Quadruple Wow!

While writing this, it rains, and still is very cold over here. But!! On the 26th of January I saw a couple of bulbs bravely pointing new leaves to the sky despite the nightfrost. Wow! It surprised me and made me smile out loud Yay, Spring is on its way: 😊. I also saw catkins past week. 

Now if you don't have signs of Spring outside, yours truly made sure that you nevertheless would see something Spring-like this month: Fairy Flowers.

I'm a cover girl again! In the 113th Bead & Jewellery magazine, you will find this pretty project designed to welcome the Spring: geometric Cellini peyote flowers on a lariat. I hope that it will make you smile too!  

Fairy Flowers with
beaded rope

Fairy Fowers
with leather
cord

You can wear and make it in many ways. In addition to the blue and rose lariats shown in the magazine, I made a metal-based lariat with just two of these flowers. They are in good company: a  Rainbola (free pattern) covers the sliding bead, and a pair of Fandango earrings in matching colours completes the whole. You can also make earrings with the Fairy Flowers. I hope that you will make many!

Vicky Roberts, the lovely editor of Bead and Jewellery Magazine, also wanted to do an interview with me. I really appreciated collaborating with her. 

Now if it is really special to be a cover girl, to learn from her pen that I am one of the most influential beaders in the beading community is beyond expectations. Wow!! 

I feel honored,  grateful and happy!

Fairy flowers on
lariat-style chain

I like to enable beaders and contribute to the evolution of beading. This is one of the reasons why I write blog posts from time to time. So here is a bit more about the  lariat. 

The Yukka flower was a first warped hexagon (the other is my Trapezino pendant). Because it includes Cellini peyote, it is not obvious that it is one. In the bridal set shown here, you can see lots of Peppers, 3 & 4 pointed Yukka flowers and a hairstick with the very first Fairy Flower (02-2011).

Pepper, Fork, and Yukka
Flower Bridal set - 2011

Funnily, when I made the Toxic Flowers necklace based on it, I thought that many would easily guess how to make them, so I didn't write a tutorial for it. 

Then I made my Jalisco Bangle, another all-increase zig zag, but with a long start. I later gave it to the Contemporary Geometric Beadwork project /volume 1, pp. 214-215), with the hope that a whole team would find ways to take it further. Because to find the right size for a bangle with this technique was quite a challenge.

Toxic Flowers - 2011

Thanks to the CGB team and in particular the immensely talented Claudia Furthner, who created a tiny all-wing, the best starter strip for zigzag beadwork was found.

Jalisco Bangle for
CGB (2012-2013)

It's a joy to start new beadwork with it. Making various sizes of bangles is suddenly way less fastidious, albeit still a bit challenging if it is not for our own wrist.

For that, the paper about Rick Rack sizes and charts that I wrote/drew thanks to the contribution of many other CGB team members is still useful and available for free on my website. 

New "pod" designed
by Claudia Furthner
beaded by moi

Oh and I also developed a little mathematic formula to help planning the number of Delicas needed for the start of a bangle of certain sizes. I gave it to the CGB team during a beading retreat for them to develop further and perhaps it will soon be made available.

Do you remember that Sam Norgard launched a communal project for all beaders to participate in, world wide: the "Black and White together" project? It is becoming a huge portrait of African American bead artist Joyce Scott.

In 2021, Sam launched another communal project called "All colors", also for all to participate. Guess what folks are asked to make? Little flowers, cast off Claudia's pod! You can still participate in this project.

All colors flower

My muse sings: Sam's project will showcase a gazillion star flowers, and they are all mini "Jalisco". Wow!!! She didn't consciously use the Jalisco flower as a base, but still, it was my gift to the CGB project. It is lovely to see it live further. My Jalisco bangle tutorial is a bit obsolete now - I would recommend casting one off of a pod and hope that if you do, you will send me a photo, or tag me in it on Facebook!

B&W together

Now please have a look at this small pattern by Eva Maria Kaiser which uses bugle beads. She made all-wings earlier than me! I do believe that Eva Maria is the mother of many geometric break-throughs without that many of us noticing. If geometric beadwork can lead to design collision as I try to explain in my previous article, Eva Maria is a Master at transforming her work into unique pieces of Art and the original structure of her pieces tends to disappear in the background. 

Visit her website: her work is overwhelmingly impressive and beautiful and proof that we have endless design possibilities still awaiting our hands and needles.

Now what can the 4th wow be after all this awesome sauce?

Well, the other day, I discovered that Feedspot, in their "Top 80 Bead Blogs and Websites" places this blog by yours truly... 14th! Wow!!!! I feel very honoured. Last time that I looked at this list, it was somewhere in the 50's, so thank you to all those who appreciate my articles and let them know that they do! You rock.

Cath

Design collision happens

Many people come to beading because something inside of them said “I can / want to do this too”. Then, after starting to gather information and learn to bead, they will show their first makes with pride. Then, after some playing and showing more, there might be occasions where they will hear “you need to give credit, you may not reverse engineer, you may not say that this is yours, you may not copy”. This results in loads of promising beaders abandoning our lovely Art form for another where things seem to be less complicated.

I am a designer who uses often geometric beadwork techniques. With the hope to show that it is not that complicated, I wrote this article about design collision, copying and copyright. It might, by far, not cover the whole subject, but I hope that it will answer many questions.

The photo shown here is
one offered on www.pixabay.com,
free for all use, without attribution.

We live in a world where spheres, aligned or placed in a certain manner can be seen as art. A photo of said spheres can also be considered as being art. What is certain is that somebody made these spheres, and someone made that photo, and they are entirely theirs until they decide what one or more may do with them. Like selling the spheres (to a public or private garden), or adding the photo where folks might download it without restriction or even attribution, or sell it.

Golden rule: refrain from using something without consent unless clearly stated otherwise.

The same applies to illustrations and texts in a magazine, book, or tutorial. Even if the magazine or tutorial is a free download, it is protected by copyright laws and only with the express consent of the author can it be copied or scanned, shared or hosted elsewhere on the Internet. Sites who publish other folks’ free patterns without consent are frauds. Quotes are allowed as long as there is an attribution to the author and the title of the publication.

What about beadwork?

It is a bit the same. I chose the example of the spheres because obviously, anyone can try to make spheres – it is a universal geometric form. Same for pyramids, cubes, and other geometric forms, made with triangles or other shapes which are primarily technique and where the actual designing resides rather in the color placement and motifs. Go make forms, but without copying all the beads in ABCDesigner’s beadwork. Do it your way.

Now spheres and rings can be rather difficult to succeed. Go through the struggle of finding the right number of increases and beads. You will probably make the same form as others after all, but it will feel good to conquer it on your own.

I started over 3 times to obtain a satisfying little round wreath for the earrings pictured above. The two other attempts failed because either the inside or the outside beads were competing for space, which resulted in wonky wheels. Try to make these earrings yourself without counting the number of beads used and see what happens. (No cheating!)

You want the exact same sphere as ABCDesigner? Buy the physical object. Or buy the tutorial. If none of these are available, ask the designer if he / she agrees that you make the same on your own. Some will say yes. Some will refuse. Accept that No is an answer and that you cannot have / own everything. Move on.

The photo above is one of DiMarca Online’s Peyote Ball designs.

There are enough other beady delights out there to make and marvel at. There are even groups on Facebook where you can bead for designers who search for enthusiasts to test-bead their colourings.
 

You have a tutorial from another designer and wish to use elements from it in your own creation? Make sure that it is ok to use (generally it is), and give credit to the other designer for the element(s). The beautiful star design on the left, by Helen McIntyre, illustrates this well: the legs of her star come from Melanie de Miguel’s class teaching “Byzantine Cross”. Little changes were necessary to create the star, but in its essence, it is Melanie’s cross with a 5th leg. Helen never made a pattern for it because she doesn’t consider it as hers. 

 

Red “Möbius Star”
available from
KrisDesignFSP

You wish to write a tutorial? Investigate before you do. It is a lot of work, and if it exists already, it will probably not sell. If you have a doubt, ask friends whom you can trust if they have seen it before? Kris Empting-Obenland posts photos of her new creations on Facebook and asks if it has already been made, because she doesn’t want to put so much time and effort in something that might already be available for purchase elsewhere. 

When I made my first warped square bail in 2008, shown in the photo left, I was sure that I had invented something! In fact, I did, but I wasn’t the only one. This comes from techniques being the same and the beads having the same size. There is a “math” responsible for similar results in form, especially geometric beadwork. If this happens to you too, don’t be disappointed. You should always be proud of your own finds and not give up making more things in your own sweet way. I still am proud that I made a warped square bail on my own. The pendant is a simplified version of a design called “Carré en Cage” designed the same year by Belgian beader Marielle Baudoin. 

Digital rendition of a Van Gogh painting
offered on www.pixabay.com,
free for all use, without attribution.

If you can copy something others made, be ethical. Many painters copy works by artists like Van Gogh, for example, as an exercise. They are not going to say that it is their painting! They often also pay for a canvas with instructions. If it is an interesting exercise or challenge, don’t brag on social media how clever you feel for having cracked someone’s design! You made something thanks to another person’s efforts and that’s all. Also, don’t let folks believe that it is your own. They will ask you to teach it. Don’t even think of teaching it. That might get you into trouble from a legal point of view. Try to make something new to really be proud of.
 

That said, when things get more complex, like our "further developments", then we are in a grey zone. Our work can be seen as half technique and half "what you do with it makes it unique". Another one might have done it, or be in the process of doing it. Or have done it differently.

In the grey zone we must play fair. If we make something after seeing someone else's work and base our new design on it, we need to give credit, perhaps even ask for permission, etc.

In the grey zone we need elegance of the mind, a kind heart, and honesty. If you know that you could not have made something without seeing or learning something from another designer, you need to give credit and ask for the other designer’s approval to teach.

Helen McIntyre, whose geometric Cellini peyote work is well known, has been confronted with design collision due to the geometric properties of this stitch. For one of her best known Christmas decorations, shown on the left, she used a geometric shape and took it further. She transformed it into a much more elaborate design, but had to teach the basic shape to teach her design. However, she didn’t know who made the pattern of which she only had a small excerpt. She searched a long time and one day found me. 

 We’ve had friendly conversations together, and it appears that she got a copy of a pattern for my Pepper earrings published in 2011 (photo right), for free, on the French forum HDPS.

I am delighted that she made such a beautiful new design with it and she got my permission to teach it.

Why? Well… to contribute to the evolution of the Art of Beading.

Claudia Furthner, who created the lovely Batcycle (and an incredible amount of delightful geometric beadwork) says the following: 

“We are all Beavers! One beaver meets with another beaver, who shows him his dam full of pride. And the first one says Oh, I made one like that too yesterday.”

Photos above: Bead Art by Claudia Furthner - Explorations with shapes and colour gradation. The triangles have an eye on one side and various colour blocks on the other side, which, placed in specific configurations, result in plenty of design possibilities.

Thank you for reading to the end!!

For those who like the Cellini peyote Pepper earrings, you may like my pattern for the 3 Cellini peyote shapes "Pepper, Fork & Yukka flower" or another of my 3D Cellini peyote patterns.

Bead happy and well.

Cath