Tag: jewellery

Phases

I have had this idea percolating in at the back of my mind for quite a while now, though I have had serious beader’s block for quite some time, combined with having sporadic beading time over the last few years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZKcl4-tcuo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo

After David Bowie died a few years ago, I thought about making a series of beaded pieces inspired by two of his songs Life On mars and Space Oddity and I started gathering cabochons and stones that looked like they either could have been found on distant planets, or washed up on shore, or were covered in divots and small craters. My friend Lisa Peters Russ has been making some ceramic cabochons that looked perfect for this project. The project was put on the back burner due to work related projects.

When Gary Lightbody and Snow Patrol released Life on Earth recently, that rekindled my desire to work on the series, the song fitted so well with the other two.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqYWcp1JH7Y

The designs will employ a combination of different free form beadwork techniques, including bead and thread embroidery, peyote stitch, herringbone stitch, bead netting, Chenille stitch, Albion Stitch, right angle weave and CRAW and appropriately enough Hubble Stitch. There will also be bead crochet, wire work and maybe some chainmaille in the mix too, who knows. There will be photos showing sketches and progress photos, as I go along – if you are sure you want to know how my warped brain works! Some will be wearable, others may be art pieces, we shall see…

To get you in the mood I had a little fun last night making the modern equivalent of a mix tape – a playlist from Google Play. These are some of the songs I have been playing regularly as I bead, it is just under 2 hours long, but I hope it gives a feel for the project, which will be open ended as long as I can think of new ideas for it.

https://play.google.com/music/playlist/AMaBXynegh6sc_DJwtWlvPJT9aq04On0e1_hr6XJFkyzEocRf7lPW7bUZs2gYmUXjHfAs5BxJ-FVMM6lpiY6OudFVGZ6tlId1g%3D%3D

This is the track listing for the Playlist:

1. French Navy – Camera Obscura
2. Girl From Mars – Ash 
3. The Girl Who Fell in Love With the Moon – Boo Hewardine
4. Tonight We Fly – Divine Comedy
5. Rhymes of an Hour – Mazzy Star
6. The Universal – Blur
7. Woke From Dreaming – The Delgados
8.Tonight, Tonight – Smashing Pumpkins
9. The Moon Is Mine – Fairground Attraction
10. Mykonos – Fleet Foxes
11. Desire Lines – Lush
12. Iceblink Luck – Cocteau Twins
13. Sixth Sense – Imelda May 
14. Damaged – Primal Scream
15. Life On Earth – Snow Patrol
16. In the Frame – Del Amitri
17. Pink Moon – Nick Drake
18. Moon on the Rain – Fairground Attraction
19. Solid Air -John Martyn 
20. Side – Travis
21. Moondance – Van Morrison
22. Guiding Star – Teenage Fanclub
23. Edge of the World – Kevin McDermott
24. Space Oddity – David Bowie
25. One of a Kind – Naomi Bedford and Justin Currie
26. Life On Mars – David Bowie


Evanston Homegrown Artist’s Holiday Bazaar

On Friday 3 rd of December, I joined friends and fellow jewellery artists, Leslie Perrino, Anne Patrick, Bill Haefling, Doug McDonald and Kearsley Stewart at the Evanston Homegrown Artists Holiday Bazaar, at The Evanston Ecology Center. It wasn’t a busy show, but it was great to spend time with everyone, and the customers we spoke to were all very friendly, and enthusiastic about the show. I hadn’t taken part in a show for more than a year, and it was a wonderful gentle re-introduction. Doug is missing from the first photo, as he was looking at something in the other room, when it was taken.

Bill, Jan, Kearsley, Anne & Leslie

A few months ago Jeremy and I had decided to try using a credit card reader from Square. It is a small pod that you can plug into the headphone plug of an iPhone, iPod touch, or android devices. There are no startup or monthly charges, instead Square charge a small  percentage for each transaction—ideal if you only do a few shows a year. We had tried a test transaction before, but this was the first time we had tried to use it in a show situation, so Jeremy came with me to make sure that everything worked OK.

Having the square, and being able to take credit cards meant that we had a few sales that we may not have otherwise had, it was worth having it with us. The Square app is simple to use—you just enter the amount and run the card through the reader. There is an option to take a photo, and add a short description for the receipt that we were able to use to include each artist’s names, on the receipt, which was great. The only problem that we had was getting a good signal for our internet connection as the Square app will not work without internet.