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This morning started out like most others. I came downstairs to check out my e-mails, respond, etc. But one of the e-mails made my day start off as a great one!
On ArtFire, a handmade selling venue, members curate "Collections" of items they like and wish to share with others. It is always an honor to have one of my items selected by another seller for inclusion in their Collections. However, this one was VERY SPECIAL.
The first comment made by the Curator is "This is to honour you Joni"! This is a first for me and I certainly am honored.
The Curator is Trinity Designer Jewellery. Her name is Lorraine Coetzee. She is from Cape Town, South Africa and has been one of my "cyber friends" for several years. We both sell on Etsy and Artfire. She paints, designs in polymer clay and until recently I did not realize that she has begun to sell beadwork patterns on her sites. Well, when I discovered this, I just had to purchase a few of them as the designs were just too tempting.
The wonderful patterns were delivered via e-mail. I couldn't wait to print them off. My work load was sufficient that I did not intend to bead one of her pieces until I was caught up. But...this week-end....one of the patterns was haunting me and finally, I gave in to this impulse. Here is the result:
I did change the color pallette and used 7 instead of the 9 colors in Lorraine's original design. If my photography were better, you could see that the flower in the center is "3D". Initially the flower is beaded into the bracelet. Then a separate flower is beaded and applied on top and then additional beads are applied to the center.
I am so pleased with the results and hope Lorraine feels that justice was done to her exquisite design.
Beading purists seem to believe that everything one does should be an "original" design (if there is such a thing). However, I believe that when someone else has developed a beautiful design that inspires you and they have willing offered it to be used, then go for it! Life is short.
I hope that you will visit Lorraine's ArtFire store and view more of her work. Here is the link:
http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/TrinityDesignerJewellery
Lorraine, thank you for your wonderful work. Thank you for the dedication of this Collection to me. And most of all....thank you for being my friend and making this day so special!
