Artist Profile in Bead & Button Magazine

If you've seen the August 2015 issue of Bead & Button Magazine, you might have noticed a cameo appearance of a Magic O Ball beaded bead on the cover.

Well, that's because I'm featured in this issue's Artist Profile on pages 46-47. It's an honor and it was a pleasure to be interviewed about my work and my artistic and scientific journey. (Though, it's rather surreal to read about myself from a third person point of view!)

I'm doubly honored that the Bead & Button editors found my own photos of my work fit to print. Generally, I try to optimize my photos for web viewing, so I was pleased that they turned out well in print too. They chose several of my geometric designs, such as the above Fiberoptic Dodecahedron beaded beads, and several of my chemical designs too.

I've gotten a couple of questions about the beaded chemical structures featured in this article, so I'd like to do a quick summary of them here. The golden necklace shown below features the chemical structures of the Serotonin and Dopamine molecules, which are neurotransmitters (i.e. chemicals that work with neurons) that have a couple of functions in your brain. Serotonin contributes to feelings of happiness and dopamine contributes to feelings of pleasure and satisfaction.

This necklace uses seed beads, jump rings, and a simple clasp, and the technique used to create it is a variation on Gwen and Florence's Infinity Weave. The advantage of this technique is that it results in flat but supported beaded structures, which are perfect for serotonin and dopamine because these molecules are mostly flat in real life. The beading pattern and kits for this piece are available on my website.

The endorphins are also neurotransmitters, and they're also feel-good molecules. Unlike serotonin and dopamine, endorphins are a type of protein and they're significantly larger and have much more dimensionality, though they're still on the small side as far as proteins are concerned. There are a couple of different types of endorphins, and the specific structure shown in the magazine is the necklace-length alpha-endorphin.

I created this piece with crystals, bugle beads, and seed beads to accurately reflect not only the atoms in an alpha-endorphin molecule, but also the different types of bonds and its dimensionality as well. I entered this piece into the 2013 Bead Dreams competition (where it made the finals!)

The technique behind this piece uses a combination of specific, redundant thread paths and thread tension to mimic the 3D structure of the molecule. While I've applied this technique to other 3D molecular structures, I've yet to come up with the best way of explaining how to create the Endorphin Necklace. I like using a detailed, step-by-step writing approach for my beading patterns, however this isn't a feasible approach for a piece as complex as the Endorphin Necklace as such a pattern would be hundreds of pages long. A more streamlined method of explaining the technique may work, but it would be best-explained in the context of a collection of beaded molecules. Either way, it's something that I will have to carefully consider in the future.

In the meantime, if you'd like to learn more about this technique, I have written a pattern for the smaller ethanol molecule, which is the molecule of interest in alcoholic beverages. I paired them with a variety of fruit charms for a pair of earrings that can be made to match your favorite cocktail. The pattern and kits for the Cocktail Hour Earrings are available on my website.

Thanks for looking!

Scenes from the Bead & Button Show

I'm back from the Bead & Button Show and slowly getting back into my normal routine. It was a whirlwind of work and play, but I did manage to remember to take some pictures!

Milwaukee

It was a little chillier in Milwaukee this year compared to past years, and ranged from partially cloudy to raining! Here's the view from our hotel room on our first morning there:

Workshops

I always love teaching beading workshops and this year's classes were no different! A couple of my students finished their Cosmic Nocturne Pendants in class!

Here I am providing some one-on-one time for the Tila Garden Pendant:

And here are some of my students' completed Raindrop Flower Necklace components - both the Raindrop Flower focal and a few of the accompanying beaded beads!

Awesome People

There's no other place where you can see so many fabulous bead artists under one roof! Sabine Lippert, (aka The Fastest Beader in the West), finished her Tila Garden Pendant in class!

My friend Susan Blessinger and I represented the San Diego contingency at the Bead Dreams Reception. Isn't her beach-inspired necklace awesome? (check out her Bead Dreams finalist entry, "The March Hare," here!)

And along with Marcia DeCoster, we made a trio of San Diego Bead Dreams Finalists! Marcia and I got the chance to model our respective pieces together (check out Marcia's blog for the story behind this collaborative piece between her and Sherry Serafini - truly a melding between the minds of masters!)

As a San Francisco Giants fan, I always have a reason to wear orange and black jewelry, but I didn't think that this color combo would be popular with any other beaders (outside of October). The always-fabulous Suzanne Golden totally proved me wrong!

I had the pleasure of meeting many of the fine people that work so hard to create all the little Japanese seed beads, Czech shaped beads, and sparkly crystals that bead artists adore. The folks at Miyuki took the time to take and present me with my own souvenir Beading Happiness photo. Cool huh?

Fireworks

On our last night in Milwaukee we were treated to a perfect view of a fireworks show, right from our hotel room!

A fitting end to a wonderful trip!

Endorphin Molecule

Endorphins

The endorphins are a class of natural feel-good molecules produced in your body. Indeed, the name "endorphin" means "endogenous morphine," so you can also think of them as your own personal pain relievers. They're neurotransmitters, like serotonin and dopamine, though they're polypeptides instead of small molecules. When you compare the sizes of these two types of molecules, the endorphins are  comparatively bigger (about 10-20 times bigger!)

There are a few different kinds of endorphins. Beta-endorphin is perhaps the most well-understood, and it's also the biggest at 31 amino acids long and about 500 atoms. Alpha-endorphin is about half that size, at 16 amino acids long.

And it's the perfect length for a beaded necklace.

Endorphin Molecule Necklace

This necklace depicts the molecular structure of the alpha-endorphin molecule in a three-dimensional, completely chemically-accurate representation, all rendered entirely in beadwork down to the last atom.

The small hydrogen atoms are represented by clusters of silver seed beads, while the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms are represented by light aqua, emerald, and light purple (respectively) clusters of bicone crystals. The slightly larger sulfur atom is represented by a cluster of slightly larger golden shadow bicone crystals. Like its molecular namesake, this beaded alpha-endorphin necklace contains 120 hydrogen atoms, 77 carbon atoms, 18 nitrogen atoms, 26 oxygen atoms, and one sulfur atom. The bonds between each atom are represented by silver bugle beads; one for single bonds, and two for double bonds.

The choice of crystal and metal-plated beads is a nod to the field of “crystallography,” which is a scientific technique used to make crystals out of molecules in order to study their chemical structures. Therefore, this piece is a new twist on the term "crystal structure" :)

A New Way to Bead a Molecule

The wonderful thing about this design is that its techniques can be applied to create a beaded version of almost any organic molecule! The Morning Coffee Molecules design is great for beading flat molecules such as caffeine, which is composed mostly of "sp2" atoms which make the molecule flat. However, most organic molecules are made up of a combination of sp2 and "sp3" atoms, which have a tetrahedral, 3D geometry to their bonds. The thread paths in this technique mimic both of these geometries, and the piece retains its structure through thread tension without any glues or stiffening agents.

Like a real polypeptide, this necklace also retains some flexibility, allowing it to bend and fold in on itself. But most remarkably, the atoms in this necklace can rotate around each single bond, just like in a real molecule!

I've tested it with other peptides, sugars, and small molecules, and I'm continually amazed at how well it works with so many different kinds of compounds. I feel like I've only scratched the surface of all the possibilities of this design, and I see a whole line of beaded molecules in my future beading projects.

Bead Dreams Finalist

This piece made the finals in the Finished Jewelry category in the 2013 Bead Dreams Competition. If you're going to the show, check it out in the display cases next to the registration desk!

If you're not going to the show, you can see this piece and all the other Bead Dreams Finalists here, and you can also vote for your favorite for the People's Choice Award.

WIP Wednesday: More Tropical Dahlias, Starting Earrings

I've been working on a couple of different beading projects this week...

Even More Heliotrope Tropical Dahlias

I finished a total of nine heliotrope Tropical Dahlias! I'm nearly done with this project and I hope to have it photographed and ready to show soon. In the meantime, don't these sparkly beaded flowers look pretty all gathered together?

The Start of Matching Earrings

I also started to weave a pair of matching earrings for my Bead Dreams finalist piece, and I hope to have them done soon so that I can wear them to the Bead & Button Show next week. Here's a snapshot of the beads that I'll be using for these earrings.

My Bead Dreams finalist piece is in the same color palette, so keep an eye out for it in the display case at the show!

What are you working on this week?

Presentation at the San Diego Bead Society, April 20

I've been busy getting ready for my presentation and classes at the San Diego Bead Society on April 20 and 21. I made several changes from the version of this talk that I gave at the Northern California Bead Society last fall, but it will still have two main sections: math and science!

Inspirations from Mathematics

As a big geek, I sometimes get a little too carried away with my descriptions of the different kinds of geometric structures. To make these concepts easier to grasp, I recently wove some prisms, dipyramids, and the Platonic solids out of bugle beads so that I can relate several more complicated beaded designs to these basic versions. (Gerlinde Lenz pioneered this style of beaded beads with bugles, and made a much more impressive collection of them that you can see here.)

Can you tell which two Platonic solids are depicted below?

I'll also talk about some of my design philosophies, such as how changes in symmetry can lead to several different variations on one beaded bead...

...and how the interplay between flat and three-dimensional elements can lead to different designs altogether, or even a matched set of jewelry.

I'll give many beaded examples for the five Platonic solids as well as the prisms and dipyramids, as several wonderful bead artists have again graciously allowed me to use images of their work in this talk. I'll also have plenty of examples of my own work on-hand to examine in person.

Inspirations from Science

The second half of this talk is on science-inspired beadwork, which has grown considerably since the last time I gave this talk. Not only will I discuss topics such as beaded DNA...

...but also chemical structures such as this beaded molecule of caffeine...

...as well as several other science-inspired beadwork designs that I haven't previously discussed online.

Bead Dreams News!

On that topic, I'm pleased to mention that one of my latest beading designs has been juried into the finals of the Bead Dreams Competition! I had been debating exactly when to post about this piece, as it's been taking up a lot of my design time, and I have more to say about it than can fit into one blog post or even a series of posts. But I'll have to continue to delay discussing it until the Bead Dreams winners are announced in June.

However, if you attend my presentation on April 20, you might get to see a sneak peak ;)

My presentation will be at the monthly meeting of the San Diego Bead Society, which meets at 10 AM on the third Saturday of every month in the Mingei International Museum in beautiful Balboa Park. Parking is free but can be tricky if there's an event in the park, or if it's just a particularly sunny day, so give yourself plenty of time. I'd love to see you there!