Hello everyone! Im so excited to be involved in this, my first Bead Journal Project. I've oogled the BJP website for the past year like a kid in a candy store and I cant believe Im actually going to be a part of it myself! Im relatively new to beading--most of my experience is making jewlery--and I feel priviledged to "rub elbows" with the rest of you creative geniuses! I've always wanted to learn how to embroider with beads and I cant think of a better way to do it then the BJP.

While I wont have a theme (this way I can change it up as I go along) I was hoping to incorporate some machine embroidery into my pieces. I noticed Karen Cohen, from 2008, used machine embroidery very succesfully so I hope my pieces can be 1/10th as good. I also plan on displaying the pieces in shadow boxes when they are all done. I have not chosen a size yet, guess it depends on the size of the shadow boxes I buy or make (working on a budget here).

I hope to work with Japanese beads. I live in a very rural area and supplies are limited so I've never had the opportunity to buy/use them before but have always wanted to. I found a website that is a good source for Japanese beads and plan on buying them thru the internet. So, as you can see this will be a total learning experience/stretch for me.