Missing the target

   A while ago American Craft magazine had an article about the artist Wendell Castle, and it included a list of his artist rules to live by.  One that struck me particularly was " If you're hitting bullseyes every time, the target's too close."  

   Recently, I've been trying to produce some pieces with some more drama and impact to them.  One way to do that is with size.  I did a post about that not too long ago, comparing 2 oxidized silver and stone pieces with a sawtoothed edge. There I felt that by making the sawtooths considerably bigger I had produced a more interesting necklace.  I've been trying to do that with another concept.  Back when I was working mostly with seed beads I did a series of pieces I called "links".  Each necklace was composed of a series of open trapezoid shapes with a stem and toggle on one end, so that each could be joined to the next.  First I did plain links, and then I started to embellish them.

You could add or subtract links to change a necklace.  I really liked that series, and I've wondered about making links out of oxidized silver tubes.  They would necessarily be a lot bigger.  I've worked on that idea for past few weeks, but haven't been able to make it work.  Here's my final version.

I've tried all sorts of variations-- embellishing the bottom link, adding the stone link, making one of the links (the 1 at 11 o'clock) a more rectangular shape, and many others that I took apart and did over.  It actually doesn't look bad laid out flat like this, but on the body it just isn't great.  Also the toggles tend to fall out of the ovals too easily, making the necklace come apart.  I think one of the reasons for doing this post is that gives me a record of what I did, so that if I want to revisit the idea, I'll know what didn't work.  Now I'll probably take apart the stem and toggle on each link, and see if I can do something interesting with the open ovals.

New Links piece

With this piece I've gone back to my "links" series, creating separate links that can be joined together in any order. These are embellished with balls on stalks. One thing that is different in this one, and that I like, is that I used a black stem and toggle to contrast with the colored oval in each link. I considered using a colored ball at the end of each stem instead of a straight toggle, but then you can't take the links apart. Still, it would have looked nice, and blended in with the other balls on stalks. Hmmm... I'm thinking as I write, and that might be the next piece. I did that once before, with a gemstone links piece, and liked it. I don't think that piece is here on the blog anywhere, but it's on my website, eprugweaver.com/beadwork. I had to make one of the ovals open up (with a magnet clasp), since I couldn't take the links apart from one another.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that I've been working pretty hard on my photography, and I thought this one came out pretty well.

More links

This is a sort of follow up to my last post. I liked my "Flower links" piece, but after looking at it for a while, I realized that I had gone back to links that were all the same. They were embellished, but all the same way. As I tend toward simplicity and a sort of minimalism, I decided to just keep adding embellishments till I felt it was too busy. The nice thing about these modular links necklaces is you can keep changing a piece by making more links, so you don't have to do alot of ripping out.
First I added some links at the back with smaller "petals" (although I don't actually think of these as flowers, but just as geometric shapes), because I felt the necklace looked better photographed flat than it did when worn. I wanted it to sit closer to the neck in the back. Then I started adding on to some of the links in front. I've done 2 so far, and will probably do one more. I'm honestly not sure on this one which version I like best. In the first version you do get the color variation, and maybe that's enough. What do you think? I'd love feedback.
In the 2nd one I varied the links but went back to my more neutral colors. It creates a more severe look, which I actually like alot.

Simplicity versus complexity

I've been playing with the idea of how much is enough. My work tends to be relatively minimalist. So I'm always dealing with the notion of when simple and clean-lined edges toward boring. I made a piece recently where I thought the geometric structure was kind of neat, but the resulting necklace was relatively boring. I'm not showing that piece here, but it led me to think about the possibility of using some of my clean geometric structures as a scaffolding to build on. One of my first realizations of this idea was in my "links" series. It's a series of necklaces and bracelets that are made of individual beaded links. In my initial ones the links were all the same shape (except for one long link in the back), just different colors. I really like those necklaces, but now I've also created several links that have some sort of interesting shape added to the standard link. The nice thing is that the wearer/customer can decide how much to move away from the original simplicity by adding the more elaborate links. Also you can experiment with putting a "special" link in the center for a relatively symmetrical look, or off-center to create asymmetry. I'm enjoying this, and I like rearranging the necklaces and trying new looks.