Checking In

Hi everyone!

For many reasons, I seem to be a behinder this year, with only 8 pieces complete. I've been quilting, knitting and writing, but not beading for a while. However, last Tuesday, joy of joys, I finally got back to my beads! Soon I hope to complete September's BJP and move along to October.

In the meantime, I have registered for BJP 2011! I am SO looking forward to a new year, this time with no pre-planned theme or self-imposed "rules." By giving myself some rules this year, I learned a lot and discovered some new likes and dislikes about my art. But, now I'm tired of restricting myself to working on felt and bored with the words. Next year? No rules!

Have YOU registered yet? I hope so! If not and you're planning on it, better do it today, cuz the deadline is fast approaching.

You might want to check my current Beadlust post about getting a hard copy of your blog printed. It's here.

Cheers and beady blessings,
Robin A.

How to Run the BJP

Commenting on the previous post (Next Year), Bobbi K asked a good question. What does it take to run the BJP? I'll answer that by listing the steps:

1. Determine the starting date (I suggest keeping it Jan. 1, same as this year)
2. Determine the registration dates (I suggest Nov. 15 - Dec. 15
3. Somebody has to be the registration angel. This person will set up an email (gmail?) account for all registration correspondence. Registering members and replying to correspondence about the BJP is the most time-consuming job. It takes a very organized person who has time to deal with the correspondence on a daily basis.
4. Write a post on each of the three current BJP blogs asking members to "advertise" next year's BJP and registration dates on their own blogs. They should list the registration dates, email address for registration and web page where an interested person can read about the program.
5. Our current web angel (Brenda) may be willing to continue. If so, she would post the registration information, rules, etc. on the Bead Journal Project website. She's done this previously.
6. When registration opens, new and returning members will email their information and request to be a member to the registration angel.
7. The registration angel will make a spread sheet with the name and other information about all members.
8. The registration angel will send a form email to each member telling them they are now officially enrolled.
9. The blog angel will set up one or more blogs for the year and will take the membership information/list from the registration angel and assign members to a specific blog and send an invitation from the blog so that they can post on it.
10. For the most part, the registration and blog set-up goes fairly smoothly, but there are always a few problems. With our experience in the past three years, I can give the two angels some tips that should help a little.
11. After the year's project begins, there is little to do, except to monitor the blogs making sure the content is appropriate and relevant.
12. I have the "form correspondence" we used this past year, which can either be used again or modified to suit the new team's needs.
13. Generally this past year, my angels did most of the actual work, while I served as advisor and troubleshooter and coordinator. We emailed back an forth quite a bit at the beginning of the year, making decisions about various details. But after the first month, things ran fairly smoothly.
14. As the leader, I have made an effort to be active, reading the BJP blogs and all posts on active member's personal blogs that are relative to the BJP and taking the time to write comments on all of them. This is rewarding and inspirational to me, also time consuming.

Hope this isn't too much information. A team of four people (the leader plus registration, blog and web angels) can do the job. The bulk of the work would be between Nov. 1 through Jan. 15. Bobbi K has already said she might have the energy to be part of the team (and she'll be fabulous to work with)... any others???

Thanks for taking the time to read this and think about it....

Robin A.

Next Year

Some of you have started asking about BJP 2011...

I'm sorry that I haven't addressed this earlier. In my personal life, things have been (and continue to be) up and down a bit lately. My attentions are drawn elsewhere and I've not kept up with blogs in the way I'd like.

So, I'm torn. Part of me wants to continue leading the BJP for another year; part of me feels the need to step down, to continue making one visual journal piece every month, but not to organize and shepherd the BJP program. Sitting on the fence, thinking I can do it one moment and needing to be released from the responsibility the next, is what has delayed notice about it.

I see no immediate resolutions to the personal issues in my life. Therefore, probably the best thing is to open the door for somebody else to take over. I am willing to act as a consultant/advisor, and am also willing to let go of the program as I designed it. In other words, any past participant who would like to take it on, is welcome to alter the program to suit their own style of leadership or run it with the same guidelines and system as we use now.

One other possibility is to take a year-long break and see how things look for 2012 to start again.

I need to know if there are volunteers to take over and/or what you think of the idea of taking a break. Go ahead and state your thoughts by making a comment here (of any length)... or you can email me privately (robin[at]robinatkins[dot]com).

Again, I'm sorry and apologize for my need to let go at this time. Thanks for giving some thought to this and for participating this year!

Robin A.

Finishing ~ Tutorial Posted on Beadlust

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Many of us have now completed 8 pieces and are thinking about what to do with our work for the year. No pressure... the best part has already happened... the doing of the work is where most of the benefits happen (or so it is for me). But it IS fun to finish the work and make it displayable in some way.

One way is the subject of my current post, here. It's a tutorial on how to mount non-3-dimensional pieces on stretched canvas frames. The results are very professional-looking and give an impression of fine art to the work. Above, you can see three pieces I've mounted in this way. I'm so pleased with how they look that I decided to write about how to do it.

If anyone else wishes to put a finishing techniques tutorial on their blog, I'd love to see it!

Remember, if you have 8 pieces finished and photographed, you can have a personal page devoted to your pictures on the Bead Journal Project website. Check here for directions.

Some fabulous work being done this year... Bravo, everyone!

Robin A.

August BJP is on my blog!

Hi everyone!


I just posted my August piece (detail above) here.

I've been missing on the BJP blog scene and feel very badly about it. The reasons are partly personal issues in my life right now and a ton of other obligations, projects, house guests, travel, etc. that have kept me waaaay too busy. There's more of all that on the horizon, but for the next three days, I hope plan to get caught up reading your blogs and seeing all the creative work being done in the BJP!!! And later this week, I want to will write another post about one way to finish BJP pieces that can give them a place in the fine art world.

Reminder... Once you have completed 8 BJP pieces for the year, you are eligible to put them on our BJP website on your own personal page!!! (Here's how your personal page will look... mine from the first year.) There are directions for how to send in your pictures on the website, here. (These are actually directions for last year's BJP, but they are the same for this year.) I look forward to seeing some of your pages and pictures soon. It's so neat to see them all together in a group, don't you think?

Please forgive my recent absence from active blogging... I'm sooooooooo excited to have a day to catch up and see your work!

Beady hugs,
Robin A.

March BJP is finished!

It makes me happy to be making some progress on my BJP. My March piece is done, on to April! If you want to see the completed section of my Birthstone Circle, take a look at my blog HERE.

Book Giveaway on my Blog

Hi Everyone... Thought you might like to know I'm giving away a copy of a new book, Metalworking 101 for Beaders on my blog. You can take a look here.

Robin A.

Doing the Happy Dance!

I am finished with February's piece and I am so excited! I just updated my blog and would love it if you would take a look and see how it turned out! You can see my progress here. Thank you!

Invitation

Hi Everybody!

I've been gone 6 weeks (pre-vacation, 2 wks in AZ, post-vacation and then the coughing virus... now finally, I'm back! I'm also seriously a behinder.... Today is set aside for catching up on BJP blogs. Tomorrow I promise you, I'll get to work on my March BJP... that's a PROMISE!

Now, the invitation...

I am a contributing writer for Creative Beading magazine
(Woodlands Publishing, Australia) and would like to mention the bead journal
project in my news column if this is ok with you. If so I would love some images
jpeg 2mb in size if possible. Many thanks
Regards
Sue Cordes
susan.cordes@bigpond.com

I replied to Sue that she's welcome to write about the BJP for her magazine. However, I have no control over the images posted by our members. I suggested to her that I would post her invitation on our blog and anybody who is interested can send her an image or two directly. So there you have it... I hope some of you will respond!

Pictures on our three BJP blogs ~ Just a reminder that you can now post pictures of your BJP pieces on our three BJP blogs! If you have a personal blog, it's really fun to post a teaser, an image that shows only a small detail of your piece, here and a link to a post on your own blog where we can see the pictures of your full piece.

I'm so impressed with all the BJP work I'm seeing this year. Everyone is stretching, getting out of the box, learning... It's amazing, beautiful and creative!!!!

Robin A.

Another update on my blog.

I am moving along on my February BJP. I would love it if you would take a peek and let me know what you think! Please check out my progress on my blog A Beadiful Mess. Thank you!

Six Words ~ Basis for my BJP pages

Although I'm off to a rather slow start on February's page, I just posted my six words on my blog, here and later today I plan to start beading the page!

Just a reminder to everyone... please don't post pictures or even detail peeks of your BJP pages here on the three BJP blogs until after April 1st. You're welcome (make that encouraged) to post them on your personal blog, Flickr or other site and then post a link to your pictures here. The reason is because some people don't want to see what others are doing until they have a good start on their own style of page.

The above is a policy we started the first year because some of the participants requested it... Does it still make sense? Should we change it? Thanks for your thoughts about this...

Robin A.

Alert

I just wanted to share quickly, a fast easy way to follow all of the Bead Journal Blogs. I found Google Alerts works pretty well. It's fast, free and easy to sign up for. You put in the relevant keywords/labels you want to be alerted on and you get an email when someone posts a blog with that keyword or label.

This is working great for me. Last year I felt awful I didn't have the time to follow all three blogs here. And with even more people this year I figured I try it. This is bringing me to all of them when someone types in their labels/keyword on their blog or on here that I want to be alerted to. So much faster and easier to get these posts in my email and to be able to look, read and comment from there.

I hope this helps.

Photoshop Class Might Interest You!

Hi BJPers and CONGRATS on all the finished pieces!!!!! You are sooooooooo fine!!!! I'm almost there... maybe today.

Thought you might want to know... One of our members, Christi C. (Sweetpea Path) has signed up to take an on-line Photoshop class, here. It still has openings.

Today I spent some time reading about the class, looking at the instuctor's (Susan Tuttle) blog, Susan's Flickr page and some of her students' work on Flickr. It looks to me like her class would offer individual attention, flexibility and basic training in photo editing using either Photoshop Elements or Photoshop CS. She says that a free, current version of Photoshop Elements is available to students to download for the class. It's a trial offer by Photoshop, so you don't get to keep it forever, but it means you could try it for the class and see if you like it.

Maybe one (or more?!) of you wants to join Christi in the class???!!!!

Cheers and have fun with February!

Robin A.

Smoothing Out the Wrinkles ~ Blog Woes to Be Resolved ASAP!

Hi BJPers!

As some of you know, we're having some wrinkles with the blogs this year. The issue is that we have close to 300 members, which means all three blogs are full to the maximum capacity. Initially we had the four angels and me as authors on all four blogs. We had to take ourselves off in order to make space for everyone.

Still there are wrinkles... we don't have a final "Authors List" for Blog #1 yet. Also there are a few of you who still haven't responded to your invitation to be an author.

Good news... YOU can help!!!

1. If you wish to write posts (be an author) on one of the BJP blogs, but do not yet have authorization, please contact me... robin [at] robinatkins [dot] com. Give me your name (plus any aka names you use for blogging), your email address (the one you want to use for the invitation), your city and state/country. For the subject of your email, use "BJP - blog author problem". I will make sure to re-send your invitation.

2. If you are listed incorrectly on Blog #2 or #3 "Authors List," please contact me... robin [at] robinatkins [dot] com. Give me your name and the correction you wish to have us make. For the subject of your email, use "BJP - blog author listing correction"

3. If you are on Blog #1, please be patient with us a little longer. We'll try to get the "Author List" posted as soon as we can.

4. If you are double listed or even more importantly, if you are authorized to write posts on more that one of the BJP blogs, please contact me... robin [at] robinatkins [dot] com. Give me your name (plus any aka names you use for blogging), and explain the double listing. For the subject of your email, use "BJP - double listing"

Thanks so much!!! We understand how important it is to be able to post! In the meantime, have fun with your January BJP and reading all the fascinating posts here!

Robin A.

Be Sure to Check Comments!

Hi Everybody and thanks for all the introductory posts! Wow!!! What a diverse and lively group we have... on all three blogs!

Two thoughts...

1. Try to make time to read all three BJP blogs. You can leave comments on all of them, but write posts only on your assigned blog.

2. After you write a post to your assigned blog, please check back a few times over the next week to see if anyone has left comments for you!

I notice that on one of our three blogs there are lots of commenters... Bravo!!! Comments are a wonderful way to build community... keep it up!

Hope you're all busy beading and stitching (or painting, pasting, stamping, or....) on your first BJP piece for the year!!! Me? Well, I haven't started yet... However, I have given myself this evening and tomorrow to be in my studio with ONLY my Jan. BJP!!!!!

Have a very beady new year!
Robin A.

Quesion....

I have a question. I cut out all of my pieces for the year in advance. I wasn't thinking, I guess, and I cut everything to an exact 4 x 4 square. The thing is, I wanted to do a 4 x 4 square again this year. Can I still? Or do I need to go with a smaller size like a 3" square or a 3 1/2" square?

Also, I have posted a challenge I think some of you may be interested in on my blog. From what I've read so far in some of your posts, it can go along with what we're doing here.

Bead Embroidery Group on Flickr

Hi Everyone!

I just started a new group on Flickr called Bead Embroidery. It's here. I'd love for you to join the group and post some of your bead embroidery pictures!

Also I posted a Christmas greeting on my blog, with pictures of last year's December BJP piece, which I call The Light Within. For me, it marked a big change in a long-time, grumpy attitude toward the whole holiday season. You can see what I mean... The piece below is my first year's BJP December piece. The title is Dark Thoughts Pointing at Christmas. It's amazing to me how transformational bead embroidery can be!


Merry Christmas!!!

Welcome Everyone to the 2010 Bead Journal Project!

We begin the third year of the BJP with 287 members, many of whom are returning to the project after participating in either or both of the previous years! A special warm welcome to our new members! For you, it may seem bewildering or even a little scary. Not to worry, you’ll soon find your groove. The BJP blogs will help, as you can post questions here any time.

To both returning and new members, please read the following guidelines! I believe they will help us all to stick with our commitment to this one-year project!

Relax and have fun with it! Bend the rules a little if you need to. The commitment you’ve made is 100% for YOU, for your own benefit and enjoyment. So, each month, as you begin your piece, try to please yourself… not me, not the other members, not your beady friends… YOU!

There are only three basic rules… A. Make one piece a month. B. Include some beads on each piece. C. Make all 12 of your pieces the same size/shape.

If your initial plan/idea doesn’t work for you, change it! In the past two years, I notice some members dropping out because their plan/idea was too ambitious or sometimes because it suited the first few months but didn’t fit well after that. You are free to make changes anytime during the year.

You don’t have to apply a theme to your work, although some find working with a theme very compelling. But, if you start with a theme and later get tired of it, feel free to let it go at any time.
Consistency will naturally happen. You do not have to strive for it. Actually, it’s not a problem at all if your work seems inconsistent!

The BJP is non-competitive! Each and every piece is valid. Each and every piece has merit. Each and every piece is an important step in your personal development as an artist and craftsperson. Each and every piece is an accomplishment! We are a supportive group, encouraging each member to do what works for them in the best way they can. Try to look at your own work with the same non-judgmental eyes that you would use for the work of others in the project.

There are no BJP police! You don’t have to post pictures. You do not have to report to anybody that you finished your piece each month. You can bend the size rule (that all 12 pieces should be the same size and shape) if it will keep you active in the project. Although we encourage you to do one piece per month, you can start a month’s piece early, do two in one month, skip a month… again, whatever it takes to keep yourself active.

There are many possibilities to explore each month! You might try visual journaling or telling the story of your life during this month in a visual way. You might set yourself a learning goal, such as to try one new technique each month. You might consider using your BJP pieces to “get out of the box” and experiment with colors, design and/or style. You are free to set your own goals for the year’s work, if you wish.

If you’re looking for inspiration, I suggest looking at the member pages on the BJP website, here and here. You are eligible to have your own member page when you have completed 8 pieces for this year. Also, I posted pictures of 42 of my favorite pieces from last year’s BJP on my blog, here.

Don’t stress about finishing… about how you will finish each month’s piece or what you will do with the year’s work. Some members have a clear idea of what they want to make with their pieces at the end of the year; many do not know at all. Some will create a wall hanging or a book-like assemblage, while others may not make anything at all with their pieces. Either way is fine. Remember, the real payoff of this work is doing it each month!

You are not required to have a personal blog or website. You don’t even have to take pictures of your finished pieces. All of that is voluntary. However, it’s my impression that those who do post about their BJP experiences and progress on a personal blog seem to develop a wonderful sense of support and community with other BJP members. So, although it’s not required, I do encourage you to give blogging a try.

The BJP blogs are your link to the group! We do have a few guidelines about the blogs as follows:

1. We have three BJP blogs because Blogger limits every group-blog to a maximum of 100 authors. To accommodate all of us, we have divided the group into three equal sub-groups. You are assigned to one sub-group and are able to write a post on that blog only. However, I encourage you to follow and read all three blogs!

2. All posts must be relevant to the BJP. In other words, please don’t post text or pictures about other beadwork you are doing on the BJP blogs. However, when you believe it would be of interest to most BJP members, you may post a sentence or two about a non-BJP topic and a link to a post about that topic on your own personal blog.

3. Please do not post pictures of your monthly pieces on the BJP blogs until after April 1st. The reason for this is that some members prefer not to be influenced by other member’s work until after their own style is set a little. You are welcome to post pictures on your own blog (if you have one) or on our Flickr page at any time. During the first three months, you are welcome to post a link on the BJP blogs to pictures posted elsewhere so that those members who are non concerned about being influenced can take a look. After April l, you may post pictures of your BJP pieces here on the BJP blogs.

4. Please, no movies or sound on the BJP blogs! We want to keep it easy and fast to download. Also, since we’ll have well over 1,000 posts by the end of the year, we have to be mindful of Bloggers “space limits.”

That’s about it, folks! Thanks for taking the time to read through these guidelines. If you have any questions, feel free to post them on the BJP blog or email them to me. Now it’s time to pick up some beads and get started!

Again, welcome everyone! I am in awe of you all for making this commitment and I totally look forward to getting to know you and seeing your BJP pieces!

Beadily yours,

Robin Atkins
Founder of the BJP