Naming my beadwork is probably the hardest part of the whole
process for me. A good name can mean so much when you are trying to convey an
idea or a concept through a piece of beadwork or beaded jewelry. To me,
choosing a good name for a piece of beadwork can make it or break it!
Sometimes, a good name just comes to me while I'm working on
a piece or sketching out a concept in my sketchbook. It might be a line from a
poem or even from a movie. Names can come to me when I think about what was
happening in my life during the time I made a particular piece of beadwork or
the time period that inspired a piece.
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| The Lady in the Lake gets its name from a creepy story about a suicide on nearby Lake Placid. |
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This piece, The Lady in the Lake, was inspired by a piece of
local history from Lake Placid, New York. It involved the disappearance and
apparent suicide of Mabel Douglas, a summer resident who owned a camp on the
lake and was the founder of Douglas College at Rutgers University in New
Brunswick, New Jersey. I created the piece to reflect the story of how Douglas's
body was discovered at the bottom of the lake thirty years after her mysterious
disappearance. While the overall piece seems to be really creepy (my husband
couldn't wait for me to finish it so he wouldn't have to look at it every time
he walked past my work table), it did a good job of reflecting the creepy story
behind it!
When it's time to figure out a name for your finished
beadwork, here are a few things to keep in mind for a successful name:
Relate the name to
your project. Sometimes the most successful names are the most obvious. For
my Victorian Infinity necklace, I chose to use the word "infinity" in the title
because the shape of the twisted herringbone components resembled the
mathematical symbol for infinity. (Yes, I am a math geek. You have been
warned.) Look for symbols or colors in your beadwork that you can use to come
up with a great name.
Keep it simple.
Don't go overboard with your names. Keeping it short and sweet when naming your
beadwork can work to your advantage. It's usually easier to remember a short
title than one that takes up an entire line on the page. Look for highly
descriptive words that can capture the essence of your piece. If you need help,
grab a thesaurus and look for alternatives to wordy phrases!
Use the classics. I've
been inspired by great works of literature and art when making my beadwork, so
I don't hesitate to refer to those titles when I name my beadwork. If the
original title or the artwork is very long, consider pulling a few select words
to use in the name for your own beadwork.
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I definitely broke the "Keep it Simple" rule with this piece, but I certainly made people laugh when I named it "We're All the Same But Different"! |
Make them laugh. Funny
names are always good! Even though I broke the "Keep it Simple" rule here, I
decided to name this lampwork necklace, "We're All the Same But Different"
after an episode of a favorite television show. (Five points to the person who
knows which television show it is!) It certainly got a lot of laughs when it
went on display as part of an art exhibit at my local cultural center, and the
piece eventually sold because of that title!
Do you have a special method for coming up with names for
your beadwork? Leave a comment on the blog and share your thoughts with us!
Bead Happy,
Jennifer