Consistency Challenge Month of July

There was a time I posted almost all days.  I love to go back to that point in time and review the posts because it's my history....a little bit at a time and many memorable moments.

I read about this challenge on Gaye Gillespies blog and was introduced to Mattie James.  

I have no desire to be an influencer but I do admire the people who do it well and do it to bring attention to their art and/or life philsophy around subjects that interest me.  I certainly appreciate both.  Creative pursuits get most of my attention but I also love cooking blogs, home decor or diy blogs and travel blogs.

For years this blog served as details from my life experiences and my career as a bead artist.

Now I am mostly retired from the bead world with a very few engagements, which also means less design and pattern writing.

As this life transition moved more into me exploring different artistic mediums I have used this space to record my makers life.

I have been busy improving my knitting, learning to sew garments, hand piecing my first quilt, exploring shrink plastic as a medium and still beading a bit.

You've seen lots of photos of my makes, but not too much in depth about any of them, so during this month I'm going to be diving a little deeper as I work on some of my current projects.

One of the things I've been enjoying is the marriage of beads and shrink plastic.  Recently the call for entries from the Museum of Beadwork caught my interest.  The idea is to create a community project to explore the ways beads build relationships.  The received 6 x 6 beaded tiles will be wall mounted at the museum.  This spoke to me because my connections over the past many years have all been the result of my work with beads.  I have friends around the world that I am in touch with on a regular basis, many of whom I've had the good fortune to work with, travel with and create some of my best memories with.

I've decided on submitting a tile to hopefully be included in this community wall.  This is the start.  I debated on documenting the process but since it's not a challenge with no voting and no need to be kept secret, I decided to update you as I work on it.  

I didn't want to hand stamp or hand print my words to I settled on using the inkjet printer to print out the chosen words.  That provided my first challenge to overcome, since I didn't realize the inkjet ink was water soluble.  This I discovered after finding the word Kindness had disappeared from my earring after putting them on with wet hair!  There is an after shrinking fixative I could use, but I don't want to count on having to spray each piece so I remembered an older package of shrink plastic that was specially treated to be printed on with the inkjet.  I've tested and thankfully it is permanent!    So with that problem solved I will have to replace my kindness earring and remake a few more of my favorites.

This is how my journey with words and shrink plastic started.  I regret that I didn't understand the impermanence of my words, but as with any new medium I experienced learning curve!

This project will take up a good portion of my art time this week.  Although there are a lot of other projects that will get bits of attention as I move through the month

In no particular order

I have started a Sabine Lippert Double RAW Dimensions Dodecahedron from her master class.  

I am making Mark a vest 'His Vest' by churchmouse in a beautiful blue/grey malabrigio DK yarn.

I just finished my third pair of Urth yarns Uneek socks and have a new colorway.

I made a pale pink linen Elope top by Tina Givens and have cut out pants to match.

I ordered yarn to crochet some mandalas, possibly as airstream decor.

I have Kestral linen  yarn in a pale aqua to make my second ranunculus sweater. I have a lavender one and it's one of my favorite to wear.

I signed up for the Heidi Kummli Beaded Object class which begins July 22nd.

Oh, and I continue work on my hand pieced Tula Pink Sunrise quilt.

Whew!  that was a lot of links.  As I work through these and share photos I will link again, or I will link back to this list of all of July's projects!  

What's on your July list of projects?