Style

First I want to announce that both our kitties are now bug free and healthy. They are both healthy and happy to be off medication.

I realized I have been talking a lot about being inspired to bead, but I don’t really have anything finished to show from this inspiration. The majority of it is still in doodle stages, I’ve made petals for a few but nothing constructed. They’re growing, just not ready to show themselves yet. This is a flower I made last week right before our trip. I used this photo as inspiration. My intentions were to really truly try and copy this flower…but my style has dictated otherwise. Originally this was going to be a larger flower, I had every intention of going that route. And while it ended up having more petals and layers than my normal flowers it is about the same size. I’m not a bead counter, I find it tedious. So when I start to eyeball the size of an approximate petal the size that I made was the one natural to my hands, eyes, and brain. Large flowers use more beads, get very heavy, and are not my taste.

In the past I’ve read threads on forums discussing how eventually a person will develop their own style. You can look at a flower, well usually they say jewelry, and know the artist who made it. I’m not sure I’m to this point in the beaded flower world, but I’m getting there. I have distinct finishing techniques that I don’t see on other people flowers. The size of my flowers is often smaller than others. This has pluses and minuses, details and shading can be harder to make look natural, but then to me several smaller flowers together look nicer than one large. And possibly one of the larger differences is that I don’t often try to make a flower exactly how it exists in nature. And when I do it doesn’t ever look like what it is supposed to. I don’t think this flower above looks anything like the one from Mom’s flower pot last summer. The shape is similar, colors are similar…but very different. I try to take the ideas of shading from nature. I think its amazing that a flower knows just how to shade itself to attract pollinators. From searches that I have done and books that I own the majority of beaded flowers out there are based on natural flowers. Many are done wonderfully and realistically. But I think this sets me apart and is part of the definition of my style. Granted this definition is in no way set in stone, I’m definitely still working on it, and it will always be evolving. I’m just happy to see that I’m starting to see and realize that I do have my own distinct style in the world of beads.

This weekend we’re heading to Chicago to make the rounds. I’m bringing beadwork, but probably won’t have much time. Next week I’ll have more time, but I’m not sure how much I can dedicate to beadwork. I have somethings on the list that have deadlines looming.

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