I'm all done!!!!

I have been working non stop on my latest entry in the EBW monthly challenge. This month's challenge was Fairy Tale. Oh the possibilities. I love fairy tales and fables. They were some of my favorite things to read as a child. I remember my grandfather had this great old book full of classic fairy tales. The pictures in this book were amazing. Even before I could read, I would sit and thumb through the book just to look at these wonderful works of art. Sometimes I miss the old illustrations (no offense modern day illistrators).

One of my favorite stories, well actually two of my favorite stories are Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I have always loved these stories. I'm actually re-reading Through the Looking Glass right now. The characters in these stories are just amazing, so creative and colorful. How could you not love them?

And my absolute favorite character was the Cheshire Cat. I even wanted to dress up as the Cheshire Cat one year for Halloween. I'm not really sure what it is that draws me to this character, I just love him.

As soon as this month's challenge was announced, I knew what I was going to do. I was going to do a two drop peyote cuff, but that would be much of a challenge to me. So I decided to try bead embroidery again.

I used these great Lapis cabs for the eyes. I've had these cabs for a little while and I knew they would work perfect for this project.

I wanted to do a completely black cuff with just the eyes and the smile visible, but wasn't sure how I was going to pull that off, so I compromised with black eyes and smile and a gray background.

I then added a great pink and blue beaded boarder around the edges and backed it with green leather.

I am so proud and excited about this cuff. I am completely in love with it. It has really helped get me over my winter creative slump I've been in. Every night that I worked on it, I got one step closer to the final piece. It made me excited again.

It also has again renewed my awe and just plain wonderment for all of the artists out there that do bead embroidery. This is not an easy task and so many make it look easy. I enjoy doing the bead embroidery, but I think after this project I'll be taking a little bit of a break.

This cuff can be found in my etsy store.

Voting for this challenge begins on March 9th on the Etsy Beadweavers Blog.