Beaded Colorways: New Book from Beverly Ash Gilbert is Superb!

The recently-released Beaded Colorways: Creating Freeform Beadweaving Projects and Palettes by my friend Beverly Ash Gilbert (2009, North Light Books, 128pp., $24.99) is fantastic. Even if you are not a beader or a jewelry maker you can appreciate not only the amazing handiwork but also the included removable custom color wheels that will be a help to anyone: artist, painter, decorator, photographer or lover of color. The book is perfect for those who think they can’t match an outfit or choose a color for a wall.


Beverly is a brainy dynamo disguised as a wisp of a woman, humble and modest enough not to mention in her book that she is an engineer by degree and a former corporate-type who was able to break out of a constricting role/schedule to make time to develop her substantial talents and her eye for color.


In fact, her first book was Eye for Color: Interchangeable Templates and Color Wheel System, available on her Web site. A color enthusiast herself, whose deep appreciation for color can be seen on her blog via her own breathtaking photography of her surroundings in Kirkland, WA and on her beloved Whidbey Island, Beverly takes great joy in sharing and teaching an appreciation for and understanding of color to anyone who is interested and curious or who feels they need a little help.


Her open, sharing nature is evident as she explains color theory and bead-weaving basics to open her book. Even if you have never picked up a tiny little seed bead or a bead-weaving needle as was my case when I first met Beverly in the fall of 2008, she will gently guide you first through combining various beads and textures in monochromatic mixes she calls seed bead soups. As she warns early on, even non-beaders can get hooked on the beauty of the colors, enough to quite contentedly display the seed bead mixes in clear vessels as an object of decor – without ever having to make a thing! And she’s fine with that.


From understanding the uses of the color wheel and color relationships – complementary, analogous, etc., to learning about hue, saturation, value and more – Beverly helps students graduate to blending multi-color combinations that satisfy their own particular cravings for color in their surroundings, and of course in their beadwork.


Besides the basic peyote stitch, which is simply sewing two seed beads together, and three-bead netting – both of which anyone can do (with proper lighting and eyeglasses if you wear them, or perhaps a magnifier) – Beverly explains freeform beadweaving, including freeform peyote stitch and freeform netting.


While the finished projects in the book might look like intimidating works of art, Beverly breaks them down into step-by-step instructions with large photos and helpful hints along the way. She suggests color mixes and alternatives and shows how to blend the beads to create an eye-pleasing palette for the project. Her bead soups have tempting names like tropical surf and rain forest and autumn sunrise, enough to get even a color neophyte or reluctant beader to stick a toe in the water.


By the end of my first day with Beverly, I had two gorgeous and very different pendants made, and I am all thumbs and wear bifocals! Her book offers more than a dozen colorful projects as well as a beautiful gallery of finished wearable art and plenty of resources and links to get you beading, or at least learning more about color.


And if this isn’t enough, and her book will definitely leave you wanting more, you can find Beverly teaching around the country this year and signing books, at such notable events as Adorn Me (March), I Dream of Beading (April-May) and the national Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee in June. Her blog offers something for everyone, including an appreciation of family, food, good friends and nature, all as depicted by Beverly, a true gem herself.

Marie and the rodeo girl

Here are my two finished paintings (16 x 21" ea) from the on-line class I took from Suzi Blu and blogged about below. I have one more class to do: Day of the Dead, and conveniently, I have one more spot on this wall o' whimsy.

Snow Doesn't Cancel On-Line Classes

I completed this "Rodeo Girl" Wednesday night. She's one of Suzi Blu's on-line classes. I signed up for the 'continuing education,' so I have the videos for Marie Antoinette, Rodeo Girl and Day of the Dead. It was only $35 for these three projects in one class, and well worth it, even if I hadn't made anything, just to watch Suzi's entertaining videos.


My Rodeo Girl is 16" x 21", the same size as my Marie, and I think I will hang them together. I found these great, deep frames, very reasonably priced at Utrecht's, which accommodate deep canvasses.


Speaking of deep, I have been snowed in since last Friday, with the exception of a little time on Tuesday. We are at 46" and counting, and that's no exaggeration. It's getting a little old. Thankfully, there's been no loss of power. I think my wireless laptop is the only thing keeping me sane.


My Rodeo Girl didn't quite keep me sane because, as usual, I can't stop touching it. I have a very bad habit of not knowing when to quit. I messed up her face about five times, and kept having to repaint it. At some point I resorted to finger-painting to try to get more control, and all that usually results in is a mess.


I even brushed beeswax over the whole thing, per the class, which is not only normally the finishing touch but generally prevents any further work because you can't paint over the beeswax. But, ta-da! I discovered my Lyra gel crayons go on nicely and smoothly over the wax, and you can easily wipe them off for a sheer effect. So I did. Then I didn't like it. Then I did it some more. Story of my life. But I like it now. I glued a little cowboy hat on her skully balloon and a little star 'badge' on her vest. Coordinates well with my Marie to which I glued a Juicy Couture perfume bow and charm.


By the way, I did something weird with this painting. Normally, one would paint the background first and then, per Suzi, collage it with bits of paper, molding paste, glitter, etc. Well, I decided I wanted to draw my girl on first, which I did, because I needed her to tilt a certain way to coordinate with the Marie since I want to hang them together.


Just to make things difficult for myself, I guess, I then painted her in, first with watercolor crayons. Then I had to collage the background around her and paint around her, and at that point, I painted over her first draft, this time with acrylic paints. Made it harder, but interesting. And with nearly four feet of snow outside, one needs interesting!

We interrupt this blog....

You might think I'd be interrupting my art blog to talk about the THIRTY inches of snow (so far) out my window. Or I could complain about the knitting class, cancelled, that I was supposed to start today....or the stack of manilla envelopes from my Blythe sale that I won't get to mail....but, I am sick of talking about the snow! Yawn. So six inches ago.

People have gone completely bonkers here around Washington, DC and Baltimore. The record snow is the only thing anyone wants to talk about. It's the only thing on the television and radio, and, well, it is the only thing I can see out the window. Any delineation of sidewalks or parking lots is long gone.

So. Let's talk serial killers. Nice segue, huh? I realize very few people will be able to fully appreciate this post, about a lovable serial killer. But you have to understand Tim Dorsey, or Serge, his protagonist, or both. (Can't you just hear Coleman asking what a protagonist is?) Yes, only Tim's fans will understand "lovable" and "serial killer" in the same sentence, but Serge is the Robin Hood of serial killers. And it's all in good "fun." It's sort of a giant tongue-in-cheek nod to the great madcap capers/detective genre/mystery/fiction/south-Florida wackos. You've just got to read Tim's books to understand.

I'm not done with Gator A-Go-Go yet. I've been moving slowly for me, because I've been busy. But so far, so good. Last year's January release, Nuclear Jellyfish, was a scream. I was lucky enough to attend a Tampa book signing the week of the release and meet Tim. That's me above (denim jacket) at Inkwood Books in Tampa on a warm and rainy night. I've been a fan of Tim's since early on, shortly after Florida Roadkill was released in 1999. You don't have to start there at all, but it's not a bad place to start. Might I also recommend Hammerhead Ranch Motel (#2)

I was a Carl Hiaasen fan (back when Carl was wacky and "Skinky") and Dave Barry (forget the middle-age-man-emoting, read Big Trouble) when I discovered Tim. I had also been reading all the "cozies": Carolyn Hart, Lilian Jackson Braun, Sue Grafton (yes, Sue and Kinsey are "cozy" to me). Then I found Tim. And I haven't looked back. In fact, I'm always looking forward. It's very hard to wait a year for each book. Meanwhile, if you like wacky with a message (not that Tim's don't have a message because they do) try Christopher Moore. He's a nut; just check his Amazon author photo. My fave is You Suck, but Practical Demon-Keeping and Island of the Sequined Love Nun just get me for their titles. The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove was a fave, too.

Back to Tim. We exchanged a few emails. I love his sly little references to Indiana now and then. (He lived there briefly as a babe). Nice nod to Ball State in 'Gator'. I realized before we met that he used to work at the Tampa Tribune with someone I know well. Such a small world. And he's in the same journalism geography as Carl Hiassen and Dave Barry. Just another south Florida coincidence no doubt.

So, back to the review of Gator A-Go-Go. I'd review it, but I'm busy having a blizzard. Just read it; it's great. Anyone I've ever sent to Tim has thanked me profusely. But then, I only send "certain" people to Tim. You know who you are.

Sew and sew and so on

I've been hanging 0nto a dozen or so "girly" fat book pages from friends, as well as some I made, knowing that I wanted to bind them into one book. I was going to use my Zutter binder, but then I decided to cover the covers with fabric. So I just used two rings to hold it all together.

My beginner sewing attempts with my tiny machine continue: I tried to make a patchwork, quilted cover out of fabric scraps, a chenille heart, buttons, a puffed applique and some embroidered roses cut from a vintage hankie.

The end result isn't too bad, but I know I spent more than eight hours on it yesterday, whereas an experienced sewer (sewist?) would have had two four-inch by four-inch squares covered in less than 30 minutes. And, the eight hours were even easy! But they were fun. Well, sort of. Except for all the times I broke my needle, broke my thread, sewed crooked, jammed the bobbin case...pretty much everything an inexperienced sewer would do. But it's a good way to learn.

And now I have a darling book. The back of the Little Red Riding Hood page and the Starry Night page are both by Malin of Sweden. I just adore style, and thanks to her I found the Suzi Blu group. The Barbie page is from Bryanna of The Canary's Cupcake, a fellow enthusiast of all things girly--like Alice in Wonderland, Marie Antoinette, Blythe and Barbie.

The next-to-last page shows the inside front cover with a pocket for Moo cards and the facing page is by me. And the last picture shows the closed book, nice and fat. Thanks to everyone who swapped a page or pages with me.

Marie is back! And so is Jack!

I completed this large canvas last night, after viewing the videos for Suzi Blu's "Petit Marie" class on-line. I signed up for a trifecta: Marie, Rodeo Girl and Day of the Dead. I just love Suzi's style. The canvas is 16" x 20", covered with acrylic paint and bits of papers collaged about. I used vintage French text, an old ledger page, some wrapping paper, rubber stamped images and scrapbook paper.

There are several layers of papers, paints, matte medium, molding paste and gesso, as well as glitter and beeswax. It's Suzi's special recipe. Lastly, I applied a hot pink box with a "couture" charm that my daughter was smart enough to save me from her Juicy Couture perfume box. Isn't it great when family members start saving you "trash" as potential collage materials? It means they "get it."

I'm not all that pleased with my Marie. Her body might have turned out better than expected, but she sort of has one bulbous eye and the roses in the background are sort of large and random. Plus, she's having a bad hair day, just like me. The beauty of it all is, since layers rule the day, I can always add more. And, the wax can just be melted with my heat gun and moved around. Come to think of it, I think I will.

And I can hardly wait until Sunday night for the return of '24' on Fox with Kiefer Sutherland. Can you even imagine him married to Julia Roberts? Thank goodness they stopped that train wreck. But I digress. Jack is back, after appearing on Letterman the other night in a dress no less, and the pre-season reviews are very positive. So, I can't wait to tune in for two hours Sunday and Monday night. Too bad Marie A didn't have a 'Jack' to protect her better. Lord Fersen seems to have made an attempt. Such is the stuff of history, not fairy tales.

More Silly Sock Sewing

This creature remains unnnamed so far, unlike Claire and Gladys. She's supposed to be a cheerful monkey from the book, Stray Sock Sewing, Too by Daniel, he of the one-name artists' club. But, she looks like a cross bewteen a cow and an alien to me! But she was still fun to make, and is my best sewing machine effort so far. Just learning to sew after half a century. The triangle halter top I made in seventh grade home ec has been long forgotten, even if it would be still in style.

Ribbit. I sewed a frog.

My sock monkey Gladys, blogged about here, has a new little friend, Claire the Frog Monkey. Oh wait, I guess that's Claire, the Sock Frog. Found her instructions in Stray Sock Sewing, Too by Daniel, he of the two-book, one-name artist genre. Claire was super-easy to make, for the neophyte sock sewist, not sewer, in me. I even made her before I attended my first sewing class at Jo-Ann Fabrics, machine basics 101. I don't think the instructor was very impressed with my tiny, toy-like machine; in fact, I think she used the word "toy." Whatever. I made a frog.

In the pink, and do we see a pattern here?

I wish I could claim any of this artwork as mine. Oh, I own it all right, but ah, to be the creator. I love the Parisienne, a print from Lulu on Etsy and the chunky face canvas is an original by Catherine Olvier Pluchino. Love it, too! Then we have my Blythe, Daisy, in a pink sweater by nani-store on Etsy, a vintage pink throw pillow with brooch, and a beautifully wrapper bar of soap. Yes. I photographed soap. I find all this eye candy so inspiring, and heaven knows, I need some inspiration. I haven't made much art lately, but Santa delivered a Singer Pixie Plus sewing machine, and I hope to make some sock monkeys and critters, some fabric altered art, and to cover my art journal. All pretty lofty, considering I have never used a sewing machine. My little robot collection and my antique carrom board are more inspiration, along with pretty fabrics, to motivate me to learn how to operate this intimidating little machine. I'll keep you posted...or I'll just keep photographing soap.

Ho, ho, ho. This isn't funny at all.

To maximize the $6.99 value of the pet sweater, I thought it would be lovely if Lester (he of the pink nose) would model before it gets packed away. You may recall Larry, the brown-noser, modeled it rather unsuccessfully on Christmas Eve.

Lester was even less amused, delivering a one-two hook sans claws (or maybe it was Santa Claws). In fact, he wiggled and squirmed so much he was able to leap right out of the sweater in mid-air. So much for cat couture and holiday cheer. I thought it was a tasteful gift; I guess they wanted catnip.

Recent Fave Photos

recent fave photos
Originally uploaded by Gina2424

I can't get enough of color, and if it includes Blythe, folk art, a nod to the 60s-70s, even better! Find these on Flickr: 1. Josephine Bunny, 2. "Just can't get enough..., 3. petite zetti, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. Preparadas para el frio, 7. Rowan, 8. Saffron, 9. HAPPY smile today !, 10. The Snow Queen, 11. Snow kitty, 12. Mischievous_Boys, 13. journalpg how r ya, 14. "Groovy baby", 15. about art and beauty, 16. Compare them on white, 17. dancing flowers pendant, 18. Avon Small World 1971, 19. Pink Cameo Aceo, 20. Fairy with Black Manx cat, 21. rubber duckies, 22. Vintage Avon Small World collection, 23. Whole World zetti skinny, 24. saturday at 3, 25. robot assemblage sculpture * CODGER

Happy Holidays!