Bead Weaver

By Cindy Landrum  

AUGUST 1, 2011 11:18 a.m. (0)

“It seems the general conception of artists is they’ve got some kind of supernatural talent or something,” said Spartanburg bead artist Melissa Earley. “I think it’s important for people to see the artistic process because it demystifies it. Art in general becomes a little less intimidating.”

That’s one of the reasons Earley decided to weave a large-scale beaded portrait during the month her work is being exhibited at the Metropolitan Arts Council gallery at 16 Augusta St. in Greenville.

Through Aug. 19, Earley will be at MAC headquarters from noon until 4 p.m. every Tuesday and Saturday, working on “Pinko,” a portrait of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and the first overtly political piece she has ever created. Earley will also be working during Greenville’s First Fridays event on Aug. 5 from 4 p.m. until 9 p.m.

“It’s always good when anyone who is not an artist becomes more familiar with what goes into an artist’s creation of art,” said Alan Ethridge, MAC executive director. “It’s a learning experience and when we see art in action, it fosters a deeper appreciation of it.”

Haley unsuccessfully tried to eliminate state funding of the South Carolina Arts Commission.

“I think any artist in the state knows what Nikki Haley’s stance on the arts has been,” she said. “I’m sure they’ll see the irony of it being created in a publicly funded art gallery.”

Earley’s style incorporates both the craft and fine art world. Her influences were woodworkers and potters, printmakers and painters.

After she graduated from the College of Charleston with a degree in studio art, Earley worked as a jewelry designer for several years, her work being sold all over the Southeast.

But she became bored with making the same necklace over and over and over again. It was then that she decided to try bead weaving.

“The technique was perfected over hundreds of years by several different Native American nations, and I loved it the moment I discovered it,” she said.

Earley said when she painted, she never really knew when the work was finished. She’d keep touching things up and adding on to it for months, never quite satisfied that it was ready.

Not with beadwork.

“I follow a pattern and when it’s done, it’s done,” she said. “There’s no guesswork and there’s no going back and touching up later.”

She often uses glass beads with a peyote stitch, recognizable by the brickwork pattern of the beads. Glass beads create an intricate stained glass effect and the bright colors of the beads makes the imagery less severe and more palatable, she said.

For larger pieces like “Pinko,” Earley uses plastic beads woven using a variation of a square stitch. Using the square stitch, the beads are in uniform rows on top of each other. The plastic beads also give the image a “pixilated” look.

In addition, Earley also uses a loom to weave pieces that incorporate lots of visible thread.

Earley thinks it’s important for her audience to ask questions about the technique so they can move on to the image.

“You really want people to respond to the image,” she said. “I hope people will get beyond the technique to the imagery itself.”

The most difficult work comes before she starts stitching at all. Finding an image and then creating a computer-generated pattern is critical to the success of a piece, she said.

Then it’s time to string the first row of beads together. She counts the beads, double and triple checks that the colored beads are where they are supposed to be.

“The first row is the most important,” she said.

She then strings on each individual bead, connecting it to other beads in the image five times each. “It’s a very sturdy way to weave,” she said.

The Nikki Haley piece, which will be about 35-inches wide and 27- to 30-inches tall, will have a little more than 9,000 beads. It will take Earley about 70 hours to finish.

“It’s time consuming, but I find that it is a very meditative process. It’s therapeutic,” she said. “If you have a stressful day at work, you just concentrate on putting the next bead in and everything else goes away.”

The largest piece Earley has finished, “Wave Good-bye,” has 50,000 beads.

It’s a life-sized weave of Earley and examines what happens when a person wakes up in the morning and realizes they’re not comfortable in their own skin, that they’ve outgrown something or someone.

“It’s about shedding that skin, about taking that next step to being true to yourself,” she said of the piece that is displayed on an old, beat-up white bed.

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