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!
