For each of you, what path did you follow to find out that the complex beadwork was your passion in the jewelry world? Was it something you alwasy knew, or did you try other things along the way?

Collaborative relationships are unique. How did you form yours, figure out who does what, and mesh your creative styles into a successful partnership?

Wow... I'm sorry to say I have never heard of these artists. Do they post here regularly?

I believe that one of the objectives of this event is to go OUTSIDE of JL. Gwen and Florence do beautiful bead work. Gwen has written an amazing paper on the math behind beaded beads. I suggested them for this event because I thought people who don't know their work would enjoy it, and because they are a team rather than individual artists. You can see their work and access Gwen's tome athttp://www.beadinfinitum.com

What I particularly would like to know from them is: they create beautiful DIMENSIONAL work. Where did they learn?
Also, how do they develop new patterns and shapes, meaning how are they inspired?
Is there a reason or a story why their shapes are always so dimensional (clearly their preference).

I would love to know about how their studios are set up. What makes their studio work for them? (Tips for those of us struggling with making our space work would be great!)
-lauren

Thank you Jkay for your reply. I've since investigated them and they do beautiful work! So, here are some my questions:

What is a 'typical' work day like for each of you? Do you stick to a 'game plan' and have assigned roles in the business? How much time to you devote to 'administrative' work?

I'm sure I could come up with a dozen more questions if I sat on this for a bit but I'll let others contribute.

Here's the question I'd like to ask Gwen and Florence:

How do you balance your creative work in bead artistry with your work in academia, especially in a field that is not necessarily well-represented by people with artistic aptitude?

My question is how do you create the three dimensional patterns. Do you doodle it out or just go for it? Do you use any particular brand of seed beads?

Not really a question but to both: I just like the way they use the seed beads. It makes them come out of the "ordinary" to something more enhanced, from my point of view anyway..
Ok.. I think is been asked already, but yeah, how do they come up with the designs? I gave it a try the other day and was not succesful at all..
Thank you.
Valeria :)

I would love to know how Florence and Gwen work so well together given the fact they live so far apart. and Also what challenges Florence has given she has a small child at home?

I'd like to know if Gwen and Florence have recommendations for using beadwork and other crafts to get girls interested in math.

Shaolingrrl: really good idea with beading at maths lessons ;-) I loved maths at school (now I'm doctor of economic sciences) and still a lot of my projects are beaded "in my mind" before beaded in reality. This is my question to Gwen and Florence: having indisputable maths background, when starting the bead do you know where you finish, what are you going to achieve ? Are you beading your beads in your mind before starting real project?

Regarding the highly regarded Business Plan : Do you have one? Have you set goals such as coming up with a certain number of designs or projects within a specific time frame? Does your plan require that you follow fashion trends, particularly when it comes to color? Does your strategy call for being published or otherwise recognized as experts and sustaining that?

Ladies, I'm sorry for the two last questions, this thread is now closed: the questions have been sent to the artists!
Please do not post any more questions, thanks!