Drawing Meaning......

Finding and connecting with personal symbols in your jewelry and components is a wonderful way to make lasting connections between the work you make and the person wearing it.

As I prepare new bead and jewelry designs, I thought I would give you a glimpse into the process that goes on behind the designing of many of my beads.....

Most mornings, I spend some time at my desk, reading for 10-15 minutes and doing a bit of sketching for another small time. Taking a bit of inspiration from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way habit of morning pages, this helps me organize my thoughts for the day and prepare me for the direction of my day.

I began these elephants after I sketched a similar Indian inspired elephant in my sketchbook. For me, elephants have recently become a personal symbol I am identifying with as I learn to listen more (large ears), speak less (the small mouth of the elephant), and be strong in the face of adversity (their imposing size).

Rainbows have long been a symbol in many different religions and cultures. After doing some chakra research, I am making sets of these carved nuggets to be used in some new jewelry designs as well as a bead offering as I prepare for BeadFest.

Are symbols important in your work? Do you seek to find beads and components that will draw meaning between the wearer and the jewelry?

Do you use a sketchbook?

Recently I was going through old sketch books attempting to identify so different patterns of creativity. I don't generally sketch out as many ideas for my jewelry or beads as I do work out ideas for my paintings and other work.

I found my sketchbook I kept in my very first jewelry class and was really taken by how much my ideas took shape over the pages. I thought I would share some from the very first project from my metals class took shape.

A large part of my senior thesis in painting had to do with birds. Here is one sketch where I was working out ideas for a painting.

The requirements of this first project was to complete a piece using cutting-and-piercing metal and any cold connections. Here you can see where I was working out different ideas for the sawed parts and various designs that did not make "the cut".

In between sketches, there were brief little pages of notes that I took in class or wrote down the names of artists whose work inspired me. A neat little hint that I wrote at the bottom is to bend wire solder at the end into a semblance of the shape of the letter rather than attach a label that will most like fall off before you finish the length of solder.

Here you can see my final idea and a tiny mock up I made beforehand. This specific professor often encouraged us to make models or mock ups before we began to help us work out specific design problems that might arise during the process. (That's a polaroid of me a friend took at the time! I can't believe I ever had hair that short!)

Here is an image of the finished pendant. I'm still not good at tube rivets! Finished piece: Copper,  Nickel, Cardboard, Laser Printed Acetate, Feather, Stamping, and Texturing.

After reminiscing through this old sketchbook, I'm excited to begin trying more mock ups and design sketches as I work on a piece.


Do you keep a sketchbook of your jewelry ideas? Do you sketch items out or make models to avoid potential design flaws? I'd love to hear if you do!

from my sketchbook.

by Barbara Bechtel

Over the last few weeks, I've been working taking simple forms from my sketchbook and translating them into stamps for my beads and pendants. This marks a change in how I've been working. While cleaning out my studio, I went back through my older sketchbooks and saw the way I used to work out ideas in my head, specifically for a painting. I realized this is not the same way that I work with polymer clay.

I decided to try and work the same way and I would if I were working on a painting.

 I took this simple shape and drew a design to be reproduced in a hand carved stamp.

 Here are some of the stampings in progress. While I'm carving, I periodically test out the stamp, to check where I need to remove more material.

Here is one pendant that has been baked but not finished (left) and one on the right that has been finished. (right)


This marks a poignant change in the way that I've been thinking about my process as it relates to bead-making. I'm really excited to see where this takes me.

Have a great Sunday!

Barbara Bechtel is a bead and jewelry designer and mixed media artist residing in Merritt Island, FL. You can read more about her at her blog, Second Surf.