The Concept Drawings and Some Initial Thoughts
When I first envisioned this project, I thought about the beads as roughly the size of a car tire. But as I continued to think about them, I started thinking about the labor that goes into beading, how the needle (guided by the hand) threads through each bead hole, and how interesting it would be for people to thread their entire bodies through the bead holes. With this in mind, I did some new sketches to think about size and the mechanics of how these might be constructed.
Part of what I love formally about beads is their roundness both outside and as they curve into the hole. I would want to retain this rather than just having the earth be a mound on top of the hole. The use of some sort of mesh, embedded in the soil to help it hold the shape until grass roots establish, seemed necessary.
The one thing about the initial concept that I was dissatisfied with was the imposition of a straight line of beads onto the landscape. I owe Tammy Maxon a debt of gratitude for helping me identify this; when I was looking at her concept drawings and was struck by the mathematical yet still organic shape, I realized that this was what was missing from the earth beads. So I used this idea as a jumping off point to go take another look at meso- and neolithic sites such as Stonehenge, Avesbury, Carnac, and others and realized that it was the circle as well as the monumental size that I was looking for.
The new concept drawing, below, shows both the size and how it fits into the landscape. There are thirteen “beads”, which is a nod to the lunar calendar which was followed by the Bitterroot Salish prior to Contact. I’m still not entirely convinced about this new direction but I find it more satisfying than the previous iteration.
