Art Bead Scene: July 2016

This month's inspiration for the Art Bead Scene challenge is fitting for the month when we celebrate the Fourth of July as it depicts a display of fireworks!  The image depicts pleasure boats on the Sumida River, with Ryogoku Bridge in the center.  During summer and early fall, the Sumida River was the scene of a custom known as "taking in the cool of the evening."  Fireworks were a big part of the festivities.  You can read more about the artwork and the artist over on the ABS blog HERE.

 "Fireworks at Ryogoku (Ryogoku Hanabi)"

No. 98 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 8th month of 1858. 

The first thing that I always do when I see the artwork for a new month's challenge is to go open all the drawers in my main art bead storage and see what I have that might fit the bill.  I have to admit that there wasn't a whole lot that jumped out at me, but I did have one lovely lampwork glass bead from local artist Jeff Barber that had some promise.  The colors were spot on with cream, bluish grey, and orange tones all shining through.  The orange part even feels like the rectangles in the inspiration artwork!

Once I had my starting point, it became a fairly quick process to find other beads and to pull everything into a cohesive design.  I realized that I had some Golem Design Studio beads that reminded me a bit of the burst pattern of large fireworks.  I had them in both dark red and white on chocolate clay.  With the colors in the lampwork (and the inspiration artwork) I decided the white version looked best.  Normally, I would  have wire wrapped the lampwork bead and used it as a pendant, but once I found the Golem ceramics, I went off in a totally different direction!  I added some large hole coppery colored pearls and rose quartz beads that looked more white to string with the art beads along blue waxed Irish linen.  To continue with the orange and copper look of the necklace, I finished the back with copper plated chain and a sunburst pattern copper plated clasp.

Since I bought a possibly ridiculous amount of this size Golem ceramic beads, I'm thrilled to have a new design idea for using them.  I think you'll see some variations on this from me in the near future!