the emotional life of sølje

I have written about some of my sponsored Women For Women sisters in the past. Today I received a large envelope that had a letter and this beautiful beaded doily enclosed. After spending the weekend at Warm Beach on our church’s woman’s retreat, I was emotionally overflowing. To receive this precious gift from a woman that is absolutely struggling in an unsafe, war-torn area has filled my heart to overflowing even further.

As a someone who beads, I know the time it took to create this doily (especially considering my lack of patience with seed beads!), and considering this woman has eight children (as well as caring for her sick inlaws)–you can imagine how she manages her life, as difficult as it is already! I feel blessed that she took the time to even consider creating this for me!

Having been remiss at letter writing over this past year, I promise to be more active with that. Typically Women For Women discourages sending gifts like this because postage does get costly as you can imagine. I feel very blessed right now.

Clicking through to the flickr page, you can choose to view the item fully when clicking on “all sizes”. So much work!

Tags: Art, Women For Women writings by Administrator
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I love Troll Beads. If you haven’t discovered them yet, either don’t… or be ready to get sucked in (btw, bring your $$). I just went out to get the mail, found a package from Denmark, thinking that I hadn’t ordered anything from there lately, and was surprised to find some Troll Beads and their marketing project. They sent out “give away beads” to be placed in a envelope along with a yellow smiley face saying to go to their website and tell them how you found your bead. You also get a chance at winning a bracelet with a double lock by doing so. You can also look for other beads to purchase if you wish too (that’s where I’d get sucked in). http://www.foundabead.com

Locally I’ve seen the glass artists hide glass balls, but to find beads is a first that I’ve seen. How fun!

A close-up of the very cute glass/silver lined beads. I see three smiley faces and one bead with teddy bear faces.

Picture below are most of my Trollbeads. I am thinking about making a different bracelet with fewer beads but haven’t decided yet. It is pretty heavy to wear with all the silver.

I have room for three more beads.
Clockwise from the clasp:
1. Mocha
2. Faith, Hope, Charity
3. Scroll w/etching
4. mice on cheese
5. Tupilak masks
6. The Trinity
7. Scroll w/more etching
8. Treasures
9. Roses
10. Scroll w/even more etching
11. Mermaid
12 Thumbelina

Tags: Art by Solje
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Reference: “Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter” by Katie Pasquini Masopust and Brett Barker

Well, it was an interesting exercise for sure. What I have learned, is that when I have complete access to view what I am drawing, my brain says “this sucks”. I found that result of the second exercise was the better of the three in my opinion.

Blind Contour Drawing: Only viewing the still life, covering the drawing and not being able to reference where I am

Modified Blind Contour Drawing: Being able to view, but the pencil stops when I view the drawing.

Contour Drawing: Full access to the drawing, no restrictions.

Strike that description for the Contour Drawing #3, the restriction for this one was purely self imposed. I am not quite free yet, but I believe I am getting there. I will practice again tomorrow, doing a little bit each day to make it more intuitive and not so questioning in my mind.

Tags: Art, Quilting by Solje
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My final donated postcard to the FFAC fundraiser. “In Memory”. Not a great image, I probably should just scan it. Oh well. Painted fabric that Daniel and did a few weeks ago, Tyvek, bead, crystals… foil! The pink is more of a deeper bright pink, rather than a lighter pink that the image shows.

Tags: Art by Solje
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Boy, I have had quite the dryspell with blog entries, haven’t I? I thought I would share some images of fiber postcards that I have been working on to send to the Houston show for the Fiberart For A Cause fundraiser. I am in my sparkly stage right now… foiling up a storm! It was hard to capture the true colors because of the foiling, but here are my best interpretations. I first did a series with tulips (I am also in a tulip phase at the moment):

My answer for an ad for the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

A field of purple tulips. The lime green satin stitch is not in it’s fullest glory here!

Pacific Northwest rain.

“When The Sun Goes Down…”, playing with Angelina fibers, thread painting, and of course, foil!

Tags: Art by Solje
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