Maybe what you're looking for is not in bead magazines. They're so pedestrian anyway.

Hi there,

You posted this back in June, but for some reason it just showed up in my mailbox today? Queer, isn't it?

Vicki, what frustrates you about the artistic level of beadwork out there? Is it because you are a beadworker and seek out other beadworking artists for community or inspiration? I surmise from the two images you've posted that you're a seed bead worker. Sorry to say, but I don't get seed bead workers! I TOTALLY appreciate the work y'all do and I admire it, but I would go BONKERS working with ALL those itty, bitty, teeny, tiny seed beads. But then again, I'm prejudiced in that I make big, one of a kind, centerpiece beads that BIG, + size, Girrrrrls really like! The famous Ramona Solberg, a living treasure in the NW art jewelry community (HELL! She STARTED it 50 years ago!) says, "a little woman can wear big jewelry, but a big woman should NEVER wear little jewelry!" I couldn't agree more!

I've been out of the loop of the beadworld too, since I left Seattle and 10 years with the NW Bead Society and their show, as well as not doing the Portland Bead Society stuff any longer. I'm STUCK on the central Oregon Coast and haven't even been seeing the periodicals for the trade.

I'm curious if your question regarding beadwork as art is about "putting beads together" as an art form, or "making individual beads" as an art form? I feel like there are certainly lots of folks out there doing incredible, one of a kind, bead design and bead making. Of course I've spent 10 years participating in the Seattle and Portland bead communities, which I think is a real hot bed of INCREDIBLE bead artists--Cynthia Tubes in polymer, David Chatt in sculptural seed bead work, Larry Scott and ooodles of others in lampwork, and those are just the first three names off the top of my head......IMNSHO, I include myself in the category of doing incredible one of a kind bead design. But I work in stone and just make centerpiece beads, so I design INDIVIDUAL beads, occasional pairs, and rarely suites (yes, I would call it artistic ADD!).

There are probably less than a dozen folks in the US doing anything even similiar to my work. Half of those are part timers here in the Northwest who trained under Africa John (oh, add him to my list above too, or he'll be mad at me for not mentioning him!). I really like John's stone bead making, but his work is completely different than mine. He focuses on series of stringable, primitive looking, colorful stone beads in unusual material. On the other stone bead hand, my raison d'etre is to create stuff for the "beading" artist to take off from. People always ask me why I don't "finish" my work by making them into necklaces, or even just putting them just on cables, chains, cords and selling as individual pendants. I always reply that "I think that is YOUR job, take a piece of my work you like and take off from there."

Personally, my number one reason for doing this is I'd rather be cutting MORE stone centerpiece beads than turning a finished bead into "finished, completed, ready to sell jewelry." My second reason is I don't have the attention span to keep on working on "one piece." Third reason is I see any individual piece of my work as being "presentable" in a nearly infinite number of ways! Put it alone on a snake chain and it's fine. Or string it with any infinite combination of other beads made of stone, glass, polymer, wood, plastic, WHATEVER! Someday I'd like to make 5 or 10 beads of the same material in similiar size, shape, and appearance, give them to 5 or 10 different bead artists & jewelers, and give them a month to come up with their own finished piece. It would maybe be a cool thing to do for a charity auction or fundraiser. I'd get off on just seeing where people go with it.

I'm almost done with a batch of cool new stuff I started yesterday. I'll put some pics up after I finish them today. I've got some finished work in my eBay store, dvhdesigns. That is both store name and my userid.

Interesting topic. For me making beads is definitely art, as is beadwork. Beadwork is definitely a much more accessible are form than bead making. I would say as a beadmaker that the hobby-craft-artform of beadwork is expanding as people seek more individualized ways to express themselves, explore their creative selves, and adorn themselves, in our increasingly uniform and commodified, mass produced society.

.......could be worthwhile to move this discussion to beadworkers, where there is thrice the membership and folks actually are beadWORKERS. what do ya think? I'll leave that up to you since you started the thread. You could just copy and post your original inquiry there to restart the thread, I could do the same then. I think it's an interesting topic.

Regards,

Leo Sunshine-David V. Horste, dvhdesigns

P.S. My people were from Barberton, OH and my bro and sister-in-law are now in Bath & work in Cleveland! I should explore local bead shows there so that I could write off going back to visit...anything worthwhile happening there show-wise, either club or commercial?

I've been trying to incorporate beadwork into my "traditional" visual arts; painting and sculpture.
But I start with the idea of a painting or sculpture, first, then add the beadwork.

An example:
crustacean666.zoto.com/img/30...2e9.jpg
Higher detail:
crustacean666.zoto.com/img/80...2e9.jpg