My name is Irina Sidina, I live on the Volga River, in the small town of Balakovo, Saratov region, Russia. Three years ago the beads were my wonderful childhood memories, maybe it would have stayed if my friends and I didn't organize an exhibition of handicrafts where we invited another our good friend who was fond of beading. I knew about her passion and the words didn't have much impact, but when I saw a display case with her beadworks, I was literally speechless! It was a surprise mingled with delight! My ego diagnosed, "You want to learn it!" - And it was the beginning of my long journey into the world of beads.
Now it has been on purpose. I bought beads which I could find in my local craft shops (Chinese), picked up a pretty difficult pattern and began to weave ... Having cut for the third time my little bauble, I once again thanked my parents for my mentally genes of stubbornness and perseverance, and started all over again, but already acting on the plan. First of all, I decided that it was necessary to learn from the real artists, and climbed to the Internet looking for the sources of inspiration and information. Secondly, I needed quality materials, and I ordered Czech beads, good findings and other materials.
In general, for three years now I cannot stop and when I ask the question what beads are for me, I can firmly say, "Beads are my friends, with whom I share the joys and sorrows, my little disappointments and big wins, these are my thoughts, fantasies, my mood and my dreams!" I draw my ideas from all that surrounds me, any little thing can be joyful and beautiful, can be implemented in the form of jewelry. When people guess a theme of a finished necklace and when someone says that he smiles looking at my jewelry, I feel happy. "Joys divided are increased." (c) Josiah Gilbert Holland.
Not all I get, not everything I can. For example, I have done so far only small steps in weaving, and my favorite bead embroidery can be much better, and I think soutache as a jewelry making material is just an inexhaustible subject. I'm constantly learning and getting great fun from learning. Now there are many new types of beads, and it's always very interesting to me to try in my work something new to create another texture of 3-D. I was very fond of Tila beads, I like the way the beads lies forming an interesting line like a paved path.
Working with Tila is a pleasure, they are very nice to the touch and smooth, reminiscent of silk cloth. I used these square beads in the necklace "Ganesha" to create a completely non-square shapes, and it has seemed to me more interesting to work. I really enjoy working with the Long Magatama beads, they allowed similarity of the scales in the pendant "My Fish" and petals of "alien" colors in my blue wristband. Recently I've tried Czech Twin beads and woven multiple bracelets - I got a pleasure!
I like bead contests, they provide an opportunity to test yourself, to look at your work from the side and try to understand what you may need to learn and correct. I especially like Fashion Colorworks with its limitation of color combinations. After all, the more complex the task, the more interesting. This year we were suggested very interesting and close to me triads, therefore I have worked seamlessly and "with the song."
"With a song" is the truest sense I felt designing my Lullaby Necklace. Looking at the blue-gray triad, I suddenly remembered how I sang a song to my son at night, which lulled him better than a fairy tale. I remembered his cute baby face, his wheezing in time to the music, I remembered how I wanted to protect him with my love from all evil.
When I drew a sketch, the lines that define the necklace shape, almost immediately went in the right direction and later on have remained so, that's not very often in my work. I tried to convey the state of peace and weightlessness, which gives a feeling of sleep, when the melodious notes of smooth lullaby flow around the child and wrap him, and transparent droplets fall down. I myself made cabochons from polymer clay; the beads in this work are mainly Czech ones by Preciosa. I am very glad that my work received the highest rating.
The story wasn't cloudless with my Aurora Necklace, the goddess was a bit moody! The necklace was conceived in two layers, which in itself was an experiment for me. The first layer was not technically quite common for me and resulted with a dozen of broken needles and a few grams of blood from my pierced fingertips. Several times the thought has come to me that I probably wouldn't be able to finish the necklace, that I overestimated my skills and that I wouldn't have the patience to finish it, but Leo is my sign and retreating would be a shame.
The result was surprisingly pleased, I managed to achieve evenness of lines and substantially pure symmetry. I almost never draw sketches for my soutache embroidery because soutache itself tells about curls and direction on the fly, and a second necklace layer was made intuitively. Such moments are what I call "meditation" - when you let emotions and feelings drive your hand and needle.
Aurora is a goddess of the dawn, waking up from a dream and the beginning of the day, so the sharp "spikes" in the bottom necklace layer had to reflect the rays of dawn on the horizon. The color combination ideally suited for my ideas and I hope I was able to pass my emotions and associations that arose when I worked on the necklace.
I was very pleasantly surprised that my beadworks were so highly valued and I'm very grateful to the organizers and supporters of the contest, the jury and all the participants for a great positive energy and mood. I'd like to wish the Fashion Colorworks continue to develop, to discover new names, grow and flourish - to the delight of all bead community!
My gallery on MyLovelyBeads.com
About author:
| Irina Sidina, Balakovo, Saratov region, Russia | |
| Email address: | sidina@bk.ru |
| Website: | liveinternet.ru/users/jriska/rubric/2374820 |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002917183820 |
