Beads...Sets vs. Focals on LE

I started an interesting and somewhat inflammatory discussion over on Lampwork, etc. Want to discuss?

formatting link

Reply to
Kandice Seeber
Loading thread data ...

Kandice,

This really is an interesting discussion, I hope people will join in over here. I hope that I can explain my feelings on this topic clearly and without creating misunderstanding...not my strongest skill but I'll do my best.

I do both sets and focals. My sets almost always include a focal bead although on a smaller scale than my offical focal beads. I approach my sets as an artist and not as a production beadmaker, I think this also makes a difference on how people look at sets. I think most focal bead makers do approach as an artist but this is not always true for set makers. I think for me that is why my sets include a focal bead, for me it just gives the set a sense of completion and wholeness. I know many others don't do it this way and they probably achieve that same sense of completion through other means. For you, I gather from what I have read, you acheive this through the perfect use and expression of colour. When both are approached in this sense, as an artistic expression, then I feel that niether is more or less valid than the other.

I don't feel that sets and focals can be judged together, for instance within a competion. They are both art, both equally valid, but they are expressing that sense of art in a different way. One is a collaberation of several pieces which when viewed together make the whole, the other tries to make its statement through one single perfect piece.

I know that the head/heart space I enter depending on wether I am doing focals or sets, is different and I can't really explain this well. I feel a sense of a job well done at the completion of both but for me, when I finish a set it is more a warm, gentle, happy feeling inside. When I finish a focal I need a cigarette! It is more like the feeling you get after sex...really good sex. That feeling of a huge sudden release of passion and energy that just leaves you feeling fantastic and totally drained (in a good way). You are once again an empty vessel ready to be filled with creative energy and vision.

I guess what I am saying is that yes, sets and focals are different and they invoke different feelings, but when well done, neither is more valid than the other in the pure sense of artistic expression, achievement or skill.

I hope this makes sense.

Teresa

formatting link
Ebay ID: lavendercreek

Reply to
LavenderCreek

Kandice Seeber wrote:

Kandice, The discussion you started is very interesting. As you know, I make fused glass pendant/beads, which are basically focal beads. I'm going to try to make some smaller dichroic donut beads with stringing holes to compliment my larger donut bead/pendants.I've been thinking about doing this for a long time, but have not because making beads which are alike is frustrating for me. I can identify with your frustrations because I don't feel fused glass is given the same respect as lampworked. For example, when I go to the ISGB Gatherings, I always feel like an outsider. In fact, it's so bad that I'm probably not going to go any longer. I admire all lampwork artists tremendously! I don't have enough guts to sit behind a torch. I do buy a lot of lampwork beads, both sets and focals, and consider them to be of equal "value." I buy sets of lampwork to make into jewelry to sell and some for myself and also to compliment dichroic beads which I have made. I tend to collect mostly focals, but I have a lot of your beads and some of Kalera's which I have made into jewelry for myself. Lately I've been collecting lampwork beads from artists whom I've met in person or online. I always wear jewelry, even if I'm staying home. I often combine one of my semiprecious beaded necklaces with lampwork bracelets or earrings, or wear one of my dichroic necklaces with another artist's beads in a bracelet or earrings. I think I'm a better designer than a beadmaker, mostly because I've been designing longer than I've been making fused glass beads. Kandice, I love your beads. Keep on doing whatever pleases you!!

Patti

Reply to
Patti

Careful! LOL.

I read the discussion, Kandice, and I felt you held your views with great skill.

I think that from the comments, people who only make focals perhaps don't understand what a 'set' is or can be. It's not all beads alike or the same size or whatever.

Mike makes beads, and then anneals and cleans them, I put them together into sets according to how I see them best. It's great fun for us both as he enjoys the freedom of playing with colours and is always amazed at the end result when I show him some of his work I've put together in a certain way. He'll work on a colour theme and then just turn the little guys loose to be roped and branded by me.

I don't personally (oh no, Su has an opinion! What a shock) think that there is a greater 'value' in focals over sets, they both require the same talent, skill and artistic quality because after all they're all beads. I've seen some very small beads with the most amazing, intricate layers and control of glass that make me just go 'klunk' because to me working in miniature says worlds about the amount of technical skill required to make something that tiny.

I admit that I only own a small amount of focals compared to my collection of bead sets, so I may be slightly biased in this respect but I certainly feel that there is a perception of focals being more 'artistic' and sets being more 'commercial' which is silly.

All beads are good, some beads are fantastic and it has nothing to do with their size as much as their quality. Art is not determined by size, otherwise Hilliard would have been in a lot of trouble with the Tudors.

-Su

formatting link
where small beads are big stuff?
formatting link
A wild and colourful set of beadmakers :-D

Reply to
Su

This post makes a lot of sense to me, Teresa - thank you for taking the time! I agree - this is how I view the topic as well.

Reply to
Kandice Seeber

Hi Patti - I completely understand - the art of fusing is pretty undervalued, in my opinion. Some of the colors you fusers achieve just bliss me out!! I think sets of smaller fused pieces would do really well, Anything really small tends to sell well - especially pairs for earrings and such. I wish the ISGB would focus more on fusing - it really is part of the glass beadmaking world. :)

Someday I think it might be nice to collaborate with a fusing artist such as yourself to make coordinating fused and lampworked beads to put in once piece of jewelry.

Thanks for your thought provoking post!

Reply to
Kandice Seeber

Now that's collaboration! I love that you two work in such harmony. I agree with your sentiments - thanks Su. :) And Mike sure is coming along! It's a thrill to watch a new glass artist really blossom. In a manly way, of course. LOL :)

Reply to
Kandice Seeber

LOL, Kandice!

I'll tell Mike he's a manly blossom.

It's been great fun watching him as he moves into more complicated beads, more layers, more control, all of that. I love putting sets together, I think in a way it frees him up to be even more independent as he can work with a set of colours but not worry about how many beads he needs for a set as I decide what goes together.

He even lets me pick colour sets too sometimes, so in a way although my torch work is dire, I am a lampworker by extension.

:-D

-Su

formatting link
formatting link

Reply to
Su

Interestingly enough, despite how much I admire sets I just can't do them myself. I have made sets and sometimes I make similar beads over and over because I am so in love with the technique or the colour. They tend not to be sets though, they are just similar beads made over and over. *lol*

When I started making beads I made tiny beads with the intent to make earrings. That has totally changed now. I tend to make much larger beads and part of that is so that I can see more of the stuff that excites me. I love colour reactions. Love them. Love love love them. It is why I love boro and why I tend to love the reactive colours of soft glass. Sometimes though, getting those reactions works counter to making sets. And in some ways, the non-repeatability is what charms me the most. Also, because of my love of rocks, I like to make things that look like absolutely amazingly cool rocks.

You know how sometimes the beads you don't like are the ones that other people love the best? (Not that I can imagine you ever making an imperfect bead, I totally admire your skill.) I think that is the same as lampworkers. We all make things that are different and speak to our inner voices of what we consider beautiful.

I suppose the answer to your original post is, everyone has their own vision: looker/lookee, seller/buyer, lampwork artist/jewelry artist. Finding someone who creates in a way that most matches your inner aesthetic is the trick. It probably doesn't really matter how that is achieved but I think the more variations there are, the better. I think all expressions of our preferred medium are worth regarding. I can understand your frustration if you don't have a venue to display that expression in but I see in the LE thread that the venue you are interested in is now going to open the criteria to include sets. So, problem solved.

- Sandy

formatting link

Reply to
Bacchae

Su, I like your observation that some people don't know what "sets" are. Actually I think this applies to both focal makers and set makers.

Kandice's sets are probably my ideal example of what a set "should be". Variations on a theme.

A limited number of colors of glass. (Opaque pea green, opalescent spring green, and a clear bottle green would not qualify as one color -- green.) Completing a piece of jewelry is going to require that I flesh out the lampwork with other beads, which will probably not exactly match the glass you're using, so other colors will be added.

With the colors limited, you are open to using lots of variation using smooth or raised decoration -- dots, flowers, spirals, etc, poked beads. Also variation in shapes, or variation is size, though if you use variation in size and shape it will look more cohesive if the look of the glass remains similar. And notice that the set Kandice makes that has the most variation in color and decoration are the same size and shape.

formatting link
Same for Desert Bug
formatting link
Boro is more tricky because the glass is consistently inconsistent. Brendan Blake makes her beads the same shape (and believe me, there are lots of "round shapes", and sometimes you can even identify a bead maker by their specific "round"), and the same colors of glass (process of making a color), allowing the glass to produce the variations.
formatting link
Kalera does this too
formatting link
One of my favorites is Iris Bucholtz,
formatting link
She usually uses the same shape in different sized and uses a wider palette. But the sets are cohesive. Pairing beads within the set is part of what makes it work for me. Pat Hadzovac does organic boro sets that are cohesive too.
formatting link
formatting link
On the other hand there are lots of wonderful sets of identical detailed beads, like from Heather Davis, Skreemin Chicken who usually lists on JustBeads
formatting link
, etc. One of the things I like most about sets is that the uniformity of sets forces the bead maker to learn to make things in sizes and shapes ON PURPOSE. There are focal makers out there who only make focals, because they cannot duplicate their work, cannot predetermine what they want to make. I think learning to make sets, or even spacers, makes focals better.

I have to admit that I can't do uniform things well. I learned weaving, but found it very lacking in satisfaction, and very hard. But it was a good learning experience. On the other hand, I make little flower necklaces of seed beads that are the same pattern with variations in color, size of bead, length, etc. I love finishing one and then going on to a variation that was touched off by a previous necklace.

And Su, you mention size, regarding sets vs focals. I love the tiny beads in Dale Prior's sets. They are ideal as focals for delicate little necklaces.

formatting link
I also sometimes find focals to be "over-worked". Often an encased floral focal will be intimidating compared to one from a set. Like this from Polychromebeads
formatting link
I love the floral focals from Calvin Orr (1/2 to 3/4 inch)
formatting link
I don't mind paying for a complex but small focal. I never have trouble figuring out how to use it as I do with some "honkers". Tina

"Su" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Reply to
Christina Peterson

Wow - great post, Tina!

Reply to
Kandice Seeber

Actually, Theresa, I think you do a wonderful job of expressing yourself while remaining respectful.

I have lots of beads that are not yet used, so they sit around as little works of art. Never-the-less, I like beads that are small enough for me to at least PLAN to use. And being a clumsy person, I also like to make things that would reach out and get tangled, or swing out and smash (itself or me). My problem with focals is usually with their size. Your wonderful goddesses, for example, would remain as small sculptures.

Another problem I sometimes have with focals is that often they are over-worked and cluttered (not yours). As a buyer, just because a bead maker spends a lot of time working on a bead, doesn't mean I like it better.

Often such beads also lack a free flowing movement. A friend is a calligrapher. All her work is done quickly -- if you don't count the decades of practice she's done. Her work never looks painstaking.

When I buy beads, I almost always like them to be in a sort of family. That is, a set. And I haven't mastered asymmetrical balance, so I prefer that accents can be paired. I like spacers when a glass is used that is not easily matched. Often pressed glass is in colors that are slightly but noticeably off from lampwork glass, and also react differently to different light conditions.

I like what you say about a focal being a complete piece. When I make carvings of wood, stone or ivory, they always have a sense of self-inclusiveness. Of being sufficient unto themselves, and with a certain serene wholeness, even if they express action. They become a thing with either a life of their own, a quality the contain/are, or a place that holds such a life or value.

I think that beads are like social entities. They are valuable as individuals, and important as support groups, and they should also be able to function as "everyman" and become an integral component of fabric of life.

Just like people. And like bead makers and jewelers. If you study art, you will find that most painters (eg) have been craftsmen, a few have the cold exactitude needed for the precision of the work of the artist. And one among millions will have the hot passion of the artist, the deep feeling of the poet and the cold exactitude and athletic precision of the master craftsman. Those are the daVincis and Michelangelo's.

I have had a disagreement with my mother about how artists function. My mother creates out of over-abundance. To her, the art is expression. Aus druk. Out press (or push). But complete when it becomes available to the public -- specifically when she has written, illustrated and published a children's book. For me, there is a connection between me and the individual who receives my work. Often the work is a description of sorts of the connection, even if I don't know who will receive it. This of course really only has to do with personality and a sort of social functioning.

I guess, to me, beads are social and interact, and come to live in the relationships in jewelry. I seldom use a bead all alone. In that sense, a focal becomes a sculpture or dominant part of the whole like a virtue, but preferably not a prima donna.

I'm farbling now obviously. And also I am describing only my our preferences.

I too like the subject.

Tina

Reply to
Christina Peterson

I agree, both sets and focals have their separate, but equal function. I usually make sets, mainly because when I am experimenting with a color style or variation, I like to try new things with it! So, I end up making more than one.

When I make a focal, its usually because I am trying to learn a new technique, type of bead, etc. It's also usually more stressful because I am in the process of learning to do that technique. When I make sets, I am usulaly experimenting with a color coordination, or a technique that works for sets. So I usually don't have as much trouble actually making the bead, as trying THAT color, etc. Sometimes, I just love the combination, so I keep making it! But I usually don't make a lot, even in sets because I get bored with it, or in the middle find out about something else that I think looks great, and I go on to it. I usually don't make focals because I tend to make things small, ( I even write small), and am just now making larger beads at all. Cyndi

formatting link

Reply to
okieglasss

In article , Christina Peterson wrote: Thanks for some food for thought Tina - as always I appreciate your throughtfull coomments. I've printed this out to read again and think about - after classes end in 4 weeks!

Reply to
Susan B.

The ISGB is made up of its membership; there is no feasible way to get the membership to focus on what they don't do. The ISGB is only representative of the many voices within it. If more fused bead makers joined the ISGB, they would provide the focus on fusing. I would love for that to happen, but the fused bead makers are an elusive breed.

The ISGB is an amaz> Hi Patti - I completely understand - the art of fusing is pretty

Reply to
Kalera

That makes a lot of sense, Kalera - thank you. :)

Reply to
Kandice Seeber

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.