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In the late spring of 2002 I began thinking about the possibilities for a
bead picture of the Egyptian Sky Goddess, Nut (pronounced Noot). I began looking
at mythology and archaeology sources for ancient images of Nut. The best of them
showed her with stars in her body, which I liked, but the body shape was awkward
and unattractive, apparently designed to fill the edges of the space on which it
was painted, so she came out pretty rectangular. As I thought about how I wanted
to present her, I began thinking of yoga poses, which led me to the yoga books,
and then to create this sketch. Now those of you who know yoga are pointing to her foot and wondering why she's on her toes, which doesn't seem like a very stable way to create the sky. As I looked at the sketch, I realized that I had recreated my arthritic ankle. I decided that Nut didn't need to have that, so her heels relaxed down to the ground before I created the full-size sketch with colored pencil. I started planning the types of beads I wanted to use for each section, and ordered beads to supplement my stash. I etched the surfaces of some beads to get more matte-finish opaque beads for the land portion of the picture. I pulled bags and tubes of beads from my bead stash. I filled a gallon-size Ziploc bag for each of the four areas of the picture: Goddess, Sky, Earth, and Chaos. Not all of those beads would make it into the finished product, but they were all likely candidates.
I began the beading by carefully shaping the goddess in transparent blue beads. I wanted the transparency to express the other-worldly character of her, while the opaque yellow and gold borders clearly defined her. Getting just the shape I wanted required constantly checking the beadwork against the sketch, a certain amount of grumbling, occasional swearing, and frequent tearing out of sections that were veering off-course. Above you can see the finished goddess lying atop the sketch. Before I began work on the sky, I did a small version of Nut with bead embroidery to test the other portions of the picture. Here is that small version:
I do most of my beading under a magnifying lamp, so I can really get each bead aligned just the way I want it. I search through my beads for one that is just the right size, shape, and color to either keep a clear line, or break up a line into a more random-looking pattern, depending on where I am in the piece.
This piece I though of as four separate areas, each to get its own treatment:
In the picture above, I am working on the mountains. Below is a close-up.
I signed the beadwork by signing a flat two-holed stone piece designed to be part of a bracelet. I sign with a teensy-tiny brush and enamel. It usually takes me a number of tries to get it right.
And here is the finished beadwork, which has now been (tediously) stitched to a velcro backing for mounting in a frame:
Finished size is approximately 10" by 7.5" You can see the bead with the signature to the left of Nut's ankle.
And here is Nut framed, with the smaller embroidered version next to it. The project was finished in March, 2003. |
Send mail to vb@virginiabrubaker.com with
questions or comments about her work or this web site.
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