The Tucson Bead Show - The Bead That You Wanted

For thousands of years, in diverse and ancient cultures, the bead presented the nature of self in colorful and personal terms. When the first woman turned and looked at herself wearing a strand of beads, she thought this is what I wanted. It was a step into the theatre of engagement, and it dramatized the importance of being who she was at that moment in time. Over time, the cross-pollenization of bead design with story-telling, poetry, dance, lapidary, goldsmithery, textiles, and costume, evolved an archetypal pattern of expression that is relevant to contemporary bead making. Its progression is well-articulated in color, detail, motif –patterns reminiscent of ancient ornament. The lamp work bead is a vessel of light, a palette éclairée of rhythmical waves, mosaics, splashes of golds, burnt reds, and dark blues. The recurring patterns, colors, and textures that ceremonialized ancient bead design are alive in clay art, porcelain, and polymer clay bead making. The geometric line, glyptic carving, bruting, and polishing of lapidary arts speak to ancient facets of tradition. The translucent overlays, and lush visual patterns of pâte de verre, champlevé, cloisonné, and fused glass, are passed down through generations. The ancient tradition of interlacing figural, floral, faunal, and architectural elements, to a vast range of opaque and transparent colors, in Gablonz drücken glass beads, is intact. The overlapping geometric form, filigree, impressional relief, and subtle layering in silversmithery and goldsmithery, echoes the motifs of an ancient language. The improvisational or traditional sequential stringing of stone, glass, pearl, bone, paper, shell, amber, clay, silver, and gold beads, is the thread of an ancient narrative. The power of bead design is remarkably resilient. Its sensual and complex pattern is the ultimate expression of who you are. When you find it, you know it –the bead that you wanted.(Also see: The Art of What You Hold; Visions of Flora)