Head in the Clouds

This newest sculpture, completed in 2024, reflects the artist’s determination to remain hopeful even in quite challenging times. The beadwork was completed using an off-loom technique known as peyote stitch. In this case, glass beads were worked over a mid twentieth-century, cloth-covered manikin head.

For Head in the Clouds, the “sky” was created using matte, opaque beads. The “water” (in several sizes of transparent and iridescent high-gloss beads) rises to the base of the figure’s nose; that smooth pool mirroring the moon, clouds, and darkening heavens, above. At the base of the neck the water flows forward from behind, gently spilling over the edge of a plinth or shelf. Intended to be viewed in the round and close to eye level, the reverse of the head displays distant mountains reflected in the water.

Head in the Clouds
Glass seed beads and thread, worked in peyote stitch over mid 20th-century, cloth-covered wooden manikin head.
(Excluding stand) H.: 9 3/4″; L. (back of head to leading edge of water): 9″
This work took approximately one year to complete.

Available for purchase.

Exhibited: On Beauty, Massoni Art, Chestertown, MD (September 14 – October 13, 2024); BITE SIZE: Small Works Straight from the Studio, Gravers Lane Gallery (GLG), Philadelphia (November 29, 2024 – January 9, 2025).

The below images show Head in the Clouds while in progress. Note that, all the way to the base of the neck, the peyote-stitched beadwork closely follows the shape of the manikin head. Below the neck (as shown above), the water spreads outward as a flexible and translucent beaded “cloth” with no backing.