AI means not you, not us.

Rowena Henderson's
Klimt Sunflower earrings

I wanted to write some ramblings about AI since quite a while. Here on my blog seems to be a better place than on social media. Here, only folks who care to read my posts without feeling that I rub something unwanted under their nose will hop by... (photos of some of my 2024 beadwork just for attention).

This blog article is dedicated with all my 💗 to Dini Alves, a soulful lady and talented bead-artist who passed away in December 2024.

 

Silver Wings, Happy Wings,
own design

 So AI... Sigh. I've always had mixed feelings about AI. AI is something that replaces humans a little bit more every day. Clerks and cashiers disappear. We are asked to scan our own stuff, to fill out forms ourselves.  It's easy... but so sad. People are replaced by machines in many places. Now if this was to give us more time to do our daily yoga, cooking and have more playtime with children, it would be nice. But in fact, it only takes away jobs, whilst money goes in the same fat pockets. The number of little pockets filled is diminishing at an alarming rate. Technology is nice, but it should be a tool for humans, not replace humans.

 

Mairi Carlson's Klimt Flower Garden

Halfpenney's Drum for IBW

In December I let myself be tempted... and asked an AI image generator to make something quick for my Christmas and New Year's wishes. It was fun to do and the result cute. AI can make cool images. And I don't consider them as mine, and also not as "Art"... Nope. An Art is something that implies skills and imagination. The resulting images can be really lovely. And at first sight, nothing seems wrong with having fun, having a play... But...

It made me feel uncomfortable. Because AI uses other people's work and mixes it.

I saw a post on Facebook - and although Facebook is not a reference, the text in this entry from the The Red Hand Files, by Nick Cave (a musician), answering 2 young songwriters, sums up my feelings pretty well:

 

"Open Heart" - Pregnancy Chime Bola, own design

Q1: I work in the music industry and there is a lot of excitement around ChatGPT. I was talking to a songwriter in a band that was using ChatGPT to write his lyrics, because it was so much 'faster and easier.' I couldn't really argue against that. I know you've talked about ChatGPT before, but what's wrong with making things faster and easier?

LEON, LOS ANGELES, USA

Q2: Any advice to a young songwriter just starting out?

CHARLIE, LEEDS, UK

 

A: Dear Leon and Charlie,

 

In the story of the creation, God makes the world, and everything in it, in six days. On the seventh day he rests. The day of rest is significant because it suggests that the creation required a certain effort on God's part, that some form of artistic struggle had taken place. This struggle is the validating impulse that gives God's world its intrinsic meaning. The world becomes more than just an object full of other objects, rather it is imbued with the vital spirit, the pneuma, of its creator.

 

 

Teyema earrings, BWG Journal 103, Oct. 2024, own design

 

ChatGPT rejects any notions of creative struggle, that our endeavours animate and nurture our lives giving them depth and meaning. It rejects that there is a collective, essential and unconscious human spirit underpinning our existence, connecting us all through our mutual striving.

 

Nancy Jenner's "Corrine" design
Klimtified by Yours Truly

ChatGPT is fast-tracking the commodification of the human spirit by mechanising the imagination. It renders our participation in the act of creation as valueless and unnecessary. That 'songwriter 'you were talking to, Leon, who is using ChatGPT to write 'his' lyrics because it is 'faster and easier ,'is participating in this erosion of the world’s soul and the spirit of humanity itself and, to put it politely, should fucking desist if he wants to continue calling himself a songwriter.

 

ChatGPT’s intent is to eliminate the process of creation and its attendant challenges, viewing it as nothing more than a time-wasting inconvenience that stands in the way of the commodity itself. Why strive? Why bother with the artistic process and its accompanying trials? Why shouldn’t we make it 'faster and easier?'

 

 

IBW free pattern - Beaded Marbles for Solitaire Board

 

Sue Wightman's Christingle Xmas Tree

When the God of the Bible looked upon what He had created, He did so with a sense of accomplishment and saw that 'it was good'. 'It was good 'because it required something of His own self, and His struggle imbued creation with a moral imperative, in short love. 

 

Charlie, even though the creative act requires considerable effort, in the end you will be contributing to the vast network of love that supports human existence. There are all sorts of temptations in this world that will eat away at your creative spirit, but none more fiendish than that boundless machine of artistic demoralisation, ChatGPT.

 

Sylvia Fairhurst's
Priscilla Pinguin

As humans, we so often feel helpless in our own smallness, yet still we find the resilience to do and make beautiful things, and this is where the meaning of life resides. 

Nature reminds us of this constantly. The world is often cast as a purely malignant place, but still the joy of creation exerts itself, and as the sun rises upon the struggle of the day, the Great Crested Grebe dances upon the water. It is our striving that becomes the very essence of meaning. 

 

This impulse – the creative dance – that is now being so cynically undermined, must be defended at all costs, and just as we would fight any existential evil, we should fight it tooth and nail, for we are fighting for the very soul of the world.

 

Love, Nick

 

Nancy Jenner's Ginger Bead Man

Can you feel how it is all about things that one cannot see but know is real and important? Feelings are what makes us humans, real and true. I am not a God-this or god-that person. Maybe you aren't either but haven't ran away yet. So perhaps this will speak more to you: 

Reading the above lines, I strongly felt the same emotion when reading a chapter in Harry Potter -> the moment when he chooses to bury the House Elf Dobby without using magic. Out of respect, he pulled up his sleeves and dedicated time, effort and sweat to honor Dobby's sacrifice, for he died while rescuing Harry and his friends from Malfoy Manor, demonstrating his loyalty and bravery. 

Kathy Fritz's Champagne Bottle (IBW)

Art and acts of this importance should be meaningful, soulful. That's where our value resides. Inside of us, inside of what we do and create.

And this revealed to me why I didn't feel happiness or real satisfaction in the making of these images. 

 

If you've read this until the end, thank you! 

Happy New Year and much love to you.

Cath

Bow & Mistletoe, own design

Beadworkers Guild challenge: Bead a Song - 2

Perhaps you remember my last article about the Beadworkers Guild Bead challenge in which I told you that I'd come back about it... I was waiting for photos of our group entry to become available. Apologies for the quality... I made a screenshot of the photos in the digital July journal, which is all I can show, together with some bits and pieces made by me and some of the participants (but not placed "in situ").

We chose "English Country Garden" so that each member could make something. Boy have I been busy with it! It takes a lot of time to write a tut, so imagine so many more for a common project. 

Our leader Sylvia thought of making a carousel to best display the 3 distinct couplets of the song in 3 different scenes. How to make the carousel and how to put it all together, including gates between the scenes was all studied and made by Jenny Wilson. The entire group of designers and beaders got together with them through zoom to throw ideas at them. This is how the bench, bird "bath", insect hotel, gates, a buddleia tree and even a pond came on the table... The song got broken down into lists of flowers, birds, insects and greenery. The participants could then choose what they wanted to make. A spreadsheet to keep track of who chose to do what was kept up to date. It took a while before someone accepted to bead spiders, ha ha.

The question "how will it fit in the box" came up quite early, but we couldn't really find the answer... until  Sylvia suggested a brilliant solution: magnets.

Luckily I had patterns already made which could be used - grass, lady bugs, spiders, a dragonfly, lily of the valley, leaves, a bee... Sylvia had (and made) a moth and forget-me-not's. From Liz Thornton (who participated) and Jill Devon's book, The Beader's Floral, we used a pansy and vines; and I based my mini-roses on a tiny flower in there. It is still is available through the BWG website.

Bénédicte Damnet (and her husband Jean-Luc) made graphs for the birds and the insects with Beadographer. Those who made these had to adapt a bit and did a great job. Here some of the beautiful results:

Gillian L.

Sharron S.

 

Gillian W.

 

We needed daffodils, phlox (creeping), lilies, lupines, leaves, hollyhocks and snowdrops (which I designed). Foxgloves were designed and made by Helen McIntyre. We left out meadow sweet (fillipendula) and stocks (matthiola), but had huge panicles of buddleia flowers instead.

Some designers made one of a kind additions. Jess Hayman beaded an incredible bench, a fountain and a pond... masterpieces!! 

Helen McIntyre made miniature fox gloves. Jenny Wilson made the buddleia flowers and the gates, I beaded a gnome, a hedgehog, and a larger lily, daffodils, and vines.

We were more than 30 beaders in the group, most from the UK but also from the USA and elsewhere. Some did a lot, some less, some had unfortunate life events preventing them from accomplishing what they wanted to do... in the end, we can say that we are all tremendously proud of the result.

Bench by Jess

In total this piece represents a looooot of beading, also a loooot of assembling stitches and work for the leading team who did a fabulous job in putting together this mix match of items of different scales. I think that it is beautiful beyond expectations.

There was no other group entry this year, which was quite a bummer. Winning by default is not really a win, but the whole group is chuffed to bits with the end result.

Pond (Jess) with grasses (many hands)

 

Hopefully I will have more to show & tell next year, but for the moment, Eddie the muse is playing hide an seek, and I am quite busy with many other things.

The theme is nice though: Mardi Gras. That's going to be an amazing display of color for sure. I would like to encourage all of you to participate. 

 

Fingers crossed for inspiration! 

 

 

Happy beading to all!

Cath

 

 

 

International Beading Week is here

We're having the best of weeks right now and our Guild,  the Beadworkers Guild, has again a wonderful programme of speakers and teachers during the Zoom sessions they organize. I cannot even start to tell how excited I am to see Jill Wiseman in person coming Thursday, not to speak about the wonderful Edgar Lopez! 

Awe-inspiring bead artist Floor Kaspers is back with us again too, with a pattern for her ribbon necklace and a presentation about conceptual beadwork. 

You can still sign up to participate in the Zoom sessions, the Guild has pushed the limit of the number of attendants a bit up so that nobody misses out!
 

We had great joy with our Australian friends in the morning of Saturday and Sunday, and I did a bit of Q&A about the Yearlong Rainbow challenge and the Beadworkers Guild Challenge. 

Have I already talked about the challenge on this blog? Sure!! But maybe you will like to be reminded of how it works. To keep the IBW group active and interesting we do some kind of Bead-a-long. We bead components in the colors of the IBW banner. 12 colors, 12 months. Each month another color, and in the end we all have a fabulous beaded treasure in the colors of the happiest thing on earth, the rainbow.

This year I made a Solitaire board for which I covered beads with marbles. It is inspired by Floor Kaspers beautiful colour mixes.

 

As every year, I offer the pattern for my IBW rainbow project to the community.

 

You are welcome to join us in the Facebook group. You can also learn more about the guidelines on the IBW website.

But for now, we all are having fun making new designs so generously offered by other beaders and designers. Just look at all the goodies you will find on the website here.

This year we also have something new: the Guild organizes a Gift exchange. I don't know for who it will be but this is my make for this lovely Swap. 

Hopefully it will be something my swappee will like. Fingers crossed!

Last but not least: I do a special sale!! Use code IBW2024 to get 25% off of all patterns and books.

Happy shopping and happy beading and 

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL BEADING WEEK!!!!!!!!!

Cath

Beadworkers Guild Challenge: Bead a Song.

When the new theme for this year's challenge was published, I knew instantly what to make, but I didn't feel like entering the "Previous Winners" category, because I needed time to bead together with other beaders of our Zoom beading group to enter the group challenge.

So I entered the Challenge in a Matchbox, to keep things small. It didn't win but I didn't even go for that, and there have to be losers anyway. That said, I am perfectly happy with it because I found the right technique for my "Little Yellow Basket" to a) look like real basketry, and b) to pop up. One can roll up the sides, so it is much taller than the matchbox, haha!

 

 

 

I used Peyote, Geometric Peyote, Herringbone, Netting, Brick stitch and Russian Spiral. The hinged handles and top are fully functional. There is a tiny little envelope, because the song mentions a love letter. I added tiny little flowers and bows to each  side. The perfect little basket to go picnicking in the garden... 

Which garden?

Well... maybe an English Country garden!

which is the song title we chose for our Group Challenge entry. Boy have I been busy with that! It takes a lot of time to write tuts, so imagine for a common project. We chose "English Country Garden" so that each member could make something. Some made a bird, some made leaves and greenery, some made flowers, some made an insect and some made several of all these, depending on their availability. 

A looooot of beading in total. This creation also exceeds the size of the box's maximum measurements: Sylvia, our fearless leader, thought of using magnets to allow an easier installation of the elements which travel flat.

There was no other group entry this year, which was quite a bummer, for winning by default is not really a win, but the whole group is chuffed to bits with the end result. 

Thing is, I have no photos to show but my garden gnome.

 

I forgot to make a photo of his friend the hedgehog, also in the scene... We will have to wait for the June Journal to show what was made. Torture. 

What I know about the other entries is that there was a lot of yellow and the pieces entered were all stunning.

So... apologies for this unusually short post about the challenge - I didn't want to let you wait until the end of June about this, and will post more as soon as I can. 

Until then... Happy Beading!

Cath

It's all about love

I have new things to tell you! And thinking about it, it's all about love. Quite a while ago, I answered to someone that I bead to create emotions. This remains true.

For my lovely physiotherapist who is awaiting a baby girl, I made a long necklace with a small "Mexican Bola", also called Chime bead, Pregnancy or Harmony ball. She chose the colours and I happily obliged. At first I tried to make a bola canasta for her, of course, because she saw them. But it didn't work, which I expected, because the chime bead has to be free to sound right. So I made a larger one, which didn't seem right for her. So I turned to an older of my designs, the Open Heart. It looks smaller, more feminine. I can't wait to give it to her. And to my surprise, when I posted a short video on Facebook about how it sounds... many of you ordered the tut to make one too! Thank you so much!

Left to right: Small Bola, Open Heart, a bit larger bola

 

I also want to tell about 4 women I would like to celebrate. They (and others) make the world a better place.

Let me start with Carol, who is such a sweet person. She sells crocheted items for charity. She made soft mask adapters during Covid and gifted hundreds of them to nurses and paramedics. One day I asked to buy a pair of fingerless gloves and a matching beanie. She sent them to me but she never wanted to be paid. I was surprised! I promised myself to do something to thank her. But there is not so much that I can do... So I named my Laroque Girandoles after her (because they look as sweet as she). I reversed 2 letters and voilà! I was stunned that they landed on the cover of the 101st Beadworkers Guild Journal this month!

Laroque - Girandoles

For the note, these "Girandoles" were created within the framework of a long article about seed pearls and how incredible creations were made with them back in time. I hope that you will enjoy learning more about it. If you click on the image below, a link will take you to the Pinterest album with all the pictures I gathered while investigating about this wonderful art.

 

My 3 Bowlas - for which I just planned 3 workshops (see more details here) are obviously also named after persons, and they're awesome:

The turquoise Bénédicte is named after Béné, whom I met on Zoom and Facebook. She and I bonded immediately. If there is something like cosmic sisters, we must be two!

The yellow Martina is for my wonderful friend living here in Switzerland. It's going to sound strange, but I wish that we lived closer. Lol! She lives in the mountains, at quite a distance driving, and has a busy job. But we manage to meet from time to time, and love to bead together, and help one another with other things when we can.

The red Sabine is named after the most lovely customer one can dream of. She is incredibly supportive of my work, through email and on Facebook, she often posts an encouraging comment. She also has bought every single pattern in my shop, but in addition to that she also has bought some of them more than once to support me when things were tough for me. Let that sink in... She doesn't need them. She just buys them out of sheer generosity. 

Bowlas: the Sabine, the Martina and the Bénédicte

 

I'm so grateful for these women. And for other women too. From now on, I will name more of my creations after people who rock my world.

Last but not least, I finished writing the tutorial for the Pilot Wings, the slide pendant that so many of you asked a tutorial for. Here it is! I called Silver Wings the one made for the stand of the Beadworkers Guild in Daventry and at other shows this year - they celebrate their 25th anniversary! Happy Wings is the name of the one that I made to do the tutorial. I hope that you will make Blue Wings, Fairy Wings, Rainbow wings... Many wings!

 

Thank you for reading me and for beading with me. And if you have a story about a friend or about some random kindness, something that made your day or the world better, please tell me about it in the comments!

Cath