It's been a while!

I have to apologize for not posting an update in a while but I really do have a good reason. I took up beading and that kept me real busy for a couple of weeks. Carol and I had gone to This place called Indian Steps for a Powwow about a month ago. It was so much fun watching all of the Indian dances and music. 

They had some vendors there and I bought a turkey tail to make a fan out of. 

I was inspired by some of the fans the dancers had. My problem was that I had no idea where to start. I contacted my friend Simon in New Mexico, he does beautiful bead work, of where should I start. The main piece of advice that he gave me was that if I were going to make it for myself, or even if I made it for someone else, whatever the design I chose needed to mean something. Since this was my first attempt I knew this was going to be for myself. I thought about what meant a lot to me about my adventures and travels. Two pictures came to mind immediately. The first is a picture of a Bridaled Tit I saw for the first time in my life. I had the great pleasure of seeing four of them at my friends Hal and Ann's home in Silver City, NM. They came into the feeder area in January right after getting about a foot f snow the previous day. This is the first bird that I can truly say got me excited about birding and identifying new species I had never seen before. I have taken thousands of pictures since and I still get excited about this one bird. 

The second picture that immediately came to mind was the one my friend Kevin took of MotelMiguel right after I had parked it in his back lawn right next to his barn. I was inside MotelMiguel settling in and he texted me the picture. The scene was so peaceful with the barn as a backdrop and his white ducks and geese just resting on the lawn. This picture to me represented so much of what my journey is all about and what I have been searching for. 

I ordered my supplies and set out to accomplish it. I watched tons of videos on YouTube to give me an idea of where to start. 

I started by printing out each picture to the approximate size I needed and using each as the template for the finished piece. By sewing over the paper and attaching it to the leather it provides a little bit of extra support. 

This picture is about 2 1/2" by 3" tall. I needed a magnifying glass just to thread the needle because the eye is so tiny. 

The size of beads I used are size eleven and the tiniest ones size fifteen for more detail. 

It took me over a week to complete the first part of this piece. 

The hard part about it was the mixing of the colors of the juniper tree and not loose the bird in the mix. 

There was snow all around but again I didn't want to loose the bird. 

I set a quarter piece next to it in order to give an idea of size. 

The barn had challenges of its own. Trying to get the detail of MotelMiguel was the most difficult along with showing the tiny white geese on the lawn. 

I started with the white roofline. 

Then I did MotelMiguel. From there I did a couple of white beads with one smaller orange one as the beak. 

This piece took me about five days to complete. 

I will use these pieces on the fan. One will be in the front and the other on the backside of the base to the fan. The handle will be made from a deer antler. 

What I learned so ar from this was that when I was working on it I zoned out and was very at peace. When I'm working on something I tend to not worry about anything and it becomes a great stress reliever. 

I've done a couple of other things since last week when I finished this and will get a couple more entries before I move on to South Carolina on Friday.