Collaboration: The one-of-a-kind KatManDu necklace

I love opening my etsy site and finding a convo there for me. You never know what fun thing might be waiting for you there. Today's mail contained one I've been waiting for.

A while ago, Christine Damm of StoriesTheyTell, asked me if I was interested in participating in a collaboration (along with Claire Maunsell  of StillpointWorks). She had an idea for a necklace using beads created by all three of us. Today she wrote to say it was finished and posted on her blog.

Look how fun this is! The red-gold-gray-black combo is very striking and of course, the little KatManDo pendant just makes the whole thing! :o)   I feel some new beads in this color combo coming on...

In the post Christine gives her own thoughts about original works, and provides links to an interesting post by Leann Udell (whose site just sucked me in for about an hour!) about creating from your own point of view, and understanding why you create what you create. 

I've never really given any thought to why I create, other than that I know if I don't, I get antsy. I've always known I was going to have some sort of art-related career (graphic design is where I ended up as so many of us art-inclined kids did!) If you had met me at age seven many, many moons ago and asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have told you "artist." I never considered any other path.

In college, what I liked best about my art classes was critique day. We were all given the same assignments, yet none of the final work was a copy of, or even very similar to, any other. It's also why I love Project Runway...you get to the see the process of criteria/creation/success or failure over and over. It's great to see those times when an idea comes to fruition, and perhaps even more interesting on all the occasions where it doesn't.

When I'm not making something I'm usually thinking about what I will make when I have time. I'll give some thought to the whole idea of my "story" to see what lurks under the surface.