Art Bead Scene: July 2017

This month's Art Bead Scene challenge inspiration is a lush jungle scene by artist Henri Rousseau entitled Tiger in a Tropical Storm.  I have to laugh because I didn't actually notice the rain and storm action until I grabbed the image for my blog and noticed the title of the painting for the first time!  I guess I'm not as observant as I thought!  Anyway, you can read more about the artwork and the artist over on the ABS blog HERE.

Tiger in a Tropical Storm

Henri Rousseau

1891

Oil Painting

This month I started with a lovely leaf pendant by Lesley Watt that I got at Bead Fest Philadelphia a couple of years ago.  The lush read orange with dark green veins seemed like the perfect jumping off point.  The leaf's texture reminded me of the fern like leaves by the tiger in the inspiration artwork.  As lovely as the focal is, I knew I needed to mix up the colors a little bit to better represent the painting's palette.

I pulled together a mix of Czech glass beads in reds, oranges, green, and amber.   I also grabbed some wood, ceramic, and vintage plastic beads that were left over from Allegory Gallery's Forest Journey design kit as well as some paper beads in coordinating colors.  As one final element, I added some African green brecciated jasper rounds with leafy brass bead caps.

I'm pretty pleased with the mix of textures and materials... and the fact that I got rid of some orphan beads!  I have a couple of earrings ideas for this month's challenge.  We'll see if I get back around to making those... stay tuned!!  Have a great weekend, everyone!