1st Shibori embroidery attempt

So, I've been in love with the colors of Shibori silk ribbon embroidery and have wanted to give it a try. By the yard it's just so expensive for me and it's a big commitment to a color to buy a yard, I felt. I was happy to find it on etsy by the half yard, so I could buy two colors! I wanted to make a cuff originally but didn't have any blanks for the base and was worried he silk would get wrecked from wear. So, I made this brooch instead and think it may be a retirement present for my mother in law.

Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal!

Yay! Finally! The bead soup reveal date is here! Last year I participated in Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party for the first time. It was such a challenge and so much fun; I absolutely LOVED it. (You can see my post about last year's hop here.) This year, I knew I had to do it again. So I signed up and started looking at the calendar only to realize that the reveal date (original date of May 3) was the same day that all of the final work for my Masters degree was due by. Always one to work better under a really long to-do list, I managed to complete everything with time to spare. Then, the reveal date was pushed back one week, so I even had time to procrastinate writing about my piece and taking pictures.

This year I was paired up with Liz E. of Bead Contagion blog and the color palette she sent me was quite a challenge. Because of my mounds of schoolwork, I didn't want to create anything too complicated. BUT that didn't really happen. During this same time period I also started to Zentangle. I think my end piece for the blog hop reflects this new skill, but in bead embroidery form. (Which happens to be really similar to bead embroidery in a lot of ways.) I have really been into the neon colors out recently, and the winter was REALLY long. I also tried to mimic the shape of the round focal throughout.

In the end, I love/hate it - which is exactly the same way I felt initially about what I created for last year's party. I have created something I totally love, but it is SO not me and big for me, I think. I ended up wearing it to work last week for my Masters research presentation. The perfect day to wear the other thing I had spent all spring working on. Also, everyone else loved it and thought it looked just fine on me - not too big at all! :)

Enjoy my pictures below. Visit Liz's blog here to see what she made from what I sent her. Have fun hopping other blogs by heading to Lori's blog to see the big list of all the bloggers. Enjoy!

Bead Soup!

Loving neon!

The focal can spin.