These are earrings I made for friends for the holidays. They are not especially complicated or sophisticated, but they are fun and my friends seemed to enjoy them. I think it's important ot make things that I can share with people I care about., as well as making elaborate work for exhibition. Doing things like this for someone special encourages me to use different colors and materials than I might incorporate in a major project. It's fun to experiment and see the reaction of my friends and family. I know I've succeeded when I see them later and think, "Gee, I like those earrings,
I am steadily working on my most recent piece, but each time I work, I also bring out my larger project, getting myself warmed up to return to it. Of course, I expected to be further along than I am now, so that I would already have gotten some work completed on the project, but that always seems the way things go. I did not make "resolutions" per se this year, and have even read that such grand proclamations are more prone to failure than simple acts of minor change, but in the vein of those minor acts of change, I am hoping to document my work in progress more this year than I have in the past. Often, I take no photos until a project is complete. One exception to that is that if I create a design that will lead towards a finished piece, that will have to be disassembled in order to actually work on the piece, than I will photograph the temporary design so I can return to it as I work. After some conversations with fellow artists, I have come to believe that taking photographs of the work in process can also be helpful both as a work evolves and in my own growth as an artist. Of course, I am also hoping to do more work and to work more (similar, but not exactly the same), and like all resolutions, we'll see how that goes!
Here is my first finished work of 2013. It is for an exhibit at the League of NH Craftsmen Headquarters. The exhibit is titled, "Child at Heart," and this necklace, which I call "Open and Shut," is made of 20 clasp pieces. As you can see, it is in a rainbow of colors. The necklace can be taken apart and reassembled in any way the wearer desires, so it is a kind of toy. (Though, as it is made of size 11 seed beads, it should not be handled by children under three and anyone who puts things in their mouths.) Originally, I had planned to do pieces in a variety of stitches. After making components in right angle weave, peyote and herringbone, I realized that only the right angle weave held together in the stiff way I desired, so I decided to do them all in the same stitch. Likewise, I initially thought to use a variety of clasp components, but with so many different colors, it seemed better to make the colors change and the pieces themselves be the same. Finally, I had expected to make a dozen larger pieces, but as I worked through the month of December, on a piece focused on children, the twenty children from Connecticut weighed on my mind. So, in their honor, I created a necklace in childlike colors, that a child could take apart and put together in myriad ways
The holidays consumed my time and I did not get a chance to write until now. With the new year, I am refocusing on my work and recommitting to my blog! If you are out there reading, make a comment, I'd love to hear from you! Since I wrote last in November, I made the decision to skip applying for the exhibit which will happen early next month. I am not abandoning my work, but when it came time to submit my application, I evaluated how much work I had accomplished to that date, what was left to complete, how much time remained before the exhibit, and what I would be doing for the holidays. I realized that if I was to finish on time, I would be rushing and skipping well-loved holiday traditions and time with my family as well as working to deadline instead of making the piece I truly envisioned. So, I did not submit an application, and my goal now is to complete the piece for the Sunapee Fair in early August.
I took some time away from that piece, but I was not idle. As is my custom, I made beaded gifts for several friends as well as my sisters. It is a pleasure to do something for people I cherish, and a real gift to see them enjoy my work so much! The big piece is fairly monochromatic (as I've mentioned in the past), and since I did not need to work to deadline over the holiday, I entered a League of NH Craftsmen exhibit which opens tomorrow, called "Child At Heart." It allowed me to do something on a smaller scale in bright colors. It meant I did have to work over the holiday, but the size of the work made it easier to do while I was with my family, so I could still spend time with them. It was fun to work in color again and satisfying to start and finish a piece. A bit stressful for the holidays, but a fulfilling way to start the new year! I will post some resolutions for the New Year and a photo of the new piece in my next post!
Still working steadily on my large piece. I got seriously slowed on certain sections where I use a contrasting colored bead. I loved the beads and the look, but the holes in those beads were uneven and I was breaking needles, breaking beads and stripping my thread so much that those sections, while mere accent areas of the piece, were taking much longer than large areas in the background color. So this week, I went to my local bead store and found similar beads with more standard holes! Hooray! I am cruising through the accent areas at the same rate as the rest. What a great sense of accomplishment to move at a steady rate! Plus, I took the work in progress with me and got some wonderful encouragement from the owners, whose opinions I truly value. It's a nice way to slowly introduce a new piece to the public. My local bead store is a terrific source of inspiration, support and ideas as well as great supplies. The holidays are coming and I want to make some things for special friends and family members, which will be fun, but very busy! I'm glad I will be moving along with my piece instead of dreading those accent areas!
Perspective is a funny thing. I was chiding myself for not getting more work done lately, for a whole myriad of reasons, including the fading daylight, which has made it darker on some of the evening trips I've had to take lately. A few weeks ago, I could have been beading but now it is simply too dark. Yesterday, here on the East Coast, all attention was focused on Sandy, the "superstorm." My son's school was cancelled, so he asked me to drive him places as he was bored at home and the weather didn't really worsen until nightfall. All day our power flickered on and off as I tried to do laundry and other things, concerned that we would lose electricity for good at some point. I got all the way through dinner and as I was preparing to sit down and bead, the power went. I was frustrated, but resigned. I lit candles, turned on the flashlights I had stored conveniently following the meteorologist's instructions and helped my son study for a vocabulary test. Just as we were finishing up, the power came back on! I settled down with my project. Not long into the work, my needle snapped in half, an unfortunately common casualty when working with right angle weave. I got out a new needle and struggled to thread it. After more minutes than I like to admit, I finally got it threaded. Just two passes through, though, and I pulled out the eye. More thread snipping to get a clean edge and struggling to thread the thick thread through the thin needle. I had to take a break to eliminate the feeling of frustration, and the double images from squinting. After many attempts, I got it threaded and continued till the thread, shortened by my snippings, came to an end. Before heading to bed, I threaded the needle with new thread and worked it into the project and did a couple of turns so it is ready to go. This morning I awoke to rain, light wind, but power, school up and running and no real problems. Then I saw the news with flooding, fires, wind-ripped buildings and sunken tall ships (one my family actually saw in Florida years ago), worst of all, over 30 people lost their lives. So, a good breakfast of perspective, and I will see how much work I can accomplish today!
Slow and steady wins the race, right?! I am keeping Aesop's tortoise in mind as my piece grows slowly in my hands. Day to day, row after row. Not nearly as fast as I would like, but it is developing. There are only two weeks left for the early deadline, and I am certain not to make that, but I will enter the work in progress, and see what happens. I'm fully committed now, so I will finish it and enter it in an exhibit, either the one in February or another one next year. A favorite piece I made broke a few weeks ago, and that is calling to me to fix that. Also, I received notice of another exhibit today. It is for something completely different and that is capturing my imagination, too. I am already envisioning what I could make for it, and it would have moving parts and lots of color, a big contrast to the mostly monochromatic work I am doing now. A good diversion, even if it's only in my head right now!
My how time flies! I have had a post-it note on my counter to write my blog and just realized it has been three weeks! I have had to be out of town, twice, been to 8 soccer games for my son, more than half an hour away, and other things in my life have picked up in intensity. I was able to do a decent amount of beading in the car on all of these trips, but often didn't have internet access and so the blog fell by the wayside. Also, when progress is measured (literally) in rows, it is difficult to get excited about writing about how many more rows I've finished! If you are reading this and you know me, perhaps you are one of a handful of people who has shared with me that you read my blog, so while I haven't written in three weeks, I have been beading and talking about beading and blogging! Life is definitely like that. Having a habit of writing weekly keeps me on track, but when the rest of my life changes, the routines can get thrown to the wind, even when the intent behind them is still in my focus. My November entry deadline is fast approaching and it is clear I will not be finished on time. Now I need to decide if it is worth photographing my work in progress and trying to enter that with the intention that it will be complete in January (a real possibility). I have had some encouragement from colleagues to do that, so I am hoping I can screw up my courage and do it. We'll see!
I am steadily working on my large piece, which means that I am doing a lot of the same thing over and over. An artist friend of mine has said she has trouble doing more than a dozen of anything. Like me, she does one-of-a-kind works instead of lots of multiples of the same thing. We've discussed the differences between making production pieces and single items. There can be a sense of superiority as an artist, but often it comes down to a matter of dollars and cents. An artist must charge a lot for one big item, and buyers willing to spend that much can be hard to find. Our conversations have led to other thorny issues as well. What if an artist creates large pieces composed of many similar components and has help with those components. (One bead artist has made a "book" of 365 beaded pages. Each took a year to create.) and has he Are the helpers artists, too? Do they deserve mentioning at an exhibit? Certainly no one is going to live 365 years so it's reasonable to have help. Many major artists have these assistants. To realize a big creation, one needs many hands. Does the vision belong just to the one artist? Often while working, I revise my work as I go. What happens when the "workers" do that? Are they allowed to make changes or suggestions? Does that mean the vision is partly theirs now? I'm not sure there are hard and fast answers to these questions, but they are interesting to consider, especially while I am beading one more of the same thing!
Oh, the joys of computers! I struggled again to upload my photo, but had the advantage of knowing everything I tried last week, and was able to find a way that worked! I finished this piece in the summer. It is a kind of companion necklace to one I made last summer for an exhibit in the new gallery for the League of NH Craftsmen. I had made a gold necklace (Byzantium) for the Sunapee Fair last year and got on a roll. I had two gold pieces in the new League gallery, finished a third piece after the deadline, stopped work on a fourth necklace that by bizarre coincidence was so remarkably similar to a necklace in the exhibit that I felt uncomfortable continuing with it, then made another gold necklace (Guinnevere) that was in this year's Sunapee Fair. I finished this one several weeks after the fair. This necklace features gold and silver right-angle-weave squares with pearls and a crystal centerpiece surrounded by right angle weave. The crystal was from my mother's bead stash. (She died in August of 2008.) The first necklace was pearls and circular right angle weave surrounding more of those crystals. I have two sisters, and now they each own one of these necklaces. It feels like a connection I've woven between our mother, my beadwork, and each other. We all live in different places and are able to come together only a couple of times a year, so it is comforting to feel that my bead weaving has