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Think Big: Balloons to Bead Clothing |
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Written by Dara Spiotto
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Tuesday, 27 May 2008 |
 
Think Big: Balloons to Bead ClothingI’ve got some silly assorted bead stuff rolling around and I’m just going to toss it out there for fun. Sometimes in my searches I stumble across the funniest things, and they’re too interesting to pass up. Take this for instance…
I got this in an e-mail from a friend. I had no idea that people made balloon clothes. I mean, why would you be inspired to? In the middle of squeaking up a balloon pirate sword or little dog did that person say, “Hey! I could WEAR this!!” Anyway, I’m not dissing balloon art… there are some incredibly complicated pieces out there that take skill, and people make a living with these balloons. They color up our world. So I got this e-mail and the first thing I thought was, “Hey! That’s right angle weave!” They looked like seed beads and bugle beads to me, don’t you think? Well, I think this is the perfect ensemble to wear to Bead & Button next year. You’ll be the talk of the show! Especially if you try to sit down wearing that. POP!
The Bigger the Better  Mardi Gras this year was technically the whole month of February, but mostly celebrated on February 5th. Mardi Gras blows my mind. I’ve never been to New Orleans myself, but I know people who go every year. They come back with the most wildest stories...and pictures. And BEADS! I can only imagine what they have to do to get them, but take a look at these pictures. They say that the tradition of whipping up your shirt and flashing for beads is old news and not really celebrated. However, my buddies managed to forget to take a few pictures out of their stack that shows women baring all with beads being tossed around them. I love my beads, but I don’t think I’d go that far.
On Another Subject…  Recently the Craft and Hobby Association had a big show in Anaheim, California (home of Disneyland!) which is only about 30 minutes from my house. A dear friend who has owned a few bead stores in the past and now has a mail order business planned to go and asked if I would meet her for dinner the night before the show opened. We were chatting in her hotel room before leaving for the restaurant, and in walks David from a Czech bead company who stopped in to drop off some seed bead samples. Seed beads. Oooohhhh… the titillating glory of it all! When David left, I turned to my friend and asked, “You gonna open that??” She smiled. So much for dinner.
The bags were full of black 1” trays full of the tiniest square tubes I had ever seen. They were abut 1” high and 1/4” wide with tiny little caps on them, all full of seed bead samples. Thousands and millions and billions of samples! I fell over on the floor dead. :-) I had never seen so many different colors of seed beads in one place like that before, and I wanted to rush them to my car and pedal-to-the-metal them home and hide. Instead, I spent some time helping my friend increase her selection for her mail order business, and then they had to go back into the bag. I sobbed. Good bye wonderful seed beads. My life was over.
And Wrapping It Up…  I want to give public kudos to a friend’s daughter who is a brilliant bead genius without even realizing it. My friend Lupe has a daughter named Alma who’s 12. They went to a bead show and really spent a lot of time looking and chatting about beads. Lupe spotted someone with a gorgeous necklace on, with a huge Pati Walton bead in the center. If you’re not familiar with Pati Walton beads, she does layers of glass cane slices with clear glass in between to create scenes such as aquariums, gardens and more. See for yourself at www.patiwalton.com.
Anyway, the bead was so inspiring to Alma that she went home and found a large wooden bead. She got out paints and painted a scene on it, then coated 17 layers of clear nail polish on it. Then she added some flowers,  and then began layering more clear polish. In the end, after many more leaves and flowers and tons more polish, the bead looked like a pretty good knockoff of a glass bead!! Mind you, it was huge and most likely in time the nail polish will turn a shade of yellow. Who cares! This is a very cool bead. She’s very proud of it and is going to hang it in her room. Too bad I didn’t have my digital camera with me or I’d have a picture to show you.
Well, it looks like this spring cleans out my file for now. Thanks for letting me put my odds and ends here! See you next week!
“The enchantment with beads often starts with one irresistible bead, a bead that attracts your attention, practically calling to you. You want to possess that bead’s magic, to own the bead and wear it.” ~Linda Fry Kenzle |
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