Introduction, and my June offering

I haven't posted here before, but having finished my June piece and being well underway with the July one, I thought I had better say something!

I live in Melbourne, Australia, and dabble in all sorts of textile art. I discovered bead embroidery about 18 months ago and it has rapidly become one of my favorite 'things'. I am studying for a Diploma of Textile Arts and I;m halfway through the second year (which is, incidentally, halfway through the course).

After eighteen months of having design principles drummed into my head, I wanted to use a totally intuitive approach to this project. After some thought I decided that each month I would buy a piece of felt (I discovered last year that felt is fantastic to bead onto), choosing the colour that leapt out at me at the time, which would depend on how my mood at that point. I would then choose a colour palette that I liked with that colour, tip it all into a tray, and start beading. No design planning, just let the beads speak to me. (OK, so those design lessons haven't gone completely to waste - I now instinctively choose colours based on my studies of colour theory! Though the intuitive choosing of the felt is genuinely intuitive - in fact for July I picked a colour I never use, it just jumped out at me and matched my mood at the time).

Another sign that the design lessons have sunk in - I decided that the various pieces would need an integrating element, so each one will have a small tag with a word emgraved on it, again suiting my mood for the month. I bought a whole pile of them at the beginning and so I have plenty to choose from.

June's piece is on display on my blog. Now on with July's - I picked the felt colour a couple of days early, and sat down last night and really beaded away furiously for three hours and have done the majority of it!