In 26 years of making my living as a bead artist, author and teacher, the subject of copycats has reared its head several times. I guess SOPA is one underlying reason for its return today. That, plus Sweetpea , who has been noticing that her images are showing up on Pinterest at an alarming rate, sent me a link to a really good post on the subject of copycats. No way around it, when we publish photos on the net, display work in a gallery or museum, sell work at a studio tour, or in any way make our art public, there are people who are going to copy it, or at least try to copy it. There are even some who will copy it and say it's their own. The worst offender for me was a student who copied my handout (word for word, plus the drawings!) for my beaded button class and made up kits with my instructions as the main feature. She sold the kits to quite a number of bead shops over a period of a year or so before I learned of it. If you prefer posts with images, please scroll down to the previous posts... This one is all words... Another student in the same class, called to tell me about it. She also reported it to her local bead society and made it her business to call all the bead shops, asking them not to carry the kits. I don't know what happened after that. The truth is: her kit sales did not hurt me in any way (OK, except my pride). I still had and continue to have more teaching offers than I can manage to accept. I still teach the button workshop at filled-to-capacity levels. Nobody ever accuses me of stealing the idea from my student's kits (ha ha). The way I figure it is this... It's a mighty big world. And there's an unfathomable amount of art in it. There's room for everybody and everything, including copycats. That's the simple conclusion. It originally came from my artist friend, Carol Berry, who once said: "People copy my ideas. But I don't really care, because by the time they do, I'm already onto something else." Well, that's how I remember what she said... not an exact quote. It sticks with me as basically true. The other thing that seems important to me is art vs. guns. Yep, art, most of it, in my opinion, is a peace agent, one of the best we have. It's an antidote to war, greed, fear, prejudice and inhumanity. I believe in putting as much art as possible into the world. That's one reason why, when the current printing of my books runs out, I'm going to make them available as free downloads. My first book, One Bead at a Time, is already available for free ( here ). I put images (not itsy-bitsy ones, not protected or water-marked ones) of my art on all my blogs, my website, Flickr and Facebook. Other people copy them and put them on sites like Pinterest and sometimes I see them on personal blogs and other sites. Sometimes folks attribute the art, quote and/or photo to me; sometimes not. Today, I'm weighing in as not caring. Today, I'm grateful for every peaceful, soulful, contented thought that happens as a person, somewhere in this world, views my art/photo. It's the only way I know to bring more harmony into the world. Just today, I joined Creative Commons , which is a way to publicly license my words, my art and the photos of it, allowing free use for non-commercial purposes with attribution... might as well give a little structure to what I believe anyway. What about you? What are your thoughts about copycats?

On Jan. 11th, my brother's first solo show opened at the LaConner Quilt Museum ... 43 beaded quilts.... 10 years of work by Thom Atkins!!!! To say I am one totally proud sister is a drastic understatement. I took a few pictures with my little point-and-shoot camera. And then the battery went dead. No spare. Good news, however... my beadiferous-fiber friend, Sweetpea's Path, also attended the opening and took pictures with a more advanced camera. She posted them here . You can also visit Thom's website to see more. Better yet, get thee to LaConner . There is NO WAY that any camera can capture the awesome totality of these quilts, beautifully displayed on the museum walls, full size, up close and personal. The town is a fun, artsy town, with nice places to stay, eat and see. There's even a new quilt shop that just opened. The show closes on March 25, 2012. The above pictures are detail shots of Monterey Seascapes . Be sure to click to enlarge these images so you can see all the beady details. You can see the whole seascape on Thom's website, on this page . I think the way he used beads to construct the various underwater flora is utterly amazing. Most of the quilts in the show are for sale, although the prices aren't posted. There's a price list available in the Museum gift shop on the same floor as Thom's exhibit. I'm so pleased for him... two of the quilts, including the one shown above and below, Australian Dreamscape , sold during the artist's reception. Here is a picture of Thom working on Australian Dreamscape in my studio during a visit in July, 2004. And here's where you can read more about it. I bet you'll all be glad to know Thom's book on quilting with beads will be out this fall. I'll post a notice when it is available. The quilt below, which is one of my favorites, is on the cover. The title of the quilt is Tenuous Membrane and it's 25.5 x 43 inches. I love the colors and the harmony of lines! Here's a detail shot. It's not on his website yet. Another of my favorites is My Father's Shadow . Our biological father died in an automobile crash when Thom was 3 1/2 and I was just turning 5. I never thought of depicting our father in this way, but when I saw Thom's quilt I got a massive lump in my throat and a dense coating of goose bumps. It hit home, big time. Here's a detail. The grass is entirely beaded. Here's the page for it. They're all favorites... but one more for you, just a detail... Serenity lives up to it's name... lichen-covered rocks, with moss-covered bases, sit serenely in perfectly raked sand. This picture is just a detail, a teaser, because the whole is not yet on Thom's website. You'll have to go to LaConner to see it.

Where to start? I guess the heart says it all. Liz and I met in 1973, when we both lived on a houseboat on Lake Union in Seattle. Best friends for 39 years, she knows me better than anybody else in the world. She's my rock. She accepts and loves me exactly the way I am. I could write so much more about our relationship, about how much we respect and admire each other, about some of the things we've learned from each other, challenges we've met together... You just don't put something so huge in a blog post; it's a whole book (at least). September being my birthday month, it seemed the perfect month to bead an impression of our enduring and deep friendship. Ouch! Think about it... someone with whom you've shared 4 decades of your life. How do you illustrate this story in one 5" square, X-shaped piece of bead embroidery? I'll tell you one thing about the process. I had to consciously put aside the exceedingly strong urges to get it right to please Liz with it to figure it out to plan the outcome to make it really, really, really, REALLY, SUPER special... as special as she is to me Improvisational all the way, I think this piece speaks to the pure joy of having such a true, honest friendship in my life. Which arm of the X is me and which is Liz? While stitching the beads, I had no clue which of us I was beading. Only when it was finished, did it seem that the two pieces of amber represent Liz and what she means to me. If you click on the image to enlarge it, you can see the amber pieces and, therefore, that Liz is the upper left to lower right diagonal. Amber is a sun-colored material of nature, ancient, enduring, a bit of magic, the soul of the tiger, symbol of courage, with major healing properties attributed to it. Liz = precious amber! At the intersection, the point where our paths cross is a big, cheerful heart. Colors of childhood, Little Liz and Little Robin always playing together and having fun. Rabbit, precious to both of us, perhaps as a symbol of innocence and yet at the same time enduring and strong. This rabbit, carved from bone, comes from life... and represents our shared lives. Words can not adequately express my gratitude for Liz. She is an exquisite blessing!

Can you guess the subject of this piece? I guess the title will have to be Me & The Book ! Maybe a little "refresher" about how I do bead embroidery is in order... First, this is a Bead Journal Project piece, meaning (for this year's pieces) it will be about a significant intersection in my life. August was the second month I worked on my new book. "Worked" is an understatement. I slaved on it, working mostly at the computer, nearly every day of the week for 8-14 hours a day. At that time it was both an exciting, challenging opportunity to teach what I know about beads AND a frightening, draining, daunting 7-month commitment. It was a natural choice for my piece... the intersection between me and the book, how our paths cross. Fabric choices: just what appealed to me; hot color for a hot month, maybe. Or, perhaps my hunch that the book itself will be HOT! Bead choices: with the subject tucked in the back of my mind and the fabric already chosen, I went through some boxes of beads and picked out things I like (love). The rock: it was in with some smaller pebbles I collected on the beach one time. It appealed to me. I almost always begin beading in the center. The rock was big, I thought, but I was compelled to put it on this piece right at the point of intersection. The rest of the piece developed quickly and without much thought on my part. When I'm all finished (or nearly finished)... that's when I begin to analyze the piece, deciding which axis is me, which is the book, thinking about what it means. In this case, the book (see end of this post ) was like a big rock in my life... an anchor, a huge, solid mass requiring my full attention and focus. I am the straight line, surrounding the book, not allowing myself to veer away from working on it. The other line, the book itself, is creative, fun, open, developing. It exists beyond my management of it. The last things I added were the long pieces of coral. I think these may reflect the part of me that is having fun with the book, a guiding muse, perhaps, existing outside of my conscious control. Here's the whole piece. I made the miniature book on top of the rock a long time ago. I'm going to make another one in the likeness of the new book (once it's cover is designed by the publisher) and exchange it for the one that's on the rock now. It's interesting to note that this piece was me and the book in August. It would be a different picture now that the book is 2/3 complete. I'm not in such a straight, rigid line about it anymore. Yay!

Above is a detail picture from my July BJP. I'm "journaling" this year about how I intersect with important people, places and things in my life. The one that came to mind for July was The Ocean . I grew up in California, living near San Jose until I was 7. My grandparents had a little cottage in Santa Cruz on West Cliff Drive, a few miles north of town, where in those days, many of the lots were brussels sprout fields. Can you imagine, prime real estate like that, high on the cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, used to grow artichokes and brussels sprouts? Shows my age, doesn't it!?! You can easily see which line represents me and which is the ocean. I've always loved the ocean, adored it, mesmerized by the sound of breaking waves, frightened by its immense power, awed by its beauty. As a young child, I used to cross the street and clamber down the steep cliff to the rocky ledges below, exploring tide pools, just sitting and watching the waves break below me. Once a rogue wave almost took me away. I saw it just in time and practically levitated myself up two ledges, watching it growl over the place I'd been seconds before. Living on an island, I'm surrounded by ocean. When it storms, my husband and I like to go to South Beach and Cattle Point, where we watch and photograph waves so big they pick up and toss around whole driftwood logs like toothpicks. Ah, it's in my blood! Here's the whole piece. These "blocks" are designed to go "on point" and will be joined together and hand quilted to make a wall hanging. Looking at all 8 of my finished blocks (each 7 inches square), I am thrilled with them! They tell such a personal story about me... I thought they would be a journal of 2011, and in some ways they are. But, even more, I seem to have chosen to illustrate intersections that have been important to me for a long time, like the ocean on this piece. Although I've been focused entirely on writing a new book since the end of June, I've managed to get two more BJP pieces finished (July and August). September's piece is started. I will finish the year, although probably not on time. I'll post August's piece tomorrow. * * * * * * * * * * * * New book! I'm not at liberty to say much yet about the new book, but will soon. I can say it will be about 350 pages, loaded with photographs, and have 40+ projects in it. The projects are designed to teach techniques. Small groups of projects build on each other, resulting in both easy and complex pieces. While the book emphasizes technique, it also covers process and design. Nine guest artists are contributing projects to give it a wider-scale appeal. It's about 2/3 complete and looking mighty special! As soon as the publisher allows me to spill more of the beans, I'll publish a post with more details. Oh, I can say, it will be available on Amazon and in bookstores next fall.

Anybody out there recognize this bead... how old? where made? (Click to enlarge!) Answers revealed at end of this post. Here's what I know about it: made of transparent, medium blue glass round in shape about 14 mm in diameter probably a lampwork bead, because I can see bits of what seems to be kiln slip in the hole seemingly hand ground on the ends seemingly hand engraved, carved or etched because the cut designs are slightly different on each of the 13 beads I have at least 25 years old because that's how long I've had them carved design (three circles on each bead) looks a little like the Chinese symbol for longevity although I don't recall how (or from whom) they came into my possession, I do recall being told they were "vintage" I think I was told they were "vintage Japanese," but am not sure about that I need to know about these beads for a book I'm currently writing, especially how old they are and where they were made. Anybody know the answers? Educated guesses are OK. If you know somebody who might know, please pass the link to this post on to them. Thanks! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Sept. 18, 2011 ~ Origins of mystery bead are revealed, thanks to Robert K Liu, founder and editor of Ornament Magazine, who wrote: These are lapidary-cut or ground Chinese Qing Dynasty beads, at most probably early 20th C. Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions about who to contact, especially Beady Ann, who suggested contacting Dr. Liu.