A Charming Reveal

Three Pines Studio, in Cross Village, Michigan, started the summer season with a show that had Emily Dickinson  and her "Gorgeous Nothings" as inspiration and have chosen to end the season with another poet as inspiration: Walt Whitman.

From the call for entry for I COLLAGE MYSELF: Contemporary portraits of Ourselves and Our Experiences. A Tribute to Walt Whitman:

 "Poetry is important...It continues to stand the test of time maintaining its relevance. Its readers during Florentines of Dante's time found its phrases just as enthralling as the hipsters of our time. Poetry paints, sings, whispers, tests and twitters. The poet, Walt Whitman, continues to offer us a portrait of ourselves within the words of Song of Myself. Whitman embraced an art of fragments that encouraged him to 'cut and paste' his lines into ever-evolving forms based on what he called 'spinal ideas.' It is this method that relates to our current everyday collaging of interests and opinions on social media such as Facebook. Walt Whitman created portraits of our collective self - slices of life, farmers, sailors, dock workers, soldiers, etc." 

"It was his creative process of collaging phrases that hinted of the work of visual artists (who used the same technique with paper collage) such as Matisse, Braque and Picasso; who like Whitman, communicated thoughts and ideas through simple visual forms of color and shape. Creating their works of art and speaking to the reader or viewer through the visual fragments collaged created a whole. It is with this in mind that we are inspired to create our won art and invite others to do the same."

"In our call for artists we don't necessarily mean a self portrait. We mean a portrait of our lives today. Portrait means a collaboration of parts that come together collectively in the expression of works - whether in objective landscapes, figurative work or no-objective abstractions. It is the synthesis of these creative parts that create the whole."

For my piece, "A Cautionary Tale", I chose to focus on the concept of "fragments making a whole".

The piece is a vastly over-sized "charm bracelet", with each charm representing a life experience, a mental attitude or  just a view point on how we should live our lives. Each has a very particular meaning for me, but I'd prefer not to reveal those personal meanings - you may see/feel something entirely different when viewing the charms, based on your own personal life experiences.

Each charm is made of found objects, some man-made, some natural and lots of beads. They are simply, even roughly attached to a wrought iron ring - life is NOT pristine or perfect!

The show runs through October 30th, do visit if you're in the area.

Copper Leafing II



I decided my Copper Leafing necklace needed a coordinating bracelet, but I was lacking a focal and a clasp. So I had to make do with what I did have available - the beads and copper discs.

I started with the same right angle weave "trellis" and embellished it with yet another trellis design. I used the copper discs to create both a simple focal and clasp. 

While the necklace and bracelet certainly don't "match" but they do play well together or apart. 

Available for purchase here.

I received a pleasant surprise earlier this week - I was chosen as "Designer of the Week" by the Art Bead Scene editors for my Copper Leafing necklace!

Round the Bend - Part 2

Just a quick update: I finished the bracelet!

Medieval Twist

"Medieval Twist" was intended to be my submission for the July Art Bead Scene monthly challenge - obviously, I'm a bit late!

The inspiration piece was this beautiful painting, Morning in the Garden at Vaucresson, by Edouard Vuillard.

I choose to emphasize the cool blue/grey and the brilliant chartreuse present in the painting.

The pendent bead is from my stash and pulls in the blue sky just barely visible amongst the garden abundance.

I tried a new technique - twisted tubular herringbone - and it was a great choice, the tube is completely self supporting and quite strong.

The bangle bracelet is form I've not tried before, not my favorite style to wear personally, but works nicely as a part of this pair.

Finally finished - yeah!!!

Orange Sherbet

Do you remember orange push up pops?

They were my favorite purchase as a kid when the ice cream truck made it's way through the neighborhood - are ice cream trucks still around? Certainly not on Mackinac!

The cool sweetness or orange push ups was what I kept in mind as I worked on my latest beading project, "Orange Sherbet" a coordinating necklace and bracelet.

They were a bit of an experiment: I used just a single beading technique, tubular herringbone, and a single type of bead, seed beads only.

The visual interest comes in the interplay between the differing sizes, colors and finishes of the seed beads themselves - no flashy focal bead needed!

I worked with tight tension, resulting in a tube that will support itself.

I think they're a success - simple but visually interesting.

What do you think?