Dulcey Heller

Nancy Eha’s 2nd annual tiara challenge

Dulcey Heller — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:22:45 +0000

For Queen Beads, here’s Nancy’s second annual embellished tiara challenge. Buy the kit for $16, and make a tiara by October 1st. May the most inspired royalty win!

Another blog list

Dulcey Heller — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:12:16 +0000

Enjoy!

Beading for a Cure auctions have begun!

Dulcey Heller — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:45:34 +0000

And, my necklace is in the first round of auctions! I had no idea, I thought it would be later.

Beading for a Cure is an annual beading challenge dedicated to raising money for the National Colorectal Cancer Research Association in honor of fellow beader Layne Shilling, who lost her battle with colorectal cancer in November 2002. The premise of the challenge is simple: participants purchase a kit which contains a variety of beads. Each kit is identical. At least one of each bead type must be used in the finished project and the beader can only add one other type of bead to the project (but as many non-bead items as they wish). The finished projects are auctioned on eBay, and all proceeds minus expenses are donated to the NCCRA in Layne’s memory.

The finished length of this necklace, Glass Waves, is 17″, with another two inches available with the sterling chain at the back. The clasp is also sterling, and the stained glass components are made by Carol Dosse using lead-free solder. The back pendant showcases lampwork by Laurie B. Smith. The watery feeling of the beads is complimented by the color of the stained glass, and the silver of the solder and the findings.

This is my sixth year participating, and I have the kit for year number seven. The entire gallery of the 2010 items can be viewed, and check out Beading for a Cure on eBay to see new items up for auction every Sunday afternoon through April. Please check it out and bid!

Lace leaf chain, part two

Dulcey Heller — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:59:04 +0000

I’ve done a little more on this project:

The pendant is stained glass, like my Beading For a Cure necklace, which is going up for auction on eBay tomorrow! I have yet to determine how I am going to attach the pendant to the chain. I may just attach the thread to the anchoring chain, but another possibility is using a stringing medium somehow.

Foot in the Door 4 gallery

Dulcey Heller — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:25:07 +0000

Attached are the remaining pictures I took at Foot in the Door 4, my previous entry has the overview photos and the photos of my work. These are the pictures I took because I was impressed with the idea, the technique, the colors — or simply because they amused me. Handheld pictures taken with slow speed equals some blur, for that I apologize.

Foot in the Door 4 visit

Dulcey Heller — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:20:37 +0000

So this is the view upon reaching the entrance of Minneapolis Institute of the Arts Foot in the Door 4, a show of art by Minnesota residents, all works accepted! This year totaled about 5,000 piece of art, all smaller than 12″x12″x12″.

Inside this first gallery:

Turning to the right, to see into the next gallery:

Which is where my Painted Vessel is displayed:

And here are its neighbors:

The following entry is of other pictures that I took, but there are many other ways to enjoy this exhibit. First, here’s Jean Campbell’s blog post of her visit, including a picture of my vessel. Multimedia works, limited to 80 seconds, are on Vimeo. And the crowning place to visit, MIA has put images of all 5,000 pieces on their website! And for the jewels to top the crown, install Silverlight, and you can see the whole exhibit via Photosynth: Gallery 265 and Gallery 281. This is like running your own webcam through the galleries.

Lace leaf chain, part one

Dulcey Heller — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:30:43 +0000

I’ll be working on a larger project in the near future, so decided to enjoy a smaller project while I’m waiting for those beads to arrive. Here’s the first 2″ or so of a lace leaf chain, from Diane Fitzgerald’s Zulu Inspired Beadwork. I have a pendant I will be adding to this. I’m not following directions exactly — I’m making a straight square stitch base, instead of square stitch over a piece of cording, and it has two tiers of leaves in the instructions. I didn’t have cording on hand, and one tier fits the scale of the pendant.

New blogs again

Dulcey Heller — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:37:27 +0000

Here’s some more added to the blogroll:

There’s a whole lot of great Hungarian beaders who blog!

Vintage German flowers

Dulcey Heller — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:54:03 +0000

Sylvia came back from Tucson with a gift for me of these amazing beads. The core colors are varying shades of orange, with a milky-colored-glass covering, and while I believe these are pressed, not cut — they appear cut. Look at the glow!

I tried combining them with a matching Italian milky-white seed, it looked boring. I tried various oranges, but that didn’t work either. So thinking of the color wheel, I ventured generally to its opposite side and came up with this light blue. Now the oranges are more noticeable and vibrant.

Diane Fitzgerald author lunch

Dulcey Heller — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:11:28 +0000

I just had an enjoyable lunch listening to Diane Fitzgerald speak at the Textile Center. Diane is the author of eleven books, and from a family of women all adept with a needle. She spoke of how she would admire other beautiful things in different techniques, think of perhaps trying them, and just as quickly acknowledging that “what I really like is to pick up beads one at a time with needle and thread.”

Several things influenced this beadwork path. Diane joined a friend taking a class in Chicago with Helen Baines, and it changed her life — she was hooked. Diane has a background in journalism, and suggested to Helen that they write a book together, Helen teaching what she knows with Diane’s words. Beads and Thread was her first book.

One of her first teachers was Horace Goodhue, whose book she picked up and then realized that he lived in the same metro area. She took classes with him and learned technique — and also appreciated how he gave credit to the beaders who used the stitches, and also traded stitches. Diane emulates that spirit, most evident in her Zulu books.

Diane gives credit to classes in one- and two-dimensional design and color theory from the University of Minnesota. She enjoyed painting swatches and combining them.

Another influence is the beads themselves, the variety available from all over the world.

After Beads and Thread, Diane self-published four books, published four of the “How-to” series with Interweave, and her latest book, Shaped Beadwork, with Lark. She has been honored for her books, both by high sales rankings on Amazon and awards from the beadwork publishing field. Diane has been acknowledged as one of the top beading teachers — she has taught her ginkgo leaves necklace every year at Bead and Button since 1996, amazing longevity for a single project. She attests that to the combination of a pleasing shape and color blending learned in the course of the project.

For her newest book, Shaped Beadwork, she begins with four basic shapes: triangle, square, pentagon and hexagon. Most of the triangles have two sides for shape and substance. These basic shapes are manipulated or combined to form isosceles triangles, ovals, rectangles, diamonds and teardrops to add more possibilities. Shapes then progress to being open, so can be used for toggles, earrings, pendants, and more. Shapes are also used to make bezels, with the edges of the shapes wrapped around the top of the cabochon or other item. Combining flat shapes can make a myriad of dimensional shapes. Adding patterns to all these shapes opens up unlimited design potentials.

Diane spoke about some of the inspirations for her shapes. A postcard of simple-to-complex dimensional geometric shapes started her exploration of beaded shapes. A box of Zulu beadwork that she studied for her Zulu stitch books. The veil weight used by the Tuareg translates into a pendant. The Sydney Opera House becomes a combination of her open pointed ovals. The trefoil was a particularly satisfying project, as it starts with a knotted and pretzeled loop of beads, and after a few thread passes appears as the beginning of the interwoven trefoil knot.

Beading has led Diane to travel in the Czech Republic, Germany, England, Japan, and South Africa. She shared some of her travel stories, from the picture of a young Zulu girl covered in beadwork, to how she came to be trying on luxurious kimonos in Japan. Traveling has taught her about economics, and made her more aware of cultural subtleties.

Where will you find Diane? Check the classes page of her website. Or, three hours every morning, and three hours every evening, on her bead-filled couch, beading. “There are a whole lot of things I have not yet begun to explore with shapes.”