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Toni A. McMahon - Pegasus Ascending to Olympus
Category: Body Adornment.
Stitches used include: Flat, odd-count, free-form peyote stitch and surface embellishments.
After very little thought, I chose Pegasus as my subject. There seem to be as many versions of this myth as there are sources. I selected the one I liked best, choosing to believe that a magical horse would be wise enough to know when its master was getting "too big for his britches." The version contained in our household encyclopedia follows.
PEGASUS. In Greek mythology, winged horse, son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus sprang from Medusa's neck when she was beheaded by the hero Perseus. Shortly after its birth, the magic steed struck the ground on Mt.. Helicon, and on the spot a spring, later sacred to the Muses and believed to be a source for poetic inspiration, began to flow. Many longed in vain to catch and tame the creature, and this became the dominating desire of Bellerophon, Prince of Corinth. On the advice of a seer, Bellerophon spent a night in the temple of the goddess Athena. As he slept, the goddess appeared to him with a golden bridle and told him that it would enable him to capture Pegasus. When Bellerophon awoke, he found the golden bridle beside him and, with it, captured and tamed the winged horse. Pegasus thereafter proved to be a great help to Bellerophon and aided the hero in his adventures against the Amazons and the Chimaera (a fire-breathing monster that had the head of a lion, the body of a she-goat, and the tail of a dragon). Bellerophon, overcome by his own pride, attempted to fly to the top of Olympus to join the gods. The wise horse threw him to earth, leaving Bellerophon to wander disconsolately about the earth, despised by the gods for his presumption. Pegasus himself found shelter in the Olympic stalls, and was entrusted by the god Zeus with bringing him his lightning and thunderbolts.
My work depicts Pegasus, having rid himself of his captor, soaring to Olympus, there to reside forever after with the gods. He still wears the golden bridle, symbol of his captivity, broken now as the result of his struggle; his anger evident from the position of his ears and swirling tail. His mane and tail gather stars along his flight which will form the constellation "Pegasus."
The choice of Pegasus as a subject for the challenge was a natural for me. Horses have always been a special part of my life. I have enjoyed riding, showing and raising horses for a good many years. One of the pasture pets, a gray Arabian named Kal, served as an unwitting model for Pegasus -- although he never did seem inclined to go soaring into the heavens, forcing me to improvise on the pose.
The design process started with a rough sketch. Then -- what to do with it -- wall hanging, purse, jewelry???? I finally decided to make an amulet purse since these were so popular. My sketch was rather large and it was a bit of a challenge to shrink it down to a wearable size. I doubted anyone would want to wear a dinner plate size piece of jewelry around their neck! A few intense sessions at the computer finally yielded a workable size bead graph without loss of too much detail. The piece is still rather large for an amulet purse, however. Peyote stitch was used for the body of the purse, including the bits that protrude from the heartshaped "frame". The strap was done in a diagonal peyote weave. The mane and tail are embellished with 3mm Austrian crystals.
Beading has been a source of artistic expression for many years. My love of horses, sewing and beading led to a small business designing and making costumes for Arabian Horse shows. The costumes, which cover horse and rider, are made from luxurious fabrics such as velvet and Ultrasuede and many are heavily encrusted with beads and "jewels". The bead embroidery led to bead weaving and jewelry making. When I first started beading, bead stores in the area were all but non-existent. A few packets or tubes of beads in limited colors and questionable quality could occasionally be found in craft stores. Now we have Delicas! What a marvelous improvement.
Designing beaded jewelry has become a special pleasure and I concentrate on seed beads mostly. I have been developing designs for an anticipated how-to book (in the works for some time now) and hope to some day have it published. To date I do not have a web site. I'm still somewhat a novice with computers.
Selected pieces of my work have been available from time to time at the Beyond Beads Galleries in Spokane, Washington. I make few pieces for sale, preferring to concentrate on one-of-a-kind designs and experimentation.
I would be most happy to hear from other bead fanatics via e-mail.
jvtamcmahon@msn.anti.spam.com