A tongue-in-cheek-comparison of 'Marketing Speak' and 'Reality'
What you see on the artist's website:
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| The Graffiti series |
Here we see myriad dichotomies assert themselves in a cacophony of symbolism; the battle between the natural, represented by soft aquatic blues, and the urban, rendered as stark, crude graffiti is played out on the surface of the bead; whilst the inherent human urge to simultaneously beautify and desecrate their surroundings comes through as we consider how the artistic savagery of these industrial, tribal scrawls is both a rebellion against the concrete confines of the city and the state, and the expression of a longing for something more aesthetically substantial, a wild, tribalistic echo of the beauty of the natural world. And in the end, we find ourselves drawn into these continual tentative states of negotiation, and discover the wildness inside us all.
What you didn't see:
Oh boy, time to lampwork. Working on stringer work today, oh yeah. Gonna be a goooood session.
Right, I've got a nice flat surface on my bead, perfect for stringer work. Got my stringer, ready to go into the flame and start making stringer magic! Starting with a spiral...come on spiral...nice and round...or square, yeah, okay, we're drawing a square instead...good, good..Whoa, slow down stringer...not so fast...phew, hands getting a bit hot...let's draw another square now...or a rhombus, yeah, fine, making a rhombus...with a strange appendage..oh dear, I hope no-one reads anything into that shape....hands getting a lot hot...Oh my God, where's the stringer going?! It's melting too fast...it's out of control...argh, argh, it's stuck to the mandrel! Now it's flopping around! Quick, quick, stick it back on the bead...argh, I dropped it...Oh my God, it's in my shoe!!! It's burning my shoe!!! Get it, get it...not with that hand, that's the one with the molten bead on it you idiot! Put that down first!!!
Huh. Well, that went a lot better than I expected.
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(extra points to you if you can comprehend that BS up there, because I sure can't *G*)
Okay Helen - gotta say here, that this blog post is the funniest I have read in a long time.
ReplyDeleteDon't be too hard on yourself as far as stringer control is concerned, just keep at it, it will improve - I tell myself this on a daily basis.
Love the beads.
Kerensky
Thank you, glad you liked it *G* To be honest, I still occasionally struggle with dots, so I don't know why I thought stringer work would go down well!
ReplyDelete(It's Hazel, btw, not Helen :) )
This is fabulous, thank you Hazel you've made me smile so much xx
ReplyDeleteI was laughing so much to this my husband asked me why so I had to show him. That is so like my experince of stringer work apart from the burning shoe!
ReplyDeleteSoooo funny...;o))..you've really made me smile!!
ReplyDeleteYou needn't feel alone though!..I was there with you at each step...;o)x
this resonates with me honey - having had hot glass in my shoe just last week!
ReplyDelete