Thursday, August 16, 2012

Design Collision


My friend Marcia DeCoster recently posted an image of a beautiful necklace she recently designed named Vienna.  Along with her and several other beaders we’ve been playing around with design ideas for CRAW, Cubic Right Angle Weave.  The stitch really lends itself well to formal as well as fanciful geometric shapes with a soft feminine feel.  These shapes are something I feel beads work really well with and as such the finished beadwork has such an appealing look to so many. 

While I was working on Arya, a simple necklace where I changed the size of the beads as well as a slight change in the direction the beads take, I got several additional ideas on how that curved shape could be used. 

This is one of the ideas I jotted down in my sketch book. 



Now take a look at Marcia’s Vienna.


 As Marcia calls it, we had an Independent co-design.  Or a design collision!  LOL

Along with Marcia, I am seeing that while this stitch is being “played” with, several of us will most likely bump into each other design-wise during this process.  Hopefully we can all appreciate that and do it with respect for one another.

I have to admit I had mixed emotions when I first saw the post of Vienna.  My very first reaction was...Oh, look!  How beautiful is that.  Then a few seconds later I thought...Hey, wait a minute!  I flipped through my journal and found my sketch.  Then my next thought was....How cool!  I'm proud of me for even having a trace of Marcia's design sensibilities.  Then I got a little bummed because it is such a great balanced design with a lovely art deco feel.  Then I just laughed and sent Marcia a picture of the page.  I pretty much knew, knowing her now for several years, that she would not only see the similarities in design, but appreciate how it can happen, and probably does happen much more frequently than any of us realize. 
Then she so sweetly encouraged me to consider putting it into beads.  I’ve declined for a few reasons.  One is that now that I have seen Vienna I don’t want my minds-eye to morph my original thought to have any more similarities.  The other reason is that this sketch was actually buried pretty deep under a good 20 or more pages of additional designs that I can choose from to transfer into beads. 

Now I just need to find the time to get some of that beading done!

8 comments:

Beverly Herman said...

Beki I was so touched by this. I read both stories.
It takes grace and understanding and a beautiful friendship to have a happy ending.

designlady said...

It's funny how we get great design ideas, draw them in our sketch books for future construction, only to find out someone had a similar concept and posts it! It happens often, but sometimes it is nice to see the concept through. Keep designing!

Glorious Beads said...

Beki, your design deserves to be in BEADS! While your working on it you may change it, but it will be because of the process/project itself, not because of Marcia's design in the back of your head. Many times this same thing has happened to me and scads of other beaders, just the way the beads influence us. Get those beads ready!

Cindy said...

Well, you know the old saying, "Great minds think alike!" Gorgeous design and thanks for sharing this "design collision" story :)

Jamie said...

Beki, what a great story because things like this even happen to those of us who aren't well known in the bead world. My suggestion would be to bead it up as a special necklace to wear for yourself or to gift to someone near and dear to you.

The bad Liz said...

Bead it. It might be interesting to see how it actually morphs into beads....

Unknown said...

I'd love to see a side-by-side collaborative story on this, Beki. What you end up with from your sketch next to what Marcia designed!

Lori Anderson said...

You and she are so gracious. I'm impressed and inspired.