Knots, Beads, and Trolls

Sundial Earrings

New Book Coming Soon (I hope!)
Wow, it's been a long time since I posted! So for those who may have wondered - here's what I've been up to. Last year was busy, busy, busy with more teaching than I've ever done. On the whole it was a good experience and I have no complaints about the students I met, who were a real joy to hang out with. But (isn't there always a "but"?) frankly I got really physically burned out with the traveling part and yearned to spend more time at home. So that's what I've been up to - hanging out around my studio and diligently working on my next book. There were several finished projects that had been languishing on my computer for years so I thought the book was mostly done and that it would be a breeze to finish - - - wrong. It's been a slow and tedious path (is Mercury in retrograde?) but I am making progress. This book will be aimed at those who are past the beginner stage and need/want more of challenge. And I'm really happy with what I've come up with so far - hopefully I'll have it done and out there by this summer.

African Trade Bead Necklace

Somebody Else's Beads

Other than that, I've had a little time to do some jewelry making. Recently, I got an email request from someone asking if I could make a necklace for her using her own treasured African trade beads. My first reaction was to say no because long ago I promised myself that I wouldn't do any custom orders using somebody else's beads. First of all it's difficult to know what someone really has in mind. Is it the same necklace I'm envisioning in my mind's eye? A Vulcan "mind-meld" would come in really handy at this point! But she assured me repeatedly that she would be happy with whatever I came up with. But it's still tricky when working with somebody else's beads - what happens if they don't like the finished product? Do you cut out all of the beads and say "nice try"?  Well - long story short, I decided to trust my intuition and break my own rule and go for it. And luckily she loved the necklace and it turned out to be a good experience for all. Yay!  So in this case, trusting my intuition paid off. I wish that would happen every time!

Troll Obsession

When I was a child in Miami, Fl. I used to watch a local kids TV show called the "Commander Bolt Show". One time they had a contest to win an "Iggy" doll (otherwise known to all the world as Troll dolls). So, lo and behold, I won the contest with my pathetic and heart wrenching essay about how we had to give our dachshund "Penny" away because she nipped a neighbor's kid on the nose and my mom didn't want to have a dangerous animal in the house (and I was heartbroken, etc, etc…)  From then on I was an Iggy aficionado and collected many. My brother Kenny and I loved to play with them and made Iggy houses and Iggy clothes - we even invented our own dialect called "Iggy Talk". I am so fond of Iggy's that I dressed one up like an angel and she tops our tree every Christmas.

So why am I telling you all this??? Because last night I had the strangest dream. In the dream I was meeting some friends of my husband and the woman in the couple seemed uninterested in me until she saw my fascinating necklace. Not an intricate macrame/beaded concoction. No, the necklace had a simple chain with an upside-down troll doll hanging from it!!! And after seeing her positive reaction I thought - "well maybe I should make more of these".

So, what do you make of that - a new trend perhaps? An upside-down troll necklace sure would be easier to make!

Should All Information Be Free?

Sometimes I think back to those days not so very long ago - before we had the “internets”. I remember the actress Anna Paquin from “The Piano” (who was just a girl at the time) on the TV telling us about this strange new thing called “the information super-highway” and how it would change our lives. And for better or worse, it certainly has. It has made a wealth of information instantly accessible. It has allowed me and countless other creative souls to have websites to show (and sell) our creations to the whole wide world. And it has enabled me and my husband to have an online business that offers micro-macrame books, kits, online classes and digital e-patterns.

But there is the inevitable downside too. A few years back I got an email from another micro-macrame author Annika DeGroot . She kindly advised me that my book “Micro-Macrame Jewelry, Tips and Techniques for Knotting with Beads” was being offered as a free download on various websites. This was a rude awakening for naive little me as I was not aware that this was happening, nor did I give anyone permission to give my book away for free! Many of these unscrupulous websites are based in other countries and ignore any copyright laws of the USA. I am not by any means the only author who has had her books illegally distributed, there are many.

So why does this matter? It’s obvious why it matters to me - as an author who earns much of my income from the sale of books (my intellectual property) I feel harmed if anyone steals my property and uses it for their own purposes. But it also wrongs the person who downloads the so-called “free” version because they inadvertently help this kind of thing to continue, often without being aware that they have done anything unethical.

With all the legitimately free videos and tutorials available on the internet, it’s not surprising that there is a tacit expectation that all information should be free. But think about it - what is the incentive for a working author or musician to create something of value and put it out there if they can’t expect to get any return from it? 

Free internet content is important and definitely a great service. I have benefited from it myself many times. But let’s just make sure that what we download is really meant to be free & continue to support our artists, authors, and musicians!

Donation Box

As those artists who have been around a while can attest, sooner or later you will be approached to donate a piece of your artwork to a charity for their fund raising auction. In years past, when I was participating in a lot of arts and crafts fairs I got loads of requests - it seemed like every other week at times. I must admit to having mixed feelings about the whole thing ranging from “Sure, I’d be happy to help the woman’s shelter or the animal shelter - they are definitely a worthy cause” to the less charitable “Not again! Why don’t they ask some rich people instead?”. 

As Joni Mitchell said in one song - “There’s a wide wide world of noble causes...” and it’s true that most of the groups that ask for donations truly are worthy causes. 

So what to do if you can’t donate to them all? My solution has been to choose one or two that I have a special feeling or connection to. One of my choices is my neighborhood library. I use their services all the time and in this era of budget cuts and austerity - they need help from the community to survive.

It does help that I’ve been producing art for many years and have accumulated a lot of pieces that haven’t been saleable for one reason or another but are still of value. So I’ve designated a special donation box in my studio where I put any jewelry that fits that description. Now when I get a request, I just go to the box and pull something out instead of having to rummage through my inventory. I find that it’s not only a good feeling to help support a good organization through my artwork but it’s really liberating to clear out some pieces that have been hanging around my studio far too long !

Back To The Drawing Board

OK, it happened again. I was working on a new idea, a macrame flower, “exploring the possibilities and potential of the materials” (i.e. nylon cord and beads) and I got to a turning point (several hours of tedious work later) when I had to make an important decision. The decision was - “Do I continue pouring more time and energy into this piece or do I stop now and add yet another half finished thing to my shoebox?” I didn’t want all the hours I’d already spent on this thing to go to waste, but as it progressed with only so-so results, I kept thinking, this is tedious, this is no fun, this is taking forever. Joseph Campbell advised us to “follow your bliss”, and it was very clear to me that this was not my bliss! So I tossed it into the black hole (my shoebox of no return) and I’m happier now because I’m freed up to work on something else. Something that I can feel good about, maybe even get excited about.
Or maybe to just sit on my porch and stare off into space......
I like to think that there are no such things as“failures” in art and that I learn something valuable from all of those partially finished thingees that I’ve made over the years. Well maybe I’ve learned a few things that I just can’t remember at the moment. But today my lesson seems to be that life is short, and macrame is very long, so I’ll quit working on stuff that doesn’t make me happy and only make things that do make me happy.

Recycling for Parts

R.I.P. old bag

I’ve been thinking lately about recycling. Not the environmentally conscious stuff that we should all be doing but the kind of recycling that relates to jewelry making. And no, I’m not talking about making earrings from bottle caps and old keys (although that could be fun). I’m talking about taking a pair of sharp scissors and (yikes!) dismembering a piece of jewelry for the parts. Perhaps it's partially a reaction to the ever escalating prices for beads, but I think - "that particular necklace or bracelet may have taken many many hours to make, but what the heck, it wasn’t my greatest effort and those lampwork beads and swarovski crystals are calling to me."


I did the recycling thing recently with a leather bag that I’d had forever. I had shown it at a local gallery and at numerous art shows but to no avail. Now I have a bunch of turquoise, carnelian, and sterling silver beads that will be put to much better use! (and a bag with no fringe or neck chain)

Two Necklaces by Joan Babcock 2012

I’ve also been recycling some design ideas. I just recently got a box of necklaces returned to me that I’d given to my mother-in-law for her birthday over the years. She’s reached a stage in her life where she can no longer use them. I thought that one of the necklace styles would be fun to make again. The length is much longer than usual - made at a time when tunics were popular I guess.
I, like most artists, always want to try something new and different to keep the creative juices flowing - but once in a while it’s nice to revisit some of the tried and true designs of yesteryear. If enough time has passed and your memory has lapses (as mine often does), it can be just like you're making it for the first time.

What’s your medicine?(bag)

J.Babcock Medicine Bag 2006

There’s something special about a little pouch made of velvet or silk or deerskin. Maybe it’s because of the size and that you can only fit something small and significant or maybe even precious inside.

Deerskin Medicine Bag

After moving to New Mexico in the late ‘80s I first became aware of Native American medicine bags - these are usually made of soft deerskin and containing personal items of protection and power such as stones, fetishes, sage, bones, hair or fur, roots, leaves or feathers.

J.Babcock Medicine Bag circa 1992

Around that same time I also began noticing other types of medicine bags in shops (also called amulet pouches or talisman bags). These were mostly decorative and worn like necklaces.  So, I started experimenting and hit upon a particular design that I could duplicate in different colors and beads so that each bag was unique. I made a lot of those bags and they helped pay the rent for many years. But as everything has it’s time and season and it was no longer my bliss to make them anymore, I decided to retire that medicine bag design for the time being.  

Fast forward to 2012. When I was playing around with ideas last week I came up with this bead embellished amulet bag. The two-dimensional knot on the front was one I found in “The Ashley Book of Knots” (#2329, page 375). This is a really cool book for knot lovers published around 1944. It took the author 11 years to finish and has thousands of knots.

P.S. I may be mistaken but I could swear I saw Mary on Downton Abbey wearing a black beaded amulet bag. It was in the scene where Richard Carlisle was walking out the door for (hopefully) the last time. As they say "everything old is new again" and beaded bags will always be in style.

"How long did it take you to make that?"

One of the most frequent questions that I'm asked by people who see my work is "How long did it take you to make that?"  After all these years of creating and selling jewelry, I'm still somewhat flummoxed by that question, because the answer isn't as apparent as it would seem. There is so many aspects that go into creating a piece of artwork and each of these takes time. First there's the ruminating (or you might call it the gestational) period when an idea is taking shape in your mind. This is an undetermined amount of time but I suspect it can take anywhere from an instant to a lifetime. Then there are the years involved in experimentation and honing your skills - making countless pieces, some of them successful and some of them (a-hum) "learning experiences". And then there are the more concrete aspects like sourcing your materials, which entails going to bead shops and bazaars and searching the web. Many many hours are spent in the pursuit of beads and materials. Then you may want to sketch out your design to give yourself a road map of where you intend to go with it (although I sometimes leave that road and go in a radical new direction!). Then there's the actual sitting down at your desk and patiently building a piece knot by knot and bead by bead. Although this can be tedious work at times, it's also very exciting and gratifying to see an idea take shape before your eyes.
I rarely keep track of the actual hours I spend on a piece. Maybe I really don't want to know, because it's usually much more than I think! But for the piece pictured here, I did try to keep track and the actual construction took about 10 hours, which includes making the brass and silver pendant.

So when I'm talking with a customer who asks "How long did it take you to make that piece?", do I say it took 10 hours (and watch the calculator in her head try to determine my hourly wage and am I asking too much or too little) or do I say "It took me all of my life to make this piece"?
..... I think that would be a lot closer to the truth....