curation, my way

I had a piece in a Treasury that made the front page again! Yay! Callooh Callay made the 10 Mile Hike Treasury and she did a beautiful job.

I've had two Treasuries make the front page and it's very cool to hear back from featured artists about the exposure they've gotten.

I love creating color themed Treasuries myself, but I can get pulled into themes like bugs, masquerades or things I think someone specific would like.

Treasuries are about visual impact. Each photo needs punch or it will take away from the entire thing.
Really fabulous Treasuries are created from really fabulous photos. It's in the details! The striking. The unusual. Or the pretty. I'll pick an average item with a spectacular picture over a spectacular item with an average picture. I prefer really tight shots, as a rule, with minimal background space-- something soft and unnoticeable, or something very artistic, or something bright-- anything so long as the whole shot is gorgeous. But there are always exceptions for backgrounds!

All white or all black backgrounds can be harder to work with, but they're not impossible. A really discernible watermark or words overlayed on the picture aren't usually attractive in Treasuries. Pictures with borders are tough. If it's got white space to make it squared, I just won't use it. And there are no exceptions for blurriness!
Each Treasury I make features things that I personally like. If I've got a question about if it's handmade or not, it's out, even if I like it. I don't feature supplies or vintage, because I want to share the art itself. If it doesn't look well made, it's out. If it's priced insanely low, I question whether I want to feature that artist.

I'm always hearting things for treasuries-- from searches, from other treasuries, the forums-- wherever I come across them. So I mostly mine my faves and I pick a lot of items from the Bead Art Originals and Etsy Beadweavers Teams because we put emphasis on promoting the teams via treasuries. To fill out I'll search by color combination (or theme) and arrange by price-- most expensive stuff up top. I get lots of great shots of luxe jewelry and fine art like that.

I try to be very texturally conscious and include on or two "wowza!" pieces-- even picking out an item or two and building the rest of the Treasury around it.

I try not to do all bead, or all painting treasuries but add a bit of this and that.

Treasuries can be a great way to get views and once in a great while a sale. It's a fun way to express yourself. It's a cool way to get some recognition. But at the end of the day it's just a short-lived collection of pixels and I don't get obsessive about them!

writing, of course

When I was a kid I wrote a ton of letters. Then in my teens I wanted to be a writer-- fiction actually. And off and on I've done what most of us have done. I've written poetry.




I dug this one up because in it, I reference my beady pursuits!



Dichroic Frit
by S. Kelley



If you were a bead, I’d string
you on a necklace of planets
clasped with quicksilver, flaunt
your cerulean and grass swirls
between Venusian bisque and Martian rust.
No one would watch your clouds spark prisms
or see your semi-molten core.

Shimmer

picturesque

The BAO Items of the week are up on the BAO blog! Stop by and check them out! I'm offering a 15$ gift certificate with my Hands Against Time cuff!

thebeadedlily was featured in 12 Treasuries this week, so sit back and enjoy a sampling from the talented curator's shops!

Frosty Leaves by JudiFitzPatrick 

icequeen by andeesigns

Queen of Hearts Royal Choker by lookingglasshouse

Aqua Radiance by MiscBeads

White Shotgun House Raku and Pearl Necklace by adornbyamysingley

cookies 'n cream peyote cuff by randomcreative

Zigzag Ndebele Cuff Bracelet by SmadarsTreasure

Corn Silk Snake Bracelet by gypsyeyesjewelry

Lava Swirl Shibori Top by dyedianadye

Dragon and St George - Papercut Shadowbox Art by FogAndThistle

Victoriana Scarflette by TickledPinkKnits

Crocheted Violet Flowers Wool Yarn Plastic Pearlized Vase by crochetbouquet

Have a greatg week!

blue in art

Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

by William Butler Yeats

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

ocean of storms cuff

the green project: a beading journal IV

12/30
Adding more colors is my favorite part!

12/31
Sistermine has taken to admiring it periodically. She likes the little polymer clay swirl that I made.

1/3
I'm playing way too much Tetris to get this done, but somehow, it keeps getting longer! I'm looking forward to the embellishment stage.

small town USPS blues

Cruelly enough I think banks and post offices should stay open all of the time. Now, it wasn't *so* awful when they closed for Christmas. *Everyone* closes for Christmas . . . or they should, because no one goes anywhere anyway.

It wasn't that bad when they closed for New Years. There was a nice big sign on the Post Office door for weeks that said "Closed for New Years". Ok. Wednesday and Thursday I just told everyone that their packages would go out Friday.

Soooooo-- I went to the Post Office today to find *another* sign plastered on the door. "Today we're closing at noon." Ok, then. Um, that info would have been useful, last week, Monday, or even Wednesday! But today? After you're closed?

So I tried the Post Office down the road. No sign, no clerk. Huh?

Finally, farther into town and in a different county, a larger Post Office was open, but the clerk there made me fill out customs forms that I shouldn't have had to fill out. *sulk*

Oh well. It's good that some things are worth the hassle!

hands of an artist

I woke up today and just spent a few minutes looking at my hands. Twisting them, turning them and watching the light come through or bounce over. Admiring the way the sun gleamed through my nail tips. Hands are amazing things.

Then as I was reading my blog role today, Nina at Ornamental caught my attention with two shots of her hands. She talks of shadow puppetry, which put me in mind of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, (I always associated strophe 11 with Pepe le Pew) strophe 46.

For in and out, above, about, below,
'Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show,
Play'd in a Box whose Candle is the Sun,
round which we Phantom Figures come and go.

That always makes me think of the Bard, of course.

On 1000 Markets I was thinking of changing my picture from a piece of jewelry to me. I don't know that I will. I've post pictures of me on this blog and on Flickr, but they're just snapshots-- nothing the least bit artistic or even very interesting. And if you're using your picture to advertise your art I think interesting is very important.

I did learn to operate the self-timer on my camera though, so I could shoot both of my hands instead of just the left one that is frequently seen modeling my work!

Not shockingly, I was at a loss about what to do with them . . . .