June Bead Journal Project.

Kay's Necklace - June BJP

This is the second in a series of three necklaces.  The first one I made for my colleague Jane who was retiring.  This one is for me.  I am working on the third one for Nan.  We all taught together for 15 years.  Each one of us is so different that it is appropriate that the necklaces be drastically different with the common square bone face in common.

 

We are all creative and intuitive.  A fact I suspect drives our students crazy.  I tend to wear the brightest richest colors and am a closet hippy.  I was too conservative to be one in the 1960's.  I had to wait until I was in my 60's.


Here is the original necklace in the series.  This is the one for Jane.  She is always classy.  I thought she needed a simple necklace that also had a creative edge.

Jane's Necklace

May Bead Journal Project

I have about depleted my cancer experience ideas.  I am ready to move on.  I  do think it has been a good thing to turn some not so pleasant memories into something beautiful.  One of the last things I wanted to portray with a necklace was the whole issue of chemo brain.  When several people start a conversation with "I don't know if you remember..." you know you have a problem.  I confess to be a little dingy at times before chemotherapy but this took it to a whole new level.  It was like a severe case of attention deficit disorder.  I started collecting elephants and had a whole variety of different types and sizes.  Elephants are usually associated with wisdom and good memory.  I thought they were a good symbol of my lack of either one.  Once again some ideas didn't work.  I will have to consider that I may be too picky. 

The choker is a Russian spiral.  I really like the stitch because it provides a lot of opportunities for color play.  Once I had my new photography space set up I decided to try different types of props.  The wooden bowl was from a gift from a friend in Africa so I thought it was appropriate.  I intended to put more elephants on it but I seem to have forgotten..

April Bead Journal Project

I guess it is appropriate that I have had such a difficult time completing this necklace.  It represents the chemotherapy experience.  The problem with telling stories with beading is that the symbolism is so clear in my head it is hard to realize that in the project.  I wanted to convey the increasing burden that chemotherapy puts on the person as the effects of the chemicals accumulate.  In the beginning it was not so bad but 4 months later I could barely move.  And yet as far as the oncologist was concerned I was doing brilliantly.  His criteria was that there was no interruption in the therapy, no hospitalizations, no plummeting platelet counts, and I could still walk into the office for treatment.  My criteria was if I could continue any portion of my life without assistance.  Not so much.

I started this necklace so many times and took it out again.  I just couldn't get it to look the way I wanted.  Along the way I learned a couple of new techniques which was a good thing. I ended up using a St. Petersburg stitch.  The dropped beads gradually got longer and heavier to represent the cumulative effect of the chemotherapy.  The first visual you get is of the heavier middle of the necklace.  That is also my lasting impression of the chemotherapy experience.

I am not totally happy with the way it hangs but so far am resisting the impulse to take it apart again.

I have had this completed for a week or so.  My younger cat Bob knocked over a lamp and broke it and it has taken me a little while to set up another photography space.

March Bead Journal Project

Finally I have finished my friends and family necklace.  I was so frustrated with my inability to make a piece that mirrored my image.  Every time I got started it didn't look right and I would take it out.  My friends and family were so incredible to me last year I wanted to be sure it reflected their care.  They cleaned my house, did my shopping, brought me food, called, visited, took me to appointments.  They were the shiny part of my life. 

This is influenced by the work of Kay Adams.  She does these incredible, layered, textured necklaces.  She gave me my direction.

Working on March

Kay Adams

I have been working on March's necklace for two months now.  This is an important necklace to me because it honors the incredible support of friends and family during the last year.  My image in my head was a bright, outrageous, colorful necklace with hearts and hands.   I have started so many different versions and taken them out again.  Nothing matched my vision.  Then I stumbled across the work of Kay Adams.  She is an antique dealer from Richmond, VA and does these outrageous, wonderful, layered necklaces. 

Finally, something that matched my vision.  I am almost finished but am waiting on some additional hearts.  I ended up not having enough after I decided to go with her style.  Here is what I have so far.  I was showing it to some friends when we went out to eat this week.  The waiter said it looked like I had raided King Solomon's Mines.  I liked it so that is the temporary name.  I have more hearts and hands to put on it to make it rich and totally awesome.

King Solomon's Mine

February BJP

 The biggest challenge of this project was to create a necklace that was visually substantial enough to support the 6 mm lapis lazuli beads and the pendant while still looking feminine. I tried many different techniques and thicknesses of necklaces. I finally settled on this Nbele herringbone technique. It looks a little different than usual thanks to the inspiration of Beth Stone in her book More Seed Bead Stitching: Creative Variations on Traditional Techniques.

During this last year when virtually my whole life was out of my control the one thing I could control was my response. Buddhist philosophy and practice was my lifeline. It encouraged me to stay in the present, deal with what was immediately in front of me and let the rest go. This necklace is symbolic of many elements of Buddhist practice.

The pendant is of Quan Yin, a Buddhist holy woman, or bodhisattva. Her name means "She who hears the cries of the world." She is considered to be the embodiment of wisdom and compassion, the protector of women, children and fishermen. For some reason it has always delighted me that fishermen are included with women and children as being under her special protection. The four lapis beads on each side represent the Four Noble Truths. Together they equal the Eightfold Path. The three beads at the bottom of the pendant symbolize the Three Precious Jewels. These are all core Buddhist concepts. I chose the lapis lazuli beads because they are representative of healing.

I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. It is much more simple than my January necklace but that is also appropriate to the Buddhist theme.

Flaws and All

I have worked all day on my February project and have ended up pretty much right back where I started from. My original idea was to treat the jade Quan Yin pendant like a cabochon but I didn't want to mount it on anything. Attempts to free-form the backing with beads were unsuccessful so I went on to other approaches. I didn't like any of them. In the process I discovered a hairline crack in the jade. I don't know how fragile the crack makes the pendant. At that point I had to decide if I still wanted to use it. I decided that the flaw was pretty realistic of where I am at these days - not what I used to be but still going. It is the support of others which makes the difference. So I will provide the jade with support by mounting her on a piece of suede and using that to anchor the beading. Symbolically and technique wise it works.

January 2012 Bead Journal Project

My January project is finally complete.  Last January I had a mastectomy and became part of the "pink" community.  I am definitely not a pink person, especially what I identify as "breast cancer pink".  Red, quite definitely, or fuchsia or magenta.  Anything that is rich and lively.  This necklace is my protest.  If I am going to be part of a pink community I want it to be on my own terms.

Beader's Block

When I put the clasp on the necklace and actually put it on it didn't hang right. Now I am having a hard time deciding how to put it together. I am in my familiar state of having this gloriously complicated image in my head and simplifying the actual project to the point that it looks nothing like my vision. I don't consider myself to be a rigid person but my art says differently. One of my goals for the Bead Journal Project is to loosen up.

End of the year

I have spent much of the day working on my January necklace.  I will finish it in January so I think that counts. I am pleased with the way it is looking.  It is fairly close to being completed.  Of course the final test is putting it on and seeing how it hangs and wears.  That may require some revisions.

Real World

Tomorrow the real world intrudes in all of my creative fun. Campus is open after the Christmas holiday. I have to prepare to orient a new administrative assistant. I also have to look for materials for a lab I didn't expect to teach. It is the downside of being the chairperson - if I can't find someone to teach a class I get to do it.

On the creative side I do need to take a break from my January beading project. It needs to rest where it is for a few days before I decide how to finish it up. I am thinking about my February project. The two things which got me through this last year were friends and family and my Buddhist beliefs. I haven't quite figured out how to represent my amazing friends, family and students. I have a few inklings of ideas but nothing even close to jelling. I do have a clearer image of "Buddhist necklace.". I bought this remarkable silver pendant. If I can download the image from E-bay I will. It is going to be much more of a statement necklace than I usually make. I want to learn the right angle weave. I really want to learn the cubic right angle weave but we will see how that goes.

I know I am working ahead but my life becomes crazy when classes start. I am also still fighting fighting an endurance problem so we will see how much energy I have for creativity. I need to do something creative every day to feed my soul. What remains to be seen is how much.

Update on January Project - Rethink the Pink

I have discovered a new design tool - the camera on my cell phone.  For some reason I can see the project differently when I am looking at a picture.  I can see the contrasts and flow of color.  With the choker completed I tried to arrange the leaves.  I didn't like the "flatness" of the way it looked on this picture.

So I played around with it some more and came up with this. I liked continuing with a different type of leaf and using the same colors.




 

That led to this.  I am working on some larger leaves for a focal point in the center.  I like the way it is going on right now.

Bead Journal Project

One of my favorite Bead Artists is Robin Atkins.  Her blog is Bead Lust, one of the ones I follow.  In 2007 she started a bead journal project - make a project every month, all of the pieces about the same size.  There has to be a bead element in each project.  This year I decided to join it and journal about my past year.  I looked at past journal projects and assumed that I would make pieces about 3" x 3" so they were something I could really accomplish.  I experimented with my first piece and decided that I am not enough of a graphic designer (don't think that way, have a hard time letting a flat piece evolve) to make twelve projects in that format.  I briefly thought about beaded dolls but didn't really want to do that.  I settled on beaded necklaces.  With each necklace I will learn a new technique. 

I have started working on the first piece.  I know that since this is a bead journal about my experiences of this past year different issues with cancer and treatment  will be the focus.  January, though, had be about the pink.  Any woman diagnosed with breast cancer automatically becomes part of the community of pink whether they want to or not.  My reaction to that was "I hate pink."   There is also a lot of controversy within the community about the whole pink thing.  The current name of the first necklace is "Rethink the Pink."  That is subject to change. 

The technique I decided to learn was the St. Petersburg technique.  I had tried to learn it before but never quite nailed it.  The major component will be leaves but each leaf is different.  There will be a couple of leaves with the traditional "breast cancer pink"  but each of us are different so I think each leaf should be different and definitely all shades of pink/burgundy/purple.

I haven't decided if I am going to put any green in it.  Does that make it too trite?  I haven't decided yet.  I also have all kinds and shapes of pearls to incorporate.  Here is a close-up of the leaves and a very simplistic preview of the necklace.  I am not crazy about the shapes of all of the leaves so they may or may not make it into the necklace.

What Does It Want To Be?

I have found that there are some projects which have a mind of their own.  No matter how I try to force the piece into what I want it to be it just doesn't happen.  A case in point is the necklace I am currently working on.  Here is my inspiration.  It comes from sutkibeads.blogspot.com.  I love the colors and the lines.  I am not trying to duplicate the necklace but to make one that has the same graceful feel. 

I put this necklace together and took it apart so many times.  I just can't get it to hang right.  Here is my latest attempt to put it together.  Obviously I don't have the same graceful flow.  It is more square in its lines.  So does this necklace want to stay the way it is or does it want me to redo it again?  How big does it want to be?  It had better start talking soon or I am going on to another project and give it time to think.

I have been doing a beading group with some friends.  Between their globe trotting and my health issues we haven't been together for close to a year.  I get a walking boot on my foot on the 29th.  We are going to get together on the first.  It will be so good to do something normal.  The green beads in this necklace are ones Helen brought me from Beijing.

Symbolism

I don't routinely look for or incorporate symbolism into my work.  It is more often about exploration of color and/or texture.  Since I believe that each piece of art has a spirit and knows what it wants to be, sometimes symbolism makes itself know as the piece develops.

The doll that I have included in this blog was symbolic from its inception.  This is my fifth beaded doll.  I completed it last fall.  I had originally made a similar doll with a very bulky body.  While I was working on another doll for a friend I realized how much I liked the more slender profile that she had chosen for her doll.  At the time I was working on losing weight and it seemed appropriate to make a more slender doll.  As I worked on this doll in various settings and with various friends and students I was hesitant to discuss the symbolism with others.  I find symbolism a difficult topic to discuss.  It can sound hokey and sometimes pretentious to others.  It is not in the eye of the beholder but in the heart.

 

Joy

Yellow is the color of  joy for me.  The doll has her arms raised and her body slightly tilted so it looks like she is dancing for joy.  The spiral is an ancient symbol which has many meanings.  The ones that are most relevant to me are the cycle of life and the expanding of the consciousness.  I placed the spirals over the heart chakra and the sacral chakra.  There are all kinds of books and sites which identify the symbolism of the chakras.  Generally the heart chakra is symbolic of emotions, compassion, tenderness, unconditional love, equilibrium, rejection and well-being.  I was thinking of equilibrium and well-being as I worked on this spiral.   The sacral chakra can  be symbolic of relationships, basic emotional needs, and pleasure.  It can also govern creativity,  joy, and enthusiasm.  Since this was a doll about Joy, this seemed very appropriate.  These are all things which I wanted for myself as I was facing the future.

Joy, Heart Chakra

 I wonder if art also has hidden or unintentional symbolism that reveals itself later.  Somebody who saw the doll said they would like one for her sister because she had a mastectomy on her right side.  The spiral over the heart chakra looked like a breast to her.  This spiral is definitely on the left instead of in the middle of the body.  No matter how many times I took it out and started over again, this is where the spiral ended up.  Shortly after I finished the doll I was diagnosed with cancer in my right breast and ended up with a mastectomy. 

Joy, Sacral Chakra

Can art be prophetic?  Has this ever happened to you that your art revealed more than you intended?

Inspiration

As a reward for completing chemotherapy I ordered myself several beading books.  I decided they would last longer than food.  Books provide me with inspiration for color, lines and components that I then put together in my own projects.  Since color is so much "my thing" I like to be able to hold the books in my hand and look at all of the nuances of color.  Then I go to my bead stash to look at the possibilities.  The actual beads have so much more depth and light.

These three are my favorite of my new books. 

Bead Romantique by Lisa Kan has beautiful, elegant, somewhat elaborate designs.  Although there is some wire work she primarily uses bead stringing.  There are a lot of Swarovski crystals of one shape or another in her designs.  Some are a little flashier than I usually wear.  There are several designs and techniques however that I am itching to explore.  The instructions and the illustrations are excellent.  I am trying to be very disciplined and finish my square face necklaces first.  I am not sure how long that will last.

I ordered some luscious Swarovski pearls some time ago and have not been able to figure out what to do with them.  I have looked at designs on the web and in advertisements.  I have a vision in my head but have not been able to make it into a reality.  I ordered two books about pearls.  The other one uses mostly wire techniques which I am not comfortable with.  This book, create jewelry Pearls by Marlene Blessing and Jamie Hogsett, is just what I have been looking for.  The techniques are primarily stringing although there is some wire work.   I love the elegance of their designs.  And they have pages throughout the book with the heading "did you know."   They provide great pictures and information about the use of pearls throughout history.  I think the problem with my projects is that I just don't have enough pearls.

This is the most fun of my books.  It is Wild Women Stitched Art Brooches by Sarah Lawrence.  I love her use of color, texture and just plain fun attachments.  Personally, I don't wear brooches very often.  I just don't seem to be able to figure out where to put them.  But I think they would be great to make a bunch of little wild women to put on a necklace.  I have all of these ideas of how to make something wild and then seem to bland them down by the time I am finished.  I would like to get in touch with the wild woman in my art.

What do you use for inspiration for your art?  Are you expressing what you want to express?

Things Don't Always Turn Out the Way We Plan

This is the necklace I made for my faculty Jane Hofverberg for her retirement present.  Completing this was quite a struggle.  The original design included three faces - one representing each of the core faculty of the OTA faculty.  I intended for each of the faces to be white on white but significantly different from each other.  

Each face ended up being completed and taken apart several times.  They just didn't feel right so I would start over again.  As frustrating as this is I do seem to design in the moment.  I don't draw well and I find if I visualize in too much detail I am disappointed if I can't carry it off.  When I see it and touch it I can decide if I think it is working or not.

I also could not successfully place all three faces on the choker.  I ended up choosing the face that I Iiked the best to represent Jane's spirit and putting that on her necklace.  The other two faces are going to be necklaces for myself and for Nan, the other faculty member of our team.  Jane actually really liked that idea because it continues to link us together. 

I worked on this project while I was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.  Fatigue was such an issue for me that it was a triumph each time I was able to be up long enough to work on it.   I needed those moments that I could focus on something other than illness.  Even though it looks just white there are six or seven different beads in the necklace, some shiny, some matt, some large and some smaller.  The ndebele herringbone pattern of the necklace increases the interplay of light and texture.  The layers on the pendant also add shadow and light to the piece.