UFOs :: Flipping the Rorschach

Oh those UFOs, they are the bane of a beader. They taunt you from the bead table, calling to you, as they lay there unfinished. You simply stare down at it knowing you need to either change direction or rip it out. Ugh, but the amount of work that went into it, and that original image you hold in your head keeps you from ripping it apart. Sound about right? Sigh.

I have so many of these unfinished objects that I've lost count. I knew for this hop I had to pull out the mother of all UFOs ... this beaded collar. Or at least that is what it was supposed to be, and yet when I assembled the collar it hung like a large rectangle. Why? Because I had the curve of the collar at the neckline completely wrong. Or should I say that it had no curve at all, it was a straight edge. I mean come on, who has a triangular neck? Clearly I had not thought this through, and yet I'd spent all this time putting these beads in place. Yep, the moment you just want to chuck it at the wall. This is my first attempt at a collar necklace, and a mistake I won't make again. Hugh sigh. 

I could not get myself to rip this one apart. Look at this piece. I spent hours upon hours beading in vintage, irregular Turkish seed beads and then lined the edging with vintage glass pearls. Then backed the piece with suede. There was ab.so.lute.ly no way I was pulling this thing apart. And so it sat on the bead table for more than a year. When Karen announced this UFO hop I knew I was going to pull this thing out and force myself to deal with it. 

So here is what I did. I decided that the one side of the collar could actually be the focal of an asymmetrical necklace. I went back to my stash to pull out more vintage pearls to balance the other side. My mother had given me a pile of old pearl necklaces that matched the small Turkish pearls from a friend. I also needed to pull out the backing and get rid of one of the connector jump rings I'd embedded on the left side. I left the other connector on the right to use as part of a toggle. I wanted to balance the width of the pearls to the collar so I added a square plate that I could anchor the pearls. Then it was just a matter of adding a backstrap.

What took so long to come to this solution? A solution that took me roughly 2 hours to complete? I think it is the same angst for all UFOs. You start a piece with a vision in mind, and it is hard to re-set that lens. But once you let go and flip the Rorschach you can finally re-imagine your piece. 

There is a crew of us working on UFOs, so check out the rest of the blog hop: Karen, Christine, Amy, Therese, Kim, Liz E, Margo, Cathi, Liz and Francie.

St Petersburg :: City of Murals

Life Reimagined by Sarah Sheppard

We recently spent a week down in Tampa and St. Petersburg Florida. I can't say that either of these places were anywhere near the top of my bucket list, but I have to admit that I was very pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed ourselves. We managed to have something planned for everyday we were there, which was a full 10 days. We did everything from aquariums, to museums, walking tours, amusement parks to zoos. My husband completely overbooked us, but my daughter and I willing tagged along from one place to the next. 

Xtreme Ethel by Derek Donnelly

For me the highlight was St. Petersburg. It's an artist enclave, or Florida's version of Portland, OR's NE Hawthorn street, or San Francisco's Noe Valley. Need I say more. I felt like I was at home in this eclectic little town. We took an afternoon to walk the murals just off Central Avenue. You just walk over to the alley off of 8th street to start the tour. It runs roughly another 4 blocks straight through the back alleys with one mural after another. The thing that captured me most was that this was an endless display of art, outside and open to the people. Art should be enjoyed, and this series is worth the walk. 

Snake Woman by Leon Bedore

I'm not sure if I could say which one was my favorite, although anyone who knows me knows just how much I love Frida. And yes, there was a mural of Frida smiling right at me. I did really love the one by Sarah Sheppard called Life Reimagined, which is about disrupting aging. She explains that the gears represent the grind of the working world. The woman is part Banyan tree that sinks its roots into the community and her arms reach out to the Phoenix. She is looking for her rebirth and what is to come next in life.

by Shark Toof 

As we started our tour, the first mural we saw was one of a skateboarding granny called Xtreme Ethel by Derek Donnelly. This mural depicts Ethel Percy Andrus in her 70s who was a woman ahead of her time. She was the first female school principal in California, and in retirement she found that too many talented older people were 'put out to pasture.' She wanted to change what it meant to age, so she created several associations (the most notable one being AARP in 1958) to empower older Americans to continue to pursue their passions with independence, dignity and purpose.  

Space Rainbows by Ricky Watts

Another mural I loved was Ricky Watts' trippy Space Rainbows. Ricky says that his art is "psychedelic, abstract eye candy." He says that public art brings energy to a community, which I have to agree with since this mural tour has people strolling from block to block down back alleyways as though they are wandering the halls of a museum. The art is all out in the fresh air with the sun shinning down on it. Perhaps that is why they decided to call the St Pete's Mural Festival SHINE. The city continues to encourage new editions to the collection and actively seeks out artists to paint more. I never thought I'd be drawn to a city based on street art, but I for one will want to return to this city of murals just to see what's been added to this outdoor collection.