I Found Another Fab Giveaway

Are you a patient beader/artist? Run over to Beads of Clay to read Kristie's treatise on patience and enter for a chance to win one of her gorgeous pendants.

A Must Read

Please go read this post by Jeannette Cook. This is a subject near to my heart and I think Jeannette expresses the thought of most of us bead artists (or any other artist for that matter).

Who Lives Inside You?

No, it is not a weird question. It's a very important question. We all have someone living inside us, someone a bit different from the outside persona. Think about it. Is there a part of you that wants to spring forth, a part that you keep tucked quietly away in the recesses of your mind, a part that you firmly believe is just a fantasy? And no, I'm not speaking in terms of personality integration. I will elaborate.

Inside me there lives an artist. She is an artist who paints with watercolors. She paints delectable, dainty tableaux in muted Victorian colors with oodles of blossoms and lace. She paints portraits of elegant women with translucent skin like the one above, and babies swathed in lace christening gowns and little girls with ringlets caught up in huge satin bows. She sips tea out of fine china cups that let the light shine through, and she lives in a loft in Paris and watches the world stroll by her windows that face north, because that's where the best light lives. And she cradles a white Persian cat while she watches and sips and dreams.

Me? I can't draw a straight line. Okay, so maybe I can draw a little. This is one of my drawings. I live in a world littered with tiny bits of glass, and most of my cats are Russian blue or coal black. I work with needle and thread, and watercolors just frustrate me (yes, I gave them a try). My windows face east and west, where I get to watch glorious sunsets. And no one walks down our road, but we do get to hear the coyotes sing almost every night. It's a long way from here to Paris, unless you mean Paris, Texas. I also have a writer who lives in there (I have written and have won small awards), and a singer (once upon a time), and a photographer (I try), a free spirited hippie chick, and a gypsy queen who dances in the moonlight (did that, too). They all get along quite well, not that I'm talking to my other identities or anything.

My point is this. If I did not have all those other creative personae screaming for attention in the back of my mind, would I still have the strong streak of creativity that drives me to do what I love to do? So there, beadlings, is your question for the day.

I am working on a little "thank you" for Miss A, who had to load the car for Mommy and help Daddy set up Mommy's booth at the ASG exhibit and show. She's such a good kid! They are both good kids. Aw hell, let's just throw T-man in there too! I'm a lucky, lucky woman!

Better and Better

Poor Clara -- she has a cold. I hope it does not morph into anything else, sweetie. Liquids and vitamin C, hurry!! I feel much better today. It rained this morning in the wake of another cold front. I've been up for over three hours now. I drove A to school. I think she was ready to go back, but she really didn't want to give up her vacation lifestyle of being able to stay up until 10:00 and sleeping until 8:00. How easily they become spoiled. N went off to work. Then I drove T-man to work. Now the house is quiet and warm. I'm ready to get my energy back.

I found a new group of artists to hang out with in cyberspace. Discussion yesterday had to do with avoidance of stagnation. How do we prevent stagnation, not just as artists, but in our mundane lives? Well, we rearrange the furniture. We change our hair color or style. We change partners. We change palettes. We change media and materials. We change our route to work. We change where we live. We change channels. We stop eating meat. We start eating meat. We change our perception of the world around us. It doesn't have to be anything drastic, but just enough change to keep things from being SSDD. The mundane is the enemy.

If you bead, preventing stagnation can be something as innocuous as throwing a few beads of a sharply contrasting color into your pieces or using a different stitch or using a combination of stitches or going with an entirely different palette for a few months. After all, Picasso had his blue period and his yellow period, etc. Why can't a beader have different color periods? Mix materials you wouldn't normally mix, like plastic (gasp) and glass, crystal and anodized aluminum. Change is not difficult, but it can be frightening. Close your eyes, hold your nose and jump in.

So here is the question for the day: What do you do to prevent stagnation in your world?

Yuck, Oh Yuck, and Yuck

Okay, I've got an appointment with the medicine man today. I'm starting to forget what it feels like to be human. I truly hope that Clara's comment from yesterday holds no weight with what's going on inside of me. Not the flu, not the flu, not the flu, NOT THE FLU!!! I have many important things to do, interesting places to go, wonderful people with whom to schmooze!

Margot has started doing video blogs, and I just love them. T-man made the comment last week "I bet you want to start doing that. You would just love it." For a brief second, I truly considered it, but then my personal reality hit me upside the back of my head. Those of you who know me well are familiar with my aversion to having my image captured by the strange shiny thing simply because I don't believe that I am photogenic. Plus (oh and I mean that soooo literally) since I am a "full figured" gal, I'm not in any hurry to see myself in a video, taking up the entire shot, on the world wide web. But go watch Margot -- she is very comfortable behind the camera, her topics apply to artists across the board, and by golly, she's cute and the vlog is just plain fun!

Ring In the New!

I've got two new blog links for you. I've been a fan of both of these artists for many, many years. Get a cup of whatever and go visit for a while. Megan does it all and Rice is a fellow Texan. Both are extremely talented.

Here Chez Bead-Mused we are doing our traditional junk food, movie watching, game playing, puzzle working New Year's Eve. Then we stand under the shelter of the front porch (shelter from the bullets shot into the night sky) and listen to all of our neighbors bring in the New Year. By the way, it is a balmy 70 degrees under a crystal blue sky, but it will drop down to about 32 tonight just as the New Year literally blows in. Sounds like a good night for cuddling. Later, beadlings et al!

The Fan Club Blues

Let's reminisce. First, I'm going to pretend that we are all the same age, which means you remember how your mother cried when President Kennedy was shot, you had a shoop-shoop hula hoop, you watched men walk on the moon and you know the words to all the songs the Monkees sang. Oh, and you remember when David Cassidy was . . . , well *sigh*, you know.

And if you remember that, you remember the teen fan mags. And how you could send your dues in to the fan club of your choice. And you could write fan letters. Did you ever write a letter to your secret crush? You don't have to answer that. It's the next part that is important.

Did the object of your adoration write back? The good manners that our mothers taught us back then dictated some sort of reply. Emily Post said so.

And I hear you asking, "T! Why on earth are you writing about the '60s? Did you get lost in a time warp?? Are you having Partridge Family bus flashbacks?" Nope, nope, nope. Look back up there at the part that is important.

Several months ago I sent an email to a fellow beadwork artist. I told her how I have admired her work for several years. I also told her that she was a big inspiration to me when I decided to apply to art shows. And I told her that it was her work that made me realize that I can be well paid for the pieces that I create. I also asked her a few questions about her experiences with art shows. I figured that since she is 1,000 miles away she wouldn't feel threatened by any sort of competition, even if she considered me in her league of talent. Do you know she never replied?? This is a professional, who has been published in Beadwork Magazine, who wins awards at art shows, has pieces in museums and galleries, yet she did not have the good grace to send back a reply. How rude! Even if the reply was "go blow it out your ass" there should have been something, right? Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect her to spill all her secrets, but the questions I asked were not along the lines of "I'm thinking of doing this, too. Can you tell me how to get started?" (and those of you who know me well, also know how much I detest that line of questioning). I had already gotten started, I had already had several large sales. I just asked a couple of questions along the lines of categorization of the art form. Again, how rude of her not to answer!

So, I promise, if you ask me questions like that, I will respond, even if it is to tell you to go blow it out your ass. However (BIG HOWEVER), if you come to me and ask "I've been thinking of doing the same thing. Can you tell me how to get started?", I will hunt you down like the mangy cur that you are. I will spill and mix all your beads, I will tangle your beading thread, and I will bend all of your beading needles. And then I will make a bonfire of all your beading magazines and books. Are we clear? Good. Have a nice day.

Marveling at the Marvelous

We are marvelous.

I am acquainted with quite a few bead artists. These are people who make art beads -- lampwork, polymer, PMC, etc. I marvel at their ability to take a rod, glob, slab, whatever, and turn it into a work of art that I can hold in my hand and then set to music with my tiny beads. If not for them, a lot of my artistic pieces just would not be. I know that they all have a box of not-so-perfect pieces. I know that they sweat, literally and figuratively, trying to create their visions. I marvel that these artists can work wonderfully well under pressure. They can, at the last minute, churn out a table full of marvelous things. I cannot do any of this, but it is marvelous.

It takes me days to chart a graph for a patterned piece, weeks if I work from a picture. There is a lot of tweaking, a lot of refining, and then if I'm really smart, there is a test strip to make sure the colors work. This is not marvelous, this is time consuming. But for the customer who purchased the pattern, the beaded piece which is the end result can be marvelous.

For the art pieces that don't follow a pattern graph, there is still a lot of angst involved. Again, there is a test strip. Then there is the ripping something apart three or four times before it becomes what I have envisioned. Sometimes a mound of thread or bent wire or culled beads is the only testament to days of blood, sweat and tears. But in the end, when it's placed in the display case at the show, and someone walks by and simply says "marvelous", I marvel that they are talking about a little piece of me.

For kits, there is the sending off of a bag of beads and scant instructions to an angel who takes my vision and stitches life into it. Weeks of work and rework go into these. This is not marvelous, this is exhausting. But for the stitcher who must have that special kit, the end result can be marvelous.

Perhaps the most marvelous thing of all is the look on someones face when they find that perfect art bead, or that perfect pattern, or that perfect kit, or that perfect piece of jewelry. And better still, they marvel that we, humble bead makers and beaders, are able to create marvelous works of art from a bit of nothing.

We are marvelous!

Day By Day . . . .

I woke up early today. Then I did some research. I wanted to find out why artists blog. Oddly enough, I didn't find much in the way of viable information. I did read an excerpt from We've Got Blog, which is a compilation of different articles discussing the phenomenon known as blogging. I found this gem thanks to Pam . I go to her a lot for advice because she doesn't pull any punches. She puts it out there, and if you like, good. And if you don't like it, good. But she does open my eyes to a lot of things. She sent me to several psychological and psychiatric studies on blogging and society. Dry, but interesting reading.

Today I was trying to find out why artists blog. Maybe I'm just trying to justify doing so myself. One sentence from the book excerpt did ring home: if you're not having a good time, why bother? That one I will take to heart. I did find some advice on why to blog as an artist (notice that this does not address why artists blog). Artists should blog to display their art, to discuss their process and to make announcements. Hmm, kind of sounds like me, me, ME. That doesn't sound like a good time for you or me. But I do like the idea that it gives someone an idea of who I am, what I do, and maybe why I do it. Of course, it might do the same for me! Is that existential?

When I first started discussing blogging with Pam, she mentioned the commitment involved in blogging. If you are going to blog, it needs to be regular and it needs to be fairly often, or you lose your audience, who quite honestly, are potential customers. Am I right? Don't you just hate checking Jane Doe's blog, only to find that she hasn't posted anything for two months? Or how about no postings in over a YEAR? Not even a little web site update!! Now, before you get all hot and bothered, relax. I'm not talking about you, I'm not talking about Pam (she's a busy, busy woman!), I'm not talking about anyone anybody knows. Just obscure little sites here and there that started out with potential only to drift away and die of neglect.

I've always had difficulty with self-promotion. I was brought up to believe that it was conceited and self-serving, something a nice, well-bred southern lady would not do. So it's very difficult for me to fill the blog with pics of my work, links of what I'm doing, where I'll be, etc. I will give it go, though. In that vein . . .

As a good artist who blogs, on my honor, I will try to blog something every day, to have fun blogging, to discuss things other than me, myself and I, and entertain you once in a while.



Oh yeah, I'm teaching Thursday. This is a zinnia, which is going to the Austin Chapter of the Embroiders' Guild of America. How's that for a shameless plug of me??