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!
Okay, maybe aspects of these are okay and I will apply some of the design to other works. But these are certainly do not showcase Artistic Wire Mesh. What was I afraid of? I fold again into little controlled crinkles:
Next, I wire them up with pearls. Not pushed far enough. I needed to loosen up my grip!
I get a rush of abandon and take out my whole two-yard stash. 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!
Leslie Rogalski
Beadalon Design Team Member
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