Deb Ward, GWS, OWS, PWS, WSI - WATERCOLOR/WATER MEDIA - My passion is teaching adult “beginners”. Weekly classes in my home; workshops; classes for Cincinnati Recreation Commission. My work is nationally recognized and published - see “Featured” on my sidebar. I’m a Signature Member of Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana state Watercolor Societies, Cincinnati Art Club, past-President of Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society. Contact info below under “Class Information”

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Beading FUN?????


Once upon a time I thought that beading would be fun.

I’m crafty – over the course of many years I have done needlepoint, knitting, crocheting, quilting, sewing, painting – so, the thought popped into my head “wow, wouldn’t beading be fun!”.

Like any other hobby you decide to try, you need to buy supplies. There are many supplies needed to bead. Lots of supplies.

Of course there are the beads. And most of the beads are tiny – very, very tiny. (And way more expensive than you thought something that tiny could be). Then you will need crimp beads to fasten the beads onto the wire.

Then there is the wire to slip the beads onto, which of course comes in many various sizes, so you need more than one roll of wire. You will then end up buying even more wire than you need because you will not realize that the size of wire which you have just purchased will not fit through all of your beads until you get home and attempt to run it through your beads.

And in order to fasten the beads to the wire you need tools. So there is the crimper, and the wire cutter, and various pliers which are “special” because, unlike your husband’s pliers, these have to be small and delicate in order to pick up and deal with the tiny, tiny beads.

Then, you realize, you need something to place all of these tiny, tiny beads onto or into in order to sort them by color, size, type, etc. before you make your creation. (I purchased a bead tray which I never use - instead I put them onto a rubberized cloth which holds them better).

You will need something to hold the sorted beads in. You will then find a vast array of small containers marketed with “The Beader” in mind and you will purchase many of these in various sizes, shapes and forms (none of which will ever be exactly what you need). And then you will need something to put all of the small containers into (I purchased a small tool box).

So, finally, you are ready to begin beading. And, of course, one of the first things you will do is pour some beads out onto your cloth and spill half of them on the floor. You will then proceed to pick up most of them - the rest you will locate with your bare feet or when you step on one and slide across the room in your clogs.

If you have managed to actually separate your beads and decide what you want to make and start putting them on the wire, you will find that you pretty much cannot see the hole in the bead into which you are expected to slip the wire, so now you realize you need Granny glasses.

Then, if by some miracle you actually make something, you have to deal with another one of those ^@#& crimp beads and crimpers in order to finish off the end. And, of course, you will never be able to get the beads pulled tightly enough so that the wire doesn’t show, or, you will accidentally cut through the wire when you trim it and all of your hard work will fall to the floor in a bright, bouncy shower of beads.

And none of this includes wire wrapping – another fun event in the beading Olympics.

In what universe is this considered fun???
(Photo of some beading stuff laid out on my work surface - covered with an outdated calendar! Here's a little tip - big calendars make great surface covers - just tear off and toss when it gets messed up - I even use them as a palette for my acrylics - and you can pick them up different places, free toward the end of the year).

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Fall Classes

Started my fall class at Dunham yesterday and had almost a full complement, even with the weather problems and power outages. It was odd driving in town - going down the main streets there would be an area with power, then one without, one with, etc. In an area where I was sure most of the big, old trees would be down, there were just some large branches missing, but some of the small, young trees pulled out by the roots. You wouldn’t think it would be so random.

Since we are a class of all “ladies” this time, we are painting a close up of a peony (what is it with me and peonies??? Now that I think of it, I have always loved them, and when my husband and I were dating and first married he would sometime pick one from the bushes at his mom’s house and bring it to me).

Anyway, this is a painting similar to the one we are doing in class.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

I (Don't) LIke Ike!

Thanks to (the remains of) Hurricane Ike through our area today, my computer is off and I'm using my husband's, meaning I have no access to photos, etc. Oh well.

We were lucky, according to the TV news. The Greater Cincinnati area has 600,000+ customers without power, tons of damage, schools and businesses closed - may take a week for them to get power back. And since a good many of the Duke Energy employees are down south helping out Ike's other victims, it will take them a while to return here to help out at home.

Spent a good portion of the day running outside to grab something else that was blowing across the yard. We were lucky, though. We have a generator, and so had power, and other than a couple of overhead fans broken, a piece of aluminum dangling and tons of trees down around the property (barring any more damage my husband finds tomorrow morning) we will survive. Our poor little fruit trees look like mid-winter - completely stripped of their leaves!

Well, enough of the weather report here in breezy southeastern Indiana . . . Just didn't want to be out of the "blog-o-sphere" for too long, but looks like it may be a few days before I can post more photos.

In the meantime - I have two show openings this weekend:
Queen City Art Club opening on Saturday, 6-8 p.m. at Kennedy Heights Arts Center on Montgomery Road
Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society show opening on Sunday, noon - 4 at Sharon Woods Nature Center

If you are in the area, hope you can make one of them!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Going, going . . . gone!

My first giveaway is over - there were two flag paintings and now they are gone!

And I connected with a "bloggerite" (the real purpose of this exercise!) from the Pacific Northwest - how cool!

Keep watching - I'll be doing this again soon and hope to meet someone else from "Blog Land"!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Gift Paintings - Flag

Rhonda Carpenter had a very neat idea on her blog some time ago – she was giving away some of her paintings. So, copycat that I am, thought I might try it, too. So . . . here is the deal.
· I will put up some photos of my class demo paintings with a short description of them.
· None of them will be matted or framed – just the painting.
· Even though these are all original paintings, there may be several similar, since, once again, these are class demos and I have done some of them repeatedly and – here is the caveat –
· Some may be better than others!
· They will go on a first come, first served basis.

So, if you are interested in a free original watercolor painting, email me at dwardart2@yahoo.com. Put in the subject line: free blog painting. Otherwise, I just might delete you – I do not open any emails from people I’m not expecting mail from – kind of like not opening the front door to strangers. And, for goodness sake – be sure to leave your name and address so I can send you the painting!

Of course, the real reason I’m doing this is to try and engage some of you visitors into a blog dialogue! Hope to hear from some of you.

Flag, watercolor on Arches 140 CP, 1/8 sheet - 2 currently available