Art Bead Scene Challenge November 2014

This month's inspiration artwork for the Art Bead Scene challenge is "Cattelya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds" by Martin Johnson Heade.  To find out more about the painting and the artist, click HERE.

"Cattelya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds" 1871 by Martin Johnson Heade

I was immediately enchanted by the lush tropical flora and fauna in this painting.  While not what I would have predicted for a November challenge, I was pleasantly surprised and excited to see all these gorgeous colors!

Per my usual process, I went digging through all my art beads looking for the perfect fit.  What I found was a lovely polymer clay pendant from  Humblebeads in mulberry. (Thanks for inspiring me Heather Powers!)  I wanted to give the pendant a little more weight so I wire wrapped a couple of lampwork spacers from Beadygirl Beads along with a wavy copper plated disc above it.

Overall, this is a pretty dark and moody piece so I added in some dyed green agates in two colors, dark pink agates, along with one of Heather's disc beads from her Midnight Garden set.  Wanting an asymmetrical look, I also wire-wrapped a hoop out of coppery peanut beads and used that to balance out the disc bead on the opposite side.  The beaded hoop also reminds me of the little hummingbird nest in the painting!

Since November has been a busy month that included a week-long trip to Alabama to see family, I'm barely getting this one in under the wire since today was the last day to add to the group Pinterest Board.   Better late than never though!  Due to the time crunch, I had to take pictures with less than ideal lighting conditions... the beads aren't really quite as bright as they appear here.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!