Go beyond technique

In my previous post about design, I wrote a long article about copyright and fair use and things like that.

In this post, I wish to talk about flat diagonal Cellini peyote to give you more examples about going beyond technique.

In the photo below you can see several designs made with this technique.

There are 3 peyote ribbons at the top, of which one is zipped in the length. All are clever beauties. The pendant on the left took much more time and research to create and clearly goes beyond technique. The Fandango earrings are a typical example of art-chitecture, the frontier between technique and art. Those who know me know that attaching the earstud and the earnut to the beadwork is a "Cath" signature.

When I made my Anthea's Tiara central stone bezel, I discovered how to make Bolas Canastas. I decided to give the Bolas Canastas technique to the people of Planet Bead, because of its huge potential. This is why I use the example of this technique: I see it evolve nearly "live" and with pleasure.

Flat diagonal Cellini peyote is only technique and I already had created many dimensional Cellini Peyote shaped beadwork. The tutorials for these pretties will expand your beady brain far more than the bolas, which is why I wrote tutorials for them:

3D or "Dimensional" or "shaped" Cellini Peyote creations:
Precious Pommanders, Mermaid Tail beaded
beads and Lotus bangle

Unzipped bolas are simply diagonal Cellini peyote ribbons. I don't see them as design, but as technique. Nobody can claim them as a design. But depending on what you do with these ribbons, the size, the bead count, the colors, the assembling method, they become designs. The method is the architecture to which you need to add a bit of your Art to make it your art-chitecture.

These Bolas are my designs, for their special
shapes and special colors

I made many different bolas. The variations in color and shape offer endless design possibilities.

Tooth pick vessel "Primeval Waters"

The longer and wider the ribbon, the more things become interesting. If you make a Cellini ribbon with your personal choice of bead colors and sizes, it will determine what the piece will look like in the end and that is what will make it yours. There is a different bola for each beader on Planet Bead.

Frosty is a shaped (triple) Bola Canastas
for which I made a tutorial

Of course, the more complex, the more a design can be "claimed".

Teresa Shelton is a very creative beader who uses primarely peyote stitch for her own creations. She made her Minx River earrings by folding the Cellini ribbon. This might sound very simple, but it takes a specific choice of bead sizes for a nice result. She teaches them in her region, but also gave us the sequence in the Cellini Peyote Freaks group.

Teresa's Minx River earrings in
delightful rainbow colors.

I had plans to make real earhoops. Créoles in French. I love that word. My plan was to add earstuds and earnuts to make hoops. I tried and ended up with my Fandango Earrings. 

My preferred version of the Fandango earrings are the ones with the studs and nuts attached to the beadwork as in the photo below, but I also made a dangle version with off-centered beads added to them). I think that my earrings really go beyond technique and that they are very "me".

Fandango Earrings

The same is valid for CRAW, Herringbone, Peyote, Diamond Weave, Brickstitch and many more techniques. Add your special touch. And if you encounter design collision, don't feel defeated. It means that you're on the right track!