"Elementary" Shawl

In April of 2001, I received an email from Valerie Hector. At the time, I didn't know who Val was, but she introduced herself as a beadwork jeweler and historian. On the basis of the technique which I had created and subsequently published in my book, Linked Chain Stitch Basics, Volume 1, she invited me to submit a piece for a book she was writing. The book was to be titled The Art of Beadwork and would include both historical examples of beadwork from around the world as well as new pieces done by current artists. (For more information on the book, see Val's website, linked from her name above.) The idea was to take a historical piece and use it as an inspiration for the new work.

Val also mentioned several other bead artists who had already agreed to do pieces for the book. I was thrilled that I was being personally invited to be included in a book that would have work by such renowed artists as Joyce Scott, NanC Meinhardt, Don Piece and David Chatt, so of course I agreed. After several emails to discuss the project, I began designing my "scarf", which eventually became the shawl that I've titled "Elementary". I had no idea at the time that a simple email would result in 8 months of constant work as I rushed to complete the project within the specified deadline. Normally I find beadweaving to be a relaxing and enjoyable way to spend an evening, but those 8 months were spent working my regular full-time day job, and also working about 60 hours per week on the shawl. I quite literally spent all of my free time on it. Thankfully my husband was understanding enough to take care of everything else, including putting food near my chair so I didn't starve! My friends quickly learned that if they wanted to see me, they had to come to the house and talk to me while I beaded. I finally completed the shawl in February of 2002, just in time for the final photo shoot for the book. As you can see by the pictures below, the results were stunning, if I do say so myself. (If you don't mind waiting for large files to download, you can click on the images below to view larger versions of each of the pictures.)

There are several questions that I'm often asked about the shawl, the most frequent being "How much does it weigh?" For the record, the shawl weighs approximately 10 pounds. That seems heavy, but I've found that when you are wearing it, the weight isn't that noticeable. From what I understand, some beaded and sequined dresses are much heavier!

Other interesting facts about the shawl:

• Directions for how to make one of the small squares (with double-faced right angle weave border) are available in Valerie Hector's book The Art of Beadwork

• The shawl won First Place (Unusual Non-Jewelry Category) in the 2003-04 Fire Mountain Gems Beading Contest and was pictured in their Jewelry Maker's catalog. (So if the shawl looks familiar to you, this may be why!)

• The entire shawl is made with size 15/0 Miyuki glass seed beads

• I can't give an exact figure on the total number of hours I put into the piece, but if we assume an average of 60 hours a week for 8 months (32 weeks), we get One Thousand, Nine Hundred and Twenty hours. (I usually round this up to a nice even 2000 when talking to people about the shawl.)

• There are 136 of the small diamond panels and 6 large diamond panels in the shawl

• The designs seem to be very universal, as I've had different people think the origins were Native American, Mexican, Indian, Irish, Peruvian, or Polish. I even had one man who thought they looked like "alien blueprints"!

• Most of the shawl is made in right angle weave, with the black and white border made in my "double-faced" right angle weave, a technique which is a variation of my linked chain stitch technique.

• The shawl has 3 colors (red, white and black) and 2 finishes (shiny and matte) of beads , for a total of 6 "bead colors"

• The small diamonds have only 6 patterns, with each pattern done in variations of the shiny bead colors so that no one patterned square is exactly the same as any other patterned square.

• As I was working on the piece, I decided to add "solid" squares between each of the patterned squares because the design was starting to look too "busy"

• Similarly, I decided halfway through the project to create several larger panels, again to make the shawl a bit less "busy". I ended up designing 6 of these larger panels, each one being a design combining 3 of the elements from the smaller panels.

• Have you noticed that the numbers 3 and 6 are repeated a lot in this piece? This wasn't intentional, but I found it strangely interesting that those numbers kept showing up

• The top of the shawl has a "scalloped" edge because I didn't want to deal with making triangle-shaped panels. Interestingly, the scalloped edge is one of the design elements that people find most interesting. Sometimes design decisions that make your life easier are a good thing!

• For a while, my friends called the shawl "that fishnet Mary is beading" because I made the border edging the panels as one piece and it really did look remarkably like a fishnet while I was beading it.

• The shawl was pieced together in a manner very similar to making a quilt - this is one of the reasons I titled the shawl "Elementary". I made up all the separate elements and then pieced them together.

• Another reason for the name is because the patterns in the shawl are taken from the antique beadwork that the shawl is inspired by. These patterns are primitive in look, being simple line drawings, which are often associated with "elementary" artwork today.

• Still another reason is that some of the patterns remind me of things seen in nature, or can be taken to represent elements of nature. There is a starburst or sun, a spiral which is seen in many natural objects, and a line with a diamond above it, a shape which reminds me of flowers or grains growing.

• And finally, "Elementary" is an homage to a fictional character and author which has always been one of my favorites, Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Suggestions and additions to: banshee@BeadingBanshee.com Copyright © 2002 Mary Winters-Meyer	Contact The Beading Banshee