|
Written by Dara Spiotto
|
|
Monday, 10 September 2007 |
 My Public Humilation
Well, here's my total embarrassment for the world to see. This absolutely STUNNING pair of earrings is, I think, the first pair I ever made. And here's another single one who's mate is lost (thank God!) never to be seen again, hopefully. And ew, look. Another single one that's the most hideous of all. Is that CORK?? Oh my God. What was I thinking?? Well, in defense of myself, I was new at it. I was pre-teen here. We all start somewhere, right? Oooo… this is such lovely wirework I did. I'm telling you, I was breaking new ground here! HA!
This blast from the past came to me by the way of my niece, who delivered it via "touched ya last." Let me explain. A few years ago my sister was up from Connecticut visiting us in Maine. At the end of her visit we were out in the driveway saying our goodbyes while her Caravan idled. Just as she was about to drive away, she reached out the window, slapped me hard in the arm and yelled, "TOUCHED YA LAST!" and spun dirt as she stomped on the gas. I stood there in shock and bewilderment as she sped off, laughing at me. I had been tagged! I shook my fist in the wake of her dust. Then I started plotting my revenge.
 Touched Ya Last
At Christmas I lovingly wrapped up her present that I had dug out of a box in our cellar: her 8th grade prom dress. The new package was simply labeled "For Diana. Touched ya last!" She opened it and burst out laughing and we all joined in. This event opened it up to all in the family, but my sisters were the biggest offenders of this crime. Soon I received a bag of emery boards in the mail from Deb. I've never told you this, but nail filing may as well be nails on the chalkboard for me. I can hear filing up to a mile away, and then you'll have to peel me off the ceiling. I can't stand it. So, Deb had blessed me with my own package of emery boards via the postal service. Not too long after that, Diana also blessed me with an envelope in the mail of some silly stuff. I pulled up to the mailbox in my car and tried to get the envelope to open, only to have it explode like a chip bag sometimes will. But what made this a 'touched ya last' was that she had loaded the envelope up with fine glitter. I'm talking glitter like dust. All of the sudden it was snowing in my car. I took in a glimpse of myself in the rear view mirror and I looked like I was touring with Circ De Soleil. I went to work that day twinkling like Tinkerbell. For years it would snow glitter each time I put my car's defrost on. I've done my fair 'touched ya last' damage, I admit. I framed matching pictures of my sisters when they were little in all their 1960's glory and gave them to them as a gift. I got Deb a huge Energizer bunny one year. She hates that bunny. Oh well, I'm rambling here. Back to these lovely earrings.
So my niece dropped the TYL bomb on me by bringing these lovelies back into my life. To be honest, I looked at them with new appreciation. I struggled with funky little design elements back then. With the right beads and some decent wire, these may not be half bad. Move over Bead & Button!
In The Beginning
In the beginning when I was designing I really didn't know anything about stringing materials or clasps, etc. So my friend CarolAnne had a little bead store and invited me to be her 'Artist of the Month.' I accepted and filled the display board of all my beading. One particular necklace she took a liking to, and decided she had to own it. I think now she bought it so she could hold it over my head as ransom someday. It was strung on some sort of string that has glue covering these humongous knots. The beads are pretty. The string is hideous. I was certainly not a pioneer back in that day. But CarolAnne introduced Delica's, seed beads and bead weaving into my life. See ya later stringing. And then wire work took on whole new dimensions. I graduated to sterling and jeweler's pliers, not those horrendous Home Depot pliers. A serious beader was born.
Do you have any of your old dinosaur beadwork lurking anywhere? I suggest you keep it tucked away in a safe place, otherwise you could be opening it up as a gift at holiday time! Actually, this is what I'm going to do… I'm going to frame those little earrings and put a plaque at the bottom that says: Dara's First Earrings. Someday they may be at Southeby's in NY selling for trillions of dollars. I should be so lucky! I can see it now. "Oh My! What is this amazingly rare... ancient… Is this...
...CORK??" |
