New Beading Year

After many months of preparation the 2009 Open Studio Tour is over. Two days of magic, when visitors came to visit my studio and to see what my busy hands have been creating. It was great fun to see friends and to welcome strangers. The weather could have been much better – apparently my ‘sun’ dance didn’t work - but it was dry and cozy inside. It is always such fun to introduce people to my work. I had a few pieces of my book art from previous years on display for those who were not familiar with book art. But for me the most exciting part was to share my beading of this past year. It was a year ago that I began bead art and as you know from reading here, once started I didn’t look back. I’ve gone from the first picture that I created to trying jewelry, other pictures and even beaded sculpture.

Now is a good time to sit back and reflect on the past year, the pieces that I’m proud of (I know that because I want them to sit in my studio forever) to those that I’m not quite as enthralled with. This past year has been a wonderful journey – sometimes frustrating, sometimes thrilling – and all of the time just what I wanted to do. As I’ve gone through a year-long learning curve I’ve also felt that I was just where I was meant to be. It has been that feeling that has pushed me forward and tempted me to try things that I never dreamt I could try.

And for the coming year? I have the BJP to look forward to and I’m currently working on a new-to-me beading project. I have another sculpture waiting for me and who knows what else this coming year will bring. I hope you will walk this art journey with me and learn about each piece and its inspiration as I go along.

"Feel yourself being quietly drawn by the deeper pull of what you truly love". - Rumi

Taking The First Steps

Each journey begins with the first step. What better symbol of this thought than to create a bead sculpture baby shoe. The first shoe was an infant size 2 cloth shoe in the form of a ‘sneaker’. This project was one of the first almost all Delica bead pieces that I have made. I did bead the sole of the shoe using seed beads because they seem to work better in a larger beading area.

Of course once I had created one shoe I had to make a second one. Not matching shoes mind you – that would be no fun! This time I chose a Mary Jane shape. The original shoe had a ribbon across the top instead of a strap. Off came the ribbon and a strap was made . Stitching through all the layers to hold the strap onto the shoe was 'interesting' (not so to my fingers however).

When I make several of the same type of piece I like to make odd numbers – don’t know why, but they seem to show better if the numbers are odd. So I’m sure number 3 shoe will be on my work table any day now...

            
            "The distance is nothing, it is only the first step that is difficult."- Madame Marie deu Deffand

Delicious Delicas

When I began encrusted beading I was familiar with seed beads and had used them in the artist books that I had been making for many years. As I read and explored the magical world of beading I saw something called 'delica' beads but I had no idea what they were. I'll admit that when I first looked them up on an on-line bead site I found that they were more expensive than the seed beads I'd been using so I just skipped over them. One day, quite by accident I bought some Delicas at a local bead shop, thinking I suppose that they were the seed beads that I was so familiar with. Once I started beading with them I found many differences -- the larger hole was quite easy to work with and their uniformity made a neatnik like me sit up and take notice. Then I discovered their color ranges. At that point the whole thought of expense just dropped by the wayside because Delicas had put me under their spell. These days I probably use Delicas 85% of the time.

Seed beads are just as wonderful and in some ways they are more flexible than Delicas because they are rounder and are easier to use when there is a large expanse of base to cover. But I am entranced by the Delica colors. I love to use muted colors in monochromatic and analogous color schemes. Delicas seem to provide me with the shades that I'm looking for. What do you think, do you have a favorite or do you use both types of beads interchangeably?

Oh and the pictures you see here are from the first of my 'First Steps' collection. More to come in a later post.

"Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons." - Ruth Ann Schabacker

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