Monday, May 21, 2007

Inspirations and Pictures!

improvisational bead embroidery by Christy Hinkle
The picture above is an improvisational bead embroidery piece by a good friend, Christy Hinkle. (Be sure to click to enlarge!) This is her first completed piece since taking my bead embroidery class. I'm so very proud of her! It's framed in a shadow box and graces her living room. I wanted you to see it, because it feels like it could be a journal page. I don't know if Christy is going to join us or not... she's thinking about it.

Sharing our ideas, inspirations and pictures is part of the BJP for all of us... that's why I started this blog. However, participation in the blog is definitely not mandatory. I know wonderful artists who just are not into anything about the computer. I'm sure there are some in the project who will never even check this blog. But for those who love it, as I do, we'll have fun with sharing.

Would someone like to write a "how-to post" about how to post pictures, including how to size the images for posting? I could do it, but I'm swamped at the moment and don't have time.

Aurora's photograph of the vintage fabric sample book in the post below was just wonderful, wasn't it?!!! I love reading what everybody writes, but when there's a photo, every part of me is happy.

I'm thinking (just one member's opinion) that I'd like to see photos of inspirations and member's other bead embroidery (or related) photos here any time, but not finished BJP pages until after the third month. I feel that for some of us, we might start something, then see another person's work, and abandon what we started in favor of something inspired by what the other person did. For this project, I think it would be really good if we don't abandon our early efforts, no matter what. But, after 3 months, we will have a sense of where we are going and what our pages intend for us, and it will be easier to stick with them.

This dialog about sharing pictures of our BJP pages needs to continue a bit longer, as there are still many new participants coming on board. Feel free to post your opinions and/or put them in the comments to this post.

Posted by Robin

4 comments:

Mary Timme said...

I really like this idea as it gives us all a chance to share what we've done and yet it isn't the pages! I'd vote for this in a New York minute.

Jackie (Tillie's Daughter) said...

I am with Mary, I like being able to share photos, ideas, questions, etc. in this blog --- but agree that it would be a good idea to hold off photos of the pages we are doing for the Journal for three months.

bwheather said...

I'm willing to write up a quick tutorial on how to post photos, but can't do so for a couple of days. Unless someone else does, is it ok for me to do this? ;-)

Beki said...

What a beautiful piece of beadwork! I really love the boob-beads! I hope your friend Christy is able to join us here.

Regarding sharing images....I am torn on the idea.
For me personally, I may be inspired by what another posts, but I won't be totally influenced. Does that make sense? What I am trying to say is that if I have an idea or thought process already happening on my BJP, seeing what someone else is creating is not going to alter that for me...at least not for the current one I would be working on.
It may, however, help inspire me to continue if I am struggling at some point.

But, I can totally understand where you are coming from, Robin. Sometimes when visual sharing of beadwork goes on it causes some folks to feel that what they are creating at the moment, might not "compare" to what another member offers in a Show & Tell.
It's a natural human behaviour, but certainly one that should not apply EVER in a project like this one.

I feel the BJP should be about each individuals creation, as opposed to what they create.

I believe it is important for each of us to reach within during this creation process and maybe too much visual stimuli might alter our own personal visions. It happens without us even realizing it sometimes.

So, I'll agree with you that we should wait for at least 3 months before sharing...this will give each member a chance to "come into their own" so to speak.

But, I would also like to suggest that if a member is really struggling along and can't seem to deal with a specific aspect of their Journal, that we as a group, should be able to offer suggestions and ideas, which may or may not require an image to help spur them along. ???

More member input/thoughts on this would great!

~ Beki