beads.
This week's assignment has me stumped.
I have completed the first part of the assignment which was to take photos of our environment. Well, in Minnesota, at this time of year, there really isn't much to see except for a lot of snow. That's true this year. It's also very cold. I didn't spend a lot of time outside because of the cold. I snapped these photos very quickly and went inside.
Well, that's beside the point.
Now, I'm really stuck. My creative voice is just saying, "It's too cold." So, now I have to choose a photo and make a bead.
Here are the photos I took.
Which one do you think would make a nice bead?
Maybe this is cheating a little bit,
but I'm really stuck.
I think my brain is stuck in the cold.
Help!
Make a suggestion, please.

Bits and Pieces of My Creative Journal

I haven't forgotten the challenge! I will develop a blog on that very soon.


I have been a person to journal since I was a teenager. I have kept regular journals in which I have poured out my heart and soul, especially when I was in the midst of teenage drama and angst. I have kept gratitude journals. I have kept journals for work. I kept journals to document the quilts I made. I journaled in college so that I could fulfill requirements for class. I have written poetry journals! Whew! I truly believe that there are so many ways to journal that I could spend days keeping up with each one, if I kept as many as I did in my younger years.

I thought you might be interested to have a peek into my most recent type of journaling, that is creative journaling. I keep a special journal by my bed to write down and draw the ideas that pop into my head at the oddest times. I write my journal only when I have something to write. I don't date the entries. I just go back and look from time to time. This does give me some insight into what is developing in my brain.

Here, I was trying to develop different heart beads for an exchange, and I was trying to figure out the steps I needed to take to make a bead with a rosebud on it.

These are some of the entries that I have made when I have been trying to develop exotic and exciting names for beads and sets.
This was just a train of thought. Pumpkin ----->Thanksgiving Turkey ----------> grapes! I'm not sure how the grapes got into this, but they must be related to the harvest season. Most of these entries have taken me no where, at least, not consciously. My drawings are simple and one dimensional. (Oh, dear, what does that say about my brain? Kind of scary, isn't it?)

However, when the flow of ideas begins, I like to let them flow. In the end, it doesn't matter what is in the drawings, what matters is that the creative juices are flowing and venting.

Do you journal?

It's a Treasury!

Aren't these fabulous artists? Please take a trip to etsy and click and comment. Maybe this will make front page!

The Crows and Haiku

Gliding on air frequencies
Branches, empty trees,
Crows, birds, huge, noisy, beacons.