Studio Musings

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Touring by Slow Coach

Original Designs by Bead Soup Partiers
For the past two weeks (and a day) I've toured the Bead Soup party blogs on the slow coach.

That first Saturday, I averaged 3-5 blogs an hour.  Then I did the math.  At 5 blogs per hour divided by 210 blogs, that would mean  42 hours.  Yikes!  So I tried to pick up the pace, but at this point, I have to simply accept the fact that I'm slow.  I start reading, get caught by links that lead to other blogs or posts, visit Etsy sites and older posts and generally like to poke and peek into all the corners along the way.  And I took notes.  Here's a compilation of my findings:

Favorite Designs (clockwise from top left)
Mistress Boleyn's Necklace by Christine Damm
Sea Anemone by Kristin Latimer
Tranquil Hideaway by Kim Hutchinson
Untitled by  Niky Sayers
Untitled by  Marian Hertzog 
Untitled by Laura Zeiner

Some unusual jewelry components
Most Unusual Components (clockwise from top left)
Wooden "pod" shapes used by Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp. She made several pieces with various pod shapes sent by her trading partner Claire, who also used "woody" beads in her piece.
Rattlesnake vertebra used by Cathryn Brooks-Williams in her piece "Southwestern Influence"
Bars and discs used by Michelle Heim, sent by Serena Trent.  I would have found the striped polymer clay bars very intimidating to work with, but Michelle made it look easy.


Most Interesting Photographic Backgrounds
This interests me as I think about ways to improve my own photography

    •  Black book cloth with reverse embossed  letters
    • Stone tiles
    • Several bloggers photographed their work on manikins, but I really liked Janna’s, covered as it is with pages from old books.  
    • Book pages or music.  Several blogs used this; I found I liked it best when the work was photographed on a flat page (not an opened book), or several sheaves of paper.  
    • Collages could be very effective, but I preferred those with borders between images (so that's what I used in this post).

I also found it interesting how interconnected the various blogs were. Quite a number of the Bead Soup participants are also involved with the Color Palette blog walk, Art Bead Scene's monthly challenges, Maggie and Me's monthly challenges (run by one of the bead soup partiers), and Pay it Forward, amongst others.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, considering Art Bead Scene is how I first encountered Lori's blog, Pretty Things, and discovered Bead Soup.  It's a surprisingly small, close-knit community spread around the world and this blog tour on the slow coach was an amazing introduction.

7 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for stopping by at my blog Karen, it took me a very long time to visit all the blogs too but I am so glad I did.
    We have been the Silver Lodge for so long it is really strange to have a complete change but Lara and I felt it was necessary.

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  2. I am slowly getting through the BSBP too. I noticed the common activities too. Makes it nice to really get to know others with similar interests. I am enjoying the color palettes I am seeing. Thanks for including my Soup on your blog today!

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  3. Your piece is most unusual and for me it would have been a huge challenge - I am hopeless with seed beads!

    I too am still visiting all the blogs and I'm glad to find another person on the slow coach...it takes a long time for me to absorb everything I'm seeing and respond to it!

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  4. Karen, Thanks so much for note taking! I think I will take it a lot slower next party. I like your analyzing process, and of course the reminders of the beautiful pieces. Also the comments about photographic backgrounds, as we are all working on better photos.
    Blessings, Shirley

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  5. I really love how you summed all this up!

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  6. It's good to know I wasn't the only one on the slow coach! :) But I agree, it was definitely worth it.

    There was another partier who did a great summary of her findings that I meant to link, but I forgot to write down her addy (so much for my notetaking!). Will try to find it tonight or tomorrow and add it to my post.

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  7. Michelle did such a great job with them.

    You were right they are made of polymer clay.

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