Inspiration: Inspire

Inspire is the first in a series of words made in collaboration with my friend, the calligrapher Inkywhispers.  I first connected with her many years ago when I began my first blog which was a journal where I wrote about anything and everything, including the things I made.  We have been friends for years now and our conversations often feed creativity, they inspire and we grow ideas between us.  I don't remember who came up with the idea for this collaboration, I don't think it really matters.

It was a problem to begin with, how to recreate the curving angled letters.  I sat with it for sometime, waiting for inspiration to strike.  It did, but not for this project.  A lady in a facebook group I belong to asked for a biohazard pattern.  I went to bed that night thinking about it and the next morning, I woke with a fully formed idea for Biohazard.  From the matte black frame to the translucent green background with neon detail and the letters that used shades of grey to blur edges and trick the eye a little in to seeing curves.  Once I had that idea, I knew I could apply it to this series of projects.

Sometimes creating is a process, applying skills and techniques to produce something, experimenting to see what happens.  You can often see artists work developing as they explore a principle.  Inspiration is that eureka moment, the breakthrough when you realise something new.  It's a great feeling.

Unfortunately, this series of collaboration is not one where inspiration strikes often.  They are hard work, balancing colours and lightening and darkening individual beads in the letters to create the correct visual effect.  The background of Inspire was developed from a photograph I took from a ship of the churning water of the bow wave.  I zoomed in and changed individual colours.  I chose citrus colours for their bright energy and white for the blank page, because you have to keep creating, keeping showing up at the blank page in order to be inspired....

I was inspired when it came to the whites though....  I had an idea to play with opacity.  Beads have a wonderful quality which allows you to play with light.  I used opaque white beads and crystal beads and I needed something inbetween and chose white lined crystal.  I love the effect this gives.  Like glass painted white where the paint has been scrapped off to varying degrees.  It's an effect I am sure I will use again and when I do, it will be less about being inspired and more about using a skill, an understanding I already have.  I think inspiration is like leveling up in a game.

Inspiration hit working on my tartans too.  I didn't want to make tartans using diamonds and I didn't want to only have a tiny part of a large pattern, in the way you would if you work it in a perpendicular fashion or even at 45 degrees.  It hit me that you could work it at an angle so that you got a larger variety of the larger pattern and the shapes would be closer to rectangular, although not perfect.  Each tartan I make uses that initial inspiration but I don't have that big flash of inspiration for each one.

I like that the word inspire also means to inhale, the opposite of expire.  It's a bringing in of breathe.  Air symbolizes the mental body.  Bringing in ideas....  It isn't just about the mind though.  There is an emotion connected to being inspired, an energy.  It feels really good!

Where do these ideas come from?  It doesn't always feel like they come from us.  People believed that the bible was inspired by God.  The Greeks believed that the Muses inspired mortals and there were nine who inspire literature, science and the arts in all their variety.  The word muse has come to mean a person that inspires someone's art and painters were famous for having muses.  Generally male artists had female muses and they were inspired by the beauty of their muse to attempt to recreate the female form.  There is a dark side to this relationship though...

Sometimes the female muses were artists in their own right but their art was never going to be as important in a male dominated world.  Some artists were married to their muses and considered their needs.  Others would have passionate relationships with a muse for a time, before moving on to the next.  Picasso was infamous for his muses, he was married twice and had four children by three different women.  He often had mistresses.  His relationships were stormy but vital to his creative process, though the women often fared less well.  His second wife and one of his mistresses committed suicide and others had nervous breakdowns.  Marie Francoise Gilot was muse, mistress and artist and following her split with Picasso, he used his influence to discourage support of her artwork and her celebrity fame far eclipsed her artistic fame.

I find the world around me hugely inspiring.  The natural world, the work of others, science, popular culture....  There is inspiration to be found everywhere....

Tutorial: Wide Loop with Y Connection

I developed this loop for Heartbeat, my first design of 2021 which is a mix of 1, 2 and 3 drop peyote.  You could still anchor a simple wide loop over a single bead but I decided to anchor the loop at two points on the beadwork, to make a little Y shaped connection.  Although this tutorial is pretty much aimed at Heartbeat, you can use the techniques for other projects.  If you use buttons with different dimensions, you will need to use different anchor points too.

As with the simple wide loop, this should only be used on a bracelet which you intend to wear snug to your wrist as the wide loop is easier to do up but will also come undone more easily if it's loose.  The loop needs to be roughly the width of the button that you will use.

Heartbeat uses two buttons so needs two loops and I chose to place them at different ends of the beadwork.  The placement shown in this tutorial works for Heartbeat but for other designs you will need to work out where you want to place your button and then choose the placement of the loop so that it matches.  

Begin by adding a thread as shown in the diagram below so that it exits the bead highlighted yellow.  This first loop is situated on the side of the beadwork with the section of two drop peyote.

Stitch along the last two rows until you exit the first set of 2 drop peyote beads, as highlighted yellow.

Pick up seven beads and then stitch in to the bead highlighted red, which is the first bead of the first 3 drop peyote set.

Stitch through so that you exit the next 3 drop set (green bead), it is best to chose a route that goes further back in to the beadwork so the loop is well anchored to a number of rows and does not just pull on the last row.

I am going to call the bits of the peyote that stick out teeth and the bits in between gaps.  The first Y is situated over the 2 drop gap but the second Y is situated over the 3 drop tooth you have just stitched through.  Exiting the green bead, pick up 7 beads and stitch into  the blue bead through the 3 drop tooth in the same direction as you have just gone, exiting the green bead again.

Stitch through the beadwork, anchoring the loop across rows and turn back and go through the three drop tooth again, exiting the blue bead.  Stitch through the first four beads of the loop.

Pick up 27 beads then stitch in to the closest end of the 4th bead of the first loop you made.

Stitch through the first three beads of the first loop.  Stitch through the beadwork to the other side of the gap so that you can stitch through the last three beads of the first loop.

Stitch back through the 27 beads of the wide loop.  This will move the 27 beads over the top of the fourth bead of the first little loop.  Stitch in to the closest side of the fourth bead of the second little loop.

Stitch through the last three beads of the second loop, exiting the green bead.  From this point you can stitch through everything again or finish the thread.  

The loop at the other end is constructed in exactly the same way.  Both the little Y loops are sat over three drop gaps.

The beadwork has been turned so the loop appears to be in the same spot at the other end, they are not though!

Inspiration: Sun Star

 The Winter Solstice is a hugely important date.  While these days Christmas may seem more important in the western world, the solstice is the event that Christmas and many other religious festivals at this time of year would have originally been connected to.  Our ancestors didn't measure time in the ways that we do.  We know what time the sun rose, even on a cloudy day but for them, time measurement was entirely based on observation.

Winter would have been a hard time in many places.  I imagine they would have been concerned if they had enough fuel and food to last till spring.  Even with calendars and an understanding of what is going on, winter can seem endless.  I imagine that for our ancestors, observing the sun diminishing as days grew shorter and the sun stayed lower and lower in the sky would have been daunting.  Knowing that they had reached that point when days started to grow longer again would have been a cause for celebration, like a promise that summer would return.  It's not surprising so many cultures have mid winter celebrations.  They knew just how important the sun was.

Contrary to what some people think, our planet orbits our sun, not the other way around.  The sun is the most important object in our solar system.  The heart around which we all orbit, clustered around for heat and light.  Life depends on this light and heat and the distance from the sun of our planet is key to the presence of life here.  Every star in our night sky is a sun though, but so far away, they don't light up our sky with more than a pinprick of light.  Their light is so dim that during the day we cannot see them.  

This is why I made two versions of the Sun Star design.  One cool and white against a black background and another warm and yellow like our sun but on a white background (although maybe it should have been blue).  The science nerd in me wanted to go further and have red giants and white dwarf stars.  Maybe one day....

So winter is the season when the Northern hemisphere is pointed away from the sun, so that it gets the least amount of sun.  The solstice is the point at which  the northern hemisphere is angled furthest from the sun.  Change though is fastest at the equinoxes...  At the equinoxes sunset and sunrise change by about 3 minutes each day but around the Solstice, the sun rises at the same time for a week (although the sunrise continues to change by about a minute).  

Another affect is that it takes time for the earth to heat up and cool down.  This means that most of the winter actually occurs after the winter solstice.  December is often cold, but January and February are colder.  I have friends in Canada and I find their weather fascinating.....  They have snow for so long!  There, winter is a lot longer.  In the UK, the sea keeps us warm.  Maybe the winter solstice is in the middle of winter in other places, without the warmth of the sea?

My pinterest board is here.

Tutorial: Button Clasp (two hole button with holes between 1.5mm and 2mm

 

This method is exactly the same as the previous button tutorial with holes smaller than 1.5mm but there are different considerations. The between beads can still be size 11 beads as they are still too large to go through the holes in the button.  When covering the thread though, the size 15's will fit into the button holes and this needs to be considered at that stage.  If you have read the other tutorial, skip to the end for the covering of the thread with 15's!

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Complete the bracelet so that it is the required length of the completed bracelet, minus about 5mm.  Weave any loose ends into the beadwork and finish as you normally would for your choice of thread.  Remove all loose threads.

I like to place a bead between each button hole and the beadwork.  These stalks mean that the button sits flatter when the loop is round it and the loop is in contact with the beads, not rubbing against the bare thread that secures the button to the beadwork.  

The beads have to be larger than the holes in the button.  In this case, the holes are too small for size 11s to fit through and either size 11's or 8's would be perfect.  I will refer to this bead as the between bead.

Take the button and place it over the beadwork and decide on a suitable placement.  It should not be right at the edge of the beadwork.  I like to position it so that some rows of beads are visible between the end of the button and the end of the beadwork.

Rotate the button a little.  While it is good to have the holes situated parallel to the end of the beadwork so the loop rests on them equally, this would mean that the button is attached to one row of the bracelet. I prefer to rotate the button so the holes are off vertical as shown in the diagram below. 

Refine the position of the button so that the holes are better situated over individual beads within the beadwork.  In this instance, I moved the button up slightly.

The holes are now situated over the peyote beads marked red and blue.  

Add in a new thread in your usual way and stitch to and then through the red bead.

Stitch up through the between bead and the hole of the button.

Then stitch through the other button hole, down through the second between bead, then through the blue bead.

Stitch away from the blue bead then back round to the other side of the blue bead and then through.  This anchors the button to the beadwork as a whole, rather than to just one bead.

Stitch up through the between bead and the button hole.

Stitch back down through the other button hole, then through the other between bead then through the red bead.

Stitch away from the red bead, then back towards the red bead.  This time though, you want to pass through the red bead from the other direction.

Take the thread back up through the between bead and the button hole.

You can take the thread through the button as many times as you want.  The beadwork can get quite tight so there is a limit to how many times you can take the thread through the red and blue beads.  I use 6lb fireline which is pretty tough so the button will be strongly attached with very few passes of the thread.

Bear in mind that in order to pull evenly on the red and blue beads, you want the thread to exit the bead and go through the between bead from both sides.  This will help the between bead sit over either the red or blue bead.

Also there are four beads adjacent to both the red and the blue bead that the thread passes from, vary the thread path so the button is anchored via each of theses beads.

On the last pass of the thread through the button, use some size 15 seed beads to cover the visible thread.  Bring the thread up through the between bead and then the button hole and then pick up the size 15 beads before bringing the thread through the other button hole and the other between bead.

Size 15 crystal beads work well for covering the button thread.  Matching the peyote beadwork is another option or you can match the button to make the 15s less visible.  The grey button in the photo at the top has crystal beads but the pearl button has silver lined beads which match some of those used in the bracelet.

The number of 15s to use depends on the gap between the two button holes.  You do not want to use too many as this will make the thread loose over the top. It's better to use one less than have the thread loose.  The holes are also large enough for a bead to sit in the holes so include two extra beads and ensure that one sits in each button hole.  

In the photo at the beginning of the the grey button has a size 15 sat in each button hole but only one bead between the holes as there is not much distance between the holes.  The pearl button has a size 15 in each hole but three between the holes.

Once finished, thread through the beadwork and finish the thread in your normal way.

The clasp requires a loop to be complete and as there are different styles of loop and these can be used for a number of different clasps, they are covered in separate tutorials.  

These currently include:

Wide Simple Loop

Inspiration: Yellow Brick Road

Growing up, The Wizard of Oz was one of those films that was repeatedly on TV and we would often watch it.  There was very limited numbers of TV channels and no dedicated childrens channels so any opportunity to watch something that was not geared towards adults was eagerly taken.  It was iconic and much loved.

The original book was written by L. Frank Baum and released in 1900 with the name The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  It was adapted into a Broadway musical in 1902 and the iconic film was made in 1939, although three silent films were made before this.  The copyright has lapsed and the story has been taken and used to inspire many other stories, including Wicked by Gregory Maguire.  In Wicked, the story of Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West, is given resulting in a very different viewpoint of the original story.  The beautiful song 'Defying Gravity' comes from the very successful musical.  Both the original Wizard of Oz and Wicked have spawned cultural references.

Many people have looked for deeper meanings within the story, political, religious, and it's true, authors often used fantasies to provide a cover for criticism.  The story stands on it's own in my view and it's appeal to children has nothing to do with any allegory.  It's success is due to the masterful story telling and incredible imagery.

So many iconic phrases have come from the story, such as 'there is no place like home' and follow the yellow brick road'.  The yellow brick road has become an important cultural feature.  In the books, the yellow brick road leads to the Emerald City and Dorothy's way home.  As long as she sticks to this path, she will get where she is going.  It has become a representation of the light at the end of the tunnel but it's use is not necessarily optimistic, it can be pessimistic or sarcastic.  

I think Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road sums up much of the feeling of the yellow brick road.  It's a journey from innocence and safety.  The path takes us away from our childhood life seeking for something, more.  The things we seek do not always seem worth it, it's hard to judge a journey until it's finished and when does the road leading us to seek ever truly end?  It's easy to become disillusioned.  The wizard after all was not infallible and Dorothy became a pawn in the plans of others.  In the very end though, she did make it home and her friends did get the things they sought.  I think your belief in what the yellow brick road represents depends on what your outlook on life is.  I guess I am an optimist but that said, I don't believe things are always easy, there are troubles and pitfalls waiting for us all.  Does anyone sail through life without any trouble?

The iconic images and characters from the film have inspired so much, from lego minifigures and a film to barbie dolls.  Banksy produced a piece of art called Stop and Search showing a policeman in riot gear wearing blue gloves searching Dorothy's basket.  Harrods produced replica ruby shoes and numerous pairs made for the film have been sold with the most expensive going for $666,000 in the year 2000.  Other memorabilia from the film has sold for astonishing amounts with Dorothy's dress selling for over a million dollars and the lion's costume for over $800,000.  There have been many editions of the books since it was initially published and most of these featured different artwork.

The Wicked Witch of the West was played by Margaret Hamilton and she was so good at being scary that many of her scenes were cut because they were too scary.  Many years later she visited Sesame Street and reprised the role in 1976 but the episode received a lot of complaints for being too scary and was never aired again.  I find it interesting that she became the central character of Wicked, which showed her as wronged and misunderstood.  

The film that cemented the story into the lives of millions of children was not without controversy.  Stories of abuse and debauchery abound and many of the effects were achieved in very dangerous ways.  The lion's costume was made from original lion hair and he sweated so much it had to be industrially dried each night as the set was frequently over 100 degrees.  The aluminium in the tin man's costume made him so sick it hospitalised the original actor who was replaced when he was too sick to immediately continue.  The snow used in the film was asbestos.  The wicked witch caught fire and took six weeks to recover and could not wear the hand makeup following this due to nerve damage.  The wicked witch's double later did another fire scene and also caught fire spending eleven days in hospital.

Some of my favourite images actually come from the Land of Oz theme park which was abandoned in 1975 following a fire.   It lay derelict for some time but portions were restored and it occasionally opens.  My favourite photos are the ones showing the yellow brick road.  There is something about it wending it's way through the trees, particularly when it looks a little unkempt.

Just stay on the yellow brick road and you will get where you are going.  Adventure will be yours, through dark and light.  Take one step and then another.  Hope will keep your feet moving.

That's definitely the theme of this bracelet for me, hope, finding your path.  Covid gave me the push I needed to leave the rat race and pursue creativity as a career.  It was the first of my designs that went beyond simple geometry.

Want to look at the images which inspired me on pinterest?

Tutorial: Toggle Clasp #4

 

This toggle clasp uses little peyote stalks to attach and hide parts of the clasp.  I used a basic toggle clasp with a ring about 1.5cm (0.59 inches).  The attachment loops were flat to the clasp.  This design may not work as it is for different size clasps and the width of the stalks may need to be wider in order to cover the loops.  Changing the width of the stalks might affect the flexibility and make it harder to fasten the clasp in order to wear it.  It won't work if the attachment loops are at right angles to the clasp.

I like the way it looks though, with the raised attachment points on the main beadwork and it looping round the clasp.  The toggle is a little less flexible so make sure you give it a longer attachment so it will still be able to go through the ring of the clasp.

Weave any loose ends into the beadwork and finish as you normally would for your choice of thread.  Do not remove the final working thread from the beadwork at this point, in case you need to adjust the bracelet length.

Begin with a new thread, leaving half the length as a tail and make a piece of peyote beadwork 44 rows long and two columns deep.

Lay your working end on top of the main piece of beadwork, at the end with no working thread.  The pale yellow beads show the approximate overlapping area.  

The peyote stalk needs to be central in the beadwork and eight rows in.  You will probably find that instead of sitting on top of the main beadwork, the beads of the stalk slip into the gap where the beads of the main beadwork meet and that's fine.

The diagrams show the two pieces of beadwork separately in order to show the bead path used to attach the two.  You should pull the thread tight so the two pieces of beadwork actually fit snuggly.  Stitch through the two beads highlighted in green on the bracelet as shown in the diagram below.  

Stitch through the two beads highlighted in blue on the stalk.  This creates a loop attaching the stalk to the main bracelet.

Repeat this loop, stitching through the two green beads firstly, then the two blue beads as before.

Now stitch through the two beads highlighted green on the main bracelet, then the two beads highlighted blue in the diagram below.  Note that the direction has changed slightly for the green beads.

Continue stitching the end of the peyote stalk to the bracelet, moving on to the next pair of green and blue beads as shown below.

Move along again to the next pairs of green and blue beads.

Repeat again, stitching through first the green beads then the blue beads in the diagram below, but note that the direction has altered slightly for this last connecting loop.

Turn the beadwork over, so the raised connection is on the underside.  Thread the peyote stalk through the main ring of clasp.  Position the attachment ring of this section of the clasp on top of peyote stalk.  

Move the clasp so that the middle of the entire length of the peyote stalk will sit on top the connecting part of the clasp between the attachment ring and main ring.  The free end of the peyote stalk will be folded over and the other end attached to the bracelet in the same way as the other end.  The diagram below gives an indication of the placement but the majority of the clasp has been cut away with just the brown circles showing sections of it.

Having worked out where the attachment ring will sit on the beadwork, you now need to stitch it to the peyote stalk.  Thread through to the correct point.

With the thread in the centre stitch into the inner hole of another bead to form a loop over the attachment ring.  In the picture below the thread comes out of the peach bead, goes over the attachment loop and into the green bead.

Repeat this using different beads so that there are a minimum of two loops holding this side of the peyote stalk to the attachment ring.  Stitch along the beadwork to the corresponding point and make a further minimum of two loops to hold that side of the stalk to the attachment loop.  The attachment loops should now be held firmly in the peyote stalk and should be largely obscured. The thread anchoring it to one side is dark pink and anchoring it to the other side it is light pink.

Stitch through to the free end of the peyote stalk and attach it in exactly the same way as you did the first end, but on the opposite side of the bracelet.  Take this thread and weave it away and finish it in your normal way.

I like to make sure loops like this are well anchored.  The tail thread can either be finished at this stage by weaving it into the main bracelet and away or you can use it to reinforce the points where the stalk connects to the bracelet.  You may also want to stitch all the way along the length of the folded stalk again.  

Do not stitch the two sides of the stalk together, they should only join at each end of the fold, where they are both stitched to the bracelet and where the attachment ring is anchored.  If you stitch them together, the stalk will lose it's flexibility.  This is especially important with the stalk for the bar section of the clasp as you need to be able to bed it through the main ring.

The stalk for the bar section is exactly the same, except for it's length.  Mine was 74 rows long.