Thursday, June 4, 2009

Playing Catch-up with BJP 2008-9

My selected theme of memory books for this year's Bead Journal Project was to have been based on the four elements: Earth, Air, Water, and Fire.




September 2008 BJP


Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien



Three rings for the Elven-Kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,
In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all.
One Ring to find them.
One Ring to bring them all and
in the darkness bind them.
In the Land of Mordor where
the shadows lie.




September begins with Earth and what better representation of that element could there be
than Tolkien's masterpiece.


The symbol representing Tolkien's initials was
painted on this earthy batik fabric. An old bronze bangle bracelet was covered with bronze metal beads in peyote stitch, then attached to the fabric background with metallic thread.








The border was worked with seed beads and
carnelian crystals.







This is the only memory book to date that has completed pages within. (All books are 4 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches)

5 comments:

Robin said...

Thanks for giving the size of your books... I'd been wondering about that. What I love most about this one (besides the subject) is the way the beads up the cover fold become like a tree holding the circle. It's beautiful! What paint and techniques did you use for the initials???

robin michelle said...

I'm sitting here in awe at how gorgeous these are! This is definitely my favorite though.

KV said...

Thanks to both Robins for their lovely comments!

Robin A -- I used an acrylic gold paint and did the painting free-hand whilst intently staring at the logo on the cover of Tolkien's Lost Tales!

Pursuing Art... said...

This one is just gorgeous and represents Earth so well. Simply stunning!!!

I am really looking forward to seeing your future memory books as you create them. What a fun theme for this year...just lovely! ~Lisa

Padparadscha said...

I saw a Harry Potter exhibition yesterday, and I think your work would be great in films.

I like the way you imitated leather with textile. Again a great piece!