July's progress

I had lots of time on the weekend (a gift from my husband) to think about and work on my July piece. I added a few beads to the sand area, and sewed on some dagger beads that looked like footprints in the sand. I liked that but then was having trouble deciding what else to do with that middle third space, so I left it alone for now.
I put some cheesecloth in two strips across the top - here is a photo with the blue cheesecloth with some gold paint on top. I found it in the pile of painted fabrics when I was looking for the blue fabric I used, and thought it would be a great addition. Then I thought about using an unpainted cheesecloth strip for the wave at the water's edge.

I debated glueing the cheesecloth to the piece, but I didn't want to bead through the glue and decided just to bead it down and hope it stays put. This photo shows the places where I think the shells will go, but they are not sewn on yet. The sand continued to elude me, so I went to play in the water!

I spent a lot of time beading the cheesecloth and found it meditative and relaxing. I am very happy with how the beaded white wave looks. On the right is a close up shot of the right side of the wave. It is difficult to photograph beads with a flash and it is even harder to photograph white beads without a flash! But here are my attempts. On the left is a shot of the left side of the white wave.

I am enjoying the pace of this piece and not allowing the approaching end of the month deadline to bother me. I liked Vicki's posting on the BJP blog stating : "We honour our artistic self and process by accepting its pace."

Next steps: I will finish beading the blue wave, and then start beading the sand.