UNIVERSAL SOUL IS DONE AND PHOTOGRAPHED!!!!

woooo hooo!!!!! I've been working on and off on the Universal Soul project for months now!! A little background: I decided last fall that I needed to get new slides done. Now to date I've taken my own photos, and for being a complete amateur, I don't think my photos are too bad. But I am an Amateur!! I, Kat admit I cannot take photos as well as a professional. Now that is out of the way, I decided that 2007 was the year of professional slides. The problem was what to photograph. I figured a pro would cost $300-$500, and if I'm spending that kind of money then it's going to be something worthy of that kind of money. Now I like my stuff, but I'm sort of all over the map style wise. By September, I really don't have much inventory left, certainly nothing that I consider my best or most creative. And all the advise I've read about slides is you should have a theme or tie all the slides together somehow if possible. So it made sense to me that I needed to make a whole series based on the same idea or concept. I didn't have any "big ideas" right at that moment, but I figured I would run across the prefect idea, and just expand it out in 4-5 pieces. Then in October I practically stole these great, galaxy beads ( at first glance I was thinking big- galaxy, universe, etc, they really said to me space scenes!) from my friend and lampworker Tera.( http://www.beadygirlbeads.com/ ) Then in March, I was getting something else out, ran across Tera's beads, and again they shouted out to me! I sat down and started to work on Universal Soul. It speaks to me how everything in this life is connected... once I got it down, I realized I just got the first piece of what would be the series for slides. And it features my favorite colors, what could be more perfect!!!! So the big pendant was renamed Universal Soul I, and quickly it followed Universal Soul II ( earrings) and Universal Soul III (bracelet) And then I stalled for a month or so. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next. I sketched out several ideas, and didn't like them. After some debate, I decided I would make a spiral chain, and use one of the beads as a pendant on it. My two beg loves are seedbeading and wireworking, what better to combine the two in once piece? I started the spiral chain you see below, but I didn't like how it was working up. I started thinking again on what Universal Soul means to me, how it's all connected, and life recycles. Next thing I knew I'd made this great big giant spiral out of wire, and then I mounted the bead and the seed chained I'd started, and added a few crystals and a few more spirals, and I had US IV: Earth Spiral. Last piece I finished about 2 weeks ago. I'm calling it US V: Cloud. I was thinking about the milky way, how it always looks like this cloud with sparkies in it. Anyway, Last week I had all five pieces photographed by a professional in my area: http://www.carolynvaughn.com/. All the photos today are from the shoot, I think she did an outstanding job. And she's quick.. The shoot was on 5/22/07 and I got them back today. Thanks Carolyn!