Contemporary Geometric Beadwork

Designers

Kate McKinnon

team leader

Contemporary Geometric Beadwork Team

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

https://beadmobile.wordpress.com/

Biography

Ingrid Wangsvik is a professional musician, a teacher, and a core member of the global, open-source Contemporary Geometric Beadwork research team. Her colours and patterns are inspired by the nature that surrounds her in her native Norway. When viewing her colour patterns (which are usually spontaneously generated as she works, as opposed to graphed beforehand) people describe waves, boats, forests, flowers, crashing cliffs and themes from Norwegian cultural history. Ingrid’s work is unusual in that it is both structurally mathematically precise, but in the making is absolutely carefree about colour and pattern. And it’s magical to see how powerful locale and culture can be; even in play, the ancient scenes and themes shine through.

Looks

Image for look 'Asymmetric Waves Bangle, Arrow Bangle' — Kate McKinnon

About the look

Asymmetric Waves Bangle

Glass beads and thread

2019

The creation of this asymmetrical Rick-Rack Bangle is a model of another moment of discovery for our team, when we realized that a technique we showed in 2011 was actually the answer to a 2018 question. The overlapping rings of waves were built from loops thrown out from the first ring, and in that manner each wave was crafted in place. To create the asymmetry, the increase beads (a slightly different bead placement and stitch) was placed off-center when the ring of beads was cast out. As the lines are worked into fabric, that initial geometric information propagates into an actual wave-form. Some people say that they see mermaids, rising from the sea, in each peak of the outer ring here, but Ingrid did not place the beads with that thought in mind.

Arrow Bangle

glass beads and thread

2017

The Arrow is a simple progression of peyote fabric along a single spine of increases. The fabric climbs the increases in a spread of intervals chosen by the weaver. As with the Wave Bangles, we have used these pieces to model heartbeats, data streams, and the weather. The Arrow was a fun form to discover because we had not imagined a piece with only one running increase line before we found this one, and it remains unique in our library for this feature.