Along The Way

My beading journey has led me down paths I've never before traveled. Sort of like going into a forest, without a compass, turning this way and that way - but loving the adventure of it all.

Along the way I discovered sculptured beading. I'm not even sure if that is the 'real' term for it - but for me it is when you have a three dimensional form and you bead it thoroughly, creating a beaded sculpture. This idea amazed and intrigued me. On one of my thrift store visits I found a pair of white kid gloves and immediately I could see one of them completely covered in white beads. I realize now that to take on a project like this, so early in my beading days, was utter folly. But -- I had to try it. And so I began to bead this glove.

Beginning with the fingers (the most difficult part of the whole thing I soon learned) I beaded and beaded and beaded. I do not normally keep track of the number of hours any piece takes -- because I don't care -- but out of curiosity I kept track of the glove work time. When the four fingers you see here were finally finished I had put 46 hours into them.

Once the fingers were finished the glove sat on its tray, waiting patiently until I had recovered from the trauma of the previous beading. Trying to stitch beads deep between fingers that didn't want to move and trying to keep from going blind while distinguishing between the 'different' white beads (which after all looked almost exactly the same) was quite a task for this novice beader. Finally -- I moved onto the thumb, beading slowly around and around. At least there is only one thumb on a hand!

Because I was doing other beading, in between glove work, I was learning and even developing a beading rhythm which I didn't have when I began this project. I was also learning more about the beads themselves and how they often dictate where they will go and what they say.

All the while this unfinished project was waiting patiently for me...

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience". - Ralph Waldo Emerson