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Archive for February, 2023

HOW TO BEAD A ROGUE ELEPHANT The Musings Of A Jewelry Designer: Rogue Elephant

Posted by learntobead on February 23, 2023

I don’t mean to drag a poor Elephant by its tail, kicking and screaming, into our bead and jewelry world against its wishes. Nor do I perceive the elephant to be a threat, like you might see if you found an Elephant in the boudoir, or the fine China store. And I don’t want you to shut your eyes and pretend not to notice that this Elephant is here, standing shoulder to shoulder with every beader and jewelry maker around.

The Elephant is not a joke. And the fact that it is Rogue makes it more important than ever to figure out why it’s here, why it keeps glaring at me, whether on the far horizon or close enough to feel its breath. Why it teases me. Why it commands and monopolizes my attention. Why I have to catch it. Corral it. Adorn it as it charges across the countryside with jewelry which flows this way and that way and up and down and sideways and towards you and away from you and always looks perfect — a Rogue Elephant perfection.

So absurd. A Rogue Elephant among size #10 English beading needles, and Czech size 11/0 seed beads, and Austrian crystal beads. It seems so worldly, yet other-worldly, my Elephant. It’s not my muse. It’s not my Cassandra. It has no secret plan or strategy. It does not depend on its size to make its point. It does not hesitate to stomp and chomp and clomp because the beads before it are raku or glass or gemstone or crystal or metal or plastic. But a Rogue Elephant in the middle of my craft room forces upon me a completely different logic, so that I can make sense of it all.

And that’s what happened with me. Though not all at once. Struggling excitedly, often clueless, creative frustration, wonderous illusion — that’s how I would describe my over 35 plus years stringing beads, weaving beads, combining wire with beads, soldering silver with beads, entangling fibers with beads. Somewhere along the way I felt that Rogue Elephant staring at me from a distance. I moved closer to him. And all the applications and all the techniques and all the materials and all the making-selling-making-selling-making-selling began to cohere into something very real. Very meaningful. Integrally resonant. Purposeful. I discovered my Rogue Elephant and beaded him.

You Cannot Separate The Parts From The Design

You stare at a bead, and ask what it is. You put some thread on a needle, then the bead on the needle, and ask what to do. You stitch a few beads together, and wonder what will become of this. You create a necklace, and ask how it will be worn. And you stare at each bead again, and think where do all these feelings welling up within you come from — beauty, peace and calm, satisfaction, magic, appeal, a sensuousness and sexuality. Your brain and eye enter into this fantastic dance, a fugue of focusing, refocusing, gauging and re-gauging light, color, shadow, a shadow’s shadow, harmony, and discord.

You don’t just string beads on string and voila a necklace. There’s a lot involved here.

You have to buy beads, organize them, buy some extra parts, think about them, create with them, live with some failed creations, and go from there. If there wasn’t something special about how beads translate light into color, shade and shadow, then beading would simply be work. But it’s not. You have to put one next to another…..and then another. And when you put two beads next to each other, or one on top of the other, you’re doing God’s work. There’s nothing as spectacular as painting and sculpting with light.

This bead before me — why is it so enticing? Why do I beg it to let me be addicted? An object with a hole. How ridiculous its power. Some curving, some faceting, some coloration, some crevicing or texturing, some shadow, some bending of light. That’s all it is. Yet I am drawn to it in a slap-silly sort of way.

When I arrange many beads, the excitement explodes geometrically in my being. Two beads together are so much more than one. Four beads so much more than two. A hundred beads so much more than twenty-five times four. The pleasure is uncontainable. I feel so powerful. Creative. I can make more of what I have than with what I started.

And the assembling — another gift. String through the hole, pull, tug, align, and string through the hole, pull, tug, align, and string through the hole, pull, tug, align, and string through the hole, pull, tug, align. So meditative. Calming. How could beads be so stress-relieving, other-worldly-visiting, and creative-exciting at the same time?

Contemplation. To contemplate the bead is to enter the deep reaches of your mind where emotion is one with geometry, and geometry is one with art, and art is one with physics, and beads are one with self.

So these days, I confront my innermost feelings about beads. What I enjoy, and what I do not. What I have learned, and what I have not. What I want to achieve, and what I fear I cannot.

It’s not that, originally, I wanted to bead much of anything. I imagined what I wanted to create, and quickly found I couldn’t create it. This is when I sensed my Rogue Elephant somewhere out there. An abundance of creativity coupled with frustration and doubt sent out some kind of aroma attracting him. Unintentional. Unplanned. Probably not wanted at that time. An Elephant and a pheromonal response, nonetheless.

I had very specific ideas of what my beadwork should look like, how it should be put together, and how it should function. I did not want to be considered a painter who uses beads, or a sculptor who uses beads. I visualized myself more than an artist. I wanted to be considered a jewelry designer. A jewelry designer who legitimately uses beads, and not paints, and not clays or stone. A designer who makes things for people to wear, not merely admire as something hung on a wall, or resting on an easel, or sitting on a pedestal. This was my dilemma.

Alas, this was the basis of all my fears. Could jewelry designers intentionally design with light in a fundamentally different way than painters use paint, or sculptors use clay or stone? If I beaded a mannequin, I’d be painting or sculpting. But what if I beaded a Rogue Elephant? Something that moved. Something that reacted differently in different situations. Something that appeared in different contexts. Something that would have to look good and make my Rogue Elephant look good, no matter what. Would my beadwork stand up to some test of grammar, poetry, art, vision and even love?

I was tentative, at first, about beading, but that Rogue Elephant kept getting in my way. To tame it, to get rid of it, to make sense of it, I had to bead it.

But how? Should I? Could I? Would I? It’s huge! It’s fast! It’s ornery!

Should I make my Elephant some kind of necklace or anklet to wear? How about a little hat? I can tubular peyote around its trunk OK, but what about its ears? What do I do there? That mid-section is awfully rotund. Fringe would be pretty, hanging around some kind of blanket. But, alas, wouldn’t it just drag along the ground?

The main problem is, though, that this beast keeps moving. How am I ever going to get anything to look good, and stay looking good, on this Elephant if it keeps moving? After all, Rogue Elephants don’t Pose. They’re not “Vogue” Elephants. They’re “Rogue” Elephants. They’re too busy tossing their heads at everything else in sight.

If I use large beads, I can accomplish this feat faster, but not necessarily as elegantly. Should my Elephant be elegant? Sophisticated? Earthy? Adventurous? Bohemian? Fashion-aware or fashion-I-don’t-care?

I cannot get this Rogue Elephant out of my mind. The thoughts of beading it seem insurmountable, unconquerable. My eyes strain, my hands ache, my back stiffens at these thoughts. It will never get done. I won’t finish it. I won’t do it. I most certainly don’t have the time. I’ll try something easier, like a toy rabbit or a stick. A small stick. A very small, very straight, perfectly round stick. Surely not an Elephant, a Rogue one at that.

Calm down, I say to myself. Stop hyperventilating. Wipe those clammy palms. Don’t let the task before you scare you before you even start.

I grit my teeth. I stand up straight. I squeeze my hands into a fist. I hold my fisted-hands stiffly and tightly against my right and left sides. I lift my chin up ever-so-slightly until my eyes meet his. I stare that Rogue Elephant right into the face for those few seconds it stands in my field of vision. I will bead you. I will bead you. I will bead you. I set my mantra going. I try to focus on my inner self. I reach way back to grab my inner being, setting its life force and motivation on track to complete this awesome task.

I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead.

Glue. Thank God someone invented glue. I could corner that Elephant, pour buckets of glue on him, and use a leaf blower to blow a pile of beads right onto that beast. They’ll stick. I’ll be done. Whatever happens, happens. That’s what I’ll do.

But I wouldn’t be happy. And that Elephant would probably want to scratch and itch. Beads would pop off. The glue would yellow. That Elephant wouldn’t be able to walk with any sense of style or grace. It might trip. It would probably fall down, actually. And not be able to get up. Pitiful. It would lose its Rogue-ness. It’s essence of being. I would tame it, yet more than humble it. Where’s the excitement? Glue just won’t do.

I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead.

How about Mardi Gras beads? These beads, already ironed into place onto a string, could be wrapped around and around and around. Purple Iris’s. Topaz AB’s. Olivine Lusters. They’d be colorful. They’d shine. They’d sparkle. It would be like lassoing a steer — over and over again. I don’t know if my Elephant would stand still for that. Perhaps I could corral him. I could tape one end of the bead string to the tail. Then go around and around and around his body until I reached the other end of the trunk. I’d parade the Elephant in front of all the other Elephants out there, and they’d all want to look as dapper. Everyone the Elephant meets, in fact, will want to be wrapped in bead-ropes. How easy, how simple, how divine.

Once I let my Elephant out of the corral, however, I fear the bead-ropes will reposition themselves and slip off and look sloppy. My Elephant would have to lose its Rogue-ness to pull off this look. My Elephant would have to stand still and pose. I don’t think my Elephant would stand for that. In fact, I know he wouldn’t. The jungle is not a circus, and the banks of the jungle watering hole do not provide a level pedestal for such an event. My elephant would be perplexed. And the result would not be satisfactory beadwork. He’d be off in an instant. This would be a mess — a big Mardi Gras mess. Only sanitation workers in New Orleans getting paid much overtime would have any determined appreciation.

I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead.

Just what is the recipe then? Take needle and thread, add beads, mix lightly, separate whites and darks, bake, turn once, and voila? Do I have to have a recipe? A determined strategy? A plan of action? Can’t I just bead it? Do I have to think about how to get the beadwork to stay in place? Look good? Look great? Must the Elephant still be able to run with the beadwork on? If the Elephant runs, must the beadwork stay on? And still look good? Oh, dear, my head is beginning to hurt. I don’t know if I can do all this. And be satisfied.

And the poor Elephant. It looks at me one more time. It’s green eyes dart on me. Challenging me. Daring me. Perhaps fearing me and my determination. Perhaps pondering the why’s and wherefores of my insistence that he be beaded — in totality, Rogue-ness and all. The Elephant turns its head, touching his long torso from shoulder to belly with his trunk. His tusks shift uncomfortably. I’m sure the Elephant is wondering How! — How would the beads go on? How would they be arranged? How could he continue to walk and drink and eat and talk? How would the other Elephants react? How could anyone ever begin to bead a Rogue Elephant?

My Elephant looks at me one more time — staring directly into my eyes. It’s more than a glance. He stares, as if to say, it can’t be done. My Elephant lifts its trunk, extends its ears, snorts, shakes its tail, turns and darts away toward the horizon.

I have only one regret from that time. I assumed my Elephant had no desires. Only my desires which was to adorn him. But, Elephants are smart. They have feelings. They think about things. They do have desires. And these should influence what I do.

But that chant in my head, an ear worm, I can’t let it go.

I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead.

I follow him.

It Has Been A Journey

I wanted to be great all at once. It didn’t work out that way. The first three years, I was only into it for the money. Selling jewelry is always a high. Began doing a lot of repairs and getting interested in things from a more academic perspective — why things broke and why things didn’t. Besides bead stringing, I began to learn wire wrapping, then silver smithing, and it was at that point, when I was creating sterling silver pieces through fabrication and soldering that I began to hear and smell and feel that Rogue Elephant, still forever in the distance.

I created a shopping lady brooch. A mix of sterling and brass. Her legs moved. In one hand, I made a shopping bag, which moved. Some layering, some riveting.

Then, my Maori mask brooch. I wanted to experiment using hard, medium and easy solder in the same piece. I created 3 layers. I cut out different parts of each sheet of silver to create an overlay of positive and negatives spaces. I wanted to duplicate the face tattoo, and give it a lot of dimensionality. I hammered the piece to create a concave curve. Then soldered the pin back to it. I created what felt like a true piece of art.

I came late to bead weaving. I only learned the various bead weaving stitches because I was creating a school where that would be one of the foci. Such small beads. Vowed never to use size 15/0 seed beads — so tiny. [Of course, I couldn’t keep that vow.] I had difficulty finding instructors willing to teach from what I call the Design Perspective. Required too much thinking. Too much work. As I was told often, they could make just as much money teaching a step-by-step approach than the way I wanted them to teach. So, I took on the responsibility for teaching these classes myself. Found out I loved bead weaving.

Now when I was in about year 11 of my journey, I found design. I felt compelled to find and bead and bejewel my Rogue Elephant. I wanted to find / bead / bejewel my bead strung pieces, my wire wrapped pieces, my metal fabricated pieces, and my bead woven pieces. Everything.

My journey unfolded in stages.

Contemplation

This is my story. A fable for all jewelry artists who aspire to become one with Design. How to Bead a Rogue Elephant is a collection of personal perspectives and experiences on the issues and inspirations that drove me, and that drive other bead and jewelry-making artists in their designs.

Design is the operative word here. A Rogue Elephant does not present an obstacle, nor create any opportunities, for the jewelry designer, unless that designer understands, follows through and is committed to Jewelry as an Art Form, and realizes that jewelry is art only as it is worn.

Jewelry as art isn’t a happenstance. It is made up of a lot of different kinds of parts. These must be strategically and thoughtfully brought together. They are brought together as a kind of construction project. The results of this project must be beautiful and appealing. They must be functional and wearable. The result should be more appealing and more satisfying and more better in every way than its parts. And this all comes about through design. Jewelry must be designed. And designed it is.

Rogue Elephants are big, and jewelry design is a big task. Rogue Elephants move in unpredictable, yet forceful ways. And jewelry must be designed with movement in mind. Rogue Elephants come with a surface scape, texture and environment, against which the jewelry must look good. And again, good jewelry emerges primarily from the design perspective and the control of the bead, and all the other incumbent parts by the jewelry artist.
And as I mentioned before, I learned this over time, Rogue Elephants are not stupid. They want something from you in return for letting you bead them. They have desires. They seek value, and wander off when they think there is none. The jewelry designer cannot ignore all this. Or substitute their own values for his.

Most beaders and jewelry makers don’t pursue their Rogue Elephants. They don’t even think about getting into the hunt. They never get to the point where they can fully answer the question: Why some pieces of their jewelry get good attention, and others do not? And they don’t think about this question. They have fun making things. They match outfits. They give gifts. They sell a few pieces. They use pretty beads and other components. And sometimes they get compliments. Other times they do not.

Also, they don’t necessarily know what to do with the pieces they are playing with. What are they made of? What happens to them over time? Should they be included within the same piece of jewelry? What should they be strung on? Will anyone appreciate the materials? Are the materials appropriate for the technique? What happens when the shade and positioning of the light source changes? If necessary, what can be substituted for some pieces preferred, but not found?

These jewelry makers don’t control these pieces, or the process of combining them. They follow patterns and instructions. And do these again. And again and again. Their artistic goals are to complete the steps and end up with something. They might stick to one or a few techniques they feel comfortable with. There is an unfamiliarity with the bead –What is it? Where did it come from? What makes it special as a medium of art and light and shadow? How does it relate to other beads or clasps or stringing materials or jewelry findings? When they look at the bead, what do they see? Will the wearer and viewer experience the same sense and sensibility? In order to bead their Rogue Elephant, they will have to know how to leverage the strengths of the materials they are using and the strengths of the techniques they want to employ, and minimize any weaknesses.

Luckily, beading and jewelry making for many jewelry designers is an evolving obsession. It’s not something learned all at once. This obsession leads them to contemplate the bead and its use. The bead and its use in art. The bead and its use in jewelry. The bead and its use in design. The bead and its relationship to the designer’s studio. Beads are addictive. Their addictiveness, hopefully, eventually leads the beader or jewelry maker to seek out that Rogue Elephant that haunts them along the distant horizon. They know they want to bead it. They’re not sure how. But they steer themselves along the pathway to find out. This pathway isn’t particularly straight, level or passable. But it’s a pathway nonetheless. And the ensuing possibilities for learning and growing as an artist and designer along the way reap many worthwhile and satisfying rewards.

They may not have their Rogue Elephant on their radar screen. Yet. Yet, is the operative word here.

PLAY

The first step in this journey is to figure out how to get started with beads and jewelry making. You need supplies. You need workspaces and storage strategies and understanding how to get everything organized. You need to anticipate bead spills and many unfinished projects. You need to learn to plan your pieces. You need to get a handle on the beads (and all the other pieces), and how to use them.

DABBLING

Whatever the reason, most beaders and jewelry makers don’t get past PLAY. They are content following patterns and making lots of pieces, according to the step-by-step instructions in these patterns. They might fear testing themselves against broader rules of artistic expression. They might not want to expend the mental and physical energy it takes to get into design. They just want to have fun. And if they never notice that Rogue Elephant hugging the horizon, that’s fine with them.

At some point, however, some beaders and jewelry makers will want to start educating themselves to get a little below the surface. That is always my hope. Rather than mechanically following a set of steps, or randomly assembling things bead by bead, you want to know more about what is really going on. How do I hold my piece to work it? How do I manage my thread tension? How do I select colors? What clasp might work best? If you find yourself at this point, PLAY is not enough. You need to start tapping more into your inner, creative self and capabilities.

CREATE

For those beaders and jewelry makers for whom the Rogue Elephant is very disturbing, no matter how far away he may be, there are these wonderfully exciting, sensually terrific, incredibly fulfilling things that you find as you try to bead your Rogue Elephant, ear, trunk, feet, bodice and all.

You learn to play with and dabble with and create arrangements and control the interplay of light and shadow, texture and pattern, dimensionality and perspective, strategy and technique, form and function, structure and purpose. You begin sharing your designs with friends and strangers, perhaps even teaching classes about how to make your favorite project, or do your preferred technique. You might also create a small business for yourself and sell your pieces. Your sense of artistry, your business acumen, your developing design perspective — you need all this, if you are to have any chance of catching up with your Rogue Elephant, let alone beading him.

You question things about the jewelry you make. What is jewelry? What do I want it to express? What do I want it to do? How is the design of jewelry related to perceptions, cognitions, assumptions, values, and desires? Why do people admire it? Wear it? Collect it? Pay for it?

As you begin to evolve beyond the simple craft perspective to one of artistry and then design, you begin developing your creative soft and hard skills.

SAFARI

As your jewelry pieces become more the result of your design intuition and acuity, you begin to wonder how other artists capture, be-jewel, and release their own Rogue Elephants. How did they get started? What was their inspiration? What motivated them to delve into beading, stick with it, and take it to the next level? Do they make their pieces for show or for sale?

You begin to find your passion. This passion sustains you over however long it takes you make any piece of jewelry. You begin to recognize how some pieces of beadwork and jewelry are merely craft, and others are art. You get frustrated with beautiful pieces that are unwearable and fashionable pieces that lack durability and pieces that sell that are poorly constructed. You see many good ideas, some well-executed, but many not.

As you compare yourself as Designer to other jewelry designers all over the world, this is partly a personal adventure as you self-experience your intellectual growth as a designer. And it is partly an adventure of evaluating how well other designers have succeeded in this same quest, as well. You find there are many quests and many pathways. Nothing is perfect. Nothing is preset. There are no social norms or cultural rules you have to conform to, if you don’t want to. For the most part, you are on your own.

One very revealing pathway is following how designers contemporize traditional designs. Still another follows the designer who revives vintage styles. Or the pathway that finds the artist elevating fringe, edging, strap, bail and surface embellishment to the same level of art as the centerpiece. And yet another pathway which looks at multimedia beadwork, and how designers seek to maintain the integrity of each medium within the same piece. You might explore that pathway which involves collaboration.

LITERACY

As you begin to articulate what works and does not work in various pieces in terms of form, structure, art theory, relationships to the body, relationships to psychological and cultural and sociological constructs, you complete your evolution as a jewelry designer. You add a body of design theory and practice to your already honed skills in art, color, bead-stringing, bead-weaving, fabrication and wire working. You create for yourself a Designer’s Tool Box — a set of hard and soft skills and strategies for conquering the unknown, the problematic, and the unfamiliar. You become fluent in design. Flexible in your approach. Original in that you are able to distinguish your works from those of others. You set yourself clearly on the path to find and bead your Rogue Elephant.

FULFILLMENT

Your adventure along this pathway towards design — your success at beading your Rogue Elephant — is very fulfilling. Whether you walk, run, skip or crawl or some mix of the above, it’s a pathway worth following. You’ve learned to transcend the physicality and limitations of your workplace, tools and supplies. You’ve learned to multi-task and organize and construct your project as if you were architecting or engineering a bridge. You have discovered how to dress and present yourself for success, including strategies for self-promotion. You have learned to anticipate how your various audiences — wearer, viewer, buyer, exhibitor, collector, student, teacher, colleague — will critically determine whether your piece feels finished and successful. You get experience incorporating all this knowledge into how you organize and manage your design process, its plan, its rhythm, its operation.

You’re a Designer. You have learned to present yourself and promote yourself as a Jewelry Designer. You’ve evolved as a Beader and Jewelry-Designer and are feeling a true satisfaction.

____________________________________

CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

This guidebook is a must-have for anyone serious about making money selling jewelry. I focus on straightforward, workable strategies for integrating business practices with the creative design process. These strategies make balancing your creative self with your productive self easier and more fluid.

Based both on the creation and development of my own jewelry design business, as well as teaching countless students over the past 35+ years about business and craft, I address what should be some of your key concerns and uncertainties. I help you plan your road map.

Whether you are a hobbyist or a self-supporting business, success as a jewelry designer involves many things to think about, know and do. I share with you the kinds of things it takes to start your own jewelry business, run it, anticipate risks and rewards, and lead it to a level of success you feel is right for you, including

· Getting Started: Naming business, identifying resources, protecting intellectual property

· Financial Management: basic accounting, break even analysis, understanding risk-reward-return on investment, inventory management

· Product Development: identifying target market, specifying product attributes, developing jewelry line, production, distribution, pricing, launching

· Marketing, Promoting, Branding: competitor analysis, developing message, establishing emotional connections to your products, social media marketing

· Selling: linking product to buyer among many venues, such as store, department store, online, trunk show, home show, trade show, sales reps and showrooms, catalogs, TV shopping, galleries, advertising, cold calling, making the pitch

· Resiliency: building business, professional and psychological resiliency

· Professional Responsibilities: preparing artist statement, portfolio, look book, resume, biographical sketch, profile, FAQ, self-care

548pp.

Kindle, Print, Epub

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer reinterprets how to apply techniques and modify art theories from the Jewelry Designer’s perspective. To go beyond craft, the jewelry designer needs to become literate in this discipline called Jewelry Design. Literacy means understanding how to answer the question: Why do some pieces of jewelry draw your attention, and others do not? How to develop the authentic, creative self, someone who is fluent, flexible and original. How to gain the necessary design skills and be able to apply them, whether the situation is familiar or not.

588pp, many images and diagrams Ebook , Kindle or Print formats

The Jewelry Journey Podcast
“Building Jewelry That Works: Why Jewelry Design Is Like Architecture”
Podcast, Part 1
Podcast, Part 2

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

I developed a nontraditional technique which does not use tools because I found tools get in the way of tying good and well-positioned knots. I decided to bring two cords through the bead to minimize any negative effects resulting from the pearl rotating around the cord. I only have you glue one knot in the piece. I use a simple overhand knot which is easily centered. I developed a rule for choosing the thickness of your bead cord. I lay out different steps for starting and ending a piece, based on how you want to attach the piece to your clasp assembly.

184pp, many images and diagrams Ebook, Kindle or Print

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS:16 Lessons I Learned Doing Craft Shows

In this book, I discuss 16 lessons I learned, Including How To (1) Find, Evaluate and Select Craft Shows Right for You, (2) Determine a Set of Realistic Goals, (3) Compute a Simple Break-Even Analysis, (4) Develop Your Applications and Apply in the Smartest Ways, (5) Understand How Much Inventory to Bring, (6) Set Up and Present Both Yourself and Your Wares, (7) Best Promote and Operate Your Craft Show Business before, during and after the show.

198pp, many images and diagrams, Ebook, Kindle or Print

___________________________________________

Posted in Art or Craft?, art theory, bead stringing, bead weaving, beads, beadwork, craft shows, creativity, design theory, design thinking, jewelry design, jewelry making, Learn To Bead, pearl knotting, professional development, Stitch 'n Bitch, wire and metal | Leave a Comment »

BASICS OF BEAD STRINGING AND ATTACHING CLASPS: The Lariat

Posted by learntobead on February 23, 2023

LARIATS

Materials needed:
.014”/.015” or .018”/.019” cable wire
enough of a mix of seed beads and Czech glass beads (3mm — 6mm in size) to

cover 36” of cable wire
crimp beads
horseshoe wire protectors
crimp covers
end caps or bead caps or cones (2 of them)
head pins (2 of them)
2 decorative beads, perhaps teardrop shaped, about 18mm in size

Tools needed:
crimping pliers
chain nose pliers
flat nose pliers
scissors
side cutters or flush cutters
bead board
ruler
paper
pencil

work surface

A lariat is a long, usually beaded, string, which a person wraps around their neck,
and lets the tails hang.

The tails can be tied in a loose overhand knot together.

Or one tail may have a large loop or ring or donut, through which the other tail slips into.

Or the lariat can be wrapped around the neck once or twice, and the tails allowed to dangle.

With some designs, the part of the lariat which becomes the focal point, can be varied.

Lariats may be all beaded, partially beaded, or not beaded at all.

In fact, this versatility is the popularity of the lariat. You can create many different silhouettes. And you do not have to bother with a clasp.

And you can make a multi-strand lariat, if you want. The design choices are endless.

DESIGN ISSUES

The design issues associated with the lariat include:

1. Stringing material

2. Length

3. Whether to use a fixed connection point

4. Silhouette flexibility

5. Finishing off the ends

6. Maintaining the tension on your beads, while allowing sufficient ease

STRINGING MATERIAL

Many different types of stringing materials will work well with lariats.

You can use:

· Needle and thread.

· Cable wire

· Bead cord

· Leather or waxed cotton

· Leather lace

· Chain

· Even fabric or ribbon

LENGTH

Usually, lariats are 30 inches or longer.

They can be a lot longer, even 72” long.

I suggest visualizing how you see the lariat worn. Take a string and create the silhouette on your body, then measure the length OF THE STRING.

WHETHER THERE IS A FIXED POINT OF CONNECTION, SUCH AS A LOOP OR RING OR DONUT ON ONE SIDE

This is a personal design choice.

Many lariats do not have fixed points of connection.

One option is to fold the lariat in half, and use the bend as the point of connection, and slip the two legs through the bend.

Another option is to tie a loose overhand knot with the two legs.

Still another option is to wrap it around the neck, and, let the legs dangle.

If you have a point of connection on one side, then you need to be sure that the other tail will be able to slip through the opening.

SILHOUETTE FLEXIBILITY

As a designer, you need to anticipate the various ways your design may be worn.

Then ask yourself:

· Will my design be long enough to accommodate the various ways i visualize it getting worn?

· Is the arrangement of beads, given the various silhouettes, optimal?

· Given the various silhouettes, will the lariat drape well and move in place with the person as the person moves?

HOW TO FINISH OFF THE ENDS

You may want a simple pendant drop or a lot of fringe or something in between.

There are many different jewelry findings — particularly end pieces — which will allow you to accommodate your design goals.

MAINTAINING THE TENSION ON YOUR BEADS, WHILE ALLOWING SUFFICIENT EASE

You are working with a long string of beads.

Before you finish off that second end, you want to make sure you have a good tension on your beads so that you don’t have any stringing material showing in the final piece. Yet, at the same time, retain an ease in flexibility and drape.

Towards this end, before you finish off the second side, coil your lariat into about an 6–7” diameter circle. This will give you a good sense about ease. If the lariat coils easily and doesn’t uncoil when you let go of it, then your ease and flexibility is good.

Then, uncoil, and see if there is still slack you need to get rid of by pushing the beads closer together. If there is slack, you’ll notice a lot of the stringing material showing.

If you need to tighten the tension, do so, then coil again, so that you are finding that optimum tension and ease.

____________________________________

CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

· Getting Started: Naming business, identifying resources, protecting intellectual property

· Financial Management: basic accounting, break even analysis, understanding risk-reward-return on investment, inventory management

· Product Development: identifying target market, specifying product attributes, developing jewelry line, production, distribution, pricing, launching

· Marketing, Promoting, Branding: competitor analysis, developing message, establishing emotional connections to your products, social media marketing

· Resiliency: building business, professional and psychological resiliency

· Professional Responsibilities: preparing artist statement, portfolio, look book, resume, biographical sketch, profile, FAQ, self-care

548pp.

Kindle, Print, Epub

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

588pp, many images and diagrams Ebook , Kindle or Print formats

The Jewelry Journey Podcast
“Building Jewelry That Works: Why Jewelry Design Is Like Architecture”
Podcast, Part 1
Podcast, Part 2

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

184pp, many images and diagrams Ebook, Kindle or Print

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS:16 Lessons I Learned Doing Craft Shows

198pp, many images and diagrams, Ebook, Kindle or Print

___________________________________________

Posted in Art or Craft?, bead stringing, bead weaving, beads, beadwork, craft shows, design management, design thinking, jewelry design, jewelry making, Learn To Bead, pearl knotting, Stitch 'n Bitch, wire and metal | Tagged: bead stringing, lariat, necklaces | Leave a Comment »

HOW TO BEAD A ROGUE ELEPHANT The Musings Of A Jewelry Designer: Morality

Posted by learntobead on February 21, 2023

“You Motherf — — -, you Motherf — — -, “ he shouted at her. One curse word after another.

There we were — three of us — crammed into a small office. Seated on three seats in front of a desk, knees nearly touching. The director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Division, in Atlanta, Georgia, was particularly angry at our 9:00 am meeting that morning. He unloaded on my boss. It was relentless. After about 15 minutes of this, I cut in and said that where I’m from, this kind of language is very inappropriate. He told me to Shut Up!, and continued his barrage.

In the early 1980s, I was a policy planner for the Tennessee Department of Health and Environment. One of my responsibilities was to carry out a CDC grant to the Department. The purpose of this grant was to interrelate all the Department’s health data with its environmental data, and determine if living near a toxic waste site (Superfund site) was hazardous to your health. Tall order, bad data, weak data, microscopic parts per billion data. Highly unlikely that any scientific statistical analysis could show any relationship. But I had some success. In two parts of the state — Clinton, TN outside Oak Ridge, and New Johnsonville and Waverly, TN on the western leg of the Tennessee River.

The issues for us at that time were preventing unnecessary severe illness and death. The question: should our initial findings trigger either state or federal action to investigate these areas in more detail. To me, this was a moral question. To the federal representatives, not so much so.

Jewelry designing, on the surface, seems so divorced from moral quandaries. Spending time selecting and arranging beautiful things, well, we shouldn’t have to think about ethics. Ethics shouldn’t contaminate what we do. And, yet.

Design is choice. The choices could be about colors. Or materials. Or techniques and how they should be implemented. Choices might focus on silhouette or customer type or customer desires. Choices might be made to be sensitive to a certain situation or context.

Making choices means that you pick something over something else. The choices made could be rational, meaning that you have weighed the options, and one is factually better than any alternative. The choices could be moral, meaning that the choice will unquestionably and without any doubt or circumstance serve the designer and the wearer or buyer more appropriately than any other choice and without harm. The choice could be ethical, meaning that the choice will enhance any moral judgement about whatever transpires. The choice could be ethical from a business sense, meaning that the choice results in the designer going away happy and the wearer or buyer going away happy, as long as no one gets harmed, whether they actually were served better, or not.

Because designing jewelry involves making choices about materials, techniques, and how the pieces are introduced publicly, design poses, by its very nature, moral, ethical and business ethical judgments. That’s the rub. Even surrounded by extreme beauty and rainbows of color and sensual objects, I have found that moral dilemmas pop up often, even in my bead store, and even in situations involving my jewelry.

Sometimes, morality with design is simple and straightforward. I make a custom piece for someone. Say, the piece breaks where the beadwork is connected to the clasp. Who is responsible for fixing it? With each custom piece I make, the client gets a Certificate of Authenticity. On the Certificate, it states that repairs not due to negligence on the client’s part will be repaired up until 6 months after purchase at my expense. After that that point, it is the client’s responsibility to pay for repairs.

We do a lot of repair work. On one repair, for example, the bracelet was created using a technique called micro-macrame. The original artist was extremely talented, using very thin bead cord, almost like threads, with very tight, closely placed knots. The bracelet was made with 8 separate cords, all of which had to be brought down through 2mm beads and encased in macrame knots. The bracelet had broken and needed to be redone from one end to the other. The repair eventually required 8 hours to complete. Expensive for the customer. Before I began the repair, I mapped out what needed to be done. I reviewed this with the customer. I very clearly told the customer that my talent was noticeably less-than that of the original artist. She approved my going ahead with the repair anyway.

Morality and ethics come up in small and large ways in the jewelry design business. But, usually with less drama than I experienced at the CDC and Tennessee Department of Health and Environment, but with drama and concerns nonetheless.

The CDC contract with Tennessee specified that a type of statistical analysis called regression analysis be done. I had been hired during the second year of the contract. I knew from the start that regression analysis — a type of parametric statistic — would be inadequate to the task. It is not robust enough and powerful enough to analyze bad, very small numbers data. Environmental data usually include things like parts per billion. That’s a small number.

Instead, I substituted a nonparametric statistic, and one that I had developed a few years earlier, for the analysis. Using a mapping program, I divided the state of Tennessee into roughly 7 x 7 mile squares. I allocated the health data and environmental data to each square. Then I ran my nonparametric statistic, I had called this ridit analysis, on the data. Nonparametric statistics are perfect for bad, small numbers data. They do not establish whether there is a strong correlation between variables. They identify the chances something weird is happening and deserves more attention.

I found something. I thought that was good and would be well-received. But obviously not.

I am just a bad boy. I keep pointing out these moral issues because they bother me, and I get frustrated when they don’t bother other people — at the least, bother them enough to result in some changes in behaviors and procedures.

Many things have happened in my jewelry design world. I always get concerned when materials used or techniques used in creating any piece of jewelry are somehow misrepresented in terms of value, durability or price.

For example, this situation happens more than you would think. On one occasion, the first thing the customer said as she laid out all the beads and findings on the counter in my shop: I am a jewelry designer from New York. There in a pile on the counter were Austrian crystal beads and ones which were metalized plastic. There were sterling silver, silver plated and stainless steel beads and findings. Low end tiger tail wire. Some elastic string. I only do higher end, she reassured me, and I already have crimp beads I purchased from Michael’s.

I started to point out some inconsistences: metalized plastic, tiger tail and elastic string are not durable products. Sterling will stay silver, silver plated will not. Some crimp beads are manufactured differently than others. Crimp beads cut right through tiger tail wire and elastic string. The plating on metalized plastic chips off after little wear. I was trying to be helpful. But she would not have any of it. She almost cupped my mouth to silence me. I am a jewelry designer from New York, she repeated. I know all this stuff, probably better than you.

I make a quarterly trip to Michael’s to see what they are selling. They change out their lines about every three months, and it’s important to me to know what they are selling. At one point, they were selling a brand of plated findings. On the package label, it said “S. Silver.” It didn’t say sterling silver, but their customers might assume as much. Another time, they had packages of 2” head pins at 10 cents each. The label said .925, indicating that these were sterling silver. A foot of raw sterling silver at that time sold for $6.00. Two inch head pins in my own store were selling for $2.25. How did Michael’s get down to 10 cents?

On a visit to Claire’s at the mall, there was a rack of earrings. In English, the sign said “sterling silver.” In Spanish, the sign said “silver plated”. The earrings were $5.99 a pair.

A competitor of mine was selling Greek raku-fired clay beads as gemstones. He had a whole routine worked out. He told customers these needed to be weighed and sold by the gram. The result: something that should have sold for about $1.00 ended up costing the customer $25.00.

Michael’s sells a beading needle kit with a needle threader in it. Beading thread is like a typewriter ribbon — flat — and the eye of a beading needle is a rectangular slit. You can get the needle threader into the eye, but after you thread your thread through the threader, it won’t pull back through. It will never pull back through. I can just picture how many of their customers struggle with pulling the thread back through, then give up, and never take up this wonderful bead weaving and jewelry making craft again.

If you go on Etsy or Ebay, or many places online, you will see a lot of turquoise beads for sale. In most cases, they are not turquoise. They are either magnesite or howlite dyed turquoise. But none of them say that. People think they are buying real turquoise.

One supplier of mine sold chasing hammers, with a metal head stapled with only one staple to a wooden handle. As soon as you tried to hammer something, the head flew off the handle. I called this to the attention of the supplier. The supplier never fixed the problem and to this day, sells the same, dangerous chasing hammer.

And I can go on and on.

But, I want to go back to the CDC, Tennessee and the early 1980s. The science folks at this division of the CDC misrepresented regression analysis as the right method to use. They surely knew it was not. Why were they so resistant to changing the method to something they surely knew would be better in this situation?

Clinton, Tennessee is down wind and down river from Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge is where there is a lot of radioactive waste. It is the home of a federal facility that has dealt with, for decades, radioactive materials. The cancer rate in Clinton was hundreds of times that of the state average. A few of us took a trip to Oak Ridge.

It turns out that when you mix federal waste with other waste, all of it is considered federal waste. Federal waste is regulated by the US Department of Energy. Local waste haulers were mixing non-federal waste with federal waste, then driving it to the river’s edge and dumping it. If it were all non-federal waste, this would have been illegal in Tennessee. Dumping in the river, at least at that time, was not prevented by USDE regulations and procedures. As federal waste, Tennessee could do nothing but watch. As we did. We watched near the river’s edge as an unending line of waste trucks were lined up waiting to dump their waste into the river. We felt our options for any further investigation and mitigation were limited.

In New Johnsonville and Waverly, the adverse maternal pregnancy outcomes were 300 times the state average. These included miscarriages, still births, premature births and maternal deaths. It could have been a lousy doctor effect in these largely rural areas. Or something else. There was a Superfund toxic waste site next to the river in New Johnsonville. Toxic waste could have been contaminating the water supply.

We sent a report to the CDC, and in two days, two project officers rushed to meet with us in Nashville. In a large conference room, we all sat at the end of a well-worn wooden table. I was about to explain what we had found and propose some options for further investigation. Before I could get a few words out, the lead project office said stop what we were doing. Return to regression analysis. Cover up anything we had found to date. Yes, he used the words, Cover Up. They left immediately to return to Atlanta. I told my boss that You can’t use the words cover up and professional in the same sentence. Yes you can, she retorted.

And, if that wasn’t awkward and unpleasant enough, the director of the Environmental Division of the CDC demanded our immediate presence in Atlanta.

One of my competitors, another bead shop in Nashville, a husband and wife team, does a lot of things which, to me, are morally wrong and unethical, but maybe not from a business ethics standpoint. I don’t know. But this competitor always gives me a lot of things to marvel at and talk about.

I had arranged a precious metal clay certification workshop at my store. The instructor lived in Wichita, Kansas. The wife drove from Nashville to Wichita and knocked on this instructor’s home door. She said she was driving through and had a lot of Czech glass beads for sale. Would the instructor like to look at her stuff? The instructor let her in.

Rather than show any Czech glass beads, the wife immediately went into influence and persuasion mode. She explained, quite untruthfully, how their shop was much more sophisticated than ours, had a better student clientele, and, in almost demanding terms, told the instructor that the certification workshop should be held there. The instructor ushered her out the door.

On another occasion, I was holding a bead weaving workshop in the store at the end of June one year. The instructor was from California. A few weeks before the workshop date, the husband from my competition phoned her. He asked her for her flight information. He told her he would pick her up at the airport. Of course she found that odd, and declined his invitation. He sent out a notice to his customer list announcing her workshop at his shop. Even though the workshop was at my shop. And the weekend of the workshop, he parked his car in the lot outside my shop. He kept his headlights on. It seemed like he was there to take names. Some of the participants even went out to his car to say Hello. Creepy.

Whatever.

My boss and I drove down to Atlanta. At 9am, we found ourselves in the office of the Director. And his tirade began immediately. It lasted almost 30 minutes, at which point, we were ushered into a conference room.

On one side of the table sat several CDC staff members and a transcriber. My boss and I sat on the other side. They ordered us to change the methodology to regression.

I said, No. Regression is not sufficient, given the study they were paying us to do. Look at how much we already uncovered using my methodology.

Regression.

No.

Regression.

No.

The lead project office stood up and went to the blackboard. He wrote out the regression formula and sat down.

I went up to the blackboard. I erased the regression formula and wrote the ridit formula. I sat down.

The project officer was back up at the blackboard, and re-wrote the regression formula.

I got up again.

This went on until 12:00 pm noon. We took a break for lunch.

In the world of the absurd, lunch was absurd. One of the most absurd things I’ve ever been a part of.

We all went out to lunch together, as if we were buddy-buddy colleagues. We sat around a large round table. The talk was friendly and covered several topics, none of which related to this project-in-question or any health care or environmental topic. Lunch lasted 1 hour.

Back to the CDC offices. And the conference room. Lunch a distant, forgettable memory. Until 4:00pm, it was the same. Project officer up to the board, then back down. And me back to the board, then back down.

Meeting over. No words exchanged. My boss and I got back in her car and headed to Nashville.

Nothing got said. Nothing ever gets said. Whatever transpired gets ignored. Downgraded. Diminished in importance.

That was true in Atlanta, and that is very true in jewelry world.

Swarovski sells crystal beads made in Austria, and allows crystal beads made in China to carry the same Swarovski label. But there are obvious quality differences: not as bright, more misshapen pieces in a package, holes drilled off-center, finishes which should be permanent flaking off to the touch.

Toho sends their lower quality beads to China, they get repackaged and sold in craft stores like Michael’s. But all under the Toho label. Just like the high quality ones produced and packaged in Japan and sold in bead stores.

Sterling silver is supposed to have copper in the alloy, but manufacturers sometimes substitute nickel for copper to keep the cost down. But both get labeled .925 sterling silver (92.5 percent silver, the rest is the alloy). Sterling with nickel in it is more brittle. Picture an ear wire. There is a loop at the bottom which gets opened up, a dangle put on, then the loop is closed. With nickel in the alloy, you can do this maybe 2–3 times before the loop breaks. You don’t have to worry about the loop breaking with copper.

I joke in my classes that this only affects women, and no one cares. But yes I do. Yes we should.

On the drive back from Atlanta to Nashville, my boss and I were both very quiet. We didn’t speak. A bit in shock. As we got closer to home, I asked my boss if we could return the grant to the CDC. There has to be some hidden agenda we weren’t aware of. This didn’t reflect well on our office in Tennessee.

The next morning, my boss met with the Tennessee Commissioner of Health & Environment. He told her he would replace the money lost from the grant with other money. Everyone in the office would be allowed to keep their jobs. He invited me up to speak with him. He asked me, if he were talking to the press, could he say with certainty that there were problems in these locales. I had to say, No, the analysis I did does not prove anything. It merely presents a flag for looking at something more closely.

For awhile, there was a Bead Society in Nashville. We were active participants. In fact, we gave anyone who joined a 50% discount in our store which would last for a month from their join-date. We worked with members to write by-laws and set organizational goals. One goal was to meet the conditions for non-profit status.

Around eight years after we joined, new officers were elected and radically changed the culture of the Society. The President, Vice President and Secretary formed a tight group. They would not even allow the Treasurer to have access to the bank account. They would not allow the Program Committee Chairperson to plan or participate in any events. The three officers handled all the money. The three officers planned the events. All things they were personally interested in, and all money losers. There was a bylaw stating that if any program were anticipated to lose money, the membership would have to vote whether to continue with it. They ignored the bylaw. The officers spent Bead Society funds lavishly on gifts for themselves. We dropped out of the Bead Society.

Back at the Department office, I remember the phone started ringing. Over and over again. The CDC Environment Director, the lead project officer, other project officers were taking turns calling my boss. One call would be threatening. The next polite. One pleading. Back to threatening. Then polite. After 3 days of calls, my boss was about to cave in. But I told her: They hate us. We’re not doing what they want. They could easily get another state to take the money. Why are they so persistently wanting us to take the money back? It was like a light bulb went off above her head. Suddenly, she realized she had some leverage. We just didn’t know why.

The calls went on for almost a week. One last call was from the CDC auditor. It turned out that when a grant is turned back, it precipitates an audit. The Environmental Division had been skimming over $1,000,000 off the grant which was supposed to go to the state of Tennessee.

Morality is an interesting concept. It is not fixed, I discovered. It can be a moving compass. While working for the state, my own compass kept moving further and further away from that moral center. I was ambitious. I wanted to do great things. But to be included with the powers that be and the activities ongoing, I found I began to accept more and more things as ethical — things I would not have labeled as such years earlier.

I found myself very willing to work with people like my project officer to whom cover up and professional could be used in the same sentence. My own boss liked to access private state databases which listed AIDs patients, people accused as sex offenders, doctors and pharmacists and psychiatrists and other professionals whose credentials and behaviors were under review by the various boards. As sport, and almost daily, she would share one or more of the names with people or organizations not particularly friendly or aligned with these people. I looked the other way. I discovered that instigating a federal audit would automatically stop a state audit. I stopped state audits of several Tennessee officials under investigation for abusing funds. To me, I let it feel OK. I was doing my job.

I’m not sure I would have recognized that my moral compass was shifting a bit too much, were it not for a friend who pointed this out to me.

We didn’t take the grant. The final outcomes from our adventure with the CDC grant mostly came down to things I was told happened, but did not know directly.

· A few weeks earlier, one of our staff came back from lunch and told us she met the most interesting person. It was a lawyer from a prominent chemical company. The lawyer had asked a lot about the kinds of things we did in our office. However, no staff knew any of the details of what was happening except myself and my boss.

· This prominent chemical company, as I was told, owned a superfund site on the Tennessee River at New Johnsonville. They had a deep well where they disposed of chemicals. Four years earlier, unbeknownst to anyone except the company executives, their well had cracked. Toxic chemicals were leaking into the river. The river was the main source of the water supply.

· The chemical company met with the Commissioner. They agreed to fix things. The Commissioner agreed to keep things private.

· The Assistant Commissioner for the Environment, the Tennessee official responsible for monitoring situations like these, resigned the very next day. He took a job with that chemical company.

· I was told the CDC-Environmental division was under pressure to prove that living near a hazardous waste site was not hazardous to your health. The administration in Washington, DC at the time, in order to reduce the budget, wanted to cut back dollars allocated to cleaning up Superfund sites. They needed proof why.

· I took another job.

· The State eventually did do a special investigation in New Johnsonville. In their report, they found nothing.

The idea of morality gets mixed up with ideas about deception, misrepresentation, someone not knowing something, something inadvertent, something right from one perspective and wrong from another, something omitted. It can be a difficult concept to pin down.

But if we view jewelry designers as professionals, then we want to include some reasonable idea about morality into what they do. Or at least, their intent. Jewelry designers, and in fact, government officials as well, are free to make the choices they want to make and determine their own destinies. They are free to stay true to their own values and beliefs. But they need to take a level of responsibility for these choices and where these choices take them. And own up to the consequences.

Moral, ethical and business ethical choices should lead to better impacts on the stakeholders. These include the designer him- or herself, the wearer, the viewer, the buyer, the seller, the exhibitor, the collector, the teacher, the student, the colleague. These impacts involve the experience and sensing of beauty, the comfort and wearability of the pieces, the affirmations these pieces provide, the gaining of something of value, the satisfying of desire, and the sharing of the artist’s understandings, inspirations and visions.

Authenticity is important here. A person should not succumb to broader social and organizational norms. They should be true to themselves. I probably was not sufficiently authentic when I worked for the state of Tennessee. As a jewelry designer now, authenticity is key.

And, while pursuing my Rogue Elephant, it would be amoral and unethical to harm it unnecessarily. It would be just as wrong to halt my pursuit or turn around and head the other way. Pursuing my Rogue Elephant is perhaps the most authentic and moral thing I, or for that matter, any jewelry designer, can do.

_______________________________

Thank you. I hope you found this article useful.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft Video Tutorials online. Begin with my ORIENTATION TO BEADS & JEWELRY FINDINGS COURSE.

Follow my articles on Medium.com.

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Check out my Jewelry Making and Beadwork Kits.

Add your name to my email list.

_________________________________

CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

· Getting Started: Naming business, identifying resources, protecting intellectual property

· Financial Management: basic accounting, break even analysis, understanding risk-reward-return on investment, inventory management

· Product Development: identifying target market, specifying product attributes, developing jewelry line, production, distribution, pricing, launching

· Marketing, Promoting, Branding: competitor analysis, developing message, establishing emotional connections to your products, social media marketing

· Resiliency: building business, professional and psychological resiliency

· Professional Responsibilities: preparing artist statement, portfolio, look book, resume, biographical sketch, profile, FAQ, self-care

548pp.

Kindle, Print, Epub

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

588pp, many images and diagrams Ebook , Kindle or Print formats

The Jewelry Journey Podcast
“Building Jewelry That Works: Why Jewelry Design Is Like Architecture”
Podcast, Part 1
Podcast, Part 2

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

184pp, many images and diagrams Ebook, Kindle or Print

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS:16 Lessons I Learned Doing Craft Shows

198pp, many images and diagrams, Ebook, Kindle or Print

___________________________________________

Posted in Art or Craft?, art theory, bead weaving, beads, beadwork, business of craft, craft shows, creativity, design management, design theory, design thinking, Entrepreneurship, jewelry design, jewelry making, Learn To Bead, pearl knotting, professional development, Stitch 'n Bitch, wire and metal | Tagged: authenticity, ethics, morality | Leave a Comment »

BASICS OF BEAD STRINGING AND ATTACHING CLASPS: How To Design, Take Measurements ForAnd Finish Off Multi-Strand Pieces

Posted by learntobead on February 18, 2023

How To Design, Take Measurements For
And Finish Off Multi-Strand Pieces

Multi-strand bracelets and necklaces are always in style and always in demand.

Many designers quickly find out, however, that they are not so easy to construct, and often do not lay on the body the way the designer initially envisioned.

Part of the problem has to do with measurement.

· How long should each strand be?

· How long if the strands are sequential, that is, do not overlap? Here, you will want strands each of a different length.

· How long if the strands do overlap? Usually, if you want overlap, the strands will approximately be the same length.

Related to measurement is some confusion about what you are really measuring — the linear length against a ruler or on a bead board, or, — the circumference length using a person or mannequin or sizing cone.

Actual linear length will vary, based on the diameter sizes of the beads, whether you are dealing with any gradations in bead sizes, and how far apart on the body you want each strand to lay.

Only circumference length will serve you well here. But this means you will be planning and constructing around a curved surface or plane.

Another part of the problem is choosing the wrong clasps and jewelry findings. Different findings work well under differing situations and circumstances.

Or, related to this, part of the problem could be how the clasp assembly was constructed without sufficient support.

How long should each strand be?

Let me re-phrase this question:

How wide do you want the negative spaces to be measuring at the center of each strand?

Usually, your goal is to have a good consistency in the width of the negative spaces between each strand.

A traditional rule of thumb is that you want each subsequent strand to be 3/4″ to 1 1/2” longer than the previous one. I like to start my planning with 1” separations.

So, if the first strand is 16”, which of course, includes the 1–2” length the clasp assembly will add, then the second will be 17”, the third 18”, and so forth.

This rule of thumb is a good starting point for planning your piece. You will have to modify it based on the characteristics and sizes of the actual beads and components you will be using. Larger beads will take up more of the volume of negative space
than smaller beads.

When your beads on the strand are graduated in size, you want to measure and work off your largest bead in each strand.

To get things right, and not get too frustrated, it is easiest to work off of a mannequin or sizing cone or an especially life-size necklace easel.

Working on a flat surface just doesn’t cut it.

You will also only attach things temporarily until you get all the strand lengths and negative spaces widths the way you want them.

I always begin with the shortest length strand.

If I’m working with cable wires, I end each side with a horseshoe wire protector. This lets me secure the beads on the strand pretty well, and gives me the equivalent of a hook to temporarily hook into my clasp. And it lets me remove the horseshoe wire protector if I want to add or subtract any beads on the cable.

I do not secure the clasp to the horseshoe wire protector or do any crimping until I have all the strands on the necklace arranged the way I want them.

I next try to complete the second smallest strand, and temporarily hook it to the clasp.

I work my way down until the longest strand.

When I am satisfied with everything and how it lays, I begin to finish the connection of each strand to the clasp assembly.

I finish off the first and smallest strand, connecting the clasp permanently, and crimping things in place.

Most likely, I will need to do some adjusting with the next strand. Things don’t work out 100% perfectly in the real world.

I do any necessary adjusting, then I connect that strand to the clasp permanently, and crimp things in place.

I go to the third strand. Most likely, I will need to do some adjusting. When I’m satisfied, usually focusing on the width of the negative space, I crimp.

And so forth down the necklace until the last strand.

With some styles of clasps, I like to use a strong, intervening jump ring, connecting the horseshoe wire protector to the fixed rings on the clasp.

All my jump rings will be the same size.

So, when I am testing things out, I hook the wire protectors (without the extra intervening jump rings) into the fixed rings on the clasp.

When I am ready to make things permanent, I crimp the crimp bead under the horseshoe, then attach the horseshoe to the jump ring and the jump ring to the clasp.

Say you are using a single strand clasp for a multi-strand necklace.

One approach:

You attach a large intervening ring to the clasp, and then attach each string to this large intervening ring.

The size of the ring should allow enough support or jointedness so that the multiple strands do not put too much stress or strain on one another at this point of connection.

Again, another strategy when using a single strand clasp for a multi-strand necklace,
is to use some kind of end piece, like a cone or end cap with a hole.

In this case, you would attach each strand to a soldered ring — that is a ring with no gaps in it. The size of the ring would have to coordinate with the interior diameter of your end piece.

You never pull all the strands through the end pieces. This would put too much strain at that point where they exited the end piece, and attached to the clasp assembly.

You need this soldered ring to work as a support system and absorb and self-adjust to this strain, so your strands won’t break.

So, you attach all the strands to one side of the soldered ring. Then you take another piece of stringing material to the other side of the ring. You pull everything through the opening of the end piece, all the way back so your mess of knots doesn’t show. And you then construct the rest of your clasp assembly.

The soldering ring is your support system. Either the crushed crimps with the required loops, or the series of knots, depending on your stringing material are ugly. Your end pieces act like a lampshade hiding the mess, and making your piece visually appealing.

Still one more strategy is to use an end bar on each side of your piece, which has the number or rings on one side equal to the number of strands in your multi-strand piece,
and a single hole on the other side.

You do the rest of your clasp assembly off the one ring on each end bar.

Be sure to use an intervening ring off each single end bar ring, before connecting the clasp.

Let’s say you have a 5-strand necklace, but only a 3-strand clasp.

It is ok to attach more than one strand to a single ring on the clasp. Just be sure this is sufficient support or jointedness.

If not, use a larger intervening ring, like a jump or split ring.

_______________________________

Thank you. I hope you found this article useful.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft Video Tutorials online. Begin with my ORIENTATION TO BEADS & JEWELRY FINDINGS COURSE.

Follow my articles on Medium.com.

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Check out my Jewelry Making and Beadwork Kits.

Add your name to my email list.

_________________________________

CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

· Getting Started: Naming business, identifying resources, protecting intellectual property

· Financial Management: basic accounting, break even analysis, understanding risk-reward-return on investment, inventory management

· Product Development: identifying target market, specifying product attributes, developing jewelry line, production, distribution, pricing, launching

· Marketing, Promoting, Branding: competitor analysis, developing message, establishing emotional connections to your products, social media marketing

· Resiliency: building business, professional and psychological resiliency

· Professional Responsibilities: preparing artist statement, portfolio, look book, resume, biographical sketch, profile, FAQ, self-care

548pp.

Kindle, Print, Epub

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

588pp, many images and diagrams Ebook , Kindle or Print formats

The Jewelry Journey Podcast
“Building Jewelry That Works: Why Jewelry Design Is Like Architecture”
Podcast, Part 1
Podcast, Part 2

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

184pp, many images and diagrams Ebook, Kindle or Print

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS:16 Lessons I Learned Doing Craft Shows

198pp, many images and diagrams, Ebook, Kindle or Print

___________________________________________

Posted in Art or Craft?, art theory, bead weaving, beads, beadwork, color, craft shows, creativity, design management, design theory, design thinking, jewelry design, jewelry making, Learn To Bead, pearl knotting, Stitch 'n Bitch, wire and metal | Tagged: necklaces | Leave a Comment »

HOW TO BEAD A ROGUE ELEPHANT The Musings Of A Jewelry Designer: Relatives

Posted by learntobead on February 18, 2023

As I pursue the pathways which have led me to my Rogue Elephant, for the most part, I feel free. I feel I can take responsibilities for the choices I am making, whether to go this way or that. I’m on that road to explore, to critique, to reflect, to ponder, to plan, to strategize, to move on. I feel within myself a purpose in life. This is all good. And right. I feel I have the tools to overcome the unfamiliar and the unknown. Clear. Confident. Not cocky.

However, during most of my childhood, youth and young adult life, my relationships with my relatives sometimes interfered. Irritated. Distracted. Distorted. Got me frustrated. Made me scared. Made me angry.

They are relatives. This is different than relationships with strangers or friends or colleagues. I too easily allowed my relatives to get inside my head. Too easily to be too sensitive and responsive to their own values, beliefs and expectations they placed on me. It made it difficult for me to stay on that path. And search for my Rogue Elephant.

It is that blood connection. That almost primal need for family, clan, tribe. You can’t pull away so easily. Distance yourself from them. Even if you barely know them. Even if you do not share their beliefs and values. Even if you detest them.

The Bridesmaids’ Bracelets

For years, I fretted. I worried, and fretted, and paced up and down, and down and up. I rubbed my hands in the way that worried people rub their hands. I shouldn’t go. I would not go.

To my niece’s wedding.

My only niece.

Of my only sister.

My niece who I had hoped and prayed and prayed some more that she would never get married. Why couldn’t she just live with the guy? Why marry? Marriage is an encumbrance. It’s an outdated, Middle Ages kind of thing that denigrates women under the guise of protecting them. They sign a contract giving themselves over to the man, vowing to obey. Respect. Follow. Bear babies. Cook. Clean. Even earn a living, if he can’t.

Yet the man keeps the power. His voice to God. Her voice through his to God.

Marriage. Not for me.

And I didn’t want to go.

Too afraid I’d say something or do something to upset people.

Because they would be there.

Those cousins.

And their children.

And their children’s children.

Too many of them, and only one of me.

But my cousins had rejected me because I was gay.

And that hurt.

And then that rejection became an idea of rejection and a symbol of rejection, and I thought how often in life, from when I was very young, to when I was much, much older, — how often in life had I been rejected for some label or category or reason having nothing to do with me. Rejected as a Jew. Rejected as gay. Rejected by friends. Rejected by strangers. Rejected by family.

So toxic.

Didn’t want to deal with this.

Preferred avoidance.

Thought over and over again what excuses I could give my sister.

I thought about this when my niece was 13.

I thought about this when she was 18.

Then 20, and 23, and 24 and finally 28, when I had to make a choice.

My sister and her family were very close to these cousins, closer to them in most ways than to me. Years ago, my sister used to invite me for Thanksgiving and for Passover. And she invited all these cousins, as well. She liked to give a party.

Partying with these cousins was too toxic for me, so I made excuses. Too busy at work. Things too slow in business so couldn’t afford it. Had other things scheduled.

For me to feel comfortable, my sister’s choice would have to have been “ME”, not “THEM”. I felt bad. I felt guilty. I didn’t want to put my sister in this situation. It was easier to come up with an excuse.

But year after year, the situation took its toll. Rejection — a symbol, but painful nonetheless. Not because of the act itself, but the symbolic power of the act to affect me — Rejection — put a wedge between my sister and myself. I did not have the self-confidence, and I didn’t value myself enough, to prevent caving in before this symbolically powerful act of rejection because I was gay.

I was always looking for love and connection, but when around my relatives, all I felt was isolated, confused and in despair.

I didn’t have to deal with this as long as I stayed hundreds of miles away from New Jersey and Maryland and Virginia and Florida. Tucked safely in middle Tennessee.

I Had To Go / I Wanted To Go

The wedding was in March.

The previous summer, I decided I would go. Not exactly sure what changed my mind, perhaps a feeling of familial obligation, perhaps putting my sense of self to the test, perhaps wanting to try out all that good food and cake and drink specially prepared for the occasion. My sister plans the best parties.

I offered to make bracelets for all the bridesmaids.

I wasn’t just being a good guy here. Jewelry and design are at the core of my identity. The jewelry I design is the result of my choices. Choices about colors. Choices about the placement of lines, shapes and forms. Choices about the clasp and how to attach it. Choices about materials and techniques.

My inner being. On display. Irrefutable.

My choices have little to nothing to do with the label “JEW”.

Nor do my choices have much to do with the label “GAY”.

They are about me. A Designer.

Reflected in my jewelry.

And would be on display.

Accept or reject my jewelry.

And you accept or reject me.

On my terms.

My own terms.

Me.

My essence.

My resonance.

My jewelry.

This was my chance to shine. I was going to create a special bead woven design for these bracelets. Something frilly and girly for a wedding, but something also indicative of my style. Something that would not take too much work, but would look very rich and substantial.

I designed what I thought would be the perfect bracelet. A mix of stitches. Great looking beads. Had movement and dimension. But I was struggling to find the perfect color palette. The bracelet was made up of 4 colors, and a 4-color color scheme is one of the most difficult to work with — especially when it comes to beads, which are not available in all colors, let alone 4 colors which could specifically work in a specific color scheme in this specific bracelet.

While I was struggling to pick colors, Dara, my niece, had been doing a little online research, as well. She found two bead-strung bracelets on Etsy that she particularly liked, and shared these with me.

No, No, No!!!

My first reaction was Horror! Oh No!, she wants something bead strung and so non-artisan looking. Making these up would not signify to my terrible cousins nor to my good cousins, who I was all about. As Jayden, my partner, said, buy all the parts and do it quick. You’re not close to your niece, so who cares. But to me, although the work involved would be minimal — it would not be enough of a gift for the wedding.

Don’t get me wrong. The two bracelets Dara picked out were very attractive. They were just so out of sync with everything I wanted to do, and everything I wanted to accomplish. And I had to ask myself: give Dara what she wants, or go off in a different direction?

The question was kind of rhetorical. Of course, I’d give Dara what she wanted. But what to do. How can I construe, mold, fashion, arrange the bracelet to be reflective of me? Jewelry designer Me. Bead artist Me. Worthy cousin to be awed and ooh’ed over Me.

Dara’s Bracelet

The bracelet Dara wanted was 3 strands of 6mm round fire polish beads in two coordinating colors which matched the color of her bridesmaid dresses. The beads were staggered in a V-shape like bowling pins, each section separated by a diagonally placed 3-hole spacer bar.

I thought long and hard about how I could make this general design my own.

A few weeks passed. And an idea came to me. I could bead weave the spacer bars. I could alternate right angle weave and flat peyote to create a stable, rectangular shape. The right angle weave sections would be the two sides, which would allow me to build in the holes. The flat peyote would be the top and the bottom, which would allow me to build in a shape-supporting structure. I would embellish the tops of the bars with 2mm round Austrian crystal beads, and I would create bead woven end caps on either side of the bar, to give the bars a finished and polished look. Then I would use needle and thread to string everything up.

That was my answer.

It was a good one.

So, first, I set about coming up with the bead woven pattern for my spacer bars. This did not take very long because I had a clear idea about what I wanted in my head. What was not in my head, however, was how long to make the bars and how many holes each should have. And would they work in the whole composition.

I ended up making 5 test bracelets, each requiring 11 spacer bars, and each with some variety in the design or placement of the spacer bars, and in the attachment strategy for the clasp.

Now I had three key tasks finished:
(1) The design of the spacer bars
(2) The construction plan for the bracelet
(3) The construction plan for attaching the clasp

Next, selecting the right colors of beads.

First off, I wanted to use 6mm round Austrian crystal beads, instead of Czech glass.

There were images of the bridesmaid dresses on line, but the actual color skirted that area between blue teal and green teal, and not every computer screen showed the color exactly. It became critical to the choice of colors, given some limited choices available in the Swarovski line in this range, whether the dress was more on the green side or more on the blue side.

My sister said Blue.

My niece said Green.

My sister was supposed to send me a fabric sample, but she lost it.

I mocked up 3 bracelets, one all blue teal, one a mix of blue and green teal, and one more green teal.

My sister picked the green.

My niece picked the mix of blue and green.

And my gut, from looking at the computer images, was telling me it should be all blue.

Impasse.

I went with my gut, and settled on all blue, actually a mix of capri blue and Caribbean opal.

There were four bridesmaids. I asked my niece to get their wrist measurements. One the bridesmaids had a very, very thin wrist. Would my design work for her? I agonized over it. The sections were very rigidly organized, and I’d have to remove a whole section at a time. Luckily, this worked OK.

The only other hitch that came up had to do with the availability of the parts.

I designed the piece in September. The wedding was in March. In November, I tried to acquire enough clasps and end bars for the clasp assembly, and found out that both the clasp and end bar I had chosen were either out of stock until the following April, or no longer manufactured.

So began the desperate hunt for these parts. The end bars had to be 22mm wide, or very close to that, with 3 holes and 3 holes spaced out evenly across the bar. Most 3-hole end bars were around 15mm wide. Found some in Israel, which while no longer manufactured, the supplier had just the amount I needed left in stock. Easily found a substitute clasp.

Then there were the beads. Again, I’m in November. The capri beads were out of stock from my supplier, and 2 of my alternative suppliers, but due back by December. The Caribbean opal beads were out of stock, and not due back anytime soon. I found a supplier who charged a little bit more for these, but got enough for my needs.

Whew!

Was Standing In The Same Room As My Relatives
The Right Choice?

It was a few weeks before the wedding, and I was wondering if my choice to attend was the right one. Over and over and over again, I played out in my head what I would or would not say to my very inconsiderate, selfish, self-centered, inhospitable, unsympathetic, narrow-minded, prejudiced relatives. One part of me wanted me to be pleasant but distant. Another part of me wanted me to say something pointed and ugly.

I asked each of my friends, what they would do. I wanted so badly to be pointed and ugly. I was leaning in that direction. Of course, I didn’t want to upset my sister or my niece.

I thought back on the event that started it all. It was really so insignificant. An expected invitation to a cousin’s wedding never came. But I hadn’t planned on going. I did expect to receive an invitation, however. Because everyone expected me to receive an invitation. We all had been planning vacations and things to do around this invitation. For well over a year at that point. We had been planning. All of us. When we were going to arrive, where we were going to stay, and what we were going to do. And while I didn’t plan on going, I expected the invitation.

Rogue Elephants Are Shy And Hide
In The Presence of Self-Doubt And Life Crises

I’m a firm believer that every few years, we each go through a life crisis. When we are babies, we have to resolve a crisis of finding out who to trust, and who not to. A few life crises later, we’re in puberty, having to resolve whether we’re still a kid, or some kind of adult. Several life crises after puberty, we go through the mother of all life crisis — what we call, cue the digital billboard, the Mid-Life Crisis. This crisis is filled with anger, frustration, regret, disappointment, fear.

My mid-life crisis arrived several years before Dara’s wedding. Eventually I came to terms with mid-life. That’s what I did. And then, immediately after my mid-life crisis, as if the mid-life crisis wasn’t traumatic enough, I had a sudden, almost primal, no, yes it was full-on primal, urge to reconnect with my family. I had grown apart from my sister and father and brother. From my first cousins in Florida and those in New Jersey, New York and Maryland. And from their children, my new second cousins. And I was feeling the need to re-connect. Post mid-life I urgently felt the need to re-connect. Like it was life or death. Connection. Affirmation. Completeness.

And I reconnected.

I slowly began to let everyone know I was gay. They kinda knew and suspected already. But I made it official. Pretty much everyone except my sister was supportive at some level. Eventually she got used to it.

I was invited to my cousin Michele’s oldest son’s wedding. And then, over the next few years, to some other weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs and special occasions. I re-connected. I was happy. Soon there were the occasional phone calls and emails. A few of my cousins sent out the periodic mass emails, and I was on their lists. I kept up with their newsy news and not-so-newsy news, their shared successes, their joys in life, and the every-so-often sadnesses. I felt included. Supported.

It was important to everyone, and you could tell, because they spent so much time doing it, to anticipate the next event we’d all attend. The next event was the marriage of my cousin Michele’s middle son.

It was to be a June wedding. I got a phone call sometime in April from my sister. “Did you get your invitation yet?” And a day later, from my cousin Leslie. “Did you get your invitation yet?” And obviously the answer was, No! Not yet. I kept checking the mail for several days, and then it began to dawn on me that I wasn’t invited. I wasn’t going to be invited. And if not getting invited to an event that I wasn’t planning on going to wasn’t enough of a jolt and shock, both my cousins Michele and Paulette dropped me from their almost daily mass email lists.

I was person non-grata. Why?

I asked myself, Why?

And I asked some cousins, Why?

And it became known that the Why was because I was gay.

And that was that.

Excluded again.

Of course, I wanted my sister to make the choice not to go.

She went.

And that put a wedge in our relationship that never really healed, because it was irreconcilable.

And I got very depressed for a few months afterwards.

There Is A Long History

I do not have to think very long or very hard to realize that my relationships with my relatives soured many years ago. There were slights. Special occasions arranged on dates my family could not attend. Arguments over matzah balls (hard or soft) and Thanksgiving dinners (traditional food or non) and inappropriate racist remarks and jokes. It was my uncle Sid, when asked to stop telling black (N-word) jokes, said, OK!, then began telling polish (P-word) jokes.

There were very barbed comments about home décor, kitchen counters, brands of appliances, whether a kitchen island or not. There were my religious cousins who would not visit New Jersey because they believed the ground outside the New York City metropolitan area was unholy. Who would not eat Kosher food prepared by my mom because she could never prepare food Kosher enough. There were the complaints that there was never enough food. And the constant, mean-spirited gossip relatives vomited out of their mouths about other relatives.

If something happened to me or to either of my parents or to my sister or brother, I could never turn to these relatives for practical or emotional support and help. I felt too alienated from them. They alienated me from them.

So I wasn’t invited to a wedding. So my relationship with my sister and her family never became close — at least for a long while. So I no longer kept up with my cousins and second cousins and all their offspring. So I had some issues with my parents and my school and the dominant Christian culture. That’s largely behind me. Not an obsession. But the oncoming wedding of my sister’s daughter forced me to focus on these things again.

Thank God the wedding only lasted a weekend.

Wedding Weekend

True to form, my sister threw a grand event people are probably still talking about.

In the few months leading up to the wedding, I concentrated on designing the bridesmaids’ bracelets. As I determined how I would make the pieces my own, I got very excited. I developed a very clever and professional way to bead weave the 3-hole separator bars. I combined Right Angle Weave and Flat Peyote, using the structural and inherent properties of each in a strategic way. This allowed be to create holes in the sides through when to thread the strands, and structural support to allow the bars to keep their shape.

I kept thinking that, while the bridesmaids would find the bracelets appealing and desirable, they would never appreciate the amount of thought, work and insight involved in their construction. So, I decided I would later turn this piece into a kit and a workshop. This piece was a great example of my evolving ideas and writings about the architectural bases of bead weaving stitches.

The wedding itself was beautiful, and went off without a hitch. The food was terrific. The location romantic. The flowers and bridal gown beautiful. There were over 200 guests. And about 60 of those I was trying to avoid. Relatives!

I arrived a day earlier. One of my cousins, whom I do speak with occasionally, arrived at the airport at the same time. After we checked in at our hotel, we went to lunch and unloaded about all the relatives. She and I have similar opinions about these people.

In the late afternoon, I stopped by the Bridal Suite, where they had set up to greet guests arriving early and staying at the hotel. You walked into the equivalent of a living room. Off to the left were a bedroom, kitchenette and bathroom. Off to the right were a dining room and an outdoor patio. It was in the 30’s and wet and snowy, so no one went out on the patio.

As more and more people gathered in the Suite, I found myself talking to some folks in the dining room. And then, one by one, two by two, three by three, these cousins I wanted to avoid started filling up the center room. And I found myself backing up against the far dining room wall, seemingly pushing myself into the wall and through it, or so it felt to me. My mind left the room and merged into the wall. I desperately looked for an opening where I could run through the living room and out the door. But more and more people came flooding in. I was having trouble catching my breath, slowly going into panic.

At last, an opening. I escaped. Hyperventilating. I went up to my room, and waited until I regained some composure. My panic attack had run its course.

Twenty minutes later, I returned to the Bridal Suite, bridesmaids’ bracelets in hand. I had put each into its own jewelry box, with the name of the bridesmaid written on a card in each box. They were going to take the bridal pictures in the morning, and I wanted to be sure they were wearing their bracelets. And I secretly wanted a lot of these people crowding this Bridal Suite to get a glimpse of what I had made.

As I had thought, they loved the bracelets — they were beautiful — but were clueless about design. That “full” feedback is so very important to me, but often missing.

Luckily the colors of the bracelet perfectly matched the dresses.

My job was done.

It was many years later, that I was able to distance myself emotionally from these people. Underlying, gnawing tensions here led, forced might be a better word for it, the way towards finding new meanings in life for myself. A source of growth and discovery. I eventually found my Rogue Elephant and beaded him. A crutch, perhaps. A diversion from family, maybe. Or a hand-knee-trunk up. A connection. A purpose.

_______________________________

Thank you. I hope you found this article useful.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft Video Tutorials online. Begin with my ORIENTATION TO BEADS & JEWELRY FINDINGS COURSE.

Follow my articles on Medium.com.

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Check out my Jewelry Making and Beadwork Kits.

Add your name to my email list.

_________________________________

CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

· Getting Started: Naming business, identifying resources, protecting intellectual property

· Financial Management: basic accounting, break even analysis, understanding risk-reward-return on investment, inventory management

· Product Development: identifying target market, specifying product attributes, developing jewelry line, production, distribution, pricing, launching

· Marketing, Promoting, Branding: competitor analysis, developing message, establishing emotional connections to your products, social media marketing

· Resiliency: building business, professional and psychological resiliency

· Professional Responsibilities: preparing artist statement, portfolio, look book, resume, biographical sketch, profile, FAQ, self-care

548pp.

Kindle, Print, Epub

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

588pp, many images and diagrams Ebook , Kindle or Print formats

The Jewelry Journey Podcast
“Building Jewelry That Works: Why Jewelry Design Is Like Architecture”
Podcast, Part 1
Podcast, Part 2

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

184pp, many images and diagrams Ebook, Kindle or Print

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS:16 Lessons I Learned Doing Craft Shows

198pp, many images and diagrams, Ebook, Kindle or Print

___________________________________________

Posted in architecture, Art or Craft?, art theory, bead weaving, beads, beadwork, business of craft, craft shows, creativity, design management, design theory, design thinking, Entrepreneurship, jewelry collecting, jewelry design, jewelry making, Learn To Bead, pearl knotting, professional development, Stitch 'n Bitch, wire and metal | Tagged: Art And Design, crafts, existentialism, family relationships | Leave a Comment »

HOW TO BEAD A ROGUE ELEPHANT The Musings Of A Jewelry Designer: The Professional

Posted by learntobead on February 17, 2023

I thought I heard some swish sound of something moving in the air. Something from the back of the room. Headed toward the front of the room. And a sudden click, perhaps a bounce, then another click, click, perhaps another bounce, another click, a rolling sound, and yes, something hit the guy speaking in the front of the room. That guy was my father. That noise I heard was the sound of a plastic pharmacy bottle and its plastic safety cap making a bee-line towards that guy in the front of the room. And bull’s-eye!

My father, you see, at the time, was President of the New Jersey Pharmaceutical Association. He had higher ambitions to get appointed as a Commissioner of Pharmacy on the New Jersey Pharmacy Board. The Board, knowing that, politely volunteered him to introduce the new safety-capped prescription bottles to the pharmacy association’s members. So here he was.

And it just wasn’t one bottle that came flying. I was so peeved. I had taken the time to go up and down the aisles of this auditorium, handing sample bottles to each and every pharmacist there. Now these bottles, one after one after one after one, were getting thrown to the front of the room. My father dodged most, but not all. Yet, at no time, did my father deviate from his presentation. He kept talking from his notes from start to finish.

The original safety capped bottles were difficult to open, to say the least. The standard was that it should take an adult 3 minutes or less to open, and a child 5 minutes or less. Forget about it if you were elderly. Opening these wasn’t going to happen. And most elderly, once they got the caps off, left them off. When my father quoted this standard, that’s when most of the bottles flew up into the air, along a curved trajectory, and ever-so-slightly towards the dais. Plastic hitting tile or concrete or whatever.

And my father’s final line: Within 3 months’ time, the state will require all pharmacies to use only these new safety capped prescription bottles. You’d have thought the room was filled with cows with slight speech defects. Boooooo…..! Boooooo…..! Boooooo…..!

I internalized all this. My father modeled what it meant to be a professional. I model for my jewelry making and beading students what it means to be a professional. My father stuck to maintaining high expectations and standards. To the chagrin of many of my students, I hold them up to high expectations and standards. Although I don’t get plastic bottles thrown at me, I have had to confront a lot of resistance when trying to have my students, my clients, my customers, my colleagues live up to that label I call professional.

There is a widespread belief that crafters and makers are not professionals. There is no law about this. Or regulation. Or rule. It is more of an assumption. Laziness. Low expectations. Low self-esteem. A lack of understanding of the role of a jewelry designer. I refuse, however, to succumb to anything less.

The very nature of jewelry itself necessitates the designer’s role as professional. Jewelry is made to a quality standard. Since jewelry is to be worn and bought and sold, the needs and desires of both designer and wearer must be taken into account. In fact, each piece of jewelry, introduced publicly in whatever way and in whatever circumstance, by definition, triggers conversation. Defines relationships. Exposes desire. Sets possibilities as well as boundaries on participation.

The designer has key responsibilities here, given all the choices which need to be made, when translating inspiration into aspiration into an actual piece of jewelry. The designer can be nothing but a professional. Whether she or he believes it or not. Or acts like it or not. Designers cannot barricade their doors to their Rogue Elephants. My point: They have to bead them.

The whole prescription bottle thing was a mess. One of the things professionals learn to get good at is in anticipating their client’s needs, then shaping what they say and what they do accordingly. It’s about establishing relationships which help clarify what each other knows, assumes, wants, desires, can or cannot do. As a professional, the preference should not be on relying on the law to force these pharmacists to comply. The preference should be to reach an understanding so that the pharmacists, no matter how skeptical or reluctant, will comply on their own. My father presented his message, but it wasn’t received well. As a professional during this time, my father needed a little more development.

The Audacity

In 1998, I created a school to teach jewelry making and beading using a professional model of education. I was literally ANGRY, and very frustrated, that so many of our shop customers had taken so many classes around town, but still could not really do much on their own. I wanted them to be more informed. To do more than making the same project over and over again. To challenge themselves. To experiment. To play. I knew Rogue Elephants loved to play.

My professional training had been in planning and design. While it was health planning and urban design, and although I hadn’t worked in this particular professional capacity for 20 years, everything I learned seemed very appropriate for jewelry design and beading.

But what I saw around me in Bead World — the types of classes taught and the types of books available and the types of articles in beading and jewelry magazines — none of these things seemed quite on the mark. None of them taught about design. None of them challenged the beader or jewelry maker to step out of some very constricted boundaries and rules. None of them seemed to result in teaching beaders and jewelry makers a set of transferable skills. None of them guided beaders and jewelry makers to develop their Designer Tool Boxes — those sets of hard and soft skills which would allow them to resolve unfamiliar or difficult problems in design.

In the jewelry making world, everything seemed oriented around sets of steps. Buy books with sets of steps. Take classes to learn sets of steps. Take more and more sets of steps. The more steps you complete, the more supposedly you learn. How many steps do you have to climb before you reach the top?

But, no matter how many steps you complete, you really don’t learn how to recognize the kinds of implications and to make the kinds of choices you need to make, in order to decide what to include, and what not to include, how to proceed, and how not to proceed, in your pieces of beadwork and jewelry. You do not learn how to make the necessary tradeoffs between beauty and function, appeal and wearability, shape and movement. You do not learn how to create jewelry with a recognition of how that jewelry sets a tone. Triggers a conversation. Defines a relationship. Fulfills needs and desires.

I kept thinking of an idea of a Jewelry Making and Bead School that provided classes and other learning opportunities more in line with my own professional training in health care and urban design. Not to teach sets of steps. But to teach skills. Not to learn things randomly and at will. But to learn things in an integrated ordering. However, I didn’t have the depth of beading and jewelry making experience to pull this off. It was a BIG project, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to take something like this on.

And there was that headline — Little beading experience, wants to form School. I found that people thought I was very presumptuous. That I was treading into areas I had not earned the right to be in. That whatever I did, was too complex — either why bother, or why struggle? That there were enough classes at the other beading shops in Nashville, and there would not be any measurable demand for something different, more involved, more demanding.

Who did I think I was? This situation I found myself in reminded me of Picasso’s drive to create cubism. It took him 10 years to define it well enough, create enough attractive and desirable examples, and get it accepted as a force in art. I had visited the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Spain several years ago. Picasso spent his boyhood years in Barcelona. The museum showcased his early-early work through his “blue” period, and up to before the cubism painting style everyone knows him by so well. It showed the development of Picasso’s inner drive to create something great and to be famous.

What the Museum’s story told was that Picasso was basically a shit in search of a reason. Pushy, arrogant, intense. He’d work a color or motif to death. He was intent on fame, or perhaps validation. As a young man, he moved to Paris for awhile, and associated with all the new exciting artists that Paris attracted in the late 1800s, early 1900s. He learned from them, socialized with them, fraternized with them, shared political and artistic views with them, imitated some of their works, and intently developed rules for a new personal artistic style.

At one point, he was determined to create and define a new style of painting. He collaborated with George Braque over 10 years to refine ideas about cubism. At that point, he was discovered, and became the primary focus of cubism as an artistic style.

I don’t mean, in telling the story about our beadwork and jewelry making school, to compare myself to Picasso. The audacity. I don’t think I was a shit. Though I imagine some of the people I worked with thought so. I never thought it would take so long to feel that our program ideas had “clicked.” It took 7–8 years. Or that I would stay the course, despite set-backs and estrangements. Perhaps that’s for posterity to decide, or another writer, like myself, writing about me.

All About Choices and Responsibility

In my father’s drug store, I stood by the register counter one day. My father was in the pharmacy section on the phone. I eavesdropped.

He was trying to get through to a physician. He wasn’t having much luck getting beyond the first line of defense — the nurse receptionist. He was explaining, trying to, sometimes calm, sometimes with anger, often with concern, that the doctor wrote an adult dosage for a baby, and that this dosage would surely kill the baby. He wanted to ask the doctor to change the dosage. The doctor refused. And refused again.

The law in New Jersey at that time forbid pharmacists from questioning any doctor’s orders. Even my father’s phone call to the physician could be a chargeable offense. By law he was required to fill the prescription.

So my father had a difficult choice: follow the law and let the baby die, or break the law.

Although the jewelry designer is not in this kind of precarious situation, there are still choices to be made and responsibilities to be taken for their choices. Jewelry is to be worn. It may be bought. It may be exhibited and collected. In short, the designer serves someone else. The designer makes that person’s life somehow better. More satisfying. More self-affirming. More culturally-affirming. While a miscalculation in design and construction choices will not lead to death, it can still have many negative consequences. As a professional, the designer will want to anticipate, mitigate or alleviate any possibilities for negative consequences.

And what happened to the baby?

My father resorted to a little bit of civil disobedience. He called every pharmacy in a 5-county area. He got every pharmacist to agree not to fill any and all prescriptions written by this doctor. The doctor’s patients were not happy about this. But, the doctor got the message. The medical society in New Jersey got the message. The Medical Board got the message. The state legislature changed the law to give pharmacists more professional responsibility in this kind of situation.

I always wanted — probably may never succeed — in changing how jewelry makers and beaders learn their craft. It’s about high expectations, professionalism, choices, responsibilities — and developing a literacy and fluency in design and building up that Designer’s Tool Box. This makes so much sense to me … why not to everyone else, I ask myself.

I don’t know if I’m copying my father, paying homage to him, genetically predisposed to who he was. But I bring all this insight — some say, baggage — to the design of jewelry. How it is made. How it is sold. How it is taught.

It Takes A Lot Of Push and Determination

I was talking with a nationally prominent jewelry instructor about my ideas for educating jewelry makers and beaders. She thought it was a waste of time. Most students only want to follow a set of steps and end up with something. Given what they want, that’s all the effort she wanted to make into teaching them. If a student wanted to go further, she would gladly answer their questions. But it was not her job or responsibility to instill professional values, expectations, or higher level skills in her students.

I found the same attitude among local teachers. I had an extensive curriculum and needed teachers to teach the courses. I required written instructions for all classes. Teachers refused. I required that teachers provide samples of the projects in each class. Teachers refused. I required that core tasks be taught with one or more variations. Teachers refused. What really gored me was that the few teachers that agreed to create classes according to my requirements, in reality, did not. They told me one thing, and did something else. After several months, I began to notice that students were not learning what was spelled out in the curriculum. As one teacher I fired told me, she could do less work and get paid the same. I said, Goodbye, Good Luck, Good Riddance.

I began to teach many of the classes myself. Had to learn a lot quickly. Over time, I regained the upper hand. I worked individually with each new teacher. I required that they create 4 interrelated, progressive courses. They had to specify how the goals for the next, related to the preceding course. This strategy worked.

At first, it was also difficult to attract students. They could take classes elsewhere that didn’t have prerequisites and requirements. Pay the same amount. End up with a finished project they could take home. Have fun, that was that. Again, over time, I regained the upper hand. I created a local demand for something more. I did not have to lower any curriculum expectations.

For me, it is such a high to learn things. Develop myself. Conquer new challenges in design, manipulation and construction. Leverage the strengths of materials and techniques, and minimize their weaknesses. I will never get it: Why others don’t share this excitement. Yet I am driven. Whether this relates somehow to my father, or not. I am driven.

In the late 1960s, my father was driven, as well. He wanted New Jersey to allow pharmacists to give injectables in the pharmacy. This could be flu shots, vaccinations, things like that. The law prohibited this. Through a lot of political manipulations, and with the support of both the New Jersey Pharmacists Association and the New Jersey Nurses Association, he convinced the Medical Board to allow a pilot test. He pushed the project forward.

A date was set. A number of pharmacies in the county agreed to participate. Pharmacists were trained. Announcements went out.

Three days before, however: another in a long line of road blocks. The Medical Board reneged on their agreement. Pharmacists would not be allowed to administer injectables. My father knew they could not, however, stop nurse practitioners from doing so. A nurse practitioner was lined up for each drug store.

The Medical Board put up another roadblock 2 days before the event. Now, injectables could only be administered in a separate area devoted to the activity, with a detail of space requirements — roughly 6’x 6’. In our store, we took down a display gondola. We took a wooden door and sat it atop two file cabinets to create a desk. A chair on either side. We put into effect all the other little required details.

The event occurred with great success. The legislature changed the professional standards to now allow pharmacists to administer injectables. Every time I walk into a Walgreens pharmacy to get my flu or COVID or whatever shot, this all started with my father, his ambition, his professionalism and his concern for good health care delivery.

The Professional

As I see it, and as I only allow myself to see it, jewelry design is not merely an activity which occupies your time. It is not something that anyone can do. It requires training, development, experience, more experience. It requires learning specialized skills.

Part of the jewelry designer’s development as a professional involves an ability to anticipate and understand how various audiences express desire and how various audiences judge a piece of jewelry to be finished and successful. Jewelry is here to amaze and intrigue. It is here to entice someone to wear it, purchase it, show it around. It is here to share the inspiration and prowess of the designer with those who see, feel, touch and inhabit it.

The more professional designer takes the time to explore how an audience is engaged with the piece. The designer learns insights in how any piece of jewelry evokes emotions and resonates with others. The designer is very sensitive to the experience people have at the point of purchase or gifting. Finish and presentation are very important. Acquiring jewelry is special and unique a process. Jewelry is not something we must have to meet some innate need; rather, it is something we desire because it stirs something within us.

At the heart of my questioning is whether we are paid and rewarded either solely for the number of jewelry pieces which we make, or rather for the skill, knowledge and intent underlying our jewelry designs.

If the former, we do not need to call ourselves professionals. We do not need much training. Entry into the activity of jewelry design would be very open, with a low bar. Our responsibility would be to turn out pieces of jewelry. We would not encumber ourselves too much with art theory or design theory. We would not concern ourselves, in any great depth, and certainly not struggle with jewelry’s psycho-socio-cultural impacts.

If the latter, we would see ourselves as professionals. We would need a lot of specialized training and experience. Entry into the activity of jewelry design would be more controlled, most likely staged from novice to master. Our responsibility would be to translate our inspirations into aspirations into designs. It would also be to influence others viewing our work to be inspired to think about and reflect and emote those things which have excited the designer, as represented by the jewelry itself. And it would also be to enable others to find personal, and even social and cultural, success and satisfaction when wearing or purchasing this piece of jewelry.

To become a professional jewelry designer is to learn, apply and experience a way of thinking like a designer. Fluent in terms about materials, techniques and technologies. Flexible in the applications of techniques and the organizing of design elements into compositions which excite people. Able to develop workable design strategies in unfamiliar or difficult situations. Communicative about intent, desire, purpose, no matter the context or situation within which the designer and their various audiences find themselves. Original in how concepts are introduced, organized and manipulated, and in how the designer differentiates themselves from other designers.

When I think about beading a Rogue Elephant, I think about taking ownership of my own design process. I think about finding personal meaning, and how through jewelry, this affects others. I think of myself as a professional. I think of my Rogue Elephant as something reachable. Attainable. A creative challenge. My muse.

_______________________________

Thank you. I hope you found this article useful.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft Video Tutorials online. Begin with my ORIENTATION TO BEADS & JEWELRY FINDINGS COURSE.

Follow my articles on Medium.com.

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Check out my Jewelry Making and Beadwork Kits.

Add your name to my email list.

_________________________________

CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

· Getting Started: Naming business, identifying resources, protecting intellectual property

· Financial Management: basic accounting, break even analysis, understanding risk-reward-return on investment, inventory management

· Product Development: identifying target market, specifying product attributes, developing jewelry line, production, distribution, pricing, launching

· Marketing, Promoting, Branding: competitor analysis, developing message, establishing emotional connections to your products, social media marketing

· Resiliency: building business, professional and psychological resiliency

· Professional Responsibilities: preparing artist statement, portfolio, look book, resume, biographical sketch, profile, FAQ, self-care

548pp.

Kindle, Print, Epub

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

588pp, many images and diagrams Ebook , Kindle or Print formats

The Jewelry Journey Podcast
“Building Jewelry That Works: Why Jewelry Design Is Like Architecture”
Podcast, Part 1
Podcast, Part 2

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

184pp, many images and diagrams Ebook, Kindle or Print

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS:16 Lessons I Learned Doing Craft Shows

198pp, many images and diagrams, Ebook, Kindle or Print

___________________________________________

HOW TO BEAD A ROGUE ELEPHANT The Musings Of A Jewelry Designer: Inward

Posted by learntobead on February 16, 2023

I could see through the panes in the door this tall man heading towards me. I waited anxiously, obviously her father, to greet me and let me in to wait for his daughter and our date. Excited. Nervous. Eager to see her and lead her to our transportation, some dinner, a movie, perhaps something else. I had prepared for this moment. Though one can never fully prepare. And I heard him turn the knob and begin to open the door.

He opened the door violently. Violently. As if it were very heavy. Or difficult to open, you know, when you add that extra pull or push. His face was stern. Angry. Full of frustration. He was winding up. Something I wasn’t prepared for, and hoped would never happen.

“Get out of here!” “Stay away from my daughter!”

And the door slammed in my face.

This had happened too many times before with other planned-for dates that never materialized. In junior high. In high school.

Arlene, that was her name, had accepted my invitation for a date, I thought, because she wanted to go out with me. I liked her. I thought she liked me. We shared high school classes. We talked often. I felt an attraction. But Arlene, like Anne, and Sue, and Mary, and Ginny before her, had one objective. To get back at her parents by bringing a Jewish boy into their lives.

That Jewish boy. Walking up the front walkway. Up the 3 stairs. Ringing the doorbell. Unsuspecting — the parents that is, not caring whether the boy suspected or not.

Slap. Bang. Slam.

The outcome was always the same.

I crawled back to my car. My mother the driver prepared to take us wherever we wanted to go. She sat there speechless. Quiet. Blinders on. “Let’s go back home,” I said quietly with rejection.

My parents never reacted. They never confronted. Never stood up for me in a very public way. “We live in a Christian society, and have to accept that fact.” That was the rule they lived by. That was the rule they wanted me to live by.

The rule was cruel. I rued it. I resented my parents for it. Yes, they loved me, but never enough to protect me.

Arlene, over the next three years, never spoke to me at school again.

We would all bury this encounter deep within our memories. Hoping it would be forgotten.

Outward Or Inward

Someone once told me, that at the point we are ready to enter the world of life and things, we have to make a choice. A choice between heading outward or inward. We might head for a job in the corporate world. Or do something very singular and private. We might surround ourselves with networks of friends. Or find ourself to be our best, perhaps only friend. We might organize group activities likes sports or shopping or travel with many friends, eager to make new friends and acquaintances, and feeling very comfortable at it. Or we might explore the world on our own, hike the Appalachian Trail, set up a small business, exercise at home, a bit uncomfortable, even fearful, should we have to interact with any human encountered.

In the summer after my 18th birthday, I turned very inward. Inward was an escape. An escape from a world that told me over and over again that, as a Jew, I was ugly. Less than. Dangerous. To be kept at a distance. Not worthy of reward. Not worthy of attention. Uncomfortable to be around. I was tired of trying to fit in. Exhausted competing and defending myself. Wary of getting hurt. Punished for something to which I did not know how to relate.

Left alone, leaving myself alone, I thought about becoming an artist, or at least to explore that side of me. In my freshman year in high school, I took an art class. I needed to see whether what I felt inside of me could actually be channeled into some creative expression. I was sure I had talent, but I never tested this. I knew my parents would disapprove. Because they disapproved.

I remember when one adult — Risa — whom I met through a community program in the next town befriended me. She saw a lot of talent in me. She asked to meet with my parents. She had many connections in the creative community in New York City. She asked their permission to take me to New York and introduce me. My parents said, “No.” That ended that.

Over the next several months, my parents would ask me over and over again, to reaffirm that I believed their decision was right. I succumbed. They told me I couldn’t make a living at art, and I shouldn’t try. I was insecure. I felt unsupported in every other aspect of life, and this would be another one. Art was not to be given a chance. I would not give it a chance. Not then.

Inward. More inward. Ever inward. There had to be something in me that I would discover by turning inward. I was a kid. A young adult. This was too tall a task at the time. To go inward. All that was there were a bunch of emotions. Not well managed. Fear. Anger. Doubt. Disappointment. Rejection. Uselessness. But, as I saw it, turning inward, I had no other choice.

That art class in high school, well, that didn’t help. My art teacher was obsessed with noses — Jewish noses, to be exact. Every figure I drew and every figure I sculpted was never acceptable to him. While I was creating these works of art, he kept asking me why my figures did not have Jewish noses. On the finished works of art, he down-graded me because my figures did not have Jewish noses.

I had a Jewish nose, at least at the time before I thought rhinoplasty would solve all my problems. By the way, it did not. I remember the doctor probing to make sure that the nose job was for cosmetic reasons, not deeply concerning psychological ones. I never let on. Nose job done. I was still Jewish. Same problems. It wasn’t the nose.

In any event, I did not want to draw or sculpt figures with Jewish noses. My Jewish nose was a testament to all my Jewish problems of fitting in, being accepted, getting along with others, finding respect, getting any kind of positive attention. I did not want any of these things reflected in the figures I drew or sculpted.

High school was like that. I suffered what we call micro-aggressions, again and again, from most of my teachers. My guidance counselor. The principal of the school. Other students. Their families. Businesses in town. School was not a safe space. Nor was the town I lived in. Neither was my family.

I never took another art class again. Even in college, I would try to visualize taking some studio art classes, but was always too intimidated, too fretful, too fearful, too angry to register for them.

Inward. I could never find a direction where I felt safe. With meaning. With purpose.

I thought Archaeology would be a good profession. I pictured myself working alone. Spending hours carefully brushing away dirt and sand, hoping to uncover that special object. Out somewhere in a location not close to any other. Inward meant alone. Control. Not in the public eye or sphere. An easy specifiable task with a beginning, middle and rewarding end which no one could refute.

My parents supported Archaeology, but I never really knew why. I guess it sounded important to them. It had to have been, because their plan was doctor or lawyer, perhaps pharmacist. And there was no resistance to Archaeology. But secretly, I wanted Architecture. But I feared it. It seemed so public and outward. It smacked of Art, and I couldn’t bring myself, I had no internal energy, to confront every thing that I imagined I would have to confront if I ever brought my very being close to Art. I couldn’t do it. A choice I’ve always regretted.

I made it through college. Took an Archaeology class, and hated it, and said Goodbye to Archaeology. A good choice, one I have never regretted.

Out into the real world and my own apartment. I was in my early 20’s. I wanted to decorate my apartment. This was the right time, a safer time, less threatening, I thought, to see if I had any artistic talent at all. I wanted to try doing some paintings. Would they have that special appeal, and sufficient appeal, that I would take the risk of hanging them up. Exposing my apartment to something I created. Where other people might see what I created. And react to them. Then react to me. Relate the artworks to me. Relate me to the artworks.

I didn’t think, I just did. I purchased some acrylic paints, some brushes, an easel, some sketch paper and a set of colored pencils and a soft drawing pencil. I set the easel up in front of my couch, to where I could still see the TV.

The inspiration for my very first painting was a deteriorating black power poster that had been stapled to a telephone pole. I sketched what I saw directly onto the canvas with a soft pencil. I painted within the lines. Some areas white, others black. An exact replica. But lacking. There was no anger in the painting. Or a sense of defeat, because I felt their cause was defeated. I was angry. My cause was defeated. Intellectually I was set on making the connection, but it wasn’t coming across.

I propped the painting up against the wall, next to the TV. I pondered. I fretted. I started letting some self-doubt rise within my core. This wasn’t working for me. Failure. I was a Jew and I couldn’t paint. Yes, I could draw. I could illustrate. I could copy. But not enough. Not enough to want to hang this on the wall. To let others see it. They’d reject the painting. They’d reject me. Because I was a Jew, talentless, ugly, awful, unacceptable. It was no good. I was no good.

There it sat. Propped up. For months. I had to see it every time I sat down on my couch. My uncomfortable couch.

I brought the painting back up to my easel. I brushed in, with thickly applied, yet narrow, thin strokes, up and down the sides of the areas which were black. In dark red. Mustard. Black. More texture. More dimension. More randomness. More power. I had added something suggestive of blood and vomit and sweat. My painting was saying something to the world. There was no longer a sense that movement, that effort to sway society toward something else, was defeated. It was a work in progress, and with a sensibility of blood, and vomit and sweat, and with dimension, texture and, yes, direction and purpose, there was a chance. A chance that things could change. For what that poster stood for. For what I wanted for myself.

Inward. But a different inward. Nothing I could articulate about or draw boundaries around it. But a different inward, nonetheless.

I painted the tension between country and city folks because I had to find my way both within the country and within the city. I painted my Aunt Gert, a frenetic, conniving individual, sitting serenely on a city park bench. I painted an abstract rendering of chaos behind two skew lines representing measurement. I painted a furious Greek god against the ravages of AIDS. A pregnant woman within a environment marred by human revenge. A woman’s gloved hand grasping binoculars, staring out in the distance at some romantic encounter, thinking about the fun they would have.

I had lots of paintings with which to decorate the walls of my apartment. Expressive. Appealing. Meaningful. Of which I was happy to share publicly.

And many years later, however, through a confluence of seemingly fateful events, I began making jewelry. Not yet designing, but making. Making jewelry had a special fascination for me, moreso than painting. More real, authentic, touchable, something residing on the body, connected to my inner soul. More expressive and meaningful — what I wanted those drawn and sculpted figures I had created in that high school class to have been. I found myself on a pathway towards finding my Rogue Elephant, inwards or outwards, not sure, and beading him.

_______________________________

Thank you. I hope you found this article useful.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft Video Tutorials online. Begin with my ORIENTATION TO BEADS & JEWELRY FINDINGS COURSE.

Follow my articles on Medium.com.

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Check out my Jewelry Making and Beadwork Kits.

Add your name to my email list.

_________________________________

CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

· Getting Started: Naming business, identifying resources, protecting intellectual property

· Financial Management: basic accounting, break even analysis, understanding risk-reward-return on investment, inventory management

· Product Development: identifying target market, specifying product attributes, developing jewelry line, production, distribution, pricing, launching

· Marketing, Promoting, Branding: competitor analysis, developing message, establishing emotional connections to your products, social media marketing

· Resiliency: building business, professional and psychological resiliency

· Professional Responsibilities: preparing artist statement, portfolio, look book, resume, biographical sketch, profile, FAQ, self-care

548pp.

Kindle, Print, Epub

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

588pp, many images and diagrams Ebook , Kindle or Print formats

The Jewelry Journey Podcast
“Building Jewelry That Works: Why Jewelry Design Is Like Architecture”
Podcast, Part 1
Podcast, Part 2

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

184pp, many images and diagrams Ebook, Kindle or Print

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS:16 Lessons I Learned Doing Craft Shows

198pp, many images and diagrams, Ebook, Kindle or Print

___________________________________________

Posted in architecture, Art or Craft?, art theory, bead weaving, beads, beadwork, business of craft, craft shows, creativity, design management, design theory, design thinking, jewelry collecting, jewelry design, jewelry making, Learn To Bead, pearl knotting, professional development, wire and metal | Tagged: art, becoming an artist, craft, jewelry design, jewelry making | Leave a Comment »

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Archive for February, 2023

You Cannot Separate The Parts From The Design

It Has Been A Journey

Contemplation

PLAY

DABBLING

CREATE

SAFARI

LITERACY

FULFILLMENT

CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design

How dreams are madebetween the fickleness of businessand the pursuit of jewelry design

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNERMerging Your Voice With Form

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s WayEasy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS:16 Lessons I Learned Doing Craft Shows

LARIATS

DESIGN ISSUES

STRINGING MATERIAL

LENGTH

WHETHER THERE IS A FIXED POINT OF CONNECTION, SUCH AS A LOOP OR RING OR DONUT ON ONE SIDE

SILHOUETTE FLEXIBILITY

HOW TO FINISH OFF THE ENDS

MAINTAINING THE TENSION ON YOUR BEADS, WHILE ALLOWING SUFFICIENT EASE

CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design

How dreams are madebetween the fickleness of businessand the pursuit of jewelry design

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNERMerging Your Voice With Form

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s WayEasy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS:16 Lessons I Learned Doing Craft Shows

Thank you. I hope you found this article useful.

Other Articles of Interest by Warren Feld:

CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design

How dreams are madebetween the fickleness of businessand the pursuit of jewelry design

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNERMerging Your Voice With Form

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s WayEasy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS:16 Lessons I Learned Doing Craft Shows

How To Design, Take Measurements ForAnd Finish Off Multi-Strand Pieces

Thank you. I hope you found this article useful.

Other Articles of Interest by Warren Feld:

CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design

How dreams are madebetween the fickleness of businessand the pursuit of jewelry design

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNERMerging Your Voice With Form

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s WayEasy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS:16 Lessons I Learned Doing Craft Shows

The Bridesmaids’ Bracelets

I Had To Go / I Wanted To Go

Rogue Elephants Are Shy And HideIn The Presence of Self-Doubt And Life Crises

There Is A Long History

Wedding Weekend

Thank you. I hope you found this article useful.

Other Articles of Interest by Warren Feld:

CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design

How dreams are madebetween the fickleness of businessand the pursuit of jewelry design

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNERMerging Your Voice With Form

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s WayEasy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

SO YOU WANT TO DO CRAFT SHOWS:16 Lessons I Learned Doing Craft Shows

The Audacity

All About Choices and Responsibility

It Takes A Lot Of Push and Determination

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

How To Design, Take Measurements For
And Finish Off Multi-Strand Pieces

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

Rogue Elephants Are Shy And Hide
In The Presence of Self-Doubt And Life Crises

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!

How dreams are made
between the fickleness of business
and the pursuit of jewelry design

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER
Merging Your Voice With Form

PEARL KNOTTING…Warren’s Way
Easy. Simple. No tools. Anyone Can Do!