Kumihimo

Last saturday I was in Charlottesville for a kumihimo workshop. Kumihimo is a method of braiding particular to Japan. Bundles of silk threads are braided together to create a cord.
A pretty good explanation is at Wikipedia with some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumihimo

My teacher is Norma Shapiro from Roanoke. She has come up with the idea of braiding strands of beads together. This is the second class I've taken from her. In the first class we did a hollow braid with 8 strands. This time we did a spiral braid with 8 strands. When finished it kind of looks like a double spiral chain (http://beadweaverdreams.homestead.com/doublespirals.html).

Will post pics soon.

Beaded woodpecker - "My Grub!"

Hmmmm....

My first attempt at posting a photo.

This is also one of my first attempts at combining two of my hobbies. Charolttes (glass seed beads cut on one side) cover a plastic craft form in peyote stitch, right angle weave stitch and - my personnal favorite - "damn-it-all" stitch, aka "whatever works stitch."

This piece was part of Beadwork IV:The Beaded Figure http://www.interweave.com/bead/events/BeadedFigure.asp

Intense birding

The Virginia Society for Ornithology is conducting a breeding bird survey of all the Virginia State Parks June 2-10.
Today a man from the local bird club and I birded Chippokes Plantaion State Park in Surry Co.

We got 67 species all totalled, but I missed seeing/hearing 12. Mostly we birded by ear, which I'm still working on. Besides hearing the Bobwhites and seeing the Eastern Meadowlarks, the greatest moment came almost at the end of the morning when a Mississippi Kite flew over us.
Life Bird!! Woo hoo!

Hopefully, now that I've spent two hours finding the beading materials I wanted to work with all afternoon, this evening will be as good as this morning.

TTFN

A Brave New World

That has such wonders in it.

At least I hope.....

CB