Tuesday, April 17, 2012

(9) Montana

Capitol: Helena

OK, my entries up to now have been from my notes. Now I'm working the project/blog at the same time, so you'll be getting more information than you care to read. You can always just look at the pictures!

I had quite a bit of trouble coming up with what state to do next (by the way, I am always open to suggestions!). The first 8 came to me easily. Not so for the 9th. For some reason I decided to work on Montana. Years ago I spent a week skiing in Montana with my husband, my brother, Fran, and a group of my brothers co-workers from Kodak, in Rochester, NY. It was not long after the movie "A River Runs Through it" , which was set in Missoula, MT, came out. Much of the drive from the airport to our accommodations near Big Sky ski area was along a river. Naturally, there were many comments about a river running through Montana. Way too many comments. So, my first thought was mountains, a river,... you get the picture.

I did a bit of googling and found that the state animal for Montana is the grizzly bear. That sounded like more fun to bead than more mountains (did that in CO!). I found a nice silhouette of a grizzly, facing to the right, and super-imposed it on Montana. It was a good idea, but no matter how I sized it, the capitol of Montana, Helena, kept ending up in the bears butt, or other private parts. Unacceptable. Now what? Well, a few years ago I read "Three Cups of Tea", by Bozeman-ian Greg Mortenson. I loved that book, despite the brouhaha that followed. I decided a cup of tea, with a bear on it.

Then, as I was organizing my stuff the bear got flipped upside-down, at which point it occurred to me, he doesn't have to be facing to the right... Helena can be in front of him. Wow. I can't believe how long it took me to come to this! Sucks getting old. So - a bear it is. The background will probably involved a river, but that's thinking to far ahead.

Decided to bead the bear with 15s, in several shades of black and brown. A bit messy, so it would look like the bears fur. Here is a picture of my workspace with a partially beaded bear.



Here is a picture of the partially beaded bear. The little dot in front of the bear is Helena. It will be represented by a silver bead, just like all the other capitols. The picture doesn't do the browns and blacks justice, it looks much better in person.

To give you and idea of the size, the Montana pin will be approximately 3" x 2".


Next is a picture of the back of the piece, so you can see how much sewing is involved.


When I finish beading Montana I will update this post and put a picture at the beginning.

OK, for the background of Montana I started thinking about our time in Yellowstone State Park. I decided to put the bear in the park setting, with "Old Faithful" in the background. Scale's not great, but hey, I only have 3" x 2" and beads to work with!!

3 comments:

Shirley said...

What a cool idea! I've lived in NC, TN, and SC, so I'll put any of those up for your next choice! I love this idea, and the thoughtful process for each state. Great job!

laurie said...

Thanks Shirley! Any ideas for NC, TN and SC? I haven't given them much thought yet. Have 3 planned, then I'll be stuck again.

Mary C. Nasser said...

As a huge fan of Yellowstone, this might be my favorite pin so far!
This is such an amazing project you've taken on!

So nice to meet you through Jill's Arty Cartophiles group on FB!
I am your newest blog follower! :)

All the best,
Mary
Mixed-Media Map Art