Sylviebead Journal

It's a rainy rainy Wednesday here in Atlanta.

I can see by friend's pictures, updates, etc. that LOTS of places are covered in ice and snow, so I'm not complaining about the rain... yet.

I'm SUPPOSED to get a little studio time in this afternoon between the time I leave the office and the time youngest child gets home.... BUT if it's raining, youngest child can't walk home from the bus-stop, which will cancel my studio plans. SO... here's hoping that the rain stops before 1:00 EST. (not TOO hopeful though... sort of Murphy's law... I have a great idea and I'm DYING to get into the studio to try it out, so anything that can go wrong... will)

Today's topic, however, is NOT will I get to make beads or not, it's about what I gave up my studio time yesterday to do... and it was SO worth it.

Tuesday was Dinner with Marcy (quite different from Wednesdays with Morrie or whatever that book was!) This is Marcy Lamberson of Studio Marcy. If you are a beady blog-reader, you might already read her blog. It's full of great tips/tricks and she's a great teacher... you will learn a lot just by reading her blog. While my blog is usually chatty (too much usually), hers is very focused on beadmaking... focused but comfortable. I think reading her blog is always like taking a little mini-workshop. She is very open and generous with her information. If you're a beadmaker ... check it out.

I am lucky enough to live in a city full of beadmakers. We have a wonderful group, The Southern Flames that meets monthly. I don't get to attend nearly enough meetings just because it's usually the middle of the school week and that just doesn't work for my family... but it's a great group.

Back in 2002/2003(?) Marcy and I were co-presidents of the group and working together, began a great friendship. Marcy is one of my role-models.... in bead-world and in life-world and I'm lucky that she lives less about 20 minutes away. SO this past year, we began getting together every month or so for dinner. Half the time is spent just talking about life and half beady/art stuff.... and it's delicious conversation! I SO look forward to these dinners.

We share a similar aesthetic, so we "get" each other design-wise. I love that I can bounce ideas off her, show her my doodles and what I'm thinking of... get feed-back and other great ideas that I might not have thought about. I brought her a collection of images that I thought would be inspirational to her, and she gave me great ideas for a project I'm ruminating on. Even though we both sell very whimsical things, I've never felt a competition factor between the two of us. Much more of a synergy. That's how things should be when you're following your own muse... even if someone else's sings a similar song. They might even sing harmony! :)

Last night we were talking about how valuable the time is to both of us and how we know we're lucky to have each other so close by. We were laughing about her husband and son saying they might come "eavesdrop" on our conversation from a few tables away... I think they'd be bored, BUT I think there are a lot of beadmakers who would have LOVED the opportunity... so here you go... a taste of dinner with Sylvie and Marcy... (if you REALLY want to feel like you were there... please imagine that your drink is not being refilled as often as you'd like... maybe just put an empty glass in front of you...)

SO... dinner with us...

We talked about the inspirations and how we get a lot from non-beady visual sources... greeting cards, magazines, etc. We discussed the magazine Artful Blogging which was being discussed on Lampwork Etc and that it's a publication that has some beautiful eye-candy. I also LOVE their Sommerset Studio publication. I think it's a GREAT resource for inspiration.

I talked about going back and doing bead shows again and the fact that I'd have to get my "show wardrobe" put together. I don't always get to dress like an artist in my "real-life" and we talked about an article that Lori Greenburg wrote on "How to Dress Like an Artist" that I really enjoyed. I do think that it helps when I look a little more like my beads than my regular wardrobe does. When I do shows, I have to wear things that mix well with my booth, my beads and my customers. Not a COSTUME, but something that is a little more "sylviebeads" and a little less "sylvie who is grabbing a starbucks on the way to car-pool line" OR "sylvie who is going out on a Friday night" This is an entire blog entry in itself, so back to our conversation...

We talked about classes we'd like to take and how taking classes from people who are very different from your own style can really benefit you. I told Marcy about a class I want to take in felt hat making (how different from beadmaking is that??!!) and that it's at my DREAM place, Haystack in Maine. I was telling Marcy about the time I'd spent there in 1998 and how just being there, not just the workshop I attended, but watching the work in the other classes, was very meaningful in my artistic development and led to a lot of my inspiration workshop. And this led to our next discussion...

An exercise I saw in one of the classes at Haystack that summer.... The instructor (wish I could remember his name! I've tried to google instructors from that workshop series, but can't find anything) had students make all the pieces for a teapot on the potter's-wheel THEN had each othem put their various pieces into piles... handles in one area, spouts in another, lids, bodies, etc. THEN he had each student go and gather all the pieces for a teapot taking any pieces that they didn't make.

The class was about altered shapes and he found that when you've spent so much time making a perfect pot on the wheel, it's really hard to "mess up" the shape, altering it into a less symetrical, but often more interesting shape. SO he found that manipulating a piece that SOMEONE ELSE had made was a LOT easier for students.

I've taken this idea and used it in bead classes... originally with the "pass the bead" exercise that I used to do at the end of my classes. I told Sharon Peters about it and I believe that she continues to do that exercise in her classes (other instructors might as well). It's fun to think that my going to Maine to take a class, and watching another class make teapots would be something that added to ANOTHER glass-bead instructors classes. Funny how things work isn't it?

But that's the great thing about being able to share ideas with another artist... conversation flows, ideas run amuck and before you know it, it's time to pay the check (deciding how much to tip the girl who left you thirsty) and return to our own lives.... BUT you leave a lot richer. Richer for knowing another person... more than just as an artist, but as the person who creates the art... richer for having shared ideas and received ideas in return. Richer for just had spent time with a friend.

I hope you all have a Marcy. :)


tiny blah blah blah...

brought to you ALL WEEK by Rosemarie and her generous "tip jar" donation. And, as promised, I have now added the "official" tip-jar to the side-bar. I think we might have to name it after Rosemarie or something... I'll think further on that! Thank you once again!!!!!!!! YUM!

coffee - CDL prepared by Omar (I told him he was mentioned in my blog.... I'm sure EVERYONE who gets coffee at my starbucks and blogs probably mentions him and his fabulous lattes. I think that Starbucks location is the best. Hooray for Alex, Yolanda, Omar and the others who I'm forgetting!!)

music - very Jason Mrazzy today. I'm listening to his live album "Selections for Friends" which has some really cool versions of his songs.