Nature always inspires me. Mother Nature, with brush in hand, wields an awe-inspiring color palette of beauty across her canvas, with strong brush strokes adding texture to her landscape or the softness of whispered-somethings in water-colored skies. She puts the most seasoned artists efforts to shame in comparison with her designs but ones in which we derive so much pleasure and inspiration from.
My soul and spirit always feels cleansed and refreshed after spending time in one of her living-art paintings. How I wish I could create as effortlessly as she! I can only draw inspiration from her examples and teachings.
Nature Goddess is one of my earlier attempts at a beaded art doll. She was created with many different types of beads. My favorite was the micro-beads because it reminded me of paint. It covered a larger surface area in a relatively short amount of time by applying it with a special adhesive, as opposed to working with seed beads which takes a lot longer because they are sewn on.
Although, I must admit now, if it wasn't for the pains in my hands, I prefer working with seed beads because you have more precision and control in the direction you're sewing them in. The beads are sewn in a linear fashion, even when you direct them along curves. It creates a "flow" in the piece.
As indicated above, micro-beads covers the area similar to paint. Even if you work in small areas, as I did in creating the swirly vine in this example, the beads just cover the area in all directions.
