It wasn’t easy to make Queasy!
I’m still not posting a picture of my revolting ugly necklace here on the blog. The Land of Odd’s contest for the ugliest necklace is almost over, and I thought I would explain how I came to make this piece. You can see it here: Queasy It’s #9, near the bottom.
During the planning process, I kept thinking through all the different ways that rules of good design could be broken. It actually took me a lot more time to think through the whole piece than it did to make it. It’s just not that easy to make something that you know is hideous! Here are the major design elements and principles that I violated:
The shape and texture are hideous: fake vomit is visually disturbing The color scheme uses a poisonous-looking triad in non-harmonious proportions with poor saturation choices: orange, lime green, purple-brown The value contrast is unexciting: all medium value colors were chosen The sizes and shapes are inappropriate and poorly proportioned, used with no balance in the rhythm and repetition of elements: neckstrap too thin for central pendant, wired bead links uneven lengths, wrapped loops uneven sizes, beads allowed to slide freely with no spacers, bead holes too large for wire gauge The choice of materials is inexplicable: cheap plastic mixed with lampworked glass, closure a mix of fibers and a geometric shape atop a chain neckstrap and “organic” shaped vomit, fringe fibers wired onto the chain, all giving the piece no sense of harmony or unity The pattern on the lampwork beads is poorly done: random numbers of eyes, one bead with reverse colors The gradation is unbalanced and backwards: neckstrap beads graduated the wrong way, unequal amounts of fringe on either side of centerpiece
The overall effect of all these violations in Queasy is a piece that has no harmony or unity among its elements. There is no sense that this piece is a cohesive whole, with all elements integrated to express a meaningfully complete thought, unless that thought happens to be dis-unity!
handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media, ugly-necklace-contest
July 6th, 2007 at 10:19 am
[...] Bead Arts - It wasn’t easy to make “Queasy”! Cyndi shares some of the design dilemmas she encountered in entering the Ugly Necklace contest. beadsShare This [...]
July 6th, 2007 at 10:37 am
You know what they say…it’s harder to break the rules sometimes than follow them!
July 6th, 2007 at 11:18 am
The thing is, you learn a lot about why the rules are right in the first place by breaking them