Zoom on a not so solid Solid...

Last year I worked on 2 major projects. One was my "Fantasy" chess play for the  2020 Beadworker's Guild Challenge, and the other one was this fun bauble, the Triskele Bauble. And Oh! some of my work got selected to appear at the 2019 Math & Fashion show in Linz. Perhaps I should enter this bauble in the 2021 show? I might need to find its exact name though... what solid could it be, hmmm?

It took a year to find out how to create this tantalizing Triskele bauble

You can order the Bridges Linz 2019
Math +Fasion Look Book here. 

So yes, I entered the 2019 Bridges Art & Math show with a jewelry set and  a necklace. 8 years separate the two pieces. Surprise, both were accepted. Some time after that, a beautiful Look Book was published, and I can't express how pleased I am to be included, together with many wonderful bead artists whom I appreciate tremendously, notably the CGB team and Kris Empting-Obenland.

I didn't expect to be selected because, admittedly, mathematics are not my "thing", but when I bead, I count, and measure lengths. Of a wrist or neck, or whatever object I wish to cover... I make forms. Shapes. Geometrics. And there is a math formula for everything, be it already known, or not yet. There must be one for the Triskele bauble.

The necklace, "Connectedness" (2009) was entirely made with multiples of 11 beads. Loops (and bridges) of 11, 22, 33 and 44 beads were added to form a web similar to the skirt of the maiden veil mushroom. It chants the beautiful bridges we beaders build thanks to the Internet, eg. computer technology, hence the wink to binary code and the world wide web.

Connectedness is part technique, part art and part poetry.

 

The set was composed of tetrahedron-shaped items. My "Open Hearts" chain (as a bracelet), Open Heart earings, a necklace called Chirimania - sliding cords with an Open heart pendant and an Open Heart bail folded inside out, and Mermaid Tail cord ends. (2018)

I was asked to send a photo with the jewelry worn, to give a sense of proportion.
Had I known that it would be included in their look book, I would have
goodied myself up a bit - but I didn't expect to be selected.

 

These semi-rigid shapes are all made in the same manner - Rick Racks - with the same beads, but either folded differently while beading, or started either with an even or an odd number of beads at the beginning. They are closed in the case of the cord ends to hide the knots in the cord. It still stuns me that it is possible to obtain so many different shapes by folding beadwork. Learn more about it in this article.

 

Playing with shapes is fun. However, it is not easy to talk about things without a name. In fact, I generally don't care much until I have to find a name. I care about the zigzagging, folding and now even more the morphing properties of the beadwork. For example, when I made my first Paradox Pendulum, in my books it was a folded octogon with what I call soft and strong increases, part of my Toho Challenge piece. 

After seeing the many hyperbolic plane funnies made by my talented CGB friends, I wonder if my pendulum is one... but I think that in CGB language it is an 8-pointed "All-wing" with triangle & hexagon increases. Paradox Pendulum it will remain, because I like poetry, and the shape can make one think of so many things,.

 
The Pendulum shown in the video is "New Year's Eve".
The white one above ornates the Christmas tree of my dad's girlfriend.

 

To talk about things and how they are made, math can be a great tool, but it can get difficult.  

See the names of the beautiful Beaded Johnson Solids project started by Diane Fitzgerald. Had you ever heard of a gyrate bidiminished rhombicosidodecahedron? Not me! But I loved making it, using triangles, squares, hexagons and decagons as per Diane's pattern, and I learned a lot. Diane invited us to give our shapes another name. Mine makes me think of Spiderman. But the most interesting aspect of the whole projet, in my books, was that the shapes don't need stuffing (they are self-supporting); and that the triangles very stubbornly raised atop the other shapes. I wonder if it is thanks to the triangles that the beaded shapes are semi-rigid, for they provoke good tension on the beaded shape.

The names for the Johnsons's solids must be the result of an intense decortication of elements in common and their opposites.

This "naming" of geometric shapes and beading them brings me back to the Contemporary Geometric Beadwork publications. 

Last week, I had the wonderful surprise to see my Kaleidocycle as front piece of the chapter about cycles included in the beautiful Pattern Book, published by Kate McKinnon. What an incredible honor. And it is a beautiful introduction.

I love the way Kate puts words on things. In the first books we discovered Wings and Horns and Elegant Guide Rounds. We have discovered the Exploding Round and then the Explodig PodCast.

You can only love to discover explicit names like "Bat Cycle" or "Butterfly Net". And what about "Hot Corners"? Not (yet) academic, but spot on, poetic and mysterious all at once. It will make poets, artists and geeks happy. One day it might we adopted so broadly that it will become academic.

My Jalisco Bangle, for which I shared
the instructions in CGB vol. I later
got the beautiful family name "All-Wing"
which has perpetual movement properties.

 Geometric peyote really can have one leg in geometrics and the other leg in physics (for its kinetic properties). It is very difficult to put the right name on beaded items, because if  beads are rigid, the obtained result isn't necessarily so "solid". But this is why it is soooooooo satisfying to play with said items.

This brings me to my Triskele Bauble and upcoming Zoom workshop. The Kaleidocycle and the Johnson Solid project have been major influences (bad and good) in the making of this new project.

My bauble is inspired by the  beautiful Triskele paper globes by Hattifant. I saw it many years ago and exactly as for the Kaleidocycle, I immediately had to make it with beads, but back then, I knew that I didn't have the skills (and also not so much time - I was working on my book about Diamond Weave). Early in 2019, I felt confident that I would be able to make it.

I've been working on prototypes without success during months. Admittedly more off than on, because of other priorities, like my chess play for the 2020 Beadworker's Guild Challenge, but efforts have not been spared. It felt like chewing it during months.

When seeing the Johnson Solids,  I understood that I had to change my approach for this bauble, and that was to not think "like paper" as I did for my Kaleidocycle 10 years ago , but only geometric peyote beadwork. And eureka, suddenly, things came together as I hoped. After several attempts and prototypes from which I learned a lot, I finally succeeded to obtain a lovely result.

Learn more about this workshop on my website, and prepare to be surprised how beadwork can have magic.

Now the question what kind of solid it is remains, but whatever the correct scientific name it may have, I call it a Triskele Bauble, to honor Hattifant, to express my love for the "morphing" possibilities of beadwork thanks to its solid yet not so solid properties, and because a Triskele is an antique symbol of kinetics. 

International Beading Week is coming

and I am preparing to do a ZOOM class for the first time ever. 

You will need a 14mm rivoli, Toho PF Starlight 11/0 and 15/0 and Preciosa Ornella Sol Gel 10/0 seed beads. For those - numerous, I know - who cannot find these beads, I will show a version made entirely with Toho beads 11/0 and 15/0. They use the same petals.

A fairy made with petals

Because you will be my "guinea pigs", this workshop is entirely free. I am not a pro tutor like the ladies you are used to. I am just a "beading fairy" as my hubby says and not a professional teacher at all, and I have a lot to learn, but I like to teach and transmit knowledge. I hope to get better over time.

I wish to thank the lovely Sylvia Fairhurst, trustee of the Beadworkers Guild in charge of events, designer and owner of "Witch Beads" who offered to be the hostess of this online event.

Booking will start on 11th of July 2020. Kindly note that I won't take any reservation at all and Sylvia won't take reservations before. Please see the International Beading Week website for details.

2018's "Meryl"

2019's "Rainbolas"

Don't be sad if you cannot attend! Like last years, a pattern will be published for free for all, on my website.

2020's IBW Pride Flower

Should you wish to become familiar with Petals as taught in my "From Petal to Pod" paper, join the Facebook group where you will find the instructions (please answer the questions to be let in by the moderators).

Some of the things people made with petals

There is a bit of Mr. Puddlepond frog folie happening in that group right now, which delights me too.

My newest pattern, Mr.  Puddlepond
also made with petals

I am a bit nervous, but the perspective of beading with you live makes me super happy!

Cath

My only goods are my creative ideas

A new page on Facebook called "We support designers" has been created by Sabine Lippert. It is a page where bead shops can show their support to designers like me. Because a shop who sells beads needs designers to continue making designs for their customers. The shops collaborating with the designers and encouraging their customers to purchase our pattern for a workshop - instead of secretly giving copies - is rewarded with this new logo:

As an ethical beader you can also use this logo to show your support to creative minds:

I think that this is very nice. I'd be glad to collaborate with shops who want to organize workshops using my designs and if you are interested in doing that, I'll be glad to discuss this with you. Please feel contact me, because

Thank you!

Tips for photographing jewelry

I just saw on Beading Daily that I had missed an online class with Jim Lawson, who is a Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist photographer. Interweave put an attractive video online to give an idea of the course. I nearly regretted not having attended... read on.

Picture taken in the mirror

Being intollerant to light - call it allergy if you wish, I have a light tent which I cannot even use. Being photophobic has led me to live in an appartment on the not sunny side of a building, where I have what Art Academies call "the Glorious Northern Light", and with my white walls, it is not dark... enfin, not in all the rooms. There are many different colours in the light depending on the season, the weather - the sky is sometimes  very blue... the building opposite of mine is terra cotta... (And I must close the curtains when the sun is reflecting in the windows or other metallic parts of that building, or in clouds or in the snow on the roof... *sigh*.)

As a consequence, taking all my pictures in daylight, without spots, is really challenging. I've been told that my pictures are fair and from the person who said that, it was a huge compliment. But as Jim Lawson says, those shadows are not so - so... Ah, those shadows - you can see them on the left of nearly all my pictures... I had a very hard time making a decent picture of the set I am wearing on the picture above-right. I normally enhance my pictures with Paint Shop Pro, but here I did not; I only added my watermark to it, reduced its size, to show it 'as is'. No sunlight that day, so no blue from the sky, no terracotta reflections from the building in front... I used a mirror to bring more light to the piece and I am quite pleased with the result... but I am going to find or make reflecting devices to apply that immediatly to my future photos.

Sixagons Chain

What is so cool with Youtube, is that when one video is finished, they show a mosaic of other, related, videos and so I could see some more... There is the usual commercial stuff "buy Mybrand lamps,  lenses, backgrounds", which can be of interest for the photographer who wants to make the difference and has the budget for it. Which is not my case.
But there are also a few nice guys out there who give really useful tips for 'on-a-dime' photographers like me. The (really) nice guy I wish to applaud here is Michael Seto who has made a series of 22 videos with super interesting tips for light, settings (you know those secrets you would find out only after 10 years trying yourself), tripod - (what would I do without my Tripod!), presentation of the jewelry, etc... Not everything is useful for me, but there are many very intelligent tips and tricks and things I am definitely going to try! Check it out, you won't be disapointed.

I also like the two videos about presentation by Renaissance Marie Austin, who created "Fiber Style TV", showing how to take advantage of simple objects in her surroundings to shoot her jewelry.
Her tips are cool, see Video no. 1 and Video no. 2.

As for the use of Paintshop Pro or Photoshop - in addition to the 'help' menu of those softs, there are many online tutorials, videos, and even forums you will want to visit - some folks are real artists. I prefer beading and use only a few standard settings... 

Just another picture to show you the shadow...............

Thai Silver Tinkle Bell Jewelry Set

Last but not least, here is the website giving a loooooooooot of hints to use with a light tent... I hope I can use my light tent one day.

~..~

Follow your nose...

I have always followed mine as much as possible and I am happy. Autodidact and proud. Enfin... autodidact... hem hem. Let's say that I follow my nose and synchronicity (or the Universe) makes me encounter important people, books, proverbs, beliefs, beading, meditation, Qi-Gong, etc... along my path. So I must say that other's noses sometimes really matter... Let me explain.

A wonderful beader asked me - and I am very flattered - what I think about classes and how to expand beading knowledge... I thought that I could share my thoughts with you.

Atoll - Jewelry Set

Living in Switzerland, I have never followed a class (nobody teaches here and I couldn't go anyway - it would be too expensive and my  photophobia would be a problem). So, I learned beading by myself, because I wanted to make 'something like that' too (the something like that meant something as beautiful as what I had seen amongst the Bead Dreams entries of 2003... LOL! Nobody has browsed the web more for instructions than me. At the time there were not as many tutorials and free instructions as now and I had not even a one-dollar-budget-for-books, so no choice but find it out by myself. I learned peyote and bezeling cabochons just by looking at photos of jewelry. I learned freeform peyote thanks to Beki Haley's free tutorial, and many other valuable instructions from generous beaders helped me make -when I finally felt confident enough- my own dream necklace, Atoll. A necklace I had designed before having a single bead in my hands. I actually invented my very own bezelling method.

If I could have changed anything, I would have

1) subscribed to a mag immedately, and bought good books to have tips, hints and techniques. Those given by Kate about thread, needles, workspace etc. are priceless - things I would really have loved to know earlier.

Most hints are known and taught by designers after years of practice and struggling before they have that wonderful "Eureka-moment". Some are generous with tips on blogs, etc... However, valuable info is mostly available only from the designers directly, in their books, or classes, or in magazines.

2) Meetings with other beaders!!! That is so nice and boosting! I miss that a lot - and I frankly would feel totally isolated without the Internet. No. In fact, I would not even be a beader without it... Hurray for the world wide web (and Skype)!

So what else than classes could be of help...

Samurai Pod Amulet Bag

IMHO Collaborations are the greatest teachers and highly motivating. I've learned a lot from a round robin organized by my dear friend Darcy Rosner from Sweet Bananaberry: Groups of 4 - each one made an amulet bag, then sent it to the next (for embellishment), who sent it to the 3rd (for fringing), who sent it to the 4th (for a strap), who sent the finised embellished jewelry back to the first in the round, a happy owner of an 8-hands unique piece. It was the greatest experience I've ever had so far and I cherish that amulet bag more than any other beaded jewelry. All the 'in progress' pictures were shared on facebook once the bag was returned to its owner. Lesson at all levels. I loved that.

Talk with others; advice, input and comments from fellow beaders help me grow - I still need to grow a lot. Meet with as many as you wish or can.
Buy patterns - many wonderful beaders sell good patterns, with instructions and tips. These are inexpensive and they will bring you full support if you need it. Again, long live the Internet.

But what about taking a class? It depends on your own wishes.
Question yourself: what does expanding your knowledge really mean? Are there techniques, stitches, materials you wish to discover or are you searching for a new way of approaching your art? Is the only answer a class and you can afford it, then don't hesitate and go for it.

Follow your heart and take risks.  Fearlessly. To get to the "I can"- stage, you need to have the "I want" stage first. If you know what you want, you'll know how to get there.

Follow your own nose!

- Cath

PS: I have a 'new' passion: aromatherapy. When I was young, I wanted to become a nose. A real nose. I have received a book written by a good other 'nose' in aromatherapy and now I am playing with those heavenly scents... Happy dance!