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Originally posted by zippyt
Wolf , first let me say Exelant bead work !! I know that some indian beading has symbolic meaning . Does the bead work around the .50 cal round mean any thing ? If so what does it mean ?? And how the HELL can you stand to work THAT small for that long ???? i meen there is like 50 bijillion beads in those peices !!!!! Your turquoise dream catcher FUCKING ROCKS !!!!
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I've taken to calling the .50BMG "Warrior's Token" ... because I think that artwork should have a title, and "untitled" is a cop-out. Mostly what it means is proof that you can bead around anything ... (most people prove this by beading various oddly shaped glass bottles, but hell, EVERYONE does that!!) I did some work on this piece at the "Bead and Chat" at a local bead store. Strangely, none of the other ladies commented much. They just got kind of quiet and paid close attention to their own work.
The patterns that I used are somewhat traditional, but don't have any meaning in this context, per se. I have done ceremonial pieces ... like the talking stick. Bluejay is one of the communicators with spirit, and it seemed "right" for the piece and the purpose.
I have a ceremonial pipe stem that I'm still waiting for the inspiration to strike on. I have to sit with the stem for a while and figure out what it wants to be. It has a nicely placed knothole that will allow me to attach a leather thong to hang some feathers or other appropriate tokens from, but the beadwork hasn't gelled yet. Nor has what I'm supposed to do with my Cedar Courting Flute. I'm fairly sure of the colors for that one, but not the pattern.
There's also a nekked poplar staff in my downstairs closet that's in need of some attention.
On the prayer feather the symbols are the lightning, and the "windowpanes" are all the colors of creation ... not just of the four directions. I have a second prayer feather done with the four directions color correspondence that I haven't photographed yet.
The dreamcatcher represented some interesting challenges, since I had to play with increases and decreases because of the difference in interior and exterior diameters of the wooden ring. Getting the beads to lay flat enough was part of the fun.
As far as working small ... the size doesn't matter. They all go on the string one bead at a time. I do a lot of other crafts. I find it calming, and end up in kind of a meditative trance when I'm really into it. I find it relaxing.
Some pieces work up a lot more quickly that you might expect. The eagle feather earrings take about (now that I've done them a bunch of times) 6 hours a pair. The thunderbirds I'm posting below, because I realized I hadn't shown them off yet, only took about three hours. The technique used here is called "brick" stitch, which is sorta kinda like a sideways peyote ... the effect is similar, but the beads are attached in a different pattern. This was fun to do, because the actuall bead "fabric" is only a small triangle at the top of the earring, with the remainder formed by the long beaded fringe.
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Bruce , Cool that you would help out a friend with the chair lift
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If I get old and decrepit, Bruce will be the first person I call ... actually, he's a good guy, and I'd call before then, but just for the purpose of hanging out, rather than asking him to do anything.