I Have Been Changed For Good

I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return

-- Lyrics from For Good, Wicked the Musical

I love this song from Wicked the Musical. It speaks to me and reminds me of all the wonderful people I have met who have left handprints on my heart. Those who, having met them, have changed me..for good.

Robin Atkins is one of those people. It wasn't the fact that she taught me bead embroidery techniques that I didn't know. It wasn't the fact that she is a kind and gentle soul and a delight to learn from. It wasn't even the fact that she brought beautiful examples of her work and sold us vintage beads from her personal stash.


What changed me the most by taking Robin's course was her way of journaling improvisationally through her beadwork. The idea that we can sit down to embroider without a plan and allow our emotions and spirit to flow through our hands and into our work. The most compelling technique we "practiced" occurred in the afternoon of the second day and was not an embroidery technique at all...and it came as a complete surprise and a wonderful discovery. But I'm jumping ahead of myself.

The first day of Robin's workshop was spent teaching us the beading techniques demonstrated in her books. We all practiced these techniques on a sampler. Here's mine...


After completing our sampler, we moved on to working our own improvisational piece of bead embroidery. We had each been asked to bring a few different fabrics to class and so we chose a fabric that spoke to us that day and began to bead.

Robin said, "Don't think, just pick up something you love and place it on the fabric. Or, if you are too overwhelmed by a big space, start with a bugle bead trail." So that's what I did. I started with a bugle-bead trail.


Here are class examples of student's work at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day...

After we had been working on our pieces for a few hours, Robin asked us to put our needles down in order to do an exercise. OK, here's the part that affected me most...I'll take you through it and I urge you to try it for yourself.

1. Sit down with your materials and look at them. Reflect on what you see and what they mean to you.
2. Right a list of words that come to mind when you think of your embroidery. Don't edit yourself. Just write.
3. Once you've finished your list. Pick one word that speaks to you more than all the others and circle it.
4. Turn the page over. Take the circled word and place it at the end of this sentence..."I am ____________ .
5. Now, write a poem that begins with your sentence, "I am __________ ." Note: (I forgot to tell you in my original post...) You must use all of the words from your list in step 2 in your poem.
   

Well, the poems that resulted from this exercise were unbelievably personal, inspirational and moving. Everyone had already brought so much emotion and energy to their work. The poem just revealed it. I wasn't aware of that energy within myself, so close to the surface. I wasn't aware that this energy could drive my work and that it could be trusted. Intellectually, I always knew that my work was "me" but it made all the difference in the world to journal my feelings as they related to my piece of embroidery.

After this experience, I felt like my work took on a different significance. My thoughts were focused and my piece began to come alive. It was really quite special and I'll never forget this gift that Robin has given me. I believe I will adopt this idea of journaling about my work as I move forward.

Robin journals about all of her pieces. Upon completion, some of her embroideries will have multiple poems each. She says it doesn't matter if you know the process, the resulting poems are different each time. If you do decide to try this technique, I'd love to know what you think.

In addition to Robin, we were also lucky to have Robin's cyber-friend and artist Angela Plager with us.


Angela participated in the 2007-08 Bead Journal Project bringing all of her beaded pieces for show-and-tell. Her work is exquisite. She also brought a piece of artwork in progress that she will use as a framework for her bead journals in 2008-09. I was so very impressed with her vision and skill. Her process for painting her backgrounds and beading her pieces can all be found on her bead journal blog, AKP Bead Journal Project. Here is a picture of her first bead journal piece for September titled Honu in Beads. You can read about it's story here.


Tomorrow Robin is giving a lecture on the 2007-08 Bead Journal Project and then a half-day Beaded Buttons workshop. I'm off to get my beauty rest.