Thursday, May 10, 2007

Thoughts about purpose and guidelines

Bead journal pages tell stories, break boundaries, and personify the maker’s search for artistic identity and creativity.

Bead journal pages are not about competitions or sales. Whether or not the artist is experienced in beading and/or journaling is not relevant to the BJP. The purpose of participation is to open doors into the artist’s own imagination and to develop self confidence.

Each page is a journal entry which reflects the artist’s experiences and growth process at a particular point in time; each is a little window into the personality of the artist.

Each artist makes her own decisions about size, style and theme. Here are some possibilities:

Size ~ Should remain consistent for each artist throughout the year
· small quilt size (8.5 x 11 inches), with beading as an embellishment
· postcard size (4 x 6 inches)
· artist trading card size (2.5 x 3.5 inches)
· circular or other non-angular shape

Style ~
· Pages designed to be combined into book form
· Loose pages, perhaps in an embellished box
· Three-dimensional, sculptural pages
· Pages designed to be hung on the wall

Theme ~ May carry through the entire year or not
· portraits
· explorations in color theory
· significant relationships
· nature
· life issues
· healing
· current events

BJP “rules” are gentle. Make one journal page per month. Try to start it during the first week of the month, and complete it before the last day of the month. Make all 12 journal pages roughly the same size. That’s it. The rest is your choice.

Discussions we might want to have as a group ~
· Do we want to share images? I understand that the Journal Quilt Project participants were asked NOT to share images in order to have maximum individuality.
· Do we want to find an exhibition opportunity for our journal pages? Any suggestions for an exhibition venue?

post by Robin A

17 comments:

Kivett Studio said...

Hi Robin, thanks for starting another blog just for this project! personally i would love to see what everyone else is making and do not think it would alter my own personal style...and this blog would be pretty boring if we didn't show off some of our efforts until the very end. i don't think an image or two here and there would hurt but hopefully inspire. i've already heard that there are several people that have joined that are very new to beading and i'm sure they would appreciate some guidance and inspiration.

as far as exhibit venue ideas. the bead museum in glendale az would probably be interested.

Ronda

Vicki said...

Hi all,
Thanks Robin for opening this up so that all can comment! I'm wondering if there is a percentage requirement for amount of beads? i.e. Minimum 20% or something?

The trap I fall into when viewing others' work is to start thinking I am doing mine wrong. If photos could be optional, or click to display, I could choose to look when I feel established enough in what I'm doing not to be affected by seeing others' pieces.

And of course it is important for me to take responsibility for my experience by truly committing to the process I choose and realize that I will probably get the most learning and pleasure from pursuing my authentic path, rather than switching to another midway (especially if it's because I think mine is "wrong".)

As far as exhibits, how many participants are members of Bead Societies? Bet they could come up with some traveling exhibit locations.

LJ said...

Hello Robin -
I'd like a limited sharing of images, as Ronda says. Enough to inspire but not enough to spoil the surprise.
Now how we'd judge "limited" is a good question!
I'd love to see the finished work exhibit. I can check Canadian venues if you'd all like me to. I wonder too, if the show ends up being as wonderful as I think it will be, if approaching a publisher to do a catalogue would be a good idea.
Best to all!
Linda

Aurora said...

Hi Robin & everyone,
Ditto on thanks for starting this blog for us! I have mixed feeling about whether we should save our work and not post images...surprises at the end are real nice! One idea I had--is you (since your are the moderater?) pick one month and announce ahead of time that we can can show one of our completed pages that month?? instead of showing them all as we go along...maybe just put one up every 3 months or something---that would also give us something to work toward (can you tell I work best with deadlines?)
anyway--that is oneway to limit it--
meahwhile, we could always post other work we are doing...?

Robin said...

Well, here we are!

I'm just wondering if we're getting a little ahead of ourselves with exhibition thoughts?

As soon as I start thinking about that, I get all in my head and a little blocked... way less improvisational and way less fun. My plan is to think of my pages as completely private and something just for me.

Maybe we could delay making plans about showing the work until about 9 months into it. That would work pretty well for me.

About posting to this blog... I'm not understanding if I need to do anything else. If you're already on the author list, are you able to post? Somebody please test it for me. Thanks!

LJ said...

I was able to post, no problem, Robin. It does require a google id of course. (I pulled my entry but will post soon). Nothing to it if you're used to blogger. And blogger is easier than beading. What I couldn't do was post a photo....Maybe someone else should check that. Clicking the icon did nothing.

Joanna said...

I'm one of the newbies. Haven't done much beading at all until recently. However my first beading piece has drawn some excellent comments so I'd like to grow and learn.

I'll likely lurk for the most part.

beadbabe49 said...

hi...
I'm all in favor of waiting about 9 months before thinking of what we might do with the finished journal.
Also, I'm in favor of posting photos on a monthly basis - finished pages only, but on a voluntary basis.
I'm not particularly in favor of posting other work since that's what I use my "regular" blog for and I'd like to see this blog just focus on the journal pages.

søren said...

rats! well I guess I'm alone, but I'd love to see pictures all along! I wouldn't change my pages too much from seeing other people and I'd be inspired!
I'd be fine with an exhibition - I live by "The Fiber Museum" (I think it's called?) in Amherst MA, I bet they'd like it. (I think Rhonda K had a piece there?)

Jennifer said...

Hi Everyone! And thank you to Robin for getting this off to an exciting start.
I'm strongly in favor of keeping this blog focused on the Bead Journal Project and not other projects, unless those other projects directly relate to the current journal page. From my point of view, there are plenty of other general beading sites. The shared purpose we have in this group and our sense of focus could easily get diluted and sidetracked. That being said, I am in no way commenting on the recent posts, as I understand people are trying the system out.
I'm imagining a rich dialogue developing from committing to this project, a journey of growth and discovery. I would not have a problem with people posting images of in-progress or completed journal pages.

Mary Timme said...

Ambivilance is usually not my name. But on this posting and commenting thing I'm in a state of ambivilance. I would like maybe to see one page a quarter of something someone else did for the bead journal, but not more than that. I don't mind other projects that focus on bead embroidery being shown, but have mixed emotions about it. I would love to mentor one or two of those people new to beading, through the blog and comments, and I'm sure some other experienced bead embroidery people would too. But, I really want this (my journl) to be so my own thing and not influenced by someone else. If I hit a flat time--and in a year I will--I'd like a forum to whine just a little tiny bit, but not too much and then pick myself up and be on my merry way.

I think we may be putting the cart before the horse with the exhibition thing. Once these are done, or nearly done we can do the searching for a place. I'm probably one of the oldest participants at 66 and 67 before this is done and I'm not in a hurry, and there will be a tomorrow--until there isn't--so let's see what we get done and how we all complete them and then look for a venue. I'd think having one of the bead magazines take an interest might be a good thing, also. Let me know what you think, all of you, and we can use the blog for sorting this stuff out as we go. Beader's are notoriously control freaks who don't want to be controlled, so we need to proceed with an eye toward other's sensibilities and sentivities as well as our own.

Vicki said...

Hi Robin,
Would you or one of the people who knows how to post to the main page as a blog, please give the rest of us who are clueless the instructions or where to go to get them for posting actually on the blog, not just the comments? Oh thank you so much!

Parknpaige said...

Hi, I'm a newbie to bead embroidery and would love to see work in progress (but only a snippet). I don't want to be influenced too much by someone else's style. I think it would be nice to see maybe a 1" square or something that would just give a hint of the project, but not give the whole thing away.

Joan Cromley said...

My vote is snippets or one page every couple of months. Showing small sections would help some of us explore techniques we're not familiar with. Also, it would be nice to have a group to share a "Hey, didn't this turn out great!" moment, which would be best with a picture! I've never had anything in an exhibition, so I'm not going to worry about that till it's done. I'm just excited I've picked a size and found the perfect material!

Timaree said...

Hello. I'd sort of like to see what others are doing but more importantly I am hoping to hear HOW they are doing such as "I'm stuck, help!" or "this is so much fun". Mostly some companionship to keep going for the long haul is what I think would be nice.

I had trouble getting a picture on my blog also. Guess a lot of us are on the learning curve.

Jody said...

Being new to beading I would enjoy viewing other bead work. My belief is if we share bits & pieces of our work through out the course of the year, we can all inspire each other.

An exhibition would be wonderful but for now I will keep that thought in the back of my mind...less pressure that way.

Thank you for making this beading project happen.

ct said...

This is the first project like this I have even been a part of and am excited about it. I too would like to see a page on occasion or parts of the page, as melinda said -
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this.