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Several months ago I was lucky enough to be asked by Brenda Schweder to participate in a project she had organized.
Brenda had picked several bead makers and other artists to collaborate with her on individual pieces that were then auctioned off at the Bead and Button Social for breast cancer research.The concept was simple. Brenda would do the wire work and the artists she chose would make the rest of the piece in their medium.
I added a large red heart for a neck piece that included work by Tammy Rae Wolter. Brenda published these pieces in the book Collaborate: Friends In The Making.
Brenda had picked several bead makers and other artists to collaborate with her on individual pieces that were then auctioned off at the Bead and Button Social for breast cancer research.The concept was simple. Brenda would do the wire work and the artists she chose would make the rest of the piece in their medium.
I added a large red heart for a neck piece that included work by Tammy Rae Wolter. Brenda published these pieces in the book Collaborate: Friends In The Making.
This was not the first collaboration I have been involved with but it was the most formal one. It got me thinking about how we as artists and designers rely on each other to expand the scope of our creativity. We can see our work in a new perspective.
At this weeks Bead Fest I saw a necklace that Nikki Thornburg had made combining my ceramic house bead with her lampwork beads. It made my bead look better combined with her sense of design.
Tracy Bell is another artist that I have collaborated with several times. She does wire work and has used my beads. She created something that was larger then the sum of its parts. I wouldn't have pictured my word beads in this kind of of setting, but that's the trick of letting go of your creative work and allowing it to become something else.
-Diane Hawkey
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You can keep up Diane on her blog and shop at her Etsy store (currently a bit empty as she was at Bead Fest this weekend).
