Well, so as I am thinking about embellishment and beading, as the title of this post suggests, I got a suggestion to look at the Catacomb Saints. You may have heard or read about them; they were just discovered in different churches across Europe, and they are skeletons covered in jewels, gold, and various ornamentations. It reminds me of something I saw in Rome several years ago: a monastery where the bones of the dead nuns were put up in little... cavities, so to speak. They created strange patterns with the different skeletal parts, and seeing the pelvic bone was especially odd.

So, I am thinking about these in relation to what I am making. I don't know if I am embellishing memories or denying them, but I want to cover some surfaces completely in beads. It is a meditative process, and it is one of the things I enjoy doing most.

And then, Nick Cave, which was how I first thought of doing it:

Images found here, here, here and here.

I don't know why, but I really really want to put beads and sequins on surfaces to cover them completely. It doesn't make sense. Which is of course why I am writing this; lacking the patience or the impetus to create a workbook like the ones we made in Hong Kong, I am trying to make a digital 'version' of it, or form, or something along those lines.

What I have been thinking is this:

1. I showed my class one of my beadings on paper along with this song. Now, we have to write down feedback for everyone in our class when we have some sort of critique. This works to some extent - the really good thing about it is that you will have something from everyone, although most people are afraid to speak. Someone wrote that the strings in the harp Joanna Newsom is playing is like the strings I am using in my beadings... which in turn makes me think about weaving, and how those strings come together. I thought it was a beautiful connection, and one I did not make myself.

2. Should I try to hold on to things I have been working on from before, ideas which have "worked," and which I feel safe around? This would mean that I shape my work as it is right now in a mold I made when I was 16, 17, 18 years old. As I write this, I don't think it's a good idea. Then I would say: "I consider things that are minute and things that are modular and comprised of many, many little, similar or identical pieces, and mass thinking. Beading is just like this: many little, similar pieces coming together to form a larger picture."

There is nothing wrong with this way of thinking. Is there? I am not sure, but I don't think it is a good idea to hold on to our ideas because they have worked for us in the past, so I think I'll let go and see where this takes me. That also means, realizing that I am not making the same kind of work that I made when I was 17 years old. Although I am proud of it, and it is a big part of me, it is not what I am making right now, and so I will (try to!) let go. That, in turn, means that I will write about things which interest me right now. Post to follow, enough writing for one post.