The Tiny Room

Haven’t posted in a long time, not because there’s no new work to show, but because there hasn’t seemed to be much (actually, any) interest in this work. But I’ve decided to continue as though I have a bunch of followers and someone is actually viewing this. Just think of it as another kind of creative act, if you like.

Here’s the very beginning of a brand new beaded women’s top. The working name is Akasha, which I’m sure will change at some point. It’s going to feature some new beading techniques I’ve either learned recently, or created myself.

The piece itself is an exploration of …. exploration! How’s that for fractal? It is meant to look rather futuristic (Judy Jetson is what it made me think of). The tiny triangle at the right side is the very beginning of one of the shoulder points.

New beaded clothing design in progress from bonnievanhall.com

Here it is with more of the shoulder point, and half of the collar.

New beaded women's clothing in progress

Here are my working notes on the piece, for a look at the ideas woven into this design.

(Return Voyage    Here All Along   Artifacts)

This piece is about the ardous and adventurous journey of becoming the person you were meant to be. It is about outer space, inner space, and the spirit of exploration to “go boldly where no one has gone before”.

It shows how we are all trained to follow certain paths and philosophies which promise to deliver nirvana (the moon and  stars), but are actually designed to enslave and annhilate consciousness. The destructive forces want us to SUBMIT but the true journey of exploration lies within. We are fractal and eternal beings in that what we connect with and create on the inner planes becomes manifest in the outer world.

We must journey to the stars that we contain and become.

What happens to a species that always reaches beyond itself?

What are we crafting of ourselves? What are we becoming?

As we become more technical (technological), must we become more machine or insect-like? Doesn’t this tell us what is behind such development? (Hive mind, a more efficient machine)

In progress….

Exploration-Craftsmanship-Artifacts-Evolution

The Sky-touchstone-aether-atmosphere-vacuity-free or open space-space-subtle and ethereal fluid-heaven-god Brahma-aerospace (AKASHA)

Runes used: Kenaz Ingwaz Eihwaz

Space and dimension are key components of matter

I’m working with multiple layers (Laguz) of meaning (Ansuz). This dimension is expressed in the work and its layers.

It’s all about exploration (of the self and the cosmos). I am exploring many different beading techniques, too, and opening myself up to all that comes with expansion and discovery.

It has windows that you can’t see through, except in your mind.     in progress…

Next time, I’ll post some of my newest jewelry. Right now I’m in the process of completely rebuilding my online store, which means taking days to re-upload every single product and description. Don’t know what happened to my original store, but it completely vanished a few months ago. Mercury was almost certainly retrograde!

Beaded Copper Art Deco Squash Blossom Necklace by Bonnie Van Hall

Beaded Anenome Pendant by Bonnie Van Hall

Beaded Green Turquoise Art Deco Pendant by Bonnie Van Hall

Art Deco Beaded Triangular Magnesite Pendant by Bonnie Van Hall

New works by Bonnie Van Hall from the Southwestern Art Deco Collection.

Beaded Art Deco Squash Blossom Necklace by Bonnie Van Hall

Beaded Turquoise Lariat Necklace by Bonnie Van Hall

Art Deco Magnesite Choker by Bonnie Van Hall

"This Land" Beaded gemstone pendant by Bonnie Van Hall

Beaded Triangular Winged Pendant by Bonnie Van Hall

Here’s the finished purse “Even Gods Play”. The dimensions of the purse comparment are 8x8x8″.

"Even Gods Play" handbag

"Even Gods Play" view 2

"Even Gods Play" view 3

"Even Gods Play" view 4

"Even Gods Play" view 5

"Even Gods Play" view 6

"Even Gods Play" view 7

I’m working on finishing some pieces I started a while ago. I’ll be exhibiting at the Pasadena Bead and Design Show July 28-31, 2011 (http://www.pasadenabeadanddesignshow.com), and thought I’d try to finish up some of these pieces for the show.

Remember this one? This is a tetrahedron-shaped hand-knit beaded handbag with an Egyptian pyramid theme. It’s an exploration of the sacred geometry surrounding the number 3. The first image shows the piece unfolded flat.  Worked on it quite a while ago, and got sidetracked by other things.  All it needs now is the liner sewn in and the handles put on.

"Even Gods Play" Handbag

"Even Gods Play" Handbag view 2

"Even Gods Play" Handbag view 3

Here’s a shawl I’ve just finished, called “Royal Ruffles”. It’s a departure from my other shawls, but I like it!

"Royal Ruffles" Shawl

"Royal Ruffles" Shawl view 2

And one more finished piece–a clutch-style purse called “Metamorphosis”.

"Metamorphosis" Clutch Purse

"Metamorphosis" Clutch Purse

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to update this blog.   Time flies when you’re busy moving and re-setting up household, studio, garden, etc. in a new location!  It isn’t all finished even now, but I thought I’d post a quick update for anyone who’s interested.  Gary’s been busy working on the shop and yard, so hasn’t been able to do any artwork in quite a while.  As for myself, I haven’t had a lot of time for creative work, either, but managed to produce a  dozen new jewelry designs in the past few months.  I’ve also just finished redesigning my website, which you can check out at   http://www.bonnievanhall.com.  If you look at the jewelry gallery, you’ll see more of my new jewelry designs  ( http://www.bonnievanhall.com/Jewelry/jewelrygallery.html ).

Here’s the latest colored pencil portrait from Isla, which won her a $100 award!

Jeffree Star

close-up

even closer

Here are just a couple of my new jewelry designs.  As I said, you can view all of them at the new website.

Beaded bracelet with Swarovski crystal

Beaded bracelet with Swarovski crystal

Beaded necklace, bracelet and earring set

Beaded necklace, bracelet and earring set

Hope you get to check out the rest of the website, and feel free to post any comments or feedback  here!  I’m planning on adding a guestbook and online store to the website, but haven’t finished with that yet.  Also putting the finishing touches on Gary’s website, which I’ll post a link to when it’s finished.  In the meantime, enjoy the spring weather!

We’ve been busy moving, painting, unpacking, etc., but wanted to post a quick update for now. Gary and I haven’t been able to work on much of anything besides the house for the past month! I have a few pictures to post, though, from various projects each of us started a while back.

First, here’s Gary’s finished bronze “Bubbles”.

Gary Persello bronze

Bubbles close up back

Bubbles close up front

Next is a pencil drawing Isla is hard at work on for her friend Jeremiah’s birthday present. It’s not quite finished yet, but you can get a pretty good idea of what it will look like.

And finally, my newest knit/beaded sweater combination. It only needs sleeves, but you can see I’m incorporating more beadwork into my knitwear than I did previously. Well, maybe you can’t tell because I haven’t gotten around to updating my website with my other sweaters yet! I need to finish unpacking, finish Gary’s website (it’s 3/4  done), redo my website, and then maybe finish this green man sweater. No, I’m not overworked…

Bonnie Van Hall new work "Guardian of the Green"

Guardian close up

Well, it looks like The Tiny Room will soon become either The Tinier Room, The Slightly Bigger Room, or at worst, The Non-Existent Room. We are in the process of looking for a new place to live, since the home we’ve been renting for 6 1/2 years has been foreclosed on. Whether we’ll have a room to live and work in at all is up for grabs at the moment. Needless to say, between this and designing and building Gary’s new website, we haven’t had any time to update our posts here. Gary Persello’s new fairy piece, “Bubbles”, is finally finished and in the gallery, and she is as beautiful and masterfully done as all his other bronzes. More on this in an upcoming post. For now, here are the newest of Isla’s drawings.  Some are tattoo sketches, and others are portraits she’s been working on. It’s amazing to see her rapid progress–just look at our previous post to see what I mean!

And now for the portraits (Bambi, get ready for your jaw to drop).

Gary is close to finishing up the final sculpting stage on “Bubbles”, but since we’re still not quite ready to post those photos, I thought this would be a good time to show a few of my 14 year old daughter Isla’s recent works. As an aspiring tattoo artist, Isla is currently working on honing her drawing skills. She has done several designs already, which I don’t have access to at this moment. But I did find several drawings she did a short while back, which I’ll post here.

And here are a couple of the beaded bracelets Isla recently both designed and beaded for some of her friends.

This next one is Isla’s version of “Cold Fire”.

This one was the first version Isla did of the four elements in Chinese characters.

And then she did a different version with an opaque background and silver-lined color highlights.

I’ll see if I can get Isla to give us a look at some of her tattoo designs soon!

Has anyone else noticed how difficult it is to get anything done lately? Gary and I work constantly at our art, but everything seems to drag on and take much longer than it should. Maybe it has a little something to do with having to work other jobs in order to make money. I KNOW a lot of you out there can relate to this!  There seems to be no shortage of forces at work in the world trying to keep us all from connecting with our creativity and the inner reality of truth. But what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

Anyway, here’s another beaded and handknit clothing combo, a sassy and eye-catching women’s top that would be great for a night out dancing. It’s shown first being worn, but without any of the beadwork attached yet.

Handknit women's top without beadwork added yet

To show the beaded fringe on the sleeves, I’ve shot the piece flat for now. When it’s finished, it will be shown worn on the body, which will highlight the way the beaded fringe hangs on the upper arm. For now, you’ll have to use your imagination, but I can tell you, these beads will feel GREAT hanging on your arm! Slinky and sexy…

Top with part of the beaded fringe sleeve

Beaded fringe close-up

As soon as I can, I’ll be posting the finished shots here on the blog, both of  Gary Persello’s new finished work and also Bonnie Van Hall’s new finished pieces. For my own work, it will probably be March before I can stand to wear tiny tops outdoors for the photo shoot!

Also, please check out the new additions to our growing list of awesome artists and bloggers below (under “Visit our Friends”).  There are so many amazingly creative people out there, and we appreciate every one of you!

Here are the first batch of Gary Persello’s bronze ocarinas.  More astrology signs will be represented in the next set.

Bronze ocarinas: "Leo"

Bronze ocarina by Gary Persello

Top of ocarina

Close-up of Gary Persello's "Leo" bronze ocarina

Please see Gary’s bronze ocarinas gallery on his website: http://www.bonnievanhall.com/garypersello/Ocarinas/ocarinasgallery.html

To purchase, go to http://www.bonnievanhall.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=20&products_id=84

So now it’s back to the finishing touches on “Bubbles” for Gary (see earlier post below). Almost finished with this newest piece in his series of fairies, the next step will involve cutting the piece up and making molds. Check back soon for a glimpse into that fascinating process in the making of a bronze!