Hand Painted Traditions and Inspiration

The first beads and the first paintings both come from the cradle of our history as humans.  Thought to have originally been used to communicate and in ceremony; both are symbolic and carry stories that have been told since we have been sitting around fires. Both painting and beads have been elevated into the highest ranks of contemporary aesthetic expression.




The painting traditions that can be applied to beads and jewelry design are abundant. Techniques like Ukrainian Pysanky, Russian lacquer painting, American folk painting and other ethnic techniques can all be applied to the art of bead and adornment. It is simply a matter of imagination and application.
Here are some ancient beads hand etched in stone. Look at the designs. I am certain their were ancient hand painted bead designs on seed, stone and shell. A red dot on a seed or a charcoal spiral on stone could have been worn. You can draw a lot of inspiration in your jewelry designs from these beads and the beads. Over the next few weeks we'll take a tour of some of these beautiful techniques and hopefully help you to imagine how they can be applied or are already being applied to hand painted beads, adornments. In the next entry I will look more closely at how this tradition can inspire your hand painted designs.