Private Commissions

Cloud 2: Beaded Ball Necklace and Box

2010

Commissioned by Colleen Messing, Boston, Massachusetts
Medium: Necklace: Glass beads, thread
Box: Archival board, fiber, thread, pins
Dimensions: Necklace: 19 x 2 x 2 in.
Box: 6 ½ x 6 ½ x 4 ½ in.
Photograph: Andrew Zuckerman (necklace view); Courtesy of the artists (installation and box views)

Commission Overview
We met Colleen Messing years ago at Craft Boston, where she stood out as a passionate supporter of artists in the craft and art jewelry world. Known for her generosity, she often collected works not only for herself but also to help artists continue creating the work they believed in. Colleen had long admired our beaded ball necklaces and commissioned one in 2010.

Artistic Approach
William begins each beaded ball by taking a central bead and intricately weaving tiny seed beads around it, creating luminous geometric patterns. For this necklace, he used a mix of glossy, matte, opaque, and aurora borealis beads, producing a surface that shimmered like shifting cloud formations—hence the title Cloud 2. The necklace was finished with a secure double-beaded ball clasp, where two interlocking spheres click together through carefully engineered voids, both functional and elegant.

The necklace rests on a scroll of trimmings sourced from the Invisible Dog Art Center, laid inside a hand-sewn box. The box itself was as carefully considered as the necklace: ultrasuede with a silk charmeuse lining, bound with a scar stitch in linen thread, an early signature of our box-making practice. Its lid slides beneath the base to create a pedestal, elevating the necklace into a display of both adornment and sculpture.

Engagement and Impact
For Colleen, this work was more than jewelry; it was a gesture of shared support between artist and collector. Her commission honored her commitment to sustaining artists, while giving us the opportunity to explore the layered relationship between object, container, and presentation.

Context and Legacy
Beaded Ball Necklace and Box (Cloud 2) is part of our early series of beaded ball jewelry works. Looking back, it appears that William may have drawn beaded balls from different moments in our work and brought them together for this necklace, giving it a layered temporal quality.

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The box itself carries another resonance. This particular range of boxes—green ultrasuede exterior with green silk charmeuse interior—was originally created for works about our grandmother and grandfather. To see one of those boxes used here extends that lineage: Colleen, as a matriarchal figure in our life, became part of the same intergenerational story of family, memory, and support.

The boxes were never just containers. They were designed to protect the contents while also acting as vessels of revelation—minimalistic exteriors that, when opened, unveiled intricately crafted interiors. This commission continues that interplay of concealment and disclosure, turning both the necklace and its box into a unified artwork.