Skip to main content

Beading to the Extreme

I watch a certain amount of public television, some Canadian and some from the States.  Nancy Guppy's Art Zone from Seattle, WA is a weekly show that keeps me up to date about what's going on in that city.

David Chatt's creation made from beads
You can image how easy it was for me to follow the story associated with this image.  What you're looking at is a toast purse, eggy glasses, bacon earrings and a slice of orange brooch all made from beads.  And they are all free-standing works (not sewn to a shape).

Nancy Guppy in her October 28 episode spends just over 5 minutes (see video) talking to David Chatt the artist who creates this work.  Mr. Chatt expresses his wide ranging interests and the desire to do something creative.  If you watch the video to the end you'll find he articulates this drive better than most.  I find in him a kindred spirit, that drive to do something inspired, if not a kindred skill set.  Just to save you some time looking through Mr. Chatt's gallery, here's another of his creations.

Wisteria Vessel
The vessel is obviously a vase covered in beads, but the gentle curves and colours of the wisteria are just beautiful and again they are all made from beads.  I've worked a little bit with beads and I know the challenge in manipulating the tiny ones used here.  I'm amazed at the talent of this sculpture/artist/carpenter.

Thanks to Nancy Guppy for showing what one talented person can create with these little decorative objects.  And thank you David Chatt for putting into words so effectively that desire to create.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time.  One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock.  So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep.  Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot.  And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...

Gosling's Meme and Knitting

What is a meme, you may first ask? Well Dr. Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, came up with the idea in the late 1970's and stated something like: a meme is to a society what a gene is to a human. Both are an element or unit that can be replicated or passed from one individual to another. During the Internet age memes can be easily shared, replicated or otherwise passed on to another. Recent examples can be found on Gawker . Memes can include piano playing cats, a honey badger, the Call Me Maybe phenomenon and so on. The political campaign in the U.S. helped fuel memes using some of the most unusual statements like, "binders of women" and "you didn't build that." A few memes have staying power but most have a relatively short life span. Gosling's meme related to knitting has been around for some time; so when I again saw another post about him recently, it was time to figure out the origin. Ryan Gosling is a Canadian actor born in Onta...

Yarn Usage II: Crochet vs. Knit

All four swatches were made.  Each is 6.25" or 15.875 cm square; each prepared with the same sized yarn and needles or hook.  It took 25 stitches to get the appropriate width for the knit swatches and only 20 stitches for both of the crocheted squares.  That already says something, but I'll get to it in a minute.  (Don't know what I'm talking about here?  Check out this post first.) Unfortunately, you'll just have to trust me that four swatches were prepared and that they were all the same size.  In the excitement to get to measuring and weighing of the swatches, no photographic evidence was taken.  Luckily for me the results of this research doesn't have to be reviewed by a jury of my peer.  This blog post will be the sum and total of where this information is published. The remains of my four swatches What can be shared, however, are the balls of yarn rewound after the weighing and measuring was completed.  You will note the size ...