The construction of CONFLUENCE B.O.T.B. 2015

Welcome to my very first BLOG. THE INCEPTION AND BIRTH OF CONFLUENCE

Well, I've finally decided that it's time to start my blog. No more procrastinating, this is it!!!. Many thanks to Karen Williams of www.skunkhillstudios.com for helping me set up this blog. Last year Karen invited me to participate in her new book "Explorations in Freeform Peyote Beading", and that started me thinking that I needed to indeed explore freeform peyote again myself.

After a break from  serious beading of several years I felt invigorated with the challenge of creating for the 2015  BOTB challenge,  this year's design in freeform peyote.

For this design I went back to a favourite place - the seashore and a special spot which sits between two headlands at the amazingly beautiful place of Crescent Head. This place sits on the eastern coast of New South Wales, Australia, and is only a 10 minute drive from my home.
 Going back several years prior, I decided I needed to cast some of the brilliant tessellated rocks in clay. I then reproduced those castings into hand made paper which I then  painted and preserved under glass. These pieces of art have now gone to very happy homes.

Back to BOTB, (I sometimes digress). I am back in that special place in my mind where I am creating a piece of jewellery which reminds me of those rockpools and rocks.

I know this will be a freeform piece. First of all I need to gather together the beads and other materials I think I will need.
These beads will consist of many shades of gold, copper and green with a hint of mauve thrown in for contrast. Because I am visualising this piece as I would a painting, I want to work in tones and show the gradations I see in this place of rocks and pools.

Now begins the inception and birth of:

 CONFLUENCE

A microcosm, where two worlds, land and sea meet

A place straddled between two mysteries

Fashioned by the ebb and flow of the tides chasing the moon

The rocks and sand desiccated by the sun's burning rays

We stand in this place, the littoral zone and we see the story it tells us.

  I can see that I have not set myself an easy challenge. I need to start with a main piece and see where it takes me.

At this stage, I am not sure how or where pieces will sit or what direction I will place things. I am simply making components all the while gradating the colours I have selected.
So, this is my starting point. I have constructed a piece using size 11 and size 8   seed beads and I have manipulated the shape to give me form. From the main peyote piece I have worked stitch in the ditch to create ledges. I have extrapolated into Right Angle Weave to enable to me add fringing pieces to represent the growth of weeds at the bottom of the pools. My peyote stitching is too tight to enable me to put the needle back through the beads to do this.

I think I need a creature that lives in this place.  I would like some urchins. So, after 5 attempts, using Cubic Right Angle Weave I think I have a size that I like.  I want these little "creatures" to fit comfortably in the space I have in mind.  All the while I am creating a number of urchins and other components because I don't know where I am really going with this. I'm hoping as I work it will start to "talk" to me.

 

Will these pieces fit here? Are there too many pearls in this component? I have started building bridges with pearls and swarovski crystals, plus establishing a fringed area but nothing else is attached at this stage. My sketch is still pretty meaningless.
So now I am making components and just fitting them like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle around the piece. I still have no idea where this is taking me. Where will the neckline start for example?
Will it be this way or that?

I now have more components placed temporarily, along with more "urchins". I am trying to "fold" the beadwork to create little "nooks and crannies"all the while concentrating on my tonal values.

More urchins just sitting on a semblance of a sketch , attention to detail, building ledges and folds. Time is getting on and I need to work quicker, so much thinking to be done about composition and what I want to achieve. All the while saying to myself, "can I resolve this?" I'm making myself anxious,I won't finish in time.!!It's really hard to photograph all the tones involved. Too many distracting thoughts.

Do I finally have a shape and direction I want to go with?

 

Ledges folds and undulations detail

 

Getting there - some attention to detail as I go. This gives me thinking time!!

Working away building more ledges and folds

 More components added

Will these straps work. NO!! They are too thick and heavy. I need to make smaller ones. Cellini spiral takes ages to make and now I am really running short on time. I am working every day sometimes well into the morning, seeing the  sunrise. It's coming into Winter here  so sunrise is later than it has been. My fingers have holes in them from pushing the needle through. So many passes and I am 

using lots of size 15 beads.

 

Ropes finally attached and on the model for a better look at how this is going. Still a a lot of finishing touches to go. Taking photographs at this stage is invaluable. It's now much easier to see the overall  composition and balance of the piece. I like to take a black and white shot as well to check the tonal values.

I think it's working but I'm still not satisfied. Now is a good time to check detailed images because if something needs fixing we are going to see it now.

Neckline detail. I need to resolve the fringing here and finish off this area.

I'm now satisfied with the rope, I need to work on the toggle to finish off

Although the rope is attached I still need to finish this area off. Still a lot to do here.

I'm still not completely happy with this area. I need to think about resolving this. Other things to think about first.
                                                                                                                  

I can see what I need to do here

 I am really not happy with all the thread showing here. Because I had been so close to this piece for so long I didn't notice the thread until I took this picture. Hence the reason detailed pictures are so helpful. So back to work and rectify these issues.

CONFLUENCE IS NOW COMPLETE

For your interest, lots of detailed sections below for comparison

I am now as happy as I can be, there is no more time for anything else.

Below I will show you some details on  how I resolved each area.

If you want to compare you can see how with these shots. I have added more detail into the the little component here. Plus all that ugly thread is now hidden under size 15/ 24ct gold plated seed beads. I have also added a purple pearl and more fringe detail. If you look closely you can see some of the tones I have used. I used 9 different shades of seed beads, charlotts and delicas in the making of this piece.

Detail of finished area. I love looking into the little component here.  It took hours of work on this little piece until I was satisfied with it.

The finished area of the rope attachment. I have used a lot of size 15  24ct gold plated seed beads here plus deep chocolate charlotts.This is also a better image of the "folds". We see lots of folds and undulations in rocks if we study and observe. You will notice that I have placed little "flicks" of purple throughout the piece to create cohesion and balance.

I completed the toggle by adding pearls and fringing in the colours and beads worked in the main body of the piece.

Left hand side working up to the rope attachments. More fringing has been added with  again,small "flicks" of purple throughout the piece to create cohesion. More small pearls have also been added.

If you look closely you can see where I have added charlotts by stitching in the ditch to complete this area.

Left hand side connection of the rope into the main body of the work. I didn't want the ropes to be just "connected" without tieing them into the work completely. Lots of 24ct gold plated size 15 seed beads and charlotts used here.

Detail

I hope you have enjoyed my  journey on the construction of CONFLUENCE.
 I cannot tell you how many hours I spent working on this, I lost track of time.
 If I wasn't physically working on this, I was thinking about what I had to do to make my vision come into fruition.
I certainly set myself a challenge. This piece was not easy to make and now it's time to make something else.
I will be writing a pattern  in the future where I will show you how to make some of the components I used in making this piece.This will be available on my Etsy site once I get it up and running again. It's not physically possible for me to recreate this.
Thank you again for your support during the battle. Your comments are greatly appreciated. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me on either my faceboook page as a private message or you can contact me at wendy.anne@westnet.com.au