Search This Blog

Saturday, June 8, 2013

"September Song"

The title for this work is from a song by the same name.  I love Willie Nelson's rendition, and if you would like to hear it, here is a link.
 
The lyrics compare the months in a year to the seasons of a lifetime.  I will be 60 next month, and I am certainly in the autumn of my own life.  Last fall I took a photography class, and my homework forced me to look at growing things coming the end of their existence.  Some of what I saw was just breathtaking!

One clear, crisp day, I stumbled upon a patch of weeds beside a wetland.  They had shriveled and turned bronze. I crouched to look at their pale green seed heads, and through them I could see the bright blue sky and deeper turquoise of the water.  It was such a beautiful scene, I was sad not to have my camera with me.  I picked a few of the weeds and took them home, wanting to recapture the beauty of that image in beads, and thus began my "Battle."

I call it a battle because this work was created for an international, invitational, single elimination beading tournament called "Battle of the Beadsmith".  This is the second year of the event, which takes place entirely on Facebook.  If you would like to follow the battle, please request to join the group here.  Once you are a member, use the "photos" tab at the top of the page to view each battle underway. I guarantee you will see a huge collection of fantastic work by 192 beaders, representing 40 countries.  You even have the opportunity to vote for your personal favorites in each battle.  (Use the "files" tab for information on this.)


This necklace is about having gone to seed, not the bloom of youth.  It is about berries clinging to shrubs, and seed heads with their fuzzy fruits blown away.  It is about silhouettes and thorns revealed in the absence of greenery, and empty pods.  It is about what is left when the abundance of summer is over, simple shapes, emptiness, and essences that remain when foliage dies back, and living things begin to think of sleep.  It is the diametric opposite of my lush Bead Dreams lilacs.


Detail of embellished bezels and connections.
I began by capturing the stones I had collected to represent the colors from the day in Autumn gold bezels, and arranging them in shapes.  I had a piece of lace I thought might be the basis for the design, and made some sketches, but they all felt too busy and profuse. While I was working on the components I designed a scrollwork embellishment for one of my ballgown clients, and those shapes began to appear in the necklace layout. I finally had a sort of double heart shape, with some framed focal bits, held gently in the center.  For a while, I thought the title of the piece might be "November Valentine" but although it LOOKED like a heart, somehow I had the nagging sense that was not quite what it was.
On a cream velvet neck form.
I carried it down to my costume studio early one morning, and pinned it on my dress form to think about the neck strap, and I forgot it was there when my work day began.  A client noticed it on the form when she arrived for her fitting, and remarked that the shapes looked like female reproductive organs.  
 
After she left I stood looking at the piece, astonished!  Symbologically, she was right on, if not perfectly precise in anatomical terms.  There is a tremendous femininity to the shapes. I see ovaries, fallopian tubes, and a uterus.  Hearts have represented femininity and fertility for ages, as Dan Brown's symbologist protagonist Robert Langdon would happily explain.  I had decided before my client arrived to create a spider-spun, delicate neckstrap, and to place a similar web component at the base of the lower heart.  Essentially, I was putting a cobweb in the entrance to an obsolete womb.
 
Back side view.
Once this clear relationship between the glorious autumn day and my own life was established, it was easy to see how to finish the work.

I am really proud of the structural design, and when I am able to use more images, I will show you some process photos and explain how the curves are maintained.

I am a designer fond of negative space and shape, and my "bare bones" day of inspiration is evident in the final product, I think.  What my work means to me, (and it represents much more than I have said) may, or may not be what a viewer sees.  Each viewer, like my client, will bring her own ideas, pictoral language, and symbology to the party.  So I will stop explaining, and leave whatever truth there might be to the eye and the imagination of the beholder.

But I will add that I love it, and no ranking or battle won will mean more to me than the work already does. Life goes on, seasons change, and it's a long, long while, from May to December... but the days grow short when you reach September. 

24 comments:

  1. It's an astonishing work and your description is so powerful, while reading it I remembered being in the country in autumn and seeing empty trees and dry weeds ready to be burnt, I almost smelled them!
    I love the color effect of your cabs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Autumn is my favorite time of year, and of life!

      Delete
  2. it is absolutely stunning and I can imagine the autumn landscape which inspired you. I loved listening to the song, too, very beautiful. Surprising that you also had a seed-based story in your piece ;) thank you for sharing your story, I love to read what inspired you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and listen. It's alot of words and very few pictures and I really appreciate you hanging in there!!!

      Delete
  3. Seeds and pods are close to my heart and I am touched by the story you tell here

    ReplyDelete
  4. Once again, you've done something wonderful with the inspiration that surrounds you. It was interesting to read about your customer's reaction to your battle piece and how that formed the rest of the process.

    Congratulations! It's a beauty.

    xo

    Kate

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The fact that the last three comments all come from friends who have their own beautiful pieces in the battle really pleases me. Thank you for taking the time to read my post and congratulations on your own fabulous piece!!!

      Delete
  5. I am amazed by the beauty of your new beadwork. An excellent balance between the graceful light netting and the compact forms of the stones.
    Katerina

    ReplyDelete
  6. This design has beauty and balance,it is breathtaking and brilliant! Every time I look at it I am amazed by the equilibrium of colors, despite their contrast. I love the admirable innovative way of linking the parts by a spider-spun, as well as the unique use of the negative space.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much Ileana, for reading and commenting and for all your support. You are such a doll!!! I cannot wait to see your battle piece!

      Delete
  7. Wonderful theme [story], always fabulous design and stitching. Love it :-)
    Greetings,
    -Eva Maria

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Greetings to you as well Eva Maria, and thank you! I have been away from my computer for days, and want to check out your blog and see what you have been up to in my absence!

      Delete
  8. Just amazing! What a beautiful desing and wonderful colors!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Marsha, this is a great piece! Negative space is so important in a design. You got it right. Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love this necklace, and the more I look at it, the more I love it. It is wonderful how sometimes the inspiration comes after making the piece, not before- that is a great story. I am just thrilled that I got to meet both you and your necklace, I dearly hope we will meet again. Congrats again on the BD piece- another real stunner! 💕

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Betty! I think somtimes we try to tell a linear story about design, and I think it is global. Stuff happens randomly, and ideas are plastic, moldable as they are worked. And since the making of art is an emotional activity, that hopefully delves into some universal well of truth, I think we often act unconsciously in logical ways. Or maybe I am totally insane, but since there are always infinite possibilities, something has to guide and inform our decisions, and I do not believe it is all conscious. When I look at your Bead Dreams piece, I see a row of really beautiful breast shapes. Was that intentional? Seems perfect to me for your goddess title! And by the way, I thought it was just amazing, with outstanding color use, great texture, and sublime sparkle. It could have been the winner for me. I had not seen it, or anything like it, before.

      Meeting you was such a joy for me as well. I find your work inspirational.

      Delete
  11. Oh my gosh, Marsha. I fell immediately in love with this piece when I saw the picture at the top of the post, but your process description evokes so much more depth than than the simple appreciation I had when I started reading. You're an inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you so much. It was so amusing to me that it took my clients insight to point out to me what I had made. I love it when people tell me what they see in my work. Sometimes, it is what I meant, or was trying to capture, and sometimes it is their own unique perspective that enriches my perception.

    ReplyDelete