Sometimes the hardest part about making new beads is naming them. But I think names are important, so I try to put at least a little bit of effort into it. These beads happened on Saturday, after a week or so of artistic doldrums. Sometimes the mojo just ain't workin', if you know what I mean. I'd had bits and pieces of inspiration, but nothing that made me want to stand up and dance. The cool "mosaic tile" beads were looking more and more like my friend Terri Caspary-Schmidt's beads, which isn't what I meant to do...


So while I was thinking about how to change those to be KimBeads, not TerriBeads, I needed something to keep my hands busy.

Simple beads are a good solution to lots of problems. They don't require as much intense attention as the big focal beads do. And while individually, they generally don't mean a lot, they're really wonderful in groups. Focal Beads are the confident, independant, stand-alone leaders of the bead pack, while smaller beads depend more on community to make a statement. Both are good. Both have value. Both need to be made, and require different moods and skills. So I make both, and Saturday was a day for simplicity.

When I cleaned them up on Sunday morning, I couldn't help but take them to a sunny spot on the dining room table and start sorting them out. Sunday is technically my "day off". I reserve it for anything I feel like doing. And sometimes playing with beads is just what I need, even after a week of working with beads. It's different. So I put all these little beads in groups by color, and then some mixed sets with the ones that were left. I was starting to think about what to call them, and coming up with very little. I was looking for a name that described how they look. What I ended up with was a name for how they feel...

Rick and I had spent much of Friday at Deborah and Thomas's house and studio. The Blue Rain Gallery was sending bus loads of art collectors to the studios of their artists. We were there to help out with the crowds, but all we really did was hang out and chat with people. It was fun. It was the real art world - a bigger world than the bead world. I loved seeing all these people who are serious about art, and willing to spend serious money on it. I loved listening to Deborah talk about her work, and the meaning and symbolism she puts into it. She mentioned the images of bees that she often uses - how they represent busy-ness and work, and also that her name, Deborah, in Hebrew, means "bee". The bees stuck with me...

So there I was, looking at my new beads, and suddenly I noticed that the yellow ones remind me a lot of bees. Deborah's bees. Bees who work hard. Bees who are my friends. Bees who need community to survive. Bees who make honey. Honey bees. Honey beads. Yes! HoneyBeads! And so the beads have a name. That's how it is in my head all the time. Sometimes it's really quite exhausting... And then, because I must have a certain amount of "bee" in me too, I made a little more work for myself, and added a page to my website, devoted to describing beads, defining beads, and choosing beads to buy.

After all that, I just sat still for a while. Even bees need to rest... Don't they?