Saturday, March 31, 2018

Art Elements: Theme of the Month March 2018: Nests

Over the years I've been chosen as a participant a few times for the Art Elements (formerly Art Jewelry Elements) Component of the Month. With this month, they've discontinued the COM and reimagined it as a theme of the month instead that is open to all art mediums.  I'm pretty excited to see what everyone dreams up!

For this very first Theme of the Month challenge, they have chosen nests to inspire us.  With Spring seemingly right around the corner, this is just the perfect choice!  Nests symbolize home and also make us think of birth and new beginnings since they are where birds lay their eggs and begin raising their young. 


My first thought was to (finally) circle back to some of my half finished polymer clay projects from Heather Powers' Inspired by Nature Retreat last fall.  I had made a pendant and earring charms that featured nests with little eggs inside.  I didn't complete any of the pieces from this part of the workshop, but I enjoyed the technique and bought more of the paints I would need to finish up and make more things in the future. 

I broke out my paints and worked to make this set look better.  I'm still not 100% sure I love how the painting turned out, but I think I'm going to have to call them good enough.  Thoughts?  Obviously, I still haven't actually turned them into jewelry... baby steps!! 


Next up, I decided to use a pair of adorable nest charms from my friends at Green Girl Studios.  These guys are just so cute and tiny... I love them!  I used some polymer clay beads that I made with some scrap clay during a class on last year's Bead Cruise and Czech glass flowers.  It's hard to see in the photo, but I topped the stack off with some tiny plated hematite beads. 


I'm not super impressed with my output for this challenge... so many cute nest beads that I didn't get around to playing with this time!  It's been a wild and crazy month so I should probably just be happy that I got anything made. 

This is a blog hop.  Check out what everyone else made:

Guest Participants-
Sarajo - you are here


 AE team members-

17 comments:

  1. Love the rustic look of the charms - they're so full of texture, and I like the soothing colors! I can't help but start imagining how I'd use them. :)
    As for the earrings - who doesn't love tiny nest charms? ;) Lovely marbled clay beads, they work well with the surrounding components.

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  2. I really LOVE your polymer clay pendant and earring set that you just painted. You should reallly turn them into jewelry-they will be fabulous! And I love the earrings you created-beautiful blues.
    Thanks for playing along this month.

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  3. The pendants look perfect to me and the earrings are fabulous! :)

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  4. Sarajo-If I were you I would make your pendant into jewelry right away. It is beautiful and perfect for spring. I am pretty fond of your charms too. Way to go!

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  5. I think you did a fabulous job with painting your polymer clay pendants! But we are always our own worst critic! I had to learn to not get stuck at one project but to let go and just finish it.

    This is why I also (try) do some art journaling every day with the one rule: After one day it is finished, I am not allowed to add anything anymore ;) It helps, since one single project is not going to make me better, but ten projects done are! If I look at my own work later, there are often two kind of reactions: Either I start to really appreciate and love it or I am wondering why I ever liked it in the first place ;)

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  6. I think you did an excellent job with the pendant and earring set and with your earrings! Your polymer clay work is very good!

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  7. I think you did a great job, they are Beautiful

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  8. The polymer clay charms are beautiful, I bet you're happy the challenge inspired you to finish them! Love your earrings, the dangles are charming and I love the stacked beads on top!

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  9. I don't know what your polymer charms looked like before you added more paint, but I love how they look now. Great soft colors. And those earrings are adorable.

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  10. The soft colors on your polymer pieces would work well with some antique metal beads, vintage pearls or Czech glass beads. Waiting to see the jewelry that you make with them

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  11. I really love your nest charms and think that the colours are perfect, and your earrings are adorable!

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  12. The clay charms are exquisite!

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  13. Sarajo- thanks for joining us! I like what you have done- your polymer nest pies pies aren’t great! And I have faith you will finish things in no time. You are prolific! See you for the theme next month, I hope!

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  14. Thank you for playing long with us! I love your polymer clay interpretation, and those GGS charms are so cute. I'll have to look for them next time I'm on their site!

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  15. I think your charms came out very well - definitely worth creating something with and your earring...well you ca't go wrong with Green Girl can you..very pretty!

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  16. I really like what you made. And, it was much more than what I made (nothing). I think those earrings are just precious for sure.

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  17. Love your polymer pieces, and your nest necklace is awesome - great job!

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