More beaded talons

I've actually finished eight of them, but I got a little camera happy after finishing four. Here's the picture.



On to the gauntlets!

Vanessa Walilko
Beaded armor, unique beaded jewelry, chainmaille jewelry, Chicago chainmaille classes, and chainmaille fashion

Tiamat beaded talon fingertips

In the midst of trying to wrap my head around just how I was going to manage adding all those beads and stones to the Tiamat dress, I decided to start working on the accessories. I wanted to do something repetitive that I wouldn't have to think too much about. That way, my subconscious could work out how to line up all the beads and I could still work on the project. It's win-win.

The result is this: the beaded talon fingertip. I wanted to give Tiamat claws, for while the Enuma Elish doesn't describe her as a dragon, she does give birth to dragons and monsters, so I imagine her to have claws... and horns. I'm looking for excuses to use my onyx talons, I admit it.


Vanessa Walilko
Beaded dragons, beaded armor, chainmaille jewelry, and chainmaille classes

In progress - The Tiamat Dress

I was much too obsessed with my chainmaille jacket when I was working on it to actually to the in progress photos I had originally planned on doing. However, I decided to take photos of the dress while it was in progress, since this is the most epic project I've ever worked on.

Of course, when I say progress, I really mean, "fussily obsessing about where things are going to go next." I'm working, right now, on placing the cuneiform characters. I managed to find a PDF of the transliteration of the first 100 lines of the Enuma Elish, and the original cuneiform characters. After some editing, I sized the characters in relation to the width of seed beads and came up with a good scale for the characters in relation to the dress.

in any case, that was months ago. Today I was only concerned with the position of the characters--how they would flow with the dress. I came to this formation--the vertical formation is the characters for Mummu Tiamat.

For anyone interested in reading the Enuma Elish, you can find the full text here. These are the first four lines of the epic, taken from the site listed:

When on high the heaven had not been named,
Firm ground below had not been called by name,
When primordial Apsu, their begetter,
And Mummu-Tiamat, she who bore them all

Here's how they look in relation to the whole dress:

Back to work!

Vanessa Walilko
Handcrafted beaded jewelry, chainmaille jewelry, beaded armor, and beaded sculpture

Dreams of the Fallen

Thanks to a trip to Milwaukee on Friday and some last minute scheduling, I got my big collar/capelet photographed by Larry Sanders. I just sent it off to the Bead Dreams competition. Wish me luck!



Vanessa Walilko
Chainmaille, beadwork, art

Chainmaille jacket - finished!

For anyone who is a fan of Blue Buddha Boutique on Facebook saw the pictures yesterday, but the chainmaille jacket is finally done.

It took roughly 150 hours to complete. I bet a pattern would have halved that time, but I'm a purist/obsessive. It weighs about 8 pounds and contains about 30,000 rings. It's a labor of love... or psychosis, it's hard to separate those out sometimes.



Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs - Handcrafted jewelry, beaded sculpture and epic chainmaille

February Classes

When I wore my dragonscale bracelet to class, I knew that I was teaching it somewhere soon. Well, here is the list of all the classes I'll be teaching in February:

Dragonscale - February 7
Briolette Beads, Forest Park

Chainmaille Earrings - February 8
Discovery Center, Chicago

Japanese Cascade - February 12
Caravan Beads, Chicago

I will also be subbing for Rebeca on weeks two and three for her Vikings and Dragons class at Lill Street starting February 11, and I'll be running the open studio at Blue Buddha Boutique on February 9.

As always, contact information for all of these locations can be found on my Resources - Classes page.

Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs - Handcrafted Beaded and Chainmaille Jewelry

New Etsy Items

I figured that as I got sucked into the online auctions for Battlestar Galactica (I love the show, but seriously, the Tighs as Cylons annoy me) I would update the website and the blog.

I posted some new items on Etsy. The first design people have seen before, either on my wrist or at the Cornelia Holiday Show. It's the Shaggy Scales bracelet, which also has it's own page on the website.

The second piece is the Shaggy Scales Bib Necklace. I'm a huge fan of these scales. Black on one side, gunmetal on the other, the colors create an amazing texture. Did I mention that they jangle? I like things that make noise and I love huge pieces of jewelry. This necklace has quickly become one of my favorites.



Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs: Eclectic Chainmaille and Beadwork

Custom Fly Ring

I imagine other artists feel this way: they make something that turns out even better than they imagined and then walk around the rest of the day/week/month thinking, "I'm a genius." At least, I like to think that other people do it, since I am self-conscious about my narcissistic megalomania. Or maybe that's megalomaniacal narcissism?

In any case, I did something yesterday that has sparked the "I'm a genius!" chant in my head. I made a housefly ring. It's a custom order, and it's just the prototype, but I totally fell in love with it. The garnet eyes are my favorite part, but the legs have a lot of personality too, and that makes me happy.

The finished piece will have a 14K band and the silver will be treated with liver of sulfur to make it black, but this little prototype ring makes me stupidly happy.



Remember, if you have any custom desires, just drop me a line at info @ gianessadesigns.com.

Vanessa Walilko
Handcrafted Unique Beaded Jewelry, Chainmaille and Beaded Sculpture

January Classes

Oh, the horrors of the sinus infection. I've been out of commission for essentially two weeks, first battling a cold, now a wicked sinus infection. In fact, I've forgotten to put up information about upcoming classes until now. However, I have made some serious progress on the chainmaille jacket, so all is well in the end.

January class list:

Lill Street Gallery:
5-week chainmaille class, January 7-February 4

Briolette Beads:
Beg. Maille
X-Lock Byzantine
January 17

Ayla's Originals (my first official classes there!)
Beginning
Spiral I
January 24

Contact information for stores can be found on my classes page. Class descriptions can be found on the Blue Buddha Boutique class page.

Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs, Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Chainmaille and Art

Hotei Art Center

I'm pleased to report that you can find my jewelry at Hotei Art Center. This is a great new space housing artists in a variety of media. They will also be offering a variety of classes, including some chainmaille classes offered by myself and the other ladies of Blue Buddha Boutique. Conveniently located near the Morse stop on the red line, be sure to check them out when you get a chance!

Hotei Art Center
1445 W. Morse
Chicago, IL 60626
http://www.hoteiartcenter.com/

December Classes, Blue Buddha Holiday Show and Future Updates

Thanks to everyone who came to the Cornelia Holiday show and made it such a wonderful experience. A surprising number of people braved the cold and snowy weather to support the many talented artists exhibiting there. I'll have more of an update about that later in the week.

However, to those of you who saw the latest designs at the show, keep checking the Gianessa Designs website, as I'll be updating my Etsy shop and updating the jewelry pages this week.

However, I wanted to make a quick mention of a few important things: my last show of the season will be at the Blue Buddha Boutique Holiday Show on Thursday, December 11, from 5-9pm. A bunch of great artists will have their work on display. It should be a great night.

I'll be teaching a few more classes before the year is out:

December 11, Intermediate Earrings at Caravan Beads

December 13, Winter Snowflake Pendant Workshop at Lill Street Gallery

December 14, Byzantine Bracelet at Discovery Center Chicago

Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs
Unique, Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculptures and Chainmaille Armor

Cornelia Holiday Show

Come to the Cornelia Holiday show on December 5-7 to see my latest chainmaille jewelry and beaded jewelry designs. Those of you who saw my beaded collar in progress last year can see it in all its finished glory this weekend. You'll also be able to take a look at some of my beaded dragon sculptures.

The Cornelia Holiday show runs December 5, 6-9pm, December 6-7, 11am - 5pm and is located at:

The Cornelia Arts Building
1800 W Ravenswood
Chicago, IL 60657

Parking can be a little tricky, so I recommend taking the brown line to the Addison stop whenever possible.

Hope to see you there!

Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs
Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Sculpture and Chainmaille

New Resources

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table at the Art of Beadwork show. I got a lot of great feedback about my phoenix bead embroidered necklace and my beaded dragon sculptures.

Now that I have maybe a day to relax before I start gearing up for the Cornelia Holiday Show, I thought I would add some new resources to the website.

For jewelers and anyone else people concerned with the prices of metals or who do online ordering from other countries, I think it's important to know where the markets stand.

Xe.com
The top of the page gives a handy conversion chart to see how the world's major currencies compare with one another. Right under that table is a quick conversion box, so you can find out how much your money is worth elsewhere.

Kitco.com
Gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium prices per ounce. It's useful for knowing when to make those supplies purchase you've been putting off.

These new references are located in the Jewelry Markets Information page.

Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs
Beaded Dragon Sculptures, Unique Beaded and Chainmaille Jewelry

Art of Beadwork 2008

The Bead Society of Greater Chicago will be holding the 12th annual Art of Beadwork show on Sunday, November 16 at The Skokie Banquet & Convention Center at the Holiday Inn North Shore.

It's located at 5300 W Touhy Ave in Skokie, IL. Click here for more information on the hotel and directions. The Bead Society is excited to be in this new space for the show, and eternally grateful to Cindy McEwen for putting everything together for the show.

Be sure to stop by and say hello. I'll have dragon sculptures and beaded and chainmaille jewelry on display.

Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs
Handcrafted jewelry, fashion and art

Other projects

When I'm not designing jewelry, making beaded dragon sculptures or making massive chainmaille armor pieces, I've been known to design a website or two.

Be sure to check out http://www.rhondapopko.com/. To be fair, Rhonda did most of the designing, I just added content, and also switched it from the byzantine iWeb coding system to something easily updated in Dreamweaver. Be sure to check out her work (if you didn't at the Artisan 133 reception, that is). Her silks are really amazing.

Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs
Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Chainmaille, Fashion and Art

Rubber Rings Workshop

Just yesterday I took a class with Susan Thomas at the Blue Buddha Boutique studio. It's definitely a new way of working with jump rings--actually manipulating the shape of the rubber ring instead of using it in place of metal rings. I took the marathon bracelet class on Sunday, and were my hands feeling it that night and today.

Here's the result of hours of meticulous work:

You can purchase rubber rings at Blue Buddha Boutique, along with Link It!, Susan Thomas' book.

Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs
Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Chainmaille, Fashion and Art

Artisan 133 Reception Recap

My Friday night reception at Artisan 133 was a resounding success.

Rhonda Popko, my high school art teacher, and I shared the space for the reception. Rhonda did silk painting demonstrations while I worked on my latest chainmaille piece. I think I've decided it's going to be a cropped jacket with high collar. Who knows--these things always evolve.

Thanks to everyone for coming. Everyone seemed excited by my newest jewelry designs, and all my friends were kind enough to take photos with me at the show. Cindy and Beth at Artisan 133 really know how to put together a good show.

Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs
Handcrafted beaded jewelry, chainmaille, fashion and beaded sculpture.

Chainmaille Distraction

I know. I should be working on more inventory for my artist reception at Artisan 133. I should be working on my Tiamat dress. However, my philosophical kindred are Herbert Marcuse, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Randolph Bourne and Lou Andres-Salome, to name a few. When I received an 11-pound box of aluminum rings in the mail on Monday, I wasn't about to repress my libidinal urges.

After creating my chainmaille shrug, I realized that I wanted to do another one. First I thought of making some sort of jacket, and maybe the current project will morph into one. Who knows. Regardless, after many months of agonizing over the design of the shrug/jacket, I finally decided upon the style--bell sleeves with black scales acting as fringe for the sleeve edges and hem.

Here's a rough in-progress picture. I'd take a better photo, but this is already taking too much time away from my work!

Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs
Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Chainmaille Fashion and Art

Artist Reception at Artisan 133

Join me at Artisan 133 for an artist reception. I'll have my latest chainmalle and beadwork designs and will be debuting part of my clothing line!

Artisan 133 is located at 133 West Prospect Avenue in Mount Prospect. Hope to see you there!

Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs
Unique handcrafted beaded jewelry, beaded sculpture and chainmaille

Fossil Record

Aside from the many thousands of seed beads that I plan on attaching to the Tiamat dress, I also planning to add a number of interesting stones, pearls and other objects in the same color scheme.

Included in this miscellaneous category are two fossils I picked up at Dave's Rock Shop (pictured above). They are orthoceras fossils, from the Ordovician to Devonian period in the Paleozoic era for any fans of the fossil record. (Of course, this may only be relevant information to other former Montessori students.) One measures about 6 inches long, the other under 4 inches. I'm working on beaded bezels for them, but they will be the focal pieces of the top of the dress. (The one with two pointed ends will be placed just at the point of the v-neckline of the halter.)

The temptation to go back to Dave's and look for more interesting things is almost overwhelming. I say almost, because I already know this dress is going to weigh a ton, and I don't need to add any more rocks to it.

Vanessa Walilko
Gianessa Designs
Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry, Beaded Dragon Sculpture and Chainmaille