|
Winter Cleaning: Bead Books Adopted by Kind Hearted Beader |
|
|
|
|
Written by Dara Spiotto
|
|
Monday, 31 December 2007 |
 Spring Cleaning 101… Er, I Mean 2008
The burst of the new year translates into the biggest sigh ever… AAAAAHHHHHH!!! No more holiday shopping, mad dashes to the grocery store, or wrestling with wrapping paper at midnight. You’re free and clear! HOORAY! January is such a sigh of relief. And I always get the urge to purge, in the most major way.
This year I began with something beady, since I knew it would be a fun place to start. I went into our office and opened up the huge closet door. There stood my bead book case, crammed to the gills. Organized and neat, but crammed. I scanned some of the titles. You know, some of these books haven’t been cracked open in years. In the beginning, bead books were so far and few between that I think I felt I just needed to have them all. So caught up in the moment, I set about buying what  looked good, which was almost everything. Many of them are out of print now. Dinosaurs. Many are way below my skill level, or have projects in them that I don’t have even the slightest inkling to create. So thus began my throwback in time to when I had once purchased these books because I was so inspired, energized and motivated to create something beautiful and learn a new technique. It instantly became 1989 again.
The Birth of a Beader
I began beading in the mid to late 1980’s with simple things, like barrettes and earrings. I took a career job in the late 80’s that took me about 1 1/2 hours away from home, and beading really bloomed as a great way to stay busy and creative away from my family and friends. It kept me busy and let me nurture my creative side. My first bead book was given to me by one of my employees and I was riveted. The book is called The Book of Beads by Janet Coles and Robert Budwig and is still available. It had just come out at a time when there were very few books out on beading. I studied each page and image microscopically, devouring every word. It remains in my library still, as a trophy to my beginning. A great book to  have, with history, origins and project suggestions. Ok, so that one stays. Lets move on.
I began making a pile of books that I knew I didn’t need any more, scanning through them to reminisce the old days. How did I become interested in fabric jewelry? In making paper beads? Oooohhh… in polymer clay. My polymer career began and ended in the same afternoon. Working with clay was too slow for me. Making my own colors was tedious and time consuming. Being an art major and knowing the formula percentages for how to make any color out there, I became anal and had to have every shade of every color. I spent all my time working up colors and never making beads. That’s when I decided that seed beads came in every color and finish possible and I didn’t have to knead them between my hands for hours, and so I stuck to them. Why did I own 8 books on Polymer? Beats me. If I must be truthful, I do use Polymer to make faces for the star babies I make, but that’s a whole other story. I’ll get to that in a future article.
 This One Stays… This One Goes...
I kept most of the books on French beaded flowers, since one of my goals this year is to complete a beaded throw bouquet for my niece Kara, who’s wedding is in September. I need to learn how to make roses and gerbera daisies. Those books will be handy. Next I got rid of beginner beading books. A whole stack of them began to grow. A book on stone properties, bead store resources and a book on fiber and beads all landed into the pile to give away. One book had recipes for how to make your own clay for bead making. That goes with the polymer books. I even had a bunch of magazines to put into the stack. Not my Bead & Button’s or BeadWork, which I have all the copies since day one. Those I’ll keep. But there were random issues of Ornament and Bead Style and others that I didn’t need any more. All in all, 59 books and 18 magazines were taken out of my book case.
So, what’s left? Good stuff, indeed. I kept The Jewels of Miriam Haskell, 500 Beaded Objects, Beadwork: A World Guide, The  Universal Bead and Creative Bead Weaving. I kept all my Japanese beading books and Russian beading books, along with historical compilations and bead weaving pattern books. Most of the wire books stayed. I’ve got some titles on glass bead making and felting. Some are specifically on Native American beading or African tribal beading. Excellent diversity. And I’ve got a smattering of out of print beading and macramé books from the 60’s and 70’s. There are 120 books now in there. That seems like a lot, but I went from 6 full shelves down to 2 full shelves of books. The magazines are on one shelf and then I have binders full of patterns from great designers like Ann Paxton and Amy Loh-Kupser. I swear I will get to them eventually so for now they must stay. Sometimes I think I’m in denial about all that I have planned out. Other times I imagine myself as a collector and it's ok just to have them around me, and eventually I’ll part with them. Only to replace them with something else. Vicious cycle. Love it.
Ode to Temptation
So where did these books go? I called my friend Irene who has a local bead store here, and asked if she’d like them with the stipulation that she come and get them that night and I never wanted to own them again. She’d have to keep them or find homes for them. She said she would rise to the challenge. What a good friend!
Now I feel so much lighter! I can practically take dieting off the New Years Resolution list!
|
|
