Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Material Input

This morning I woke up thinking about materials.
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If you're a beadworker how much import does intrinsic value, time, skill, uniqueness and love involved have on your choice of materials?
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Is something automatically more beautiful because the gems are grade A? Perhaps it depends on your personal sense of style and not just the depth of your pockets.
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As a beadweaver I often choose beads at a mid-range price. I'm not shy about mixing less expensive Czech beads with more expensive Japanese beads to get the effect that I want. In my stringing I hardly ever go for the sparkle of well cut grade A gems or even crystals except for special commissions.
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I recently had request for something like the sold bracelet in the picture. Actually, by the time I finished the only things that were the same were the amethyst and seed beads. The amethyst is what some would call poor quality. It's solid and the holes are well done so the beads should last forever, but the color! It doesn't have a clear purple color! In places it's downright grey in other places almost yellow, very quartzy. I love it. Both of my customers, the one that bought the original and the one that wanted something similar agreed that it's a lovely interesting look for amethyst.

The citrine is handcut, meaning it lacks the precision of a machine cut gem with it's sharp, perfect facets. A swift look at my shop will reveal a predilection for raw, earthy, primitive styles, so all this is within character for me.

It depends on what I'm going for, of course. If I really want sparkle I'll get Swarovski. But if I want a bead I can work with, I get what appeals.

There is a school of thought that suggests that the first beads in use by man were things that already had holes or things that were easily pierced, like seeds or feathers. That makes sense to me. It seems obvious. Children pick treasures up before they make their own.

At some point we graduated grandly to materials that took skill to work, but that would last longer.
Isn't the time and skill involved in creation of more value than the actual material?
Glass and clay are cheap, but put those humble materials in the hands of a master and look what treasures there are to be had!
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Some evidence of early man's fascination with beads has been found in Russia.
In Valerie Hector's The Art of Beadwork, she points out that the more than 10,000 mammoth ivory beads buried with these children would have taken more than 3 years worth of 8 hour days to create. That's a lot of love.
Surely that love adds to the value of a piece of art, even if the materials are common.
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I love, too, the unique. I love artist's beads. If you start with something no one else has, you'll end up with something no one else has. But then you can also start with the most typical of materials, think seed beads, and still end up with something no one else has. Thank God for that!

6 comments:

  1. This is a great post and a lot to think about. I buy what I like - sometimes later I don't know why I bought something, but at the time it struck my fancy. I most never buy with a finished piece in mind and I never shop from a shopping list for beads. I usually buy because I like the color or shape of beads – I am a sucker for blues and purple. I love to go to flea markets or antique shops and buy old jewelry to recycle in my pieces. Thinking about it I like texture and color rather than sparkle or shine. I also like misshapen or orphan beads that are looking for a home and looking to be included in a special piece where they can shine!

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  2. I love collecting materials of all kinds. I love beads and fabric and watercolors and paper. I could stay in my house for years just making things and never have to leave. ;)

    I also buy materials that appeal to me without a specific finished product in mind. When that inspiration strikes, I go digging through my stash and find that perfect piece just waiting to be incorporated into something wonderful.

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  3. I agree about the materials. I use what I like at the time. Differences make for unique items.

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  4. I, too, buy what appeals to me whether or not I have an immediate use for it. I'm also more into color, texture and design rather than whether it's grade A or sterling or whatever. I've always disliked those jewelry vendors at craft shows who pompously declare to anyone within hearing that they only use szwarovski crystals and sterling silver as if that by itself makes their designs better than anyone else's. I agree the love, skill and care that go into a piece is just as or more important than the materials.

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  5. I was recently given a gift certificate to a bead store for my birthday. I was amazed at how quickly that certificate went (I buy my seed beads on the internet). The things I bought were beautiful, but I just can't afford to use things like that in my work all the time, and I, too, prefer totally unique creations. The love with which I make my creations is what makes all the work worth it, and what makes it fun.

    I do use Swarovski crystals sometimes, as a nice way of finishing some of my beadwoven pieces off. I get them at fusionbeads.com - they're waaaaay cheaper there than anywhere else I've seen them. They average about ten cents each.

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  6. They do they do! But a gift certificate! What fun!

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