[Jewelry making - Article 00732] - Re: [Orchid] Why is Beading so Popular?

[Lumenea]

========[ Invite a Friend - http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm  ]========

    I realize I'm getting into this thread a little late, having been
    busy unpacking from our recent move into a new home and studio
    space, but I wanted to take a moment to share my own personal
    relationship with beads, and why, as a metalsmith, I continue to
    include them in my palate of materials. 

    One of the first steps our ancient ancestors ever made toward
    personal adornment, past painting our bodies with colored clays and
    charcoal, was to collect and string shells and pebbles with holes
    through them.  Then we began to intentionally make the holes and to
    shape the pebbles. Voila --- Beads! 

    As a child, I watched my grandmother, an incredible seamstress, sew
    thousands of glittering beads and crystals to the custom wedding
    dresses and ball gowns she created, and made my own necklaces with
    the leftovers.  I bought seed beads and wove "Indian" jewelry on a
    bead loom and sold it for pocket money in grade school.  And when
    the Sixties rolled around (yes, I'm that old...) I generated enough
    mad money selling "love beads" to hippie shops to buy myself a new
    amplifier for my electric guitar. 

    In the early 1970's, I learned metalsmithing, and in the intervening
    years, have made my living as the creator of intricate fabricated
    jewelry. My work frequently involves some central especially
    interesting stone which serves as the inspiration for the piece,
    often accented by other stones which play off the colors and
    patterns of the main one. Many of my pieces are multi-function, and
    can be worn as brooch, pendant, neckpiece or displayed as intimate
    sculpture. 

    Beads allow me a huge range of textures, surfaces smooth or
    glittery, and an incredible palate of colors from which to create
    the multi-strand collar portions of these works. Envision a keystone
    shaped cabochon of Australian moss agate, with creamy translucent
    zones and areas of luminous honey, shot through with black
    inclusions looking like tree limbs.  I set this piece in a softly
    shield-shaped brooch of sterling accented by peach moonstones set in
    18k. OK, interesting enough on it's own, but what about "value
    added"? Using small peach moonstone beads, freshwater pearls in
    shades of honey, peach and gray, tiny antique cut steel beads and
    acid-washed fumed glass beads in coppery tones, I create a
    multistrand collar that plays off the wonderful subtle colors and
    patterns of the brooch. So now the collar can be worn alone, and
    with the addition of an adapter which I also supply, my customer can
    also wear her brooch as a slide on the bead collar, on a neckring or
    Omega chain, or just as a brooch on her lapel. A $180 brooch becomes
    a $450 ensemble that can be enjoyed half a dozen different ways. 

    I choose to use beads in some pieces not because I lack the skill to
    fabricate or because I'm wanting to make cheap and easy sales items,
    but because they offer me an additional range of colors, textures
    and materials from which to compose my art.  I may spend many hours
    at my bead bench, surrounded by dozens of piles of the beads I plan
    to use in a particular piece, beads carefully selected to compliment
    and interact with a primary fabricated item. I draw from them just
    as a painter draws from the array of colors before him, blending,
    combining, carefully working to create an evocative flow of color,
    shape, scale and texture that will support but not overwhelm the
    primary piece I have fabricated. 

    To me this is no different than when I sit in front of my open gem
    cabinet, pulling out loose stones and trying them together. 
    Sometimes the relationship is immediate... "Oh, yes!" Other times, I
    shuffle stones for hours seeking that "perfect" relationship.  And
    so it is with my use of beads, too. I use them because, just like
    the gold, silver, bone, horn and wide range of stones I work with --
    they excite me, give pleasure to my senses, feed my soul. This, for
    me, is the very heart of the creative process. 

    I am concerned by the tendency I am hearing toward a sort of elitism
    -- "Well, I'm a metalsmith, not a (lowly) beadstringer." Or "I make
    serious jewelry" -- meaning platinum and gold with precious stones
    (often said with a clear air of condescension...) Can we not
    recognize that skill and beauty come in many forms and that all
    materials can offer a valid opportunity for the creative voice to
    find expression? Is it not enough that thousands of individuals who
    might never dare take a fabrication class find pleasure and perhaps
    even a source of income making adornments of bits of stone and glass
    and pearl? Or that craftsmen like myself find, in those same bits,
    compliments to our vision? 

    Maybe beads just give the Caveman and Cavewoman in each of us a
    chance to feed that hardwired love of adornment with a few intimate
    little baubles... 

Walk in Beauty,
Susannah Ravenswing
Jewels of the Spirit
Germanton, NC
(336) 591-8949

____________________________________________________________________
T h e   O r c h i d   L i s t
Open Electronic Forum for Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Procedures
____________________________________________________________________
Orchid FAQ:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/faq.htm
Orchid Archives:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive
Orchid Galleries:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm
Invite a Friend:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm
____________________________________________________________________
Tips From The Jeweler's Bench - Article Archive
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tip_sear.htm
The Jeweler's Selected Bibliography List
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books
Buy Orchid Jewelry:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/shop
____________________________________________________________________
-Unsubscribe:
-Email: orchid-request AT ganoksin.com Body=unsubscribe subject=blank
____________________________________________________________________