For round peyote, you bead around the stick. The needles are indeed teeny weeny. (if you have any experience of beeding needles, I use a #12, which is thicker than a hair, but not by much ... the thinness is both for getting through the holes in the beads, even with multiple thicknesses of thread, as well as so that the needly will be a little bit flexible.)

There is also a style called "flat peyote" which is done as a flat piece. These are usually not then sewn around anything ... they just are a flat piece of beadwork that is used in various ways. I do have an example of flat peyote already photographed for your enjoyment ...

This is a pair of earrings that look like eagle feathers. There are many variations of these around, but stylistcally I liked the pattern because it showed the splits and color variations that real eagle feathers have, and usually aren't illustrated.

http://eva.alexandersguns.com/images/eaglefeather.jpg

I have these in a bunch of different colors. Purple, red, turqoise and blue. The pair that I wear regularly are two shades of turquoise, one translucent, the other opaque. I also have made pairs for friends in purple translucent/opaque and one with black substituted for the white, and red for the black, with reference to the pair shown here.

Most of the creative stuff I do these days is computer graphics and photography, but here's a few samples of a set of colored pencil drawings I did a couple years ago, just farting around with sketching characters (originals are about 8x10):

http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.org/Image4_small.jpg

http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.org/Image1_small.jpg http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.org/Image3_small.jpg

I didn't realize until I previewed this post that the few images I scanned were all bald men. Oh well.

Alan,
Is the one bottom right a self portrait? :)

The black paper makes the color jump and look very cool indeed.

They are all cool, HP, but straightjacket guy is awesome.

Heheh... Thanks. As it happens, I posted that one just for you.

Thank you!

Here's a small photography sampling... this bunch is from when my friend's band played at a 2002 Winter Olympics venue in Salt Lake City... it was my first and only photography gig. I enjoyed the hell out of it, and one day I might actually try to drum up some business doing it on the side:

http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.or...0039_small.jpg http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.or...0059_small.jpg http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.or...0062_small.jpg http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.or...0003_small.jpg

...and a couple other photos:

http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.or...04_2_small.JPG

http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.or...06_2_small.JPG

You know I like your patterned tank stairs!

I liked that eagle feather design so much, that I decided to see if I could use it in other ways. This resulted in a cigarette lighter cover. I've seen these for sale at pow-wows, but they are usually just geometric designs, or sometimes little flowers, which are a traditional peyote image. You can replace the lighter ... like most of these covers, it just slides out.

http://eva.alexandersguns.com/images/lighter.jpg

Nice job. Shooting bands working is really hard with the movement and stage lighting. Drummers are notoriously hard to shoot, hiding behind their kit and not lit well.:)

Well HELL look at what happens when you step away from the 'puter for a few days !!! Ain't we a bunch of talented Folks!! ( no sarcasism intended at ALL )
A few questions and comments .

Bruce , Cool that you would help out a friend with the chair lift . That my friend is functional art , but that is a little ass motor with plastic gears ????? Garage door openers was a good choice to work with , they have all the right stuff for some thing like that , but i would have used both motors and gear boxes . Why didn't you ??? Double redundency and all that .

Wolf , first let me say Exelant bead work !! I know that some indian beading has symbolic meaning . Does the bead work around the .50 cal round mean any thing ? If so what does it mean ?? And how the HELL can you stand to work THAT small for that long ???? i meen there is like 50 bijillion beads in those peices !!!!! Your turquoise dream catcher FUCKING ROCKS !!!!

HP , KILLER photog work !!!!! The tank stairs is a killer pic , B/W was defently the way to go with that pic . The farm sun rise is VERRY cool !!!!

Happy Monkey , No offince intended with the stripper tassle comment just my observation. Your wood work is EXEA-FUCKING-LENT !!!!!! I am a Niven fan as well . How the hell did you get those geometric shapes to be self supporting ?? Did you form them around a ballon , then deflate it ????

Wrach , WHAT the HELL are those abstract pics of ??? Inquireing minds want to know !!!!

LJ , Hell of a thread you started here !!!!! I like the "high" school drawings !!

I've taken to calling the .50BMG "Warrior's Token" ... because I think that artwork should have a title, and "untitled" is a cop-out. Mostly what it means is proof that you can bead around anything ... (most people prove this by beading various oddly shaped glass bottles, but hell, EVERYONE does that!!) I did some work on this piece at the "Bead and Chat" at a local bead store. Strangely, none of the other ladies commented much. They just got kind of quiet and paid close attention to their own work.

The patterns that I used are somewhat traditional, but don't have any meaning in this context, per se. I have done ceremonial pieces ... like the talking stick. Bluejay is one of the communicators with spirit, and it seemed "right" for the piece and the purpose.

I have a ceremonial pipe stem that I'm still waiting for the inspiration to strike on. I have to sit with the stem for a while and figure out what it wants to be. It has a nicely placed knothole that will allow me to attach a leather thong to hang some feathers or other appropriate tokens from, but the beadwork hasn't gelled yet. Nor has what I'm supposed to do with my Cedar Courting Flute. I'm fairly sure of the colors for that one, but not the pattern.

There's also a nekked poplar staff in my downstairs closet that's in need of some attention.

On the prayer feather the symbols are the lightning, and the "windowpanes" are all the colors of creation ... not just of the four directions. I have a second prayer feather done with the four directions color correspondence that I haven't photographed yet.

The dreamcatcher represented some interesting challenges, since I had to play with increases and decreases because of the difference in interior and exterior diameters of the wooden ring. Getting the beads to lay flat enough was part of the fun.

As far as working small ... the size doesn't matter. They all go on the string one bead at a time. I do a lot of other crafts. I find it calming, and end up in kind of a meditative trance when I'm really into it. I find it relaxing.

Some pieces work up a lot more quickly that you might expect. The eagle feather earrings take about (now that I've done them a bunch of times) 6 hours a pair. The thunderbirds I'm posting below, because I realized I hadn't shown them off yet, only took about three hours. The technique used here is called "brick" stitch, which is sorta kinda like a sideways peyote ... the effect is similar, but the beads are attached in a different pattern. This was fun to do, because the actuall bead "fabric" is only a small triangle at the top of the earring, with the remainder formed by the long beaded fringe.

http://eva.alexandersguns.com/images/thunderbird.jpg




If I get old and decrepit, Bruce will be the first person I call ... actually, he's a good guy, and I'd call before then, but just for the purpose of hanging out, rather than asking him to do anything.

HA !!! That will show those ladys the power of the WOLF !!!
Wolf says to the ladys busily beading their doilys
"BEAD THIS beeyotch"!!!

Sorry ,,,, it had to be said . :rolleyes:

Fill it with some "natural" :joint: ,,, well ,, you catch my drift
Do you have drug tests at work ?? Obvious question i know but,,,,,

Sorry ,,,, it had to be said . :rolleyes: