Bead Bowl - The Sarah Hornik Focals

Still working on taxes...UGH. I sometimes feel Uncle Sam should pay ME for all the time it takes to document my life! OY!

Today, we're taking a look inside my overflowing bead bowl. I use my bead bowl for different things... In that big bowl is a stash of HUGE plain beads and vessels in case I ever decide to study electroforming! I have the kit... but no time to learn one more skill! Then there are wonkies and fuglies  - just-not-quite-perfect-but-still-really-cool beads. Those often end up in my Beads of Courage stash. I keep beads that I made one or two of as a sort of journal or a reminder to make more and turn them into a set. There are also beads that are one offs that I often use as freebies for repeat customers.

Finally, there are beads from classes. I hang onto them because I think they're cool and I hope to turn them into something for me to wear. But I often hang on to them to reexamine what it is I really like about them and try to find a way to adapt that to my own work...thus making the bead more my own. I know many feel that if a teacher teaches something in a class - a class that costs lots of money - it must be o.k. to make the beads she taught in class. But I feel a little weird about that... I want to take what I learned and use that in something that is mine.

I simply adore how far the webbing ran down the length of this bead.  This makes me want to play with droopy silvered ivory!

These are two of the beads I kept from a class with Sarah Hornik. I adore Sarah...she's an excellent teacher. But I adore her as an artist because she breaks the rules! Who says a bead has to be round? Who says the ends have to be even? Who says the two ends of a bead have to look alike? Just taking a look at her work can expand your thinking of how beads should be....why not break the rules? It's way more fun!

Here, the gold leaf work mesmerizes... I want to play more with leafing under heavy crystal!