My So Charmed Life

WIP: Unstrung Heroes

01.21.12

For a week when I felt sluggish and unproductive, I’m surveying my labor and thinking… wha???? Well, nothing was finished, so maybe that’s why I felt sort of lacking. Incomplete. A bit on the edge (of my seat?). Anyway, it is a good thing I shlepped out to Hobby Lobby yesterday for supplies. Ice storm this morning and we are housebound. What else is there to do but experiment with MAKING BEADS! As the BF asked when he woke up and stumbled into the kitchen: Because there aren’t enough [beads] to buy?? Yep, I fired up the old oven at 7:30 a.m. and created the above set, which also includes a few non-handmade spacers. Personal message to the BF: Did you say PIE? I thought you said BEADS. Sorry.

The necklace above inspired the beads above. Dirty Neon Tooth. (great band name, eh?). Black beads with neon frit. Reason for yesterday’s supplies trip was actually to get black beading thread b/c I didn’t like what was happenin’ with the white in this necklace I’d started.

So, this is my new favorite thing, a necklace focal after Man Ray’s infamous Cadeau. From the Tate Modern (oh how I LOVE that freaking museum) web site:

By adding a row of nails, Man Ray transformed a household flat-iron into a new and potentially threatening object. The nails and burning metal suggest a violent eroticism at odds with the work’s title, the French word for ‘gift’. The original version, given to the composer Eric Satie, was lost but became well-known through Man Ray’s photograph of it. Although made at the height of Paris Dada Cadeau, like Man Ray’s other objects, anticipated the exposure of hidden desires found in subsequent Surrealist objects.

Sigh. This object had a massive effect on me when I was an art student. It just seemed SO right. Not to mention sums up my relationship to housework.

But you guys know I can bring the pretty. The glass beaded centerpiece above is probably from the 1930’s. I’m not sure, so if you know, share. I love the combination of the refined Frenchy beadwork with some rustic primitive tribals.

PS: Unstrung Heroes, a name for my new bead shop? As if I need something else to try to sell. Copyrighted, yo.

Subject: Blog, Modern Art, Supplies, They Call It Work