http://www.originalsindesigns.net

Beading is my most recent discovery and the one I’ve dedicated the most energy to, out of all of the various mediums with which I’ve experimented. I’ve always been very absorbed by all forms of arts and crafts ever since I could pick up a crayon, and have dabbled in many. My love for art and creativity drove me to choose an art major, among others, in college. The bulk of my artistic experience throughout my life has been in smithing, drawing and painting, along with various fiber arts such as macrame, knitting, textile loom-weaving, etc, all of which have accompanied me over the years, until I discovered the beading obsession which absorbs all of my free time. I started playing with beads almost 4 years ago, and beading seriously a little over 3 years ago. I firmly believe that first discovering and later focusing on beading is one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself, both as a person and as an artist. I’m a self-taught beader, still self-teaching.

When designing I focus on texture, color and movement. I’m not a static person, and neither is my beadwork. I love fringe, but tend to keep it to a minimum. Seed bead work is showy no matter how simple it is, just because it’s different. It attracts attention, and I find that one of the biggest challenges in designing with seed beads is that of producing a piece which is ultimately wearable, and less something you’d expect to see on somebody’s coffee table next to the picture books. That’s not to say that the challenge of a large, intricate collar or necklace doesn’t appeal to me, it does. I even made one myself, which I oooh and ahhh over constantly since I can’t believe I actually produced such a piece - Queen Victoria’s Folly - inspired by Art Deco and Victorian jewelry, but I don’t think it’ll sell all too soon. I’m convinced that pieces of the sort are produced out of sheer passion, without too many expectations attached, which is how art should be. If somebody then likes it enough to plunk down a grand for it, so much the better!

I've been bushwhacked by bead sculpture lately, and am conentrating more time on that than jewlery-making.

All of them.

I find inspiration in everything, from the words going around in my head to a drop of water, from nature to trash, from situations to architecture, from a painting or sculpture to an endless poem. A pretty flower by the road can catch my eye, but if I take a close-up photo in macro mode of a detail of that pretty flower, I’ll find myself catapulted into a tumult of design ideas. Feeling uninspired at some point afflicts us all, myself included. Learning to look at things differently, to perceive detail in what could be a relatively uninteresting source at first glance…opens new worlds.

My love for words and language evidently gives me an edge in my creativity as I often find myself coming up with a name for a piece before even coming up with the design. I take my inspiration from the name and come up with a piece that “fits” the name I’ve chosen, sort of like giving myself a theme. Some people may say that’s doing things backwards…and they’re absolutely right! But it works. Food for thought in an uninspired moment.

My first beading memory is that of the first piece of jewelry I produced. I had been playing with beads for about a year, and one day received a package from my mom with two large ceramic "sputnik" type focal beads, the ones with the nubbies all over them. They were large, dark green and with a big orange, black and yellow dot on each nubby. Honestly, ugly as sin. I decided my mom was challenging me to use them, since I couldn't find another good excuse to justify the gift (LOL). With those beads I created my first necklace, named Amazonia, and made with a series of components which I created to embellish it among which seed bead frogs, dargonflies, flowers and leaves,from which I hung those to godawful ceramic sputnik beads. The necklace came out great, the beads looked like they fit into the general theme, and quite a bit less ugly....but still ugly enough for me to send the necklace back to my mom as a gift :). My reasoning was that since she chose the beads, they must've had some kind of appeal to her. By the way, she loved the necklace LOL!!

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