Ad astra Veronica

My friend Veronica died in her sleep in the night of 26 to 27 March, after a very, very long, and hard fight with her body.

I loved her and feel like I lost a dear family member, but I cannot go to Sweden to say goodbye. So I am writing this article as an hommage to her friendship, a "celebration", and for all to remember the beautiful person she was, and the beautiful beadwork she made.

Veronica Jonsson

She was a beautiful girl, with a heart of gold. She had the courage of a lioness until the last minute. In addition to all her health issues, she had Asperger syndrom to deal with, which means "special needs" but also amazing talent, intelligence, a deep attachment to justice, as well as a real concern for our planet and the well-being of animals. She hated right-wing extremists with a passion.

This young woman, sick and stuck at home remained generous, concerned by others wellbeing no matter how bad she was feeling. She beaded so many awareness ribbons that the local newspaper published an article about her. 

An article about Veronica

in the local news paper

Even when she started loosing her eyesight because of cataracts that could not be removed, she dedicated her time to the creation of a political party to fight the nazis who, as she said, were taking over her country (Sweden). This was December last year. She was very proud about it and I was just completely baffled.

Amazing pendant

I cannot fathom where she found the strength, courage or hope. If you are / have been a member of her Facebook group "poor, sick and neary dead", you know what I am talking about. When she posted photos of her wounds, I nearly left, for I am a HSP, but inside of me, I thought "what kind of friend am I if I care to see only the nice things and never the bad". She needed help, and so we helped. Beaders help beaders.

And beaders understand beaders. One time she stayed so long in hospital - about a year - that she had piled up an impressive bead stash that was a nightmare to take home. During her next stay, nobody wanted to bring her beads because of that, so I sent her a box of beads and everything for Christmas. Sometimes going against good sense is a friend's duty. It made her happy.

A rainbow for a rainbow warrior

Veronica beaded beautifully. She made her own designs and mainly used bead embroidery and beadweaving. She chose stitches and colors very carefully.

Neatly bead embroidered cuff

When looking at some of her pieces, I can't help but thinking "perfect" - perfect choice of beads, stitch, colors, and balance.

I coudn't think of
a better fringe.

Veronica was also good at kumihimo and painted silk scarves, for which she made matching brooches or scarf rings. She liked to use all sorts of media, like leather, crystal clay and rhinsetones.

Silk scarf

Kumihimo Rope

Delightful
embellished
shell

She was a fan of Sherry Serafini and Laura McCabe, to whom she dedicated this big eyed cuff.

I don't remember well when we "met" for the first time on Facebook but when Veronica won the beading contest "Birds of a feather" organized by Christina Neit from Good Quill Hunting designs, we both were around since a while. Having entered the contest myself too, we bonded. Her win was well deserved. I will never forget her cuff with feathers for eyelashes... I think that you will all agree that this cuff is unforgettable.

Veronica's Birds of a Feather
contest entry

She also had sense of humor. She recuperated tubes from her blood thinners to use as containers for her seed beads. She was generous with good tips, be it about thread or glue or more.

I love this skull & bullet pendant.

Beading saved Veronica's sanity. She participated in the Toho Challenge with a very beautiful necklace despite her health issues.

She also participated in the Battle of the Beadsmith several times. Here a piece modeled by one of her beautiful nieces.

 

And another miracle piece which uses Hubble Stitch for the ropes.

 

I say miracle because when she beaded this piece, she fell asleep on it all the time because of her medication and feared to never finish it.

Veronica was a true rainbow warrior. She even had her hair dyed rainbow during some time. How awesome is that?

And now her light shines among the stars of the universe.

 ✨✨

Goodbye, Veronica, you will continue to shine your light in my heart.

Stitch story

Do you know Geneviève Liebaert?

If you know chenille stitch, then you should know her, because she is the

Chenille ropes

designer who invented this lovely technique. But I don't think that many of you do know her.


The 'Chenille spiral', which is the original name of this creation, is
a lovely design and the variations suggested by Geneviève in her little tutorial, recommending the use of other seed bead sizes and/or types, consequently are her designs. The frontier between technique and design are a bit unclear sometimes. And techniques can normally not be copyrighted - they can be protected if the process is really very complicated, with specific step-by-step intstructions... Where the level of complication lies or how many steps are necessary to make a technique eligible to be protected is a mystery...

Back in the days where 2 huge francophone fora were counting more than a thousand beaders connected every evening, sharing their tips, patterns and designs with fellow beaders for free, Geneviève was one of the best, most talented designers, admired under the name Sereine. She wrote her tutorials for all to use for free, but asked for credit and a little "thank you" on her blog. It was all for the love of beading. Free doesn't mean that there is no copyright. She didn't want her work to be used by shops to sell beads, but of course shops benefited massively from her inventiveness and patterns, because the number of seed bead weavers increased drastically during these days of beadevolution. However, not only did Sereine's work get used without credit or thanks, but some, when asked, pretended that the design was theirs, and some even sold her patterns in their shops. After many hopeless attempts to "educate" them a bit, Sereine stopped beading. That day, we lost a treasure of a designer in the battle of good against evil.

She took her tutorials away from her blog, but left them on the forum "Ile aux Perles". Sadly, that website got destroyed several years ago in a mega cyber attack on the American servers where it was hosted. Because there was no backup, years of knowledge and designs had gone in an instant.

Sereine's website and blog still exist, but are not updated anymore. There are very little tutorials written by her still visible on the Internet, and if it wasn't for those who saved a pattern and re-hosted it, like the one linked to above, there would be no trace of her work.

Chenille stitch, however, became very popular, and this thanks to Sara Spoltore, who mentions that she thought of it herself, but she credits Sereine (aka Geneviève), as the first inventor of it, which is class. But now, when people make a Chenille rope, it is the one who posted the latest video gone viral who is thanked...  Below is Sara's video.

For those who wonder, Chenille means caterpillar in French, but it is the result of a brilliant Belgian beady brain. If another beader had invented this rope in another corner of the world, this rope would probably not have kept the name it had initially been given, so somehow, there is a bit of legacy.

Beadwork made with
Albion Stitch

For that is what happens with techniques. They one day are invented by brilliant persons, become popular, and in the end the persons who developed it are forgotten... It lasts only as long as the names of the inventors are mentioned.

If the stitch isn't given the name of the inventor(s), only the name of the technique will be remembered, like peyote stitch, which is the name of the stitch created by Native Americans to create beautiful adornments for their celebrations involving the use of a cactus of the same name.

"Ndebele stitch" which is still used for herringbone stitch, reminds of the tribe where the stitch was invented initially, but this tends to be forgotten.

Beadwork made with
Hubble stitch

The origins of Right Angle Weave are forgotten. It seems to be attributed to
Africa, but I am inclined to think that it is originating from Asia, somewhere in China, seen that there are extremely old beadwoven soldier's coats made with bamboo beads in musea there, made with this stitch.

Zulu stitch and Pondo stitch still have the name of their native tribes in Africa. St. Petersburg stitch is clearly mentioning that it's origin is Russian.

For how long will people remember that Hubble stitch was created and

developed by Melanie de Miguel? That Albion stitch was invented by Heather Kingsley Heath? That Gerlinde Lenz created and developed "Rautenstich" (Diamond Weave)? Will people remember them as English, or European, or German? If I am not mistaking, Albion is an old name for the Island of England, so that might well help finding back its origin in the future... and only the future will tell. It is my wish that many will remember their names.

Beadwork made with Diamond Weave

And that is why I wanted to write this post: to honor all inventors of beading techniques which bring us so much creative joy, and to say

THANK YOU!

for your gift to planet bead.

I'd like to Cathify Jewelry à la Diane Hyde

The lovely Diane Hyde

I felt pretty miserable over the past weeks for not being able to print laser images... And yesterday my printer, an ink-jet with remarkable fine pixels, died. So I had a quick look at laser printers, but the good ones are far too expensive and not worth buying for the rare occasions I need images for my jewelry. It was a tough decision though, because this really looked like a reach-out of the universe to me, as if to say: 'you wanted one, now is the occasion to get one and make your own buttons for Diamond Weave, and your own cabochon backings and printed material for beautiful necklaces and bracelets, à la Diane Hyde.'

Did I tell you that I love her book "Break the Rules". It is not just about Bead Embroidery!

Diane's Book - a Must

I love it because
- she shines through. One can nearly hear her voice, see her smile and feel like a good friend sitting together with her in her studio et café à volonté.
- she makes me feel confident to use things I like, which I didn't dare to use before, because I feared to (excuse my French) fuck them up. And there are things we don't want to fuck up. Diane has tested it all. Her advice is highly valuable. It takes so many years of tryal and error to find the right glues, varnishes, materials and techniques to use for this type of mixed media jewelry. Her tips are exactly what I needed to make the step.
- she broadens my horizon. She transforms my way of looking at things: everything becomes a potential element to incorporate in jewelry.
- she saves me time. I am busy writing tuts myself, but I really would like to make some mixed media jewelry with those particular things which are close to my heart. I started already, with my Tristan & Isolde Necklace, strongly influenced by her beautiful work, but very hesitating - I didn't have her book at the moment I made it. Now I don't need to search for disseminated information anymore - all the how to and what to use is there, in one publication. The pictures are excellent and the explanations very clear. It really is a toolbox, and we love toolboxes!

Tristan and IsoldeScented bottle necklace

I can't tell you how many times I have renounced making something just because I didn't know which product to use and didn't want to buy the whole store, nor work with  images which wouldn't last. So I had to either buy products made by others, or resign. I generally resigned, because the images I would like to use in my projects are different from those available.
But that's over now.

I will find a solution for printing durable images. Hubby has come up with several good ideas.

Now even if the price of inkjet printers has dropped over the past years, I must say that I still would have preferred spending the money on other things. You sure understand what I mean, don't you? ;)
If you like my work, then feel free to use coupon-code NEWPRINTER in my Etsy - you'll get a 25% discount - valid only until Sunday :)

Thank you so much for your support!

Spring fever

Little Thumb

It is Spring, I am busy as a bee. It seems to me that I'm most active during this season. It might come from the awakening of nature, the smell of the ground, the beautiful weather, the light. I might be light-intollerant, it doesn't mean that I like darkness. As long as I can remain in the shade of the building where I live, it is ok. I can't wait to bead on the balcony again.

Little Red Hood

This year Spring is much nicer than the past 2 - 3 years. My Hortensia is growing a bit too fast, but that's often the case on a balcony. My bamboo is a bit thirsty, because I was reluctant to water it, fearing that it would freeze, which generally happens in March. But this year it was nice nearly the entire month. It's not a big issue - it grows like grass... (which is normal, because it's the same family). April is nice too, the temperature is lovely. The heating doesn't even function here in the flat...

Hyper Eddie hasn't left and it's nice, because I am really having fun with beads. There are 3 new files with pictures on my computer, Fairy Figurines, Creepy Creatures and Jeannie.

'I dream of Jeannie' Barbie

As part of the Facebook Group Bead Dollie, I wanted to follow Diane Hyde's advice "Play around and just make something quick, little, and fun." So I made a Little Thumb - because I've always wanted to make little boots based on my Calla Lily flowers. The little figurine shows the moment when Tom puts the fairy boots on and they adapt to his size progressively. A little Red Hoot soon joined him. I have started a 3rd character of the 17th-Century writer Charles Perrault. This is really fun!

Tiny tulips - "Oranje Boven"

For an informal challenge to make clothes for Barbies within the framework of Contemporary Geometric beadwork, I made a bellydancer outfit for the doll Kate McKinnon sent too me. The bustier is the first thing I wanted to make with the pear cup shapes of Gerlinde's Monte Carlo bracelet. You may already have seen the Monte Carlo pattern I wrote in collaboration with her; well this little bracelet has opened a breach in my imagination.

Little Angler fish

I made little orange tulips for the very first King's Day in the Netherlands - until todayDutch National Holiday was Queen's day, but now there is a king...

I also made a tiny Angler fish based on the peyote structure and a 3rd "Creepy creature" is already in the make.

And all this while continuing writing tutorials for you. Today, I am really proud to announce that the 2 tutorials to make your very own "Souls" necklace and/or ring and earrings (or both patterns together) are now available in my Etsy Shop. This was a labour of love when I made it for the Battle of the Beadsmith back in 2013, but also writing the tutorial was not the easiest thing. It was nearly as hard to explain how to make it than to make it. I hope that you will be as happy with yours as I am with mine.

Souls

Last but not least, at Contemporary Geometric Beadwork the editorial work of the Edit team (which I'm part of) has started.
Did I say that I'm as busy as a bee somewhere?

May 2014 broaden my horizon

I need a rejuvenating beading experience, fresh air, a new horizon, new inspiration.

Pear-shaped Geometric Earrings

Today during a skype session, a very dear friend in the USA showed me the inside of the book 'shaped Beadwork' written by Diane Fitzgerald in 2009. I am grateful that she did, because I caught the sight of a pair of pear-shaped earrings which were very similar to a pair I created not long ago. I was about to write a pattern for this, but now I hesitate...

I have never bought beading books before. I am very much self-taught. Never took classes either, because of my photophobia. But also, I am not at all the kind of girl who will 'do what she's told'. I like to discover things by myself. I don't receive beading magazines since quite a long time - I never made anything from it, but I love to have designer's advice and hints. NanC Meinhardt's Master Class in a Beadwork Magazine a few years ago totally blew my mind.

It may sound strange but I have tons of projects and ideas, but I don't feel the breeze of dynamic enhusiasm burning inside of me. I might need a little incentive.

When I saw Diane Hyde's beautiful Monkey in the Works - her Battle of the Beadsmith 2013 piece, I was drooling over it. It lighted a little creative fire inside of me, and it resulted in something pretty unusual, a 'Peace and Love' necklace, made with found objects only. The beaded beads are made with twin beads, the bobbin is embellished with twin and crystal beads and the big white Bead is removable / exchangeable - the metallic tube of the windchime holds it in place. It is far from perfect, but what is really special about it, is that I had fun making it.

Beautiful mixed media
Serafina by Diane  Hyde
Photo ©Diane Hye

I pre-ordred Diane Hyde's book about Bead Embroidery entitled "Break the Rules". I understand from the title that it is more an inspirational book than a project book, even though there will be projects in it - every Lark Book has projects in it. How-to's can be very interesting, but I feel attracted to her mixed-meda jewelry and would like to know more about her creative process.

Picasso said that "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." I don't have that impression about my own work these days...

In 2014 I hope to wash away the daily dust of my soul more often.

OTTBS challenge

I finally succeeded to finish something for a challenge, in this case organized by the excellent team of OTTBS (Operation Tackle That Beadstash), a Group of fun, positive and kind beaders. They have a Facebook page where I like to 'hang out' from time to time. They organize a theme-based challenge every month and the November's challenge was ''any film, no tricks''.

Gone with the Wind immediately came up in my mind, and looking at it, I knew what I wanted to make pretty quickly, but could not get to it until Friday 29, and due day was Saturday 30! Friday it went all wrong, wrong wrong, in particular the second earring - I finished it only at 3:30! They had to be finished, so that I could take pictures on Saturday!
So here are my “Scarlett” earrings. They are made with only one thread for the entire earring.

"Scarlett" - click for a larger picture

Inspiration is a pair worn by Scarlett together with her ‘Curtain Dress’. Since she has lost nearly everything during the war, I suppose that it is a favorite piece of hers which she kept as long as possible. I chose this pair because the bottom seems to have a feather, which is a nice wink to the title of the film. I also like the look of the bezel, simple yet sophisticated.

It is very probable that this jewelry was made by Joseff of Hollywood. I've never heard of him before.  While searching for more info about the jewelry worn in Gone with the Wind, I found out that he made an enourmous collection of ‘historically correct’ jewelry, with an antique matte gold finish that nobody has ever been able to copy.

Christmas tree of Joseff jewelry during a company holiday party.
Joan Castle Joseff on the left seems to fear that Shirley Jones
might really touch it. Photo courtesy Joseff of Hollywood

I liked the challenge of trying to make something which would look antique and the matte gold-lined Toho bead and matte crystal chatons are really looking ancient.

It was surprisingly difficult to find matching earwires. Gold and silver both took attention away from the discreet matte seed beads; bronze was too yellowish, copper too rose. I don't have lots of findings and spare parts like Joseff, so I took apart the hinged gun metal earwires from another pair, which ended up being a suitable addition.
 

Looking for more information about this man who made approx 90% of all the jewelry worn in films during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, it surprised me that his work is not in a museum like many costumes and gowns are. This is because he mostly rented the jewelry to the studios, and it remained in the hands of the family-run business. He was very famous, known as "Jeweller to the Stars". You can still hire jewelry for shows.

Eugene Joseff and Jimmy Glaser
photo courtesy Joseff of Hollywood

According to the International Business Times, the Harry Ransom Center acquired five dresses from the collection of Hollywood’s producer David O. Selznick in the early 1980s, amongst which the curtain dress, and intends to display them at an exhibit to mark the film’s 75th anniversary in 2014. Maybe the jewelry will be presented to the public, too.

Gerlinde Lenz

Last week, Gerlinde Lenz, who lives in  Germany, came to visit me in Switzerland and stayed during 3 nights. This was the second time that I met her in real. She came to Switzerland a few years ago within the framework of the "Beaders' Voice for Nature" action, for which I organized a meeting in Geneva.

Fondling Gerlinde's beadwork

It was like having a family member staying with us, it was really good, we had fun beading, chatting, eating. Time went by much too quickly.
I learned a lot from her and she says that she did learn from me too, but I think that my contribution to her already broad knowledge is insignificant.

Beading with friends is wonderful, beading with an advanced beader is wonderful, imagine what it is to be beading with a friend who is an advanced beader. Simply fantastic. There were moments that we were beading in silence, as if we disapeared in the act of beading. You could hear a needle fall on the ground. Or a bead. Even hear a heart beat. Magic.

Diamond Weave Necklaces
Click to see larger pictures

I admire Gerlinde very much. Not only from a beading point of view - she is very clever, straight to the heart and trustworthy. She takes care of her parents who need permanent assistance. She has a heart of gold.

As a beader, she is the same. She's generous, clever and strong. Strong because she doesn't give up easily. She masters techniques extremely well. She is active on Facebook, where she shares photos of her work, info, tips and techniques, as well as on Flickr.
Because she doesn't have a website or a blog, I thought that it would be nice to talk a bit more about her. Her work is for sure worth a special article.

Gerlinde started beading more than 20 years ago and her enthusiasm is intact, her joy of beading is contageous and her open attitude is like one of a little girl. Her eyes shine each time she discovers or simply thinks of another possibility to explore.

The very small holes of the stone beads available 25 years ago forced her to find thread paths that would pass every bead for a maximum of twice.
She loved RAW, but wanted a bracelet with straight lines of pearls parallel to the direction of the ribbon, without threads showing at the outside. So she developed a very nifty stitch which she called Diamond Weave - "DW". It can be used to make various designs and patterns. At first glance it looks a bit like RAW (right angle weave) but the edges are smooth and looking closer to find the threadpath, your brain goes like 'Huh?'

Diamond Weave Bracelets

It somehow exploits the principle of adding the first and second row in one go, like with fast peyote. Another difference - and advantage - is that beading with this technique goes very fast.

DW is particularly beautiful with variations. It is really versatile, and the few pictures here are only a tiny example of a big collection of beadwork Gerlinde made with this stitch.

The technique is pretty simple, but for beautiful soft flat work a moderate tension is essential and I tend to pull a bit stronger, because I often make 3D shapes. I'll need to experience a bit more.

It is also possible to make ropes with DW, unusual strong, hollow, round ropes which look a little bit like Russian spiral, but again, the thread path is not the same and the result more hollow and stronger. You will find more pictures of Gerlinde's work in her online flickr Gallery, where she is known as Geometric Jewels.

Now the very exciting news is that she is working on patterns, maybe booklets with projects!

Gerlinde likes to challenge herself to find new stitches and new thread paths. She is able to make very intricate pieces and it takes an experienced eye to see the clever details, such as a nearly invisible opening in the beadwork to act as a button hole, or toggle clasp. She will favor making a piece in one go instead of assembling separate little parts, which is generally not the easiest way to make something. There are really genius beaders out there, and she is one of them.

Starweave 1
with star clasp

Starweave 2
with elastic

Gerlinde loves geometry and uses it a lot in her beadwork. She has, for example, developed 2 different star weaves, starweave. 1, and starweave 2.
Can you see the little star clasp which repeat the pattern in the work?

She excells at "what if's". She'll turn a little piece of beadwork into all directions, start it over an endless number of times, until she achieves what she envisioned. For example, she envisioned the double snap clasp below before making the bracelet.

A 'Herringote' ring with
flat round firepolished
crossing over

Nifty double-snap clasp with herringote
bracelet - the clasp came first.

Her zig zag using Peyote and Herringbone stitch alternately is remarkable. I remember calling it Herringote when she came up with it and I love how she takes the stitch further. The little ring here, where the difference in distance between the right and the left side of the work is inevitable, led her to add 3 tiny little flat rounds.

Instead of seeing this difference in length as an obstacle, she sees it as an opportunity for design.

Various double Zig Zag bracelets

Peek-a-boo bracelets
made with 'Herringote' tubes

Flat, 'Herringote' looks like fabric, like twill. But when it is circular, folded or shaped in whatsoever way, it can become very dimensional, like her peek-a-boo bangles, her flower bezels, her double zig-zag bangles... 

Gerlinde's work is all about pushing the limits. Here are a few examples of her nifty bezels for rivolis. I was very impressed by her flower bezel with little stacks, her swirl-bezel and her very beautiful Modified RAW bezels (with prisms).

Flower bezel with 7 "stacks"

Flower bezel with 6 "stacks"

See how the stone is attached: it does not fall out thanks to the cupped petals, holding it in place by the tension on the beadwork. Should one turn the petals of the flower to the back, the stone would get liberated.

Monte Carlo bracelet

The flower bezel above was born from a pear-shaped bezel. Playing with Peyote and Herringbone to create a little cup for a pear, she ended up with this incredible flower-bezel, the Monte Carlo bracelet, and exquisite puffy pear-shaped earrings.

Pear shaped beaded earrings

In the picture on the right below, you can see a bezeled donut hanging from her Swirling Herringbone rope, it is a swirl-bezel. Click on the picture to see a larger image.

This "Herringbone with a swirl" rope is another beautiful result of her explorations. She created this sophisticated design by "adding new stacks between stacks and subtracting stacks on stack".

Marvellous Swirled Herringbone
Necklace with swirling bezel for
the donut.

The swirling effect came as a surprise, she says, but she has since then understood that "the oblique stacks need more space than the frame, and thus a band begins to spiral."
Admittedly this sounds like chinese to me as long as I don't try it myself, but I know that increasing Herringbone is a piece of cake when adding 3 beads at a time... but decreasing...

The blue and green necklace below is made of 6 RAW bezels enchasing square, pointed back crystal stones. The stones have incredible depth and the setting allows light to reflect really well. Huib Peterson, who taught the use of prisms other than cubes in RAW, calls RAW with such prisms Prismatic Right Angle Weave, PRAW. The sides of the bezels here are the basis of heptagon links. Gerlinde's use of PRAW results in connections made with 5 and sometimes 6 beads.
Can you see the star-shaped prisms in blue, adding more interest to the piece?

The clasp is a very long, beautiful CRAW double toggle. Needless to say that it feels like being a princess when putting this piece on.

Last but not least, Gerlinde showed me this super nifty little sample of her zig zag start using different beads in the first row to better keep track of where the decreases have to be made in the next row. Can you see that tiny white paper confetti, which can be torn and thrown away afterwards?

Peyote start of zig zag (or Herringote) with different beads

The threadpath used makes a peyote start for a zig zag much simpler.

Zig zag bracelet with nifty start

Zig zag rings with nifty start

 Left: a zig zag bracelet made with the peyote start and right two little zig zag rings made likewise.

This clever start is described and shared by Gerlinde on Facebook.

Check out her work, her albums are really worth visiting.