Battle of the Beadsmith Round 3 - The Creation of Arabesque Armour

An original pencil design from my design journal of how I envisaged my then unamed Battle of the Beadsmith entry.

How was I inspired to create Arabesque Armour? This question was asked of me and in all honesty I do not really know. I do not always understand this about any of the artisan jewellery pieces that I create. Sometimes I get just an image in my mind, then process this sometimes for weeks. Visualising thread paths and possiblitilies. I will make samples using Nymo (rather than expensive Fireline) to get a feel for what my mind sees. I can be inspired by many things cloud shapes, my very large bead stash, how food and colours are displayed on a plate, vintage couture jewellery, even words can inspire me such as my latest piece "Anna's Snowrose". "Anna's Snowrose" was inspired by my Facebook friend Anna Lindell whom I met as she too is a participant of the Battle of the Beadsmith contest. Anna commented one day that my design Arabesque Armour resemebled a "rose on a stem". Later I met Snowrose Feldman another Facebook friend and with that my muse got me busy creating Anna's Snowrose (I will blog about this design another day).

A second original pencil design from my design journal, still playing with concepts.

Where did the floral focal inspiration arrive from for Arabesque Armour I will never know. Perhaps it was when I sit and create samples and play with stitches, my drawings or it could have been when I saw a magazine cover earlier this year that had a floral shaped cuff bangle.  I looked at that cuff design and thought ..'I can bead that' .. with that I snapped a pic with my iPhone, then promptly forgot about it.  Why did I even choose a floral focal?.. again, I do not exactly know. 

Pic snapped with my iPhone

I fiddled with samples for the floral focal for some time and finally went with Cubic Right Angle Weave as the stitch to bring my floral idea to life.  As only a beader will know, you may have an idea of a design in your creative mind, but actually creating it using only beads can sometimes just not be possible as ultimately the beads are boss. Design limitations and time resulted in the floral focal that became central to my Arabesque Armour design.  I knew that because it was CRAW I could embellish it and create something wonderful. The next part of the design process was how best to display the floral focal.  I decided on a beadwork frame setting that would be embellished with Swarovski elements and seed beads.

Because this piece was being designed for the Battle of the Beadsmith contest I wanted to produce my best work as the audience would be large, very large.  I wanted to include something new and different. I included CRAW attachment points on my Rivolis within the beadwork frame so that I could join them seamlessly.  I wanted wonderful curls that I could embellish and most of all I wanted to produce something totally original.  I chose a colour way that I had not ventured into before. I wanted it to say nothing more than 'fun' and colour especially pinks, lemon, purples and yellows suggest fun (to me anyway).  The Battle is about friendship and uniting artists around the world so I wanted my colour way choice to reflected just that.

For a bit of Battle fun I decided that the tassel must be detachable for Battle purposes; my thoughts being detach prior to Battle so that a flaying tassel does not interfere with sword weilding, all tongue in cheek though.

Arabesque Armour is continuing on into Round 3, this time I am paired with USA Artist Christian Rodriguez and her wonderful design "Antigua".



Here I am deciding if the floral focal should sit above or below the CRAW beadwork.

 

This is the beginning of the curls that eventually sat either side of the beadwork frame. The curls sort of happened by accident whilst I was deciding how to hang the focal.

This is me wearing my completed design, Arabesque Armour

Vintage Porcelain Doll Face Cabochons

From left to right 'Lola', Missing #7, 'Nadine', 'Whitney', 'Veronica' and 'Edith' is centre (GI Jane is not shown).

Coco - Guardian Girl (Private Collection)

I purchased a large booty of vintage (1940's) minature, handpainted porcelain doll face cabochons from the US back in 2008.  The dealer knew very little about them; other than they were made in Taiwan and possibly from the 1940's.

I have 6 different  and beautiful face cabochons in 3 sizes listed in my Etsy store.  There is a 7th face cabochon, however I am having some difficulty locating her.  Each face is delicately handpainted and while each may look the same if you compare them they are in fact unique.  Some imperfections are present in some of the faces, but they are slight.  There are  no cracks or chips in any of the cabochons.

I got busy with them and created perhaps, twenty or so beaded girls.  I called the collection 'Guardian Girls', they all sold.

I lost interest in beading my girls, boxed and shelved them in my bead stash cupboards and moved on to beading other jewellery bits and pieces. 

I posted a pic of Coco (who now resides with my dear High School friend, Jane) an elaborately embellished Guardian Girl on Joanne Browne's (of JosJewels1) Facebook page as she was seeking inspiration for beading some face cabochons that she had been gifted. 

The interest in my girls was so great that I decided to list them in my Etsy store for others to share.  I listed them yesterday and overnight there was a flurry of activity.  I've got girls travelling to Mexico, Israel, the US and a few orders within Australia.

I charge only what Australia Post charge me ie there are no inflated postage rates or handing charges.  I will refund any postage over charge, guranteed.

I will reserve some girls to take with me to the Aussie Beading Retreats in September of this year to offer at the mini market (Friday night) along with other fabulous bits and bobs from my giant bead stash!!

Take heed though .. if you 'want em .. git em quick'.  The supply is not infinite and so when they are gone my friends, they are gone.  Happy Beading

Jenny (Private Collection)

Battle of the Beadsmith .. Begin It Has.

The Battle of the Beadsmith began without fanfare on May 14 2012, May 15 here in Australia owing to the global time zones.  The participant number increased from 64 to 80 due to controversy*.

My colour way had already been selected and the large bundle of bead filled tubes and assorted components already purchased.  My decision to choose this particular colour way was based on two elements 1. Fun and 2. a colour way I had not ever worked with before. I cleared my work area .. took a deep breath and opened the first factory package of vintage Swarovski Chatons that I managed to source from the UK.  This particular colour was hard to find and I thought I would never find it despite extensive internet searches.  Then the task of individually beading them commenced .. each one takes around 30 minutes to bead .. and I have alot to do. 

I had sketched out my initial design in my trusty handmade, leather bound journal; but as always it morphs into something that only slightly resembles the original design.  I have beaded other parts of the design and do this when I get tired of continually beading the Chatons.  I always design like this .. constantly moving around the design.  If I get stumped I walk away and let it rest and give my mind time to visualise the design and explore solutions.  I have what I call 'on board CAD software' that is I can visualise, rotate in 3D and design in my head.  I can see thread paths and bead intricate designs using my minds eye. I like to do this quietly, it's a sort of meditative process.  I can block any white noise around me and just focus.

This Tournament for me is not about trying to out do each other, it is about celebrating beading as an artform and sharing in the moment with other like minded bead artists.  I am truly honoured and grateful for being invited to be a part of the Tournament. When it comes time for my design not to progress into another round, do not be sad for me .. do not think ... 'oh, she must be disappointed'. Please just be happy for me that I was a participant of this wonderful fun, Tournament. I will politely curtsey, smile and usher graciously to whom I am paired with to step forward to the next round.

*The participant number increased from 64 to 80 owing to some controversy. I will elaborate .. Initially the Tournament, created by Steven Weiss (Marketing Manager for Beadsmith) was a secret group on Facebook, with members invited to participate by Steven. When the Battle of the Beadsmith group became 'Open' a Canadian woman became unhappy that Canada was not represented in the group. Her thoughts were that this was a global Tournament when in fact it was not. Anyhoo the upshot is that there was lots of discussion, some pleasant some not so pleasant so Steven made the hard decision to increase the participant number to 80.

Tips for thread a beading needle 101

I almost exclusively work with various gauges of Fireline so I will start with this beading thread first. 6lb Fireline can and will fit through even a size 15/0 needle, but to do this first you must flatten the end of the Fireline, about the first 5cm approx. I used to do this using my teeth, as it was the most efficient and fastest way to do it. Then strange little grooves started appearing on my upper front and lower front teeth. After a very expensive repair to my pearly whites and a stern word from my dentist ‘don’t do it again!’ I no longer do this, I urge you not to do this as well. Fireline is braided polyethylene, it is very strong and abrasive to teeth, great for beading though.

I now start preparing the Fireline by first dragging the Fireline over my thumbnail, this gives me an initial flat surface. Lastly I drag it ever so gently over a closed pair of scissors (see Pic 03). Do it slowly otherwise you will fray the Fireline. If you do fray the Fireline cut that section off and start again. Place the flattened tip of the Fireline between your forefinger and thumb, ensure only the very tip of the Fireline is visible (see Pic 01). Hold it very firmly, take your needle and gently push it onto the Fireline (see Pic 02). The needle threads the Fireline, not the Fireline threads the needle. Practice threading this way and I am sure that you will master needle threading in no time. You do not need to drag the Fireline over the scissors if you are threading size 10/0 or 12/0 needles, the flattened tip with your thumbnail will be sufficient.

If you are threading a size 15/0 needle, best to thread it under a magnifying glass, with plenty of light and you will not strain your eyes this way.

I have been threading needles this way for a very long time now, but we all adapt in different ways to different tasks, so this is just a guide.  Happy Beading .. Mel

Pic 01



Pic 02



Pic 03

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SBJ now at Incube8r Gallery, Mosman, Sydney, Australia

Social Butterfly Jewellery has a 'cube' at the latest Incube8r Gallery in Mosman, Sydney since December 2010. My cube contains a range of my beaded jewellery, all of which is available for sale. I will be dispatching a new range of jewellery to restock my 'cube' within the next week or so.

UPDATE: New stock has been dispatched and is now available at the Incube8r Gallery... there are 21 new items of beaded jewellery inside my cube. Check out the Gallery if you are living in Mosman or anywhere in Sydney. Shop handmade and support handmade artists. They will love you for it..