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PURCHASE KITS AND INSTRUCTIONS:

Kit with Instructions on CD or CD Instructions Only
Instructions Digital Download

DESCRIPTION:

Wear that mystical, bead-bezeled stone close to your heart! Use tubular peyote, circular peyote, and spiral tube Ndebele stitches while exploring design ideas about fringe, edge, bail, surface embellishment and strap.

The BezelWorks Pendant has a Center Piece, around which we create a bezel or frame, then do some edge and surface embellishment. Attached to this Center Piece is a bead woven butterfly bail. This piece hangs from a bead woven strap. For the bead artist working from an Art perspective, the frame, embellishment, bail, and strap should be seen as supplemental to the center piece. But if working from a Design Perspective, all these components should be seen more wholistically.

So, not only will we be creating a beautiful piece in this workshop. We will also be discussing the implications for the choices we make about each element or component for creating a successful and satisfying piece. This includes our choices about managing the transition from one element to the next.

The techniques we will be applying in this piece include:
- tubular peyote, open back bezel
- circular peyote
- fringe
- tubular spiral ndebele

Art or Design?

If jewelry is "art", is the entire piece the art, or only the center piece, or central focal part the art? Classical art theory holds that the fringe, strap, edging, bail, and other similar parts should supplement or support the center piece or focal center. This theory holds that these jewelry structures are not art. They should function like a frame to a painting, or a pedestal to a sculpture.

It is, however, often difficult to separate the jewelry's anatomy like this, with one part important and the other parts supplemental. This BezelWorks Pendant project is, in part, designed to foster ideas, discussion and debate about the roles of fringe, edge, strap, bail and surface embellishment. Each of these is critical to the finished piece.

For each of these anatomical parts or extensions to our piece of jewelry, we need to understand it in terms of:
- What it is, its purpose, its role
- What value it has to the piece
- How it makes the piece more or less satisfying
- What principles should regulate it
- Whether it is part of the art or not

Center Piece

The central project: A BezelWorks Pendant, with open-back peyote bezel. How do we go about designing an aesthetically pleasing, well-functioning, center piece? What functions does the center piece serve? How do we make choices about size, design, proportions, placement?

Edge, Frame, Boundary, Line

The Center Piece has a bezel, creating an interior edge encircling our stone. In addition, the we weave a frame around the entire Center Piece, creating an additional key edging component.

Edging is used to give a finished look to the piece. It might be used to hide threads. It might be used to hide any irregularities in how beads line up or are juxtaposed. An edging strategy is especially critical, however, for creating, preserving, blurring, or otherwise affecting the boundary line, line curvature, and/or silhouette of the center piece or the piece of jewelry as a whole.

What role does the “border” of a piece play? Does it mark a beginning/ending? How does it help the viewer appreciate the emotional content of the piece?

What kinds of positioning issues are associated with the placement on an edge, boundary, border or line?

Fringe and Surface Embellishment

We weave Fringe Embellishment off our Frame. So what exactly is fringe, and what can fringe be? How does the fringe make the piece more or less satisfying? There are numerous possibilities.

In good jewelry design, the Fringe and/or other Surface Embellishment would play either a supporting, or a co-equal role, with the center piece. It would not overwhelm or be overdone. It would seem as if the fringe were organic part of the piece. It would not seem like an afterthought. If it's primary purpose is to hide flaws, no one should notice. Too often, designers overdo the fringe.

Straps

The Center Piece hangs from a thin, twisted Ndebele tube Strap. What are the visual and functional purposes of the strap? What should the strap look like? How should the strap be connected to the piece? Where should the strap be connected to the piece? To what extent is or should the strap be as an integral part of the piece of jewelry as art? How does the strap define a silhouette? How does the strap make the piece more or less satisfying?

Bails

In our piece, a Bail is connected directly to the Center Piece, and the strap moves through it. A bail changes the visual and artistic relationship between the strap and the center piece. How might this be helpful, and how not? The bail poses similar design challenges as the strap -- size, proportion, placement and attachment. However, it has to succeed at one additional task -- it has to control the visual, aethestic and functional transitioning between the center piece and the strap.

The Canvas

We have two things which serve as "Canvas". The most obvious is the stringing material. In this project, we use beading thread for some parts, and a cable thread for others. The other part which serves as "Canvas" are the woven beads which for the basis of our Frame, and off of which we add Fringe.

The "canvas" in a piece of jewelry may be the stringing material, and how it is worked off of. It might be another piece of beadwork, such as a beaded base, off of which some center piece is developed. It might be a core line of beads. It might be a piece of fabric or other material. How does the canvas influence the interpretation of jewelry as art? How should the canvas interact with the main piece and its components? To what extent should it become part of the artwork itself; and to what extent, not? Classic Art theory suggests that the canvas should NOT be a part of the artwork at all.

SKILL LEVEL REQUIRED:

The skill level required: Intermediate/Advanced. The student must be comfortable with tubular peyote and the ndebele stitch.

PREREQUISITES:

ORIENTATION TO BEADS AND JEWELRY FINDINGS
(All students are required to begin our curriculum with this ORIENTATION CLASS.    The Orientation Class is offered once a month.)

BEAD WEAVING BASICS (or equivalent)

GOAL:

To learn how to manage transitions from one section of a necklace to another.

PROJECT/TASK:

The BezelWorks Pendant involves the creation and management of a set of "anatomical" parts. The challenges are many, and include creating a piece where each individual component is enhanced when brought together, but does not overwhelm. The Center Piece must maintain its sense of focal point, yet not dominate the other elements to the point where they are immaterial, or less important, to an appreciation of the whole finished piece.

SKILLS LEARNED:

What You Will Learn:
- Discussion of "Jewelry as Art" vs. "Jewelry as Craft" vs. "Jewelry as Design"
- Review of "Fringe" Theory, the Design Process, and Playing with a Variety of Applications
- Review of "Edge" or Boundary Theory, the Design Process, and Playing with a Variety of Applications
- Review of "Strap" Theory, the Design Process, and Playing with a Variety of Applications
- Review of "Bail" Theory, the Design Process, and Playing with a Variety of Applications
- Review of "Canvas" Theory, the Design Process, and Playing with a Variety of Applications
- Review of "Surface Embellishment" Theory, the Design Process, and Playing with a Variety of Applications 
- Within the Framework of the Ideas Discussed, Creating a Pendant Center Piece, using tubular and circular peyote, a peyote bail, and a strap using spiral tubular Ndebele

SUPPLIES REQUIRED:

You can purchase an optional kit, available in one color palette.

COLOR A (5%): DB-508, green 24KT gold AB, (110 beads, 1 gram)
COLOR B (65%): DB22, metallic bronze (2200 beads, 12 grams)
COLOR C (20%): DB22cut, metallic bronze cut (440 beads, 2.5 grams)
COLOR D (5%): DB505, deep yellow 24KT gold, (110 beads, 1 gram)
COLOR E (5%): DB906, sparkling purple lined crystal, (110 beads, 1 gram)
COLOR F: myk 15/0-199, 24KT gold iris (860 beads. 3 grams)
COLOR G: myk 8/0-457, bronze metallic (1 bead)
Swarovski, series 5000, 2mm round, black (27 beads)
Swarovski, series 5000, 2mm round, olvine (13 beads) (or sub 3mm olivine, 5 beads)
Swarovski, series 5000, 2mm round, cyclomen opal (or tanzanite) (10 beads)
Swarovski,series 5328, 4mm bicone,tanzanite, (65 beads)

gold filled hook/eye clasp, 16.9 ga, 20.1mm
gold filled chain for extender (3.5")
gold filled, 18ga, 3mmID jump rings (2 jump rings)
ONE G thread, black (for bezel, frame, embellishment, bail) (1 bobbin)
Fireline, smoke grey, .008", D (for strap) (1 50yd spool)

Size #10 english beading needles
Size #12 english beading needles

Gemstone or Glass Bead for Center Piece, something in range of 20x40 or 25x35 or 30x40 oval or twist oval
(Fire Agate, olive, included with kit)

Not provided:
chain nose pliers
side cutters or flush cutters
scissors
ruler
work surface
bic lighter or thread zapper
microcrystalline wax or bees wax
Lighting and Chair Cushion, as neeeded