The Lives Beads Live

I got an e-mail from a colleague at work not long ago:

Quick story about your jewelry….. Recently I was traveling through O’Hare airport and was asked to “step aside” after going through security.   I couldn’t imagine what in the world I had on me or with me that was prompting a more intrusive search.  It turned out that one of the agents noticed my necklace (one I bought from you at the Handmade for the Holidays event).  She wanted to take a minute to take a closer look at it and commented that it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen! 

Another friend called me in the middle of the music fest she was attending in North Carolina to tell me that people kept asking her about the necklace she was wearing. Some of these were evidently beaders because she wanted to know what stitches were used to make it as they kept asking her.

Of course the other side of that is when someone quizzes you about one of your pieces that they have seen and speak as though you have a slide projector in your head and can summon up the exact item. Especially when they don't speak Beadish. It made me realize anew how technical beading was, and gave me renewed sympathy for those queries I see online about how to read bead patterns and instructions.

The piece that went to the North Carolina musicfest was Carol Wilcox Well's “Ruffled Lace” necklace, which you can find here.  The long lacy rope goes through the loop, about the fanciest lariat necklace I’ve ever seen. Here is my version:

I made two of these, the first time according to the directions. I did my loop differently the second time around which you see here, adding some triangular leaves and a different bezeling technique for the chatons. I broke too many needles making the original design! Let’s not discount frustration as a prime motivator for creative beading.

Beading down Memory Lane

Being a woman of middle years, I came late to the digital revolution.  Back in the mid-90s, when colleagues at the college where I teach were getting online I held out:  e-mail and all that stuff was a time-sucker and a fad.  Then of course I bit the bullet but resisted switching over from Netscape to IE back in the day.  And no Moodle for me and my courses, thank you very much. And as God was my witness I was never going to own a cellphone or have a Facebook page. Ah well…the irony is that every time I gave in and tried the new thing my response was the same: "Why did I wait so long? I love this!" Convenience doth make devotees of us all.

Where was I? Oh yes, the same goes for beadwork. Those of us who have been beading awhile can see the fads, the vogues, the revivals. When I began beading in the early 1990s amulet bags were all the rage. I well remember the Bead and Button issue (August 1994) that featured Carol Wilcox Wells' beaded bags and how to make one.

Up to that point, as usual, I had resisted the Delica siren call. I didn't want to invest more money in a new type of bead (yeah, this was a long time ago, I know better now). But I wanted to make a bag and Delicas, with their mosaic effect, were amazing to look at.  So I caved in, bought some, and made my first bag based on Carol's article.  I decided to use a repeating pattern so I could focus on the stitch and here is the result:

I call it "Prom Dress" as the fringe (I got a little carried away) made a fancy flaring skirt on the body of the bag.

And here's another photo showing my weak tension.  I could have had a nice job beading watches for Salvador Dali to paint.

   On the other hand, there are times when I wish I could summon up my younger beading self because tight tension does not always a successful piece of beadwork make. Gentle beading indeed!