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.