Random Thoughts On: Techno-feminist Identity, Coffee, The Transformers movie, and Nina Simone

I just got finished making some coffee and the leftover coffee grounds looked suspiciously liked the burnt organic matter I used to make my black beads. (I’m fascinated by detritus.) I poured the grounds onto my wax-paper covered worktable. I’m waiting for the grounds to cool. (They smell heavenly!) I’ll probably mix in a little ground myrrh and see what luscious scent it produces, then I’ll go a-bead making.

Speaking of scented beads, I just returned a book by the Metropolitan Museum of Art called (what else?) Metropolitan Jewelry. I returned the book because I was disappointed by the paltry offerings of African, Asian, Native American, and Latino jewelry but the book did have interesting information about pre-Industrial Age scented jewelry in Europe. Moving on.

I’m currently enraptured by Wired Magazine’s article on the new Steven Spielberg/Michael Bay TRANSFORMERS movie. Wired writers, in general, are a very talented bunch and they really stoke my enthusiasm for imaging a better future through technology. Speaking of the future, while traipsing around the internet, I discovered the work of Lynn Hershman Leeson. What resonated with me was Hershman Leeson’s own description of her influences in genetics, robotics, and nanotechnology that informed her own passion for what she calls “techno-human identity”. (I think Hershman Leeson and I may have been separated at birth. Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, I’m listening to Feeling Good by the late, great Nina Simone and playing around with making incense. It smells like myrrh-cinnamon-ginger around here. Mmm.)

(Image credit: Roberta, copyright Lynn Hershman Leeson).

New Art Beads – Princess Pinto Bean

I’m calling these beads Princess Pinto Bean (for now) because the brown/dark umber color variation reminds me of a pinto bean. (Also the name is a bit silly and it makes me laugh). On the serious side, these beads were inspired by my childhood memories of Hakata, Japan and my adult research into Tenmoku pottery.

I’ve included a sketch of an idea for the completed necklace, but there is no way of knowing how the finished piece will actually turn out. What I do know is creating these beads was pleasurably labor intensive. During breaks while moving the art studio yesterday, I would make these beads. The brown clay is actually three shades of brown ranging from terra cotta to chocolate. I folded in several leaves of gold leaf, but in the finished beads only a few flecks shine through (which turned out to be a very good thing). The mottled black finish, in the style of yohen glaze on Tenmoku pottery, is actually a very dark umber glaze that I purposefully made matte by mixing in black gesso. I can’t wait to see the finished necklace, but for now I’m unpacking boxes and making more beads.