September page under construction

I always bite off more than I can chew...

What with a full-time job, and 2 university courses each requiring an average of 12 hours a week of class time / homework / research / darkroom, I don't know how I will ever finish a single page for the Journal.

But the page for September has been started.

Unfortunately, I'm making this post from work, and the photo I'm using as the base for my page is at home, but at least I can give a little background.

I was recently in Tokyo, Japan, visiting my brother and his wife's family, and while playing the tourist, we visited a former shogun's private garden, right in the middle of Tokyo! There were times as we walked through the forested portions where the buzzing of the cicadas was nearly deafening! And try as I might, I couldn't manage to capture one in a photo... :-(

But toward the south end of the garden there is a small lake, with a tea house built on pylons in the center. So I managed to take a number of photos of this wonderful setting, several of which show the tea house in the middle ground and skyscrapers in the background, and the idea started to percolate that one might work well as the basis for a journal page.

But what would I do with a photo in the way of beading? Well, I could print it on card stock, and stitch on transparent beads, to create a physical texture. Initially I had thought of was beading the entire portion which is not modern buildings or sky, but once I actually started to work with the photo I realised the tea house would be lost, so I have decided to only do the trees, trying to take into account the actual texture of the trees (eg. pine needles as bugles...) as much as possible.

Hopefully the whole process can be finished in time!!! I'm supposed to be beading with a friend on Saturday, and hope to get a good section done then.

Wish me luck! ;-)