The Crafts Report: March 2009: Beads

I volunteered to write an essay for the March Issue of the Crafts Report in which the Insight Section is dedicated to Beads.
It's available online now.
Click here to read about artist/designer thoughts and suggestions on how to market one's work.
A longer version of my submission is available in an earlier post here.

The Crafts Report online is quite resourceful in that a multitude of articles is available to the public (at no charge). Go to its Column Categories Section and read about photography, marketing, business basics and more.

It's a rainy Sunday and it's very peaceful... Now to Designing with Chains

Snow and Rain together ...
Middle of February in Natick, MA can be a crossroads of seasons where either direction I look I can think back of winter passing and look forward to a spring rain. Today, watching the rain fall onto the snow, I'm pausing to give this moment merit. I'm finding peace lying in bed in my bedroom upstairs and enjoying a cold, the harsh reminder of which is just a sore throat.
Today is a good day to pause....

Our house is full today. Everybody plus* is home today and everyone is inside and on the inside of their ways of being: thinking and being in a sincere and warm way.

My friend Tolly just surprised me with a phone call. She is an Icelander who lives in beautiful Copenhagen and she studies glaciers. We know each other from Alaska where we both attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I love talking to Tolly because we can talk about everything and nothing while laughing and laughing and sometimes crying together.
Sometimes we talk about global warming since this is a part of her professional pastime and she keeps my awareness on this issue alive.


Let's talk design a bit or let me talk about design a bit and then you tell me what you think in the comment section. The topic is CHAINS.

I love using chain in my designs in part inspired by the many talented artists out there who've done that before me. Specifically, I'm talking about use of chain in designing earrings.

1. The most obvious way to use chain, of course, is as an extension where its primary purpose is to add length. Sometimes the function is treated too literally by some and I've done my share of that. So, this design - a bead and an ear-wire connected by a short chain segment - most of the time looks too spontaneous and unintentional. I rarely see the design value in such pieces.
2. I've seen successful designs where the purpose of the chain is to provide a frame for a focal piece or a multitude of elements such as the chandelier earrings or a vine-style earring.
   
3. When creating the design in this photo, I really enjoyed thinking about chain as a part of design that provides visual and conceptual continuity to the piece. I'm hoping that the design I'm showing you in today's post does exactly that i.e. the chain turns the bead into a flower.

Meaning creation though close attention to elements makes design much fun for me and it adds to the value of the piece. And that's the news from Liliana on this dreamy and rainy day.

Sunday is a good day to blog

Good Morning!

I'm up early this Sunday morning. My father works for the restaurant on the 1st floor of our building and he needed a ride. WOW! There is life this early on a Sunday and I like the exposure :)
I also like seeing Natick at this hour - a beautiful small downtown with a green common surrounded by rows of old red-brick buildings and narrow streets traveled by people who are invigorated by their morning walk. Love it!

We have a very rich community of artists here in Natick who use an amalgam of media and seem to have an infinite source of creativity and imagination. A lot of us show our work at Five Crows, a prominent artist gallery downtown Natick. We also show our work in our studios and local businesses during Art Walks starting May till September every Thursday evening from 5:30 to 8pm. The summer art events culminate in a wonderful celebration of art during Open Studios during first weeek-end of October. Come by and visit us here. For now you can hop onto the sites below to check us out.

43 Main Street Studios at www.43mainstudios.com
Five Crows at www.fivecrows.com
Natick Artists at www.natickartists.com

I'm unveiling :) a new design for you today. A new style of earrings as I continue to be inspired by flowers.

Have a wonderful Sunday and be inspired!

Wonderful work by Other Artists

I hope you're having a wonderful Sunday.

I'm enjoying myself at home on a cold winter day browsing the web, remembering those whose work I've always enjoyed and learning about new artists.

Check out Caitlin's Hyde work at www.caitlinhyde.com
I met Caitlin in 2000 when I moved to Carbondale, IL and took my first bead class with her.
She's an artist of both conceptual and technical degree whom I admire and whose work I enjoy very much. Caitlin is also a very kind and wonderful person and that comes through in her work.

A new artist I just found out about from browsing Caitlin's virtual pages is Lena Revenko. Visit her at www.lenarevenko.com
I think of her as the Frida Kahlo of these times whose work is a combination of a kind of fairy tale dreaminess and an acute awareness of the current social realities.

Tell me what you think.