Kate Boyan's Gallery: dipnet series

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

ONE DOWN, FIVE TO GO

Here's the finish piece. One down and five to go! This is because I'm doing three pieces that are looking east (up river) and three pieces looking west (towards the mouth of the river). The east looking sides will be the morning high tide and the west looking sides will be the evening high tide. These pieces will be free standing two sided bags but will be viewed all together. I'm very excited to be making an installation piece and feel like it's going to come together quite well. The one thing I wanted to say about this piece is about the net. I'm a Nymo bead thread user from way back, but with the net I used the Fireline. Really good stuff, you can get a sculptural quality with it. Unfortunately it's to expensive to use all the time.
I wanted to put a little whimsy in each piece so in this one I did the little seagull fisherman. It feels good to have one under my belt, I'll start beading a new one tomorrow...

THE BLUE BEAD

Can an old trade bead find new life in print? Could the saga of an 18th century blue Bohemiam bead be a book that will hold interest for children and artist alike? This book "The Blue Bead" is a fictional account of a young beadworkers experience with the gift of an old trade bead and how it finds its way into her life in present day Alaska. It is based in part on historical fact. Where a bead has been and who its previous owner was often remains a mystery. The 25 illustrations were laboriously beaded, each taking over 200 hours to complete, some much more than that. "The Blue Bead" has taken 10 years to finish and is an exquisite labor of love by author/illustrator Kate Boyan.