July 14, 2004
Happy Mess
i'm afraid i've made a mess of our kitchen island countertop--only instead of oil spills and wayward granules of sugar, the countertop is littered with gemstone beads. orangey carnelian candy teardrops with rivulets of silver grey natural markings. delicious new jade tumbled nuggets that ache to lay against sun-drenched skin. pretty, dainty olive jade teardrops that feel substantial but sweet to the touch.
there are pretty czech glass beads as well, to be sure. frosted round pink beads that will flirt with the wrapped silver wire eye loops on the back of necklaces. and those beautiful, aurora borealis leaves that my sister gave me for my birthday, which will be worked into a collar-style necklace, when i finally come up with a "just right" arrangement.
the beautiful mess that's there right now is the result of what will be my last purchase from Fire Mountain Gems for a while. they have been so good at featuring pretty things and great prices, that i'd spent way too much money there in the past couple of months. the objective now is to make use of what i already have and come up with creative designs and uses for my bounty.
and with that thought in mind, i'd decided to mentally inventory my stash. i work visually and spatially, with design ideas resulting from the mental "piecing together" of different components. after having laid everything out, i'd come up with at least one "must do" project immediately, with more to come when i mentally arrange and re-arrange the beads in my head.
it's definitely a day for creative acquisitions. mid-afternoon, i'd taken a post-rain walk because i was restless and ended up in the art supply store across the street from my office after a couple of detours. i was so unsettled in my decisions, but ultimately honed in on the row of colored pencils and pastels. having had a fairly dissatisfying experience with colored pencils, i bought a set of pastel pencils and tested them out in my sketchbook in the midst of a work project.
i was thrilled with the way that the pastels hugged the paper. errant smudging is part of the art itself, it seems, and i regarded my mistakes as part of the works. i'm happy with that acquisition too.
Posted by equilibrium-girl at July 14, 2004 09:56 PM