Star of David - completed!

Religious Icons Part 5 - Ganesha

Ganesha and mouse have more colour that before! I am going to remove the feet and do them again - I do not care for the way that they have turned out (especially now that I have finished his hand). I know that I can do better. The garnet necklace lays better since I have gone through it a second and third time. I just have the finishing of the head, the circle behind it and to decide what the complete background will be.

Ganesha is coming along nicely!!

Beading, still Beading - Religious Icons continued.

I wish that this scan would show the colours a little better in this piece. The background is actually a pale blue and a midnight blue. The star is grey and hematite seed beads - or two shades of grey. The star is actually two pieces that have been woven together and sewn to the background of the curls. This piece is 7x8 inches. All I need is several more hours of beading and it should be finished. This is the most serious of the icons that I have worked on - and I don't know why I chose serious colours for it. The rich colors just seemed to work the best. I originally wanted to have a silver star, but after about 4 hours of work on part of the star - it just didn't look good, so out it all came.

My series of religious icons is growing. Last weekend, I was invited to a wedding of one of the doctors that completed his training in my program, Dr. Nikhil Goyal. As much as I would LOVE to go to his wedding - it's in India and way out of my budget. I took the icon that was on his invitation - Ganesha. I just learned the following about Ganesha: "By ancient tradition, the elephant-headed god, GANESHA , is always worshipped first in every ritual or festival. Ganesha has a pot belly, is short and is usually portrayed in a sitting position with one leg folded and the other touching the ground. Around his waist, there is a hooded snake. In his four hands, he carries a noose (human bondage to desires); an axe (destruction of all evil); a modak or sweet (joy) and a lotus (human evolution). His trunk, usually turned to the left, represents OM, the origin of the cosmic universe. Ganesha is the lord of all learning, the arts and of finer skills."

Obviously my Ganesha is a different model, because my Ganesha doesn't have a snake or axe or a noose. His trunk turns to the right. Sunil (another doctor) told me that Ganesha travels on the back of a mouse, which is why there is a little mouse in the picture. The bindi will be a red crystal and the necklace with the smaller red crystals as I was told that they are very important.

Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild - Quilt to honour Barb Davis

It's been a year in the making! The Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild bead quilt to honour Barb Davis - long time guild member who lost her battle with breast cancer.

Isn't this wonderful!!

Religious Icons - Second Piece

This is my newest work "ohm" - right here it has about 28 hours of beading in it. The beads are all size 11 seed beads, with an occasional size 15 in to fill in the spots that an 11 won't fit. I am working on a different background than I have on a couple of my other pieces - almost a basketweave texture. Working with the silver lined gold beads is a little hard on the eyes because they reflect so much light. I hope the finished affect is what I would like it to be. I do like the way that the reds have blended together in the piece.

The second picture has about 38 hours of beading in it - the background is going to take a long time. But that's about all I have to do is bead right?

I have the background of my next piece in Religious Icons which is a Star of David. I have it cut out and ready to start beading , I need to think about what colours I want it. And I am still researching what kind of a cross to use: Celtic Cross, Orthodox, Coptic? So many choices, and all so beautiful in their own way.