BEADWORKERS: SEVEN DEADLY SINS - SIN #4

SIN #4: LOOKING AT BEAD WORK
(In which she thieves the excellent advice of Bead Maven, Mikki Ferrugiaro, with a completely clean conscience and passes the advice on to you!)

Rule: When critically stuck, bogged, blocked and creatively brain-dead, do NOT under any circumstances look at bead work, saith The Mikki.

There comes a time in the lives of designers (any medium) when the flow of inspiration dries to a trickle and then stops. Or at least that happens in the life of this particular designer. It's not that Brenda, my Muse, has gone AWOL (although she is prone to doing whatever the hell she likes) - It's plain, ordinary, exhaustion. The dark side of the Superwoman syndrome. All work and no recreation or rest for a very long time.

I hit the wall about a month ago. With my face.

There's a lot of daytime TV in the vicinity of the wall. I developed the habit of watching strangely afflicted people on "reality" TV and I hate reality TV.   I would wonder, in a kind of half-hearted way, about my odd behavioral changes and then, because wondering was an effort, I would shamble into the kitchen for potato chips and cake to keep my energy up. It wasn't pretty. Or slimming. And I left the cake plate in the sink, unwashed.

Of course, there were fitful, doomed efforts to goad Brenda the Dysfunctional Muse into producing at least a glimmer of artistic ambition. I had a September deadline for a gallery show. I turned to my stack of beading magazines and books and spent hours imploring Brenda to look at 500 Beaded Objects and back issues of Bead & Button with me. Brenda wasn't having it. In the end, as Mikki later pointed out to me, the only conclusion I could possibly draw was that everything has been done. At least twice and by more talented people than me.

I fell back into the television during an episode of reality TV concerning a woman with a chalk-eating addiction.

Fortunately, Mikki dropped an email my way before I succumbed to the urge to take my Etsy shop off vacation mode and set up selling every last bead and finding I owned.  Instead, I shamelessly wailed my plight out. Apparently (although she seems to create with blinding speed and steady enthusiasm), Mikki has been to the wall, herself.

Her advice was to look at the new runway fashions or to watch a movie set in Victorian times.
To do anything, anything but look at beadwork. And suddenly I remembered that my best inspirations have never come from looking at actual beadwork - but from Fiber magazines, pictures of flowers, patterns in shadows, ceramics, paintings, wearable art clothing, books of wallpaper samples. Random sources that range from National Geographic to Popular Mechanics, basically.

Dress by LeMuse on Etsy

So I did. And I have a plan! And I have just enough time to make my September 15th deadline for the Wearable Art show at The Moorings. I'm doing a neckpiece that would work with any of the pieces shown here.

Take it from Mikki and me - When tempted to burn your beads, put the beading magazine down!

And by the way, life is nicer when you stop long enough to smell the roses or make sure you have clean underwear.

BEADWORKERS: SEVEN DEADLY SINS - SIN #2

Envy and the dangers of competition

If human beings were not competitive, the Olympics would have packed up its' togas and doused its' torches hundreds of years ago. To greater and lesser degrees, the urge to compete is bred in the bone and often produces improvements - whether it is faster runners, or Jim Dyson persisting until he achieves his perfect vacuum cleaner. Many of us thrive on a challenge, a deadline - on pushing ourselves to another level. Nothing wrong with that.

However, we live in a society in which competition, walking hand-in-hand with the need for that drug, recognition, often crosses a line lethal to creativity.

Think about it.

There is a virtual Renaissance going on in the beading world. In 1985, I made my living doing beadwork. There wasn't, to my knowledge, a single book readily available on the subject that wasn't related to North American Native beadwork. I had virtually no competition. In 2010, my fellow beadworkers number in the hundreds or thousands - and thanks to the Internet, I see new and original work on a daily basis.
It's a potluck feast of inspiration.


After consuming this daily feast, is there anyone out there who has not had days of indigestion? Days when they suspected their contribution to the potluck was boiled eggs sitting next to foie gras? Is there anyone out there who, once in a while, has not felt more bludgeoned and overwhelmed than inspired by the feast?

To the Hanging Judge who lives in my over-crowded mind, who is quick to whisper poisonous thoughts about my place (or lack of it) in the hierarchy of bead artists, I have the following answers...

Envy is toxic. Admiration is motivating. And I can choose which attitude to take. So shut up.

If someone is more skilled than me, they have worked harder or longer at the craft. So, I'll keep working.

Competition helps push me - whether I win or not. Winning is a great bonus, but it only lasts a moment. I will remember I started this because the process is gives me joy.

I didn't win (or my pattern wasn't accepted etc.). That doesn't mean I won't be accepted next time,
I will not base my self-worth on whether my work is accepted.

I will embrace my community of fellow-artisans and share freely with them. They are my support system.

I will suspend work when envy creeps in and the joy goes away. My Muse needs the odd day off and there are five loads of laundry in the closet.

Finally - I do this because it engages me, because I love to learn more, because I love the community of creators, and so when the going gets rough, I will persist. One bead at a time.

What does your Hanging Judge tell you? And what is your answer?

**On a related note, I recommend this entry on Mikki Ferrugiaro's blog: The Beaded Carpet
and an entry of Smadar Grossman's at Smadar's Treasures .
There is also a book no artist or artisan should be without: Art & Fear: Observations on the perils (and rewards) of artmaking - David Bayles & Ted Orlando, Capra Press1993.

BEADWORKERS: SEVEN DEADLY SINS - SIN #1

Sin #1: Breech of copyright

Years ago, my father showed original watercolors in an exhibition of paintings done by Ontario Provincial Government employees. I was outraged to see the above painting by Gustav Klimpt copied, brush stroke for brush stroke and signed as an original by the impostor who painted it.

We bead artists know this issue is a bit of a snake's nest - tangled and difficult. So let's take a look at it from a couple of different angles....

"The secret of creativity is hiding your sources." For anyone who hasn't encountered this quote before, it is attributed to no less a luminary than Albert Einstein, a man known for originality and genius.

There should be no shame in admitting right out loud that we all have "sources." For me, the list is endless. It includes paintings, fiber, ceramics, nature etc. Last, but certainly not least, I have a growing library of beading books and stacks of magazines and daily view the inspirational work of my many fellow-artisans online.

Anyone who says they haven't done derivative work is doing a stitch I've never heard of or beading in a studio on the moon in my humble opinion.

That's okay. Peyote, right angle weave, African helix, netting, square, brick and herringbone stitches belong to all of us. And we are all inspired by something, by someone.

But when someone combines stitches and materials in a new way or creates an excitingly original pattern or design - make no mistake, they own the copyright.

Seems straightforward, doesn't it? But really, there is so much out there that even the best of us goof. A while back, a famous beading magazine featured an article on copyright and a pattern for a beaded bead identical to one I'd learned several years earlier. And the designer credit was not for the designer in the book where I'd found the pattern. I emailed the editor and she replied that she hadn't known that and, "No one complained." So if the pros can get lost, it's not that difficult for the rest of us to retain something and later make an item forgetting that there was a specific source. No crime there.

But there are instances where black is black and white is white. If your intent is to copy a design in it's entirety, and you do not have permission to do so, you are contravening copyright law. If you buy a pattern and then reproduce it for sale without permission, unless the seller states it is for commercial use, you are breaking the law.

Carol Dean Sharpe of Sandfibers has given me permission to use a photograph of one of her signature peyote cuffs. Now, Carol does not own the right to peyote stitch or toggle cuffs. But her works are like paintings. Copy a design of hers, whether you buy the pattern or not, if you offer it for sale - you are literally taking food off her table when she clearly states that commercial use is forbidden. You're good to go, IF you've bought one of her patterns designated for commercial use. Very straightforward.

On the other hand, back in the gray area, we learn from others. Our original work at least stems from work that was done before. And how do we deal with that?

I'd like to talk about permission. Perhaps most of you saw the special issue of Bead & Button devoted to using lampwork focals? One design featured a juicy innovation on Celini spiral - which reversed the spiral at mid-point. I wrote the designer and told her that I'd love to use that variation in my work, giving credit to her as the originator of the stitch. She generously granted me permission - and added that she appreciated my contacting her. "Most people don't ask," she said.

I also wrote Rachel Nelson-Smith to ask if I could use her "bump" stitch (from her fabulous book, "Seed Bead Fusion").
She said:
"When that information goes out into the world with instructions, it really belongs to the world at that point. Where would we be if anyone who ever wrote a textbook, refused to let anyone use that knowledge in their own work?"

The point is - many designers - and especially those who teach, are generous. It never hurts to ask. And it certainly does not hurt your credibility as an artisan or artist to give credit where it is due. Be honored to state your sources. It's a classy thing to do and maybe someone will do the same for you some day.

The truth is that since the advent of the internet and the enormous surge of interest in our craft, if you publish a picture - someone will copy. I guarantee it. This can be a bitter experience for someone who has spent many hours developing a design and who has plainly stated his or her copyright. So don't.
I promise you that you can take that "source" and hide it by challenging yourself to do something original and just as good.

And to those teachers who allow we students to use their innovations - a grateful and heartfelt thank you. To the hundreds of beaders out there who inspire me every day, my sincere gratitude.

Meanwhile - pay it forward.