Thursday, August 25, 2011

Play Big with your Materials!

I tell my students, play with your beads. Play with your materials. And then I get hold of this really cool new product -- Artistic Wire Mesh--from Beadalon, and I don't follow my own advice--at first.

Check out my progression from dainty dabbling to dynamic play.

First I cut small 6" pieces of Artistic wire mesh from a one yard piece. I think I was trying to be frugal. So I pulled my little pieces tentatively into  ginko leaf shapes, which I wire to Beadalon rubber tubing. YAWN!

Ok maybe aspects of these are okay and I will apply some of the design to other works. But these are certainly not a showcase for the Artistic Wire Mesh.
 What was I afraid of? I fold again into little controlled crinkles.
And wire them up with pearls. Not pushed far enough.
I needed to loosen up my grip!
I get a rush of abandon and take my whole 2 yard stash out. With great glee that I pulled it, crunched it, played with the way it molded and stretched--and finally, FINALLY, took advantage of its best properties--the generous amount of stretch, the firm but not scratchy holding of a shape, the density of color in the crunches and folds.
What did I ultimately come up with? Stay tuned! And remember--you get what you PLAY for!