Maybe you wanna know "why houses on a bead"? I can tell you the story. But first I have to tell you how I came up three years ago with the "Indian Elephants" (because one thing leads to the other):
In most of my classes last year I thought how to make the elephants and explained how I came with that idea.
I was searching for an animal that is fun to be made, which is beautiful in my eyes and also fits into my life and to my character (you say, an elephant never forgets how he has been treated by someone).
When I was 16/17 I had a boyfriend who gave me as a christmas present a small elephant figure, made of jade. Which is really a nice cute present - but in that age I was not able to see that and just didn't know what to do with it. Anyhow, I kept it... and kept it all those years, even though the trunk broke, the jade elephant came with me and survived all my moves and became more and more important. In the last few years some friends made me more elephant presents and I'm not really collecting them because I don't like to collect things, but I have 3 tiny elephants which have all been given by close friends, one elephant pillow and a cigarette box with an pink elephant on it.
So, that's how I came up with the idea of making elephant beads.
After telling that story one of my students asked me "But why an animal?" - and I just answered impulsivly "because making a house f. e. would not be nice, it's not a living subject, it has no character, you can't play with the impression of the eyes, the shape and so on. An animal offers you thounsands of possibilities to play with."
I think that is still right, an animal or fairy or any other living subject offers you more possibilities than an house, or a car or any other "thing". But I wanted to prove that thesis to myself and found out that I was wrong: making a house IS a nice idea, I can play with the shape of the house, the roof, the garden around it, the road which leads to the house and so on and on...
