Happy Fish and Freeform Rings - Winter Classes at Fusion Beads

Signups are now open for Winter classes at Fusion Beads. I'm excited to teach two workshops.

Freeform Peyote Rings

Saturday, January 28th

Interested in trying your hand at freeform peyote? These quick little rings are a great foray into freeform beading, using peyote stitch in creative ways to create fanciful organic designs incorporating crystals, spiked, or other novelty beads.  Each ring is a unique creation- no two designs turn out exactly the same! 

Happy Fish Bead Embroidery

Sunday, March 26th

Add a touch of whimsy to your day with these playful bead embroidery Happy Fish.  Enjoy a play day with a more freeform approach to bead emboidery while creating a fun fish brooch, pendant, hair ornament or applique.  Work with a variety of bead embroidery stitched to create your own unique design.    

One of the things I love best about both of these classes is that everyone's work will be entirely their own.  I think of these a supported creativity classes.  I'll be sharing techniques, tips, and lots and lots of design ideas, but there's so much room for the creative play and exploration.


Mine are only two of nearly seventy classes and workshops in Fusion Bead's new schedule.  As always, they have an amazing schedule of classes in bead weaving, metal work, kumihimo, resin work and more.  You can check out their full schedule here. 

New Classes at Fusion Beads this Summer

I'm teaching two new classes at Fusion Beads this summer.  In July, I'll be sharing my spin on more freeform bead embroidery with my Happy Fish.  These little guys, my newest additions to my underwater menagerie of beaded fish friends, were inspired by Robin Atkin's Bead Journal Project.  I needed a theme I'd enjoy working with for a year, and smiling fish fit the bill. 

And in August, I'll focus on the techniques I used to create my Nautillus Flower Cuff, from Explorations. 

Sign-ups for Summer workshops begins this Thursday, April 14th.

If you're planning to visit Seattle this summer, definitely check out their classes catalog. They have one of the best, most varied schedules you'll see outside of a major beading conference. 

Dear Dali - It's nice to meet you!

I love Dahlias! Funny thing is, I'd never even heard of Dahlias before moving to Seattle, but I quickly fell in love with the bright, big, spiky blooms and their extravagant colors.  Gladiolas may be the 'official' August birth flower, but I've decided to trade them in for Dahlias.  Done!

Last month, I'd decided my next Happy Fish would feature flowers.  Fast forward to September and I'd still made no significant progress.  Nothing seemed right.  Then I spied these beauties for sale at a corner grocery on the first day of the bead retreat.  I walked by them three times before deciding I had to have them.  They reminded me of the quinacridone pigments which make up some of my favorite red, orange and violet paints.  Such rich, luscious color!  The Dahlias' color and the shapes of their petals inspired my newest Happy Fish.

I call her Dali.... 

Dali's under-sketch with artist pens

Here she is in all her finery, happily posing for the camera

Meet Spike and Pete, Creative Block Busters Extraordinare!

Spike, happily swimming through a 'rock stream' in my garden

You might have already caught a peak of Spike in my earlier post for the Time to Stitch challenge about bead embroidery.  Both he and his younger brother Peter (Pete for short) made their official debut in the Summer issue of Creative Spark magazine produced by Znetshows.com.








 Besides being incredibly fun to stitch, these Happy Fish turned out to be the antidote to a months-long episode of creative block.  After finishing Explorations in Freeform Peyote Beading, I'd promised myself time for personal exploration, where I could play with any design or beading ideas my heart desired.  This included signing up for Robin Atkin's Bead Journal project at the end of last year. 

Fast forward to April, and I still hadn't beaded anything significant, nor made a single bead journal entry.  Aack!  Yes, it had taken significantly longer than anticipated to finish the rewrite/reformatting for the digital versions of Explorations, but that still left several months of creative wasteland.  Looking back, part of the problem was while I said I wanted to 'play', I felt like I should work on a series of large, extremely challenging sculptural pieces.  My creativity simply doesn't work that way.  Not for me. 

Spike, sans sea glass.  Poor Spike!  He's underdressed.

For me, if I promise my creative self play time, then I assign it work, I have a rebellion on my hands.  All of my best work seems to come from little seeds, from saying 'let's just' or 'what if' and from not being too invested in the initial outcome.  Sometimes I forget this personal truth!

Then something like my Happy Fish comes along to remind me.  By the time I settled in to make a piece for Christine and Therese's challenge, I didn't have enough time to make a 'fancy project'.  Combine that with my love for Georgia McMillan's Happy People, and a desire to use sequins a la Sarah of Saturday Sequins, and Gilbert, by first Happy Fish was born. 

Pete shows off his 'plumage'.  Fused glass cabochon by JJ Jacobs

 He was so much fun, I immediately started in on a second fish - this time I wanted to use these really cool stone spike beads I'd picked up last year, but hadn't found a use for yet.  When Hope invited me to participate in the Summer,  sea glass issue for Creative Spark, saying Yes! was a no brainer.  My fish NEEDED sea glass for their tails.  They told me so, really, in no uncertain terms.  They explained that no self-respecting fish would let itself appear in public without their lovely sea glass tails!  (Sorry Gilly) 

And while all this silliness played through my head, I was off and beading again.  Meanwhile, as I worked on the fish, ideas for other projects began appearing, almost as if someone had finally managed to turn the handle of a long-rusted tap.   I've even started work on the first in my new sculptural series. 

Let's hear it for the power of play! 

I'm about ready to start on a new Hapy Fish.  This one is going to have flowers.  Normally, my garden is in full bloom this time of year, but because it's been so hot here in Seattle this summer everything bloomed early, and my poor garden is looking a bit bedraggled. No flowers in my garden?  Well then I'll decorate my fish with flowers!  Even fish would like flowers, right? So why not? 

Time to Stitch: Bead Embroidery and Happy Fish

I've always admired bead embroidery, but never really taken the time to play with the medium.  Christine and Therese's announcement back in February that their next Time to Stitch Blog Hop would focus on Bead Embroidery seemed like the perfect excuse to give it a whirl.

I even had the start of a little project that had been hanging around for a while - a little bead embroidered oak leaf I'd started some time in the past.  I thought I'd finish it, then move on to something larger.  My goal with the leaf was simply to try out lots of different ideas, stitch combinations, and types of beads.  Some worked better than others, but I think it's quite cheerful, and was a lot of fun to work on in the dead of winter.

Then came a long lull, with not a spurt of creativity in sight.  I was definitely caught in the creative doldrums.  As the days and months sped by, I started to wonder if the leaf would be all I had to show for this blog post.  Then my dear friend Georgia McMillan came to my rescue!

Georgia brought several of her wonderful "Happy People" bead embroideries to the May Seedbeaders' meeting. Better yet, she graciously allowed me to take photos to share with you (I'm including two in this post).   Thank you Georgia!  I spent a couple of days studying the photos and thinking about her work.

Georgia McMillan's Happy Person seems to be dancing

This more abstract design uses size 18 beads in the flowers!

Her Happy People are small - the largest easily fits into the palm of my hand, so I'm guessing maybe 3 1/2" tall, tops.  But the details are incredible.  I loved their size, I love Georgia's sense of whimsy, I love her attention to detail.  I contemplated making my own Happy Person.  But I feared that I'd simply be copying Georgia if I did, and wanted to do something more 'me'.  So I decided to sleep on it.  Can you guess where I decided to go with?

Fish!  Big surprise, huh?  I figured I could surely I do something with fish.  I've made right angle weave fish, and freeform peyote fish, but I'd never made a bead embroidered fish.  So it was about time!  Time to pull out the sketchbook.

playing with design ideas on paper and interfacing

I pulled several ideas from my sketchbook, including these two above.  I love the curves and lines of the top fish, but feared she was too complex.  I wanted something simpler to use as a 'blank canvas' for more exploration.  The bottom fish is about perfect, complete with a lovely, cartoony smile. Transfering the design to interfacing, it was time to start stitching. 

First up? Sequins!

I totally blame the sequins on Sarah of Saturday Sequins. I'd never even considered using sequins in my beading before seeing her work. These days, sequins keep showing up in my designs (they are really sneaky that way!)  In this case I thought they'd make great fish scales.  I ended up using five different colors of sequins - three transparent and two opaque. 

My first Happy Fish - poor thing doesn't even have a name yet!

Like the leaf, I didn't have any specific plans for where I was going, other than the two large blocks of color and wanting to use sequins for fish scales.  I added in some of Georgia's 'flowers' along the bottom of the fish, using 15s.  Because I had just purchased them, I added a line of dragon-scale beads towards the top of the body.  Originally they laid down in a nice, flat, spiky row, but I decided I wanted more dimensionality and added a line of beading under their tips to make them sit up from the background.  Not sure it was the right choice, but hey, it was fun to experiment. 

I finished the little guy on Thursday, and the poor thing doesn't even have a name yet.  Not that it looks like he cares.  :)

So that's where I went with my bead embroidery.  Nothing fancy, but it sure was fun.  Now it's time to check out what everyone else created!  Here's the full roster: 

detail shot of the overlapping sequins-scales

Time To Stitch Blog Hop

1.       Therese (Host) 

2.       Christine  (Host)

3.       Amy

4.       Lola

5.       Lori F

6.       Kim

7.       Becky Pancake

8.       Karin G.

9.       Debbie (Kepi)

10.   LizE

11.   Maryanne

12.   Paula

13.   Wendy

14.   Janet

 Here's the start of my second fish - this one's going to have spikes!

15.   Jasvanti

16.   Ginger

17.   Alicia

18.   Bobbie

19.   Shirley

20.   Sarah

21.   Cynthia

22.   Lizzie

23.   Samantha

24.   Sally

25.   Niki

Oh, and if you have a name suggestion for my little friend, let me know.  If I like it, you just might claim naming rights!