Baltimore artist Joyce Scott is an artist of the highest caliber. Her work is shown in museums and galleries around the world. Her art is infused with political and social commentary and her medium is small glass beads (well, yes, and other interesting materials, but mostly seed beads!).

Joyce Scott as seen on the Wallace Foundation website

It is clearly important to her that she invest her work with thought provoking imagery as she does with the necklace “The Sneak.”

“The Sneak” by Joyce Scott © the Artist, 1989

Equally important to her is the approachability of art, knowledge and the museums that house examples of these, especially to children. Her mother, a quilt artist, introduced her to museums and their wonderful holdings when she was still a very young child. This is especially good timing, in my opinion, because children are unabashedly full of wonder and eager to experience new things and ask new questions. I agree with Joyce when she bemoans the overuse of the stern order, “Don’t touch!” which so impedes every child’s wonder.

Ms Scott received graduate degrees from Maryland Institute, College of Art (BFA in Art Education) and Mexico’s Institute Allende (MFA in crafts). She also has studied various art forms of Native Americans, (especially the Central American Cuna Indians), and West Africans.

Joyce Scott’s influence on my work is less in composition than in materials and the ideal of bead weaving as Fine Art. She is definitely, to me, a major force in contemporary art.

References
• Audience Development for the Arts, Wallace Foundation Knowledge Center
• Museum of Fine Arts Houston

This year has given me the most quantity of crocus blooms ever! I’ve got a wide variety in the front garden, starting with blooms that poked their heads up early this March – or maybe it was even late February. Of course they look great in snow but no less so poking up through the unprocessed mulch of natural leaves that piled up.

My exuberance is expressed this year in the digital painting accompanying this post. It’s been a while since I did straight abstract, but that’s what needed expression. These very cheering flowers uplift my spirits and my digital painting is meant to express this. You, the viewer will decide what the painting says to you, however.

As for the name, it seems to me that the plural of “Crocus” really ought to be “Corcii.”

Patricia's Bubbe Pin™ ©Patricia C Vener, 2010

From a simple strand of plain beads to the most ornate and complex weavings, beads have long been part of humankind’s history of personal and environmental adornment. We treasure these as keepsakes and works of art and because they are so dear, we should be taking good care of them. Read on to learn some of the most important rules for doing this.

Secrets and Tips You Should Know
• Don’t wear it to bed. Even if you sleep alone. Because you probably don’t sleep as motionlessly as you think you do. You twist and turn and at some point that necklace is going to be pulled in two different directions. It could become stretched out of shape or even break.
• Don’t wear it in the shower. It may be glass or stones but not all of the color and finishes are water resistant. And if the weaving material is silk or thread water can weaken the material and even sometimes stretch it out.
• When not in use or on display, keep it tucked safely away. I like to keep my pieces in cloth bags or pouches. Pieces with a lot of silver should be kept airtight and out of the light. Some beads have finishes which fade or wear over time and these, too, are best stored in the dark.
• Clean judiciously. Sooner or later you will probably feel the urge to clean your bead woven art. This is an undertaking that needs a light, careful touch. Most of the time all that needs doing is a light dusting with a soft cloth or a Swiffer duster. If your art has been exposed to body oils, perfumes, anything sprayed in the air, and suchlike, your cleaning is still a soft cloth but with slightly more pressure. Should the unthinkable happen and dirt gets dried on you can carefully work on it with a cotton swab dipped in soapy water.
• It’s art, not a toy. Don’t let children play with it. Especially be wary of the little ones who shouldn’t even have those scissors in their hands!
• Be careful who you loan it out to. Sad to say, sometimes things get lost or broken or simply maimed by people who don’t quite share your passion for your wearable work of art. On the other hand, a responsible kindred soul wearing it to her prom might make you smile “til it hurts.”

For more cleaning tips see my earlier post,

Earring lovers can’t get enough so I’ve created this series of earrings for the self-rewarding impulse buy without guilt because all of these are priced below $15.00 USD. Improv series are lovely beaded earrings with a simple premise. Each pair is unique and colorful. In Dance and theatre “improv” is short for “improvisational” meaning that the work is spontaneous. And so these earrings are as well. I start with a pair of beads for the main focus then add other beads to contrast or accentuate as I feel inspired at the moment. They are loaded onto Argentium sterling (or niobium) headpins and finished with colorful niobium French hook earwires.

Every day, I will be changing the pair of earrings on a hidden page on my website because the pair of the day will be for sale at a very special 20% discounted price. If that day’s pair is not sold in time, they will be listed at full price in my etsy shop, Silver Dragon.

If you are looking for something more dramatic, watch out for Fiesta series, bead woven spiral earrings for around $30.00 to $35.00 USD.

Family caregivers cry a lot. There’s frustration and guilt and depression and sadness. One thing that’s not often addressed is grief. Our care recipient (parent, spouse, child) is alive but we are grieving as if they were not…

Lately, I’ve been crying a lot. I’m not sad, really. I’m coping with almost everything and I’m doing a damn good job of caregiving for my mother. She has Alzheimers; tumbling off the cliff edge of the final quarter stage and I am forced to watch her decline.

She knows who I am because I remind her. I say, “Mama, what’s my name?” (Note the hint?) She usually knows. If she gives my Hebrew name I ask for my English name. If she gives my English name I ask for my Hebrew name. When she’s feeling mischievous she gets a look on her face and says, “Whatsername, you know.”

She is not the same woman she was and I miss her. I’m crying because I am grieving, because I am grieving for the loss of all the opportunities for profound discussion, for insights into her personal history, for insights into her desires for the legacy she would want to leave the world.

On the other hand, I’ve started putting coconut oil in as many meals as I can and I am so sure that I am seeing a positive difference. Because she does still know who I am and just the other day she recognized our house as hers – and she hasn’t for quite a while.

Dare I believe in a full remission? Maybe not to the extent that I can safely expect it, but I can hope for it or at least a measure of it.

I’m grieving because of the reality of her decline, but that doesn’t mean I have to give up hoping and working toward that much desired recovery.

Holidays might be grand, wonderful times of exciting hustle for most families but for many primary family caregivers they only add more stress and lead to deeper despondency. If you are a caregiver, remind yourself that you don’t need to live to any one’s expectations but your own. Enlist your family’s help and if they balk, you can do the same – you don’t have to fill the void.

Families, here’s how you can help: Cleaning and cooking. Yes, it is that simple. After dinner and after gift unwrapping are the two most exhausting non-care chores that your help will cheer the caregiver the most. For Chanuka, there will be approximately 22 people here all grating potatoes and onions to prepare the annual Extended Family Latke feast. I am willing to host this not only because my mother can’t really travel, but because I know that my sister’s in-laws will be right there with the clean-up. (Not that I’m not hoping that now that the kids are older the mess might be less, but don’t count on it. Have you ever had 6 people grating 10 pounds of potatoes in the dining room?)

The actual frying of the latkes will probably be handled by one or two of us (how many people can stand in front of a standard 4 burner stove, anyway?) but almost everyone wants a chance to flip the latkes. Make sure you, not the caregiver, takes responsibility for assigning who brings what (in our case that’s oil, potatoes, onions, graters, sour cream, applesauce, drinks, paper plates, etc).

Don’t leave the house looking like a fight broke out with wrapping paper and dirty dishes (or cookware) left everywhere. Get it clean before you go home (or mostly clean, I can handle a little leftover straightening up the next day) or at least easy to finish up cleaning.

Most of all, remember to include both caregiver and care recipient in the action and in hugs. There’s nothing like a comforting hug when it all feels like too much.

I am the primary family caregiver for my mother and this month is mine. Mine and everyone’s who act as caregivers for an ailing parent, spouse, lover, friend, child… Ours is a difficult path and we often find the ride to be bumpy as hell. If there is a family caregiver in your life, thank her (or him) profusely with any of the following gifts:

1. Free time! Take over the job for a day or two or even just a few extra hours.
2. Chocolates (I love dark chocolate – the expensive good kind. Lindt for example.)
3. Gift certificate for something fun and relaxing (very much depends on the recipient’s tastes).
4. Thank you dinner that she (or he) doesn’t have to make or clean up after.
5. Ask what you can do to help – then take on those chores with good cheer and keep it up!
6. Write to the president and your congressman asking for more not less assistance for our elderly.

Thank you for taking the time to give hugs to your friend or family member who does this caring day in and day out with no pay and not nearly enough emotional support. If you want a few more ideas or resources, please see my post from last year, “Be Thankful for Family Caregivers.”

I know this lesson, I really, really do, and yet…

I recently purchased some fancy inventory keeping software. It keeps track of time, materials, vendors, sales tax – lots of stuff in great detail! Only… it wasn’t working for me. At least it didn’t seem to be working consistently. I decided, after inputting my own information, to start adding some of the vendors and some of the raw materials I was thinking of using for my latest bead weaving project. I read the manual; I worked step by step while reading the instructions. I got one vendor in and then another. I hit the bright green plus sign to add a third vendor. Nothing happened – no empty record would open. I fired off a frustrated email to the software’s developer and went back to fiddle around on my own.

I decided to try duplicating the last entry. Ok, I got a duplicate. Then I deleted the duplicate and was suddenly able to hit the plus sign and get a new empty record. Huh. Oh well.

I added a bunch of vendors and moved on to adding parts.

I added one strand of lovely round faceted unakite beads. Then… Duplicate, delete, and add some swarovski bicones.

ARGH!

I sent off another email (after noticing a response that asked for more details). Ok, actually I am summarizing the criss-cross of emails and attempts. This all actually took a just under a week of fiddling and emailing back and forth until…

Gary sent back an email saying, “click on the word ‘New’ next to the green plus sign.”

Oh.

Now I remember what happens when we ASSUME!

Do you get all wide-eyed and excited at the ripple of dancing fringe? I have a passion for fringe from long and geometric to graceful and feathery to short and spiky. I don’t think there is a fringe that won’t catch my eye and make me grin. I think it might be the freedom of motion. Like dancing…

As a bead weaving artist I indulge in creating all of these fringes in many of works of art meant to be worn; wearable sculpture, that is probably reflective of my time as a ballerina.

One of my favorites, now part of a private collection, is “Hot Pink Fuzzy.” The name is descriptive. Imagine a soft fuzzy collar in hot pink.

Hot Pink Fuzzy
©2000 Patricia C Vener

Another necklace that is a favorite uses a completely different technique of fringing. Deceptively simple straight lines up and down. These have so much potential! I can change the size, color, texture, finish of the beads; I can add loops and other dangling beads at the ends. The necklace I’m showing here is called “Volcano” and it is red and crystal and silver and dramatically stunning and it never fails to get “oohed” and “ahhed” over. It is also one of the first I made utilizing the varying length straight fringe.

Volcano ©2001 Patricia C Vener

What kind of fringes do you like? When do you like to wear fringed clothing or jewelry or do you simply wish you could?

How do you view art? For some art must have a message, be it socially relevant or relevant only to the creator and viewer. For others it must be visually appealing. Some critics view these requisites as being mutually exclusive. Both groups mostly agree the work should be well made – a phrase that is not always, itself, well defined.

By virtue of the limitations of the materials, works of art on paper are short lived without special care and even seemingly sturdy and durable oils paints deteriorate in ways that are often slow enough that it goes mostly unnoticed. Of course conditions matter as is the case with pre-historic cave art. Often these have gone unseen, hidden in dark places only to begin immediate and rapid deterioration when revealed to the light of day – and human beings’ carelessness.

Who defines “art” varies with era. Historically, it is those with power over others who defines what art is and how much or how little it and its creators should be valued. In our own age we are at once torn between traditional definitions and our own particular viewpoints. The terms craft and art begin to blur with the distinction shifting to functional art versus decorative art.

Of course taste varies by individual despite the prevalence of replicas of some arbiter-of-style’s declarations. It takes a bit of independent determination to show off one’s personal style, be it in the home or on one’s body. I like to think that distinctiveness of style is one of the more interesting aspects of being human.