Wednesday, December 31, 2008

old + new = now

My new cousin, Neveyah.

My hike with Uncle Don, near the Bale Grist Mill in Napa.

My Tadpole greetings, from Frog Eye Ring series...

Cheers,
Lovedustin

Friday, December 19, 2008

he's a bedesman too

I really love this kick-ass necklace I am wearing today; the best days in the office happened when we reserved the conference room and filled it with beadwork--crates of entries, proposals, or some other mass of creation awaiting editorial admiration and admonition. Andrew's pieces always drew and captivated me. Like they swarmed with a visible energy, like I am happy to be feeling now.
Fond of Andrew, and even fonder of eBay, I couldn't resist his Studio Sale (cd's, signets, and shades, all mine). What really caught me about the fancy-pants sunglasses wasn't so much the leather frames, gold mirroring, or rock-star attitude (though, I really hope it works), comme ci curieux, quelle bizarre, mystere et boule de gomme, zut alors, those Histoire de Voir  shades appeared to be very similar to my almost-favorite pair from The Dollar Store! Luckily, they aren't that similar. Still, I had to do a side-by-side photo comparison:

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Bead Boy for President

What better way to get out of the house and break a two-year social reclusion than to partake in a little community organizing: say hello to the new President of the Rocky Mountain Bead Society. Crazy! you might say. Ha! you may shout. Fantastic I tell you!

I look forward to the beady opportunities to come (awaiting my bead-briefing of the details...) and am grateful for the support of the bead-icated members that have kept this group going. While I'm not entirely sure how I came to assume this unopposed position (suspect Another Planet), I'm even less sure of what all it entails. Que sera sera. (And I am very much relying on the supreme competence and kindness and quirkiness of fellow board members past and present. Duh!)


For the record
, I DO have some intent of support to the RMBS community:
1: Grow membership (Colorado is suited to beading; Mecca, I daresay.)
2: Education (not as a demanding left-brained technical-editor, but as a beader for the people; two years of working bead shows, lecturing, and teaching gave me notice of the many bewildered new beaders out there. And I am told that I am a patient person.)
3: Sharing (I be somewhat reclusive really, but I'll show you mine if you show me yours. Beads, that is).

All of the above can be attained through bead classes, which are wonderfully usually affordable to members. I learned lots about beads in my seven years editing Beadwork magazine (thank you contributors!), yet I've never made any of the projects. As evidence of my interest and continued support of the RMBS, here are 3 recently completed pieces that will always remind me of how great it is to have a bead society:



Skull Flower. Herringbone fans/fins/frills weekend of classes with Rev. Wendy Ellsworth (another Cabin Beader! watch out for tics); she helped me do color freeform! The adorable tiny skulls were obtained that Friday night, at Nomad's holiday art reception. Hot.)





Mastering the Curl with Jeannette Cook. One of my first contacts in the beading world, and I finally get a class with her; ships beading in the night... Using her kit (some say "Mardi Gras" colors, I say "Show Me Your Tits" colors, as available in my own beading kits) to learn her classic peyote-increase spiral (detail inset). For the necklace I added a double-ended spiral, super-clever beaded-beads, and magnetik clasp. Oh snap! Are those Rockies colors, to wear to the game?!





Dagger Wrist tubular herringbone with Carol Perrenoud. It was very exciting for me to meet the woman (Cabin Beader) with the size-22s-and-smaller seed-bead-amulet-hen that I wet myself upon seeing so many years ago. Not so exciting, however, was making this bracelet using that creepy thread--but SO worth learning about straw needles! And concrete!


Proud to bead an American. Indian, that is.
peace.







Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Fauna and Flora





Tomorrow I leave the wonderful land of Napa, just as fall sets in: today one can see the leaves of the white grape varietals turning orange, soon to be followed by the red grapes' leaves, and then no leaves at all, which I saw last year. We went to a pumpkin patch; here is my cousin Kasey with a pumpkin larger than her own belly.


It was her baby shower that brought me out here (having a girl, due December 1st). We built a Castle Cake adorned with fairies and unicorns with foil horns. Speaking of green fairies, it was probably the only baby shower ever that ended with sharing a bottle absinthe!

I brought with me my freshly finished fauna necklace, worn at the shower by Anita. I was honored to have such a lovely model!
This necklace features a fauna (that's a girl faun, duh) pendant by Margaret Braet that I was lucky to get in Tucson this past February. All of her work is amazing, and her glass-sculpting technique is fascinating (check it at neomythica.com).

Friday, August 1, 2008

Skeletor de Lux


Opening today at the Lux Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska: Bedazzled, the bead art invitational curated by Marcia Laging Cummings. I was happy to be asked and extra happy to have two pieces accepted before they were even finished!
I'll Get You Next Time, He-Man is a slice of the eternal struggle between good and evil, He-Man and Skeletor. The disgruntled villain shouts his threat in frustration, for He-Man has once again thwarted capture, if only by the skin of his loin cloth. No worries: He-Man draws his power from his sword, not his pants. Curious thing about the Masters of the Universe ca.1980 action figures: they all have THE SAME belt, no matter which team they play for. Mattel churned out characters using the same body mold in assorted colors for each individual head. Must be something in the water, cause all inhabitants of Eternia (minus the three females) are so juiced they're bowlegged.
Up next: I Have the Power!! with a sans-belt sword-thrusting burly blond barbarian.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Rocky Sampler


"Pass backward through the bead below, then forward through the bead you just strung." The mantra of square stitch, which I calmly intoned who knows how many hundreds of times yesterday. Four 2-hour classes with 10-15 students each, and nearly all of them managed to square-stitch a circle (those that didn't get it may need peyote-deprogramming). Perhaps I could bring a radio-controlled toy plane to demonstrate what a loop-the-loop flight/thread path looks like? It was a fun day. The students were great (even when I was 30 minutes late); I imagine that TAKING four 2-hour classes would be pretty intense and they kept their cool (next time I will bring THEM the cherry m&m's).
Since my handout didn't show the finished project because it was too crammed with silly stitch explanations and diagrams, here's a pic of the bracelet in two of the color ways. But really, there is no requirement to make a bracelet...
Thanks to all that made the RMBS Sampler a success (as far as I know)!!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Snake Goddess is BIG in Ohio


Bead International 2008 happened this spring at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio (where it is on display through September, then will travel through 2010). It is an honor to be a part of this show; the fact that Ungud was rewarded Best of Show is still sinking in for me. But he is pretty hot.

The name Ungud comes from an Australian aboriginal rainbow deity with trans-gender powers. The dress (not shown here) is brought forth from Minoan snake goddesses, themselves cloaked in mystery.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Saints Daze



Just finished a batch of magnets, having carried them with me through Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Tucson, just to put them together back at home.  Made with fragments of an early Bead Boy relic (Bead Something Edible: Beadwork, A/M 2001) and showing the one and only time that they were worn. 
Somewhere between Saint Valentine and Saint Patrick there might be found Saint Twizzler. (Imagine a smelly cellar fresco depicting this holy trinity of hearts, snakes, and edible hot pants...)