Heart and Soul

What is the secret Ingredient? So you have these beads and this fabric upon which to put them and you stitch and stitch being as careful as possible and you learn a new stitch for this project and you look at it and what do you think?  Hey, I did it!!  Hey, I did a good job!! Hey - what does it mean? And that last one is the question I constantly ask myself.  At first the beading itself was the challenge - since I had very little experience with it and absolutely none with encrusted beading.  As I've learned and practiced and taken off and put back on I've discovered something else.  The secret ingredient is 'spirit'!  To have a lasting quality, to feel really good about an embroidered piece, something of my spirit has to enter into it.  If I look at the work of others (please check out the links on the side of my blog) I know that what draws me to their work is the heart and soul that goes into each piece.  Each has beautiful skills - but the depth of the work is what draws me.  For me, to look at their work is to get into their hearts because they have obviously laid them open for all to see.  And that is what I long to do with my work.  Working with abstract pictures and figures I am more able to drop a bit of myself right smack dab into the middle of each piece.  Because creating a beaded piece is a 'slow' art it lends itself to being a 'real' part of me.  The time that it takes may encompass days when I feel joyful and days when I feel sad -- the colors, the stitches, the design all say 'deep down, this is who I am'.  Everyday I thank each of you who are out there wearing your heart on your sleeve by putting it into your chosen art form.  This is not an easy thing to do but it can be so rewarding.  Its that huge leap from craft to art. 

"When you do things from the soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy". - Rumi