HOW TO BEAD A ROGUE ELEPHANT: The Musings Of A Jewelry Designer: Color

I am a color addict.

Not sure how I got this way. I can remember when I was 10 or 11 years old, my friend Gary and I, and sometimes Ira, who was sometimes a friend, sometimes someone we bullied, used to set fires, and then try to put them out. We would set fire to this field behind the Ford dealership on Rt. 22. We would set fire to homes and businesses under construction. We would set fires, let them burn awhile and then try to put them out by stamping them with our feet, putting blankets over them, pouring water on them.

We set fires until we were caught. By the police. Punished severely by our parents who could not figure out why we were setting fires. The word because was insufficient for them. We did it because we could. The fields and buildings were there waiting to be used. We used them the way we knew how. That gave us some fun. A feeling of power. And that was that.

That was that for Gary and Ira. Actually, not for me. I became mesmerized. The colors. The contrasts. The saturation and vibrancy. The interplay. The movement and rapid color changes. The certainty when it was all over.

My gaze locked in, never wavering, staring as the light tans and beiges of the tall field grasses, very still, began undulating with reds and oranges, some…