Inspired by Reading: A Place of My Own

The first pick of the year for the Inspired by Reading Book Club is A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams by Michael Pollan.  The book chronicles the author's journey dreaming up and building (with his own admittedly unhandy hands) a small structure to be a "shelter for daydreams."  I love the idea of having a room (or building!) of one's own.  I'm not sure I'll ever have just that, but it's not like I'm crowded in the house I share with my husband and two cats, so I won't complain!

I'm still working my way through the book but I didn't want to be left out of the creating fun!  I got a late start reading since I was all enthralled by the VERY long science fiction book American Elsewhere.  (And let's be honest, if you've ever been in a book club you know this, lots of members often don't finish and even if they do book club meetings tend to get sidetracked talking about everything but the book!)  So really, I'm not cheating that much!

Since I hadn't read anything that sparked my imagination yet, I decided to focus on the tiny structure for my design.  It might not be the most inventive or original idea, but I'm pretty smitten with the design that came out of it!  A while back I had picked up several pieces from the very talented Lesley Watt including one of her sweet little bronze clay houses.  I thought it was just perfect to represent the fairly simple looking structure that the author built for himself.  I love the peachy-coral tones of the roof and door and the cute flower window.

To pull in the colors from the pendant, I started with a selection of multi-colored rhutilated quartz ovals and then added in a variety of Czech glass in orange, greens, and gold tones.  I needed a little more length at the back than I had originally planned for so I added a few small faceted carnelian rounds at the back to break up the green a bit and keep the colors feeling even.  The orange Czech glass flower coins help echo that little window in the pendant.

When I was digging through my beads for this month's book club, I came across some little house charms from Tari Sasser of Creative Expressions in Clay gave to the Bead Cruisers a couple of years ago.  A little lightbulb went off in my head and I remembered that I had a word bead from Diane Hawkey that says "Home."  Luckily for me, the colors of those two beads worked well together.  I wanted to do a totem style pendant, so I played around with lots of different options before settling on my finished design.  I added in some other miscellaneous beads including a couple of things from mixed destash lots from Andrew Thornton and lampwork by Beadygirl Beads along with some pewter findings.  For the chain of the necklace I made wire-wrapped bead units with a collection of Czech glass flowers and bali style beads to complement the colors in the pendant stack.

I had another pendant pulled out too, but that design will have to wait for another day.  Do you love the idea of a creative book club?  You can join the fun on the Inspired by Reading Book Club Facebook page HERE!  Thanks for stopping by... have a great rest of your week!

Art Bead Scene: September 2016

This month's Art Bead Scene challenge inspiration is "Old Woman from the Poorhouse in the Garden with Glass Ball and Poppies" by Paula Modersohn-Becker.  You can read more about the painting and the artists over on the ABS blog HERE.

"Old Woman from the Poorhouse in the Garden with Glass Ball and Poppies"

By Paula Modersohn-Becker, 1907

I was immediately struck by the colors in the painting and the poppies themselves.  I immediately grabbed a ceramic pendant by Golem Design Studio that was part of my Bead & Button haul.  I decided to string the pendant on three strands of mostly seed beads that pulled from the colors in the pendant and hide the ends under fancy brass bead caps.   To carry through the floral theme of the pendant (and the inspiration painting) and add some visual interest wire wrapped some Czech glass flower and rondelle beads above the bead caps before finishing off the back of the necklace with chain.

I also made a bracelet using my favorite bracelet design by Lorelei Eurto that features a green and red version of Golem's poppy lentil bead as well as a lampwork bead by Beadygirl Beads.

Both of these designs will be available for sale next weekend during the Art Wander.  Now I'd better get back to making more jewelry!  

Art Bead Scene: February 2016

This inspiration for this month's Art Bead Scene challenge is a Vogue magazine cover from January 1925.  It features the Simultaneous Dress next to the Simultaneous Car by Sonia Delaunay as illustrated by George Lepape.  To read more about the Sonia Delaunay and her artwork, check out the ABS blog HERE.  

I have to admit that the color palette is a little too "America!" for my taste... It just feels like Fourth of July I guess.  On the other hand, I am intrigued by the chevron and triangle shapes in the dress and car.  Unfortunately, my bead stash doesn't really lend itself to sharp geometric patterns.  I'm more of a round girl I guess. 

I was thinking that this month might just be a simple pair of earrings with some lampwork beads but then I managed to find a carved ceramic lentil bead from Golem Design Studio that had some promise!  Even though it has a floral or leaf pattern, it'd got a geometric look to it that I think works.  As soon as I decided on the focal I knew I had to make a version of a bracelet that Lorelei Eurto shared in Bead Style magazine a while back.  (This is such a fun and versatile design and I've been itching to make some more of these guys!)

Lampwork beads from BeadyGirl Beads and Firelily Glass round out the art bead goodness in this bracelet.  Most of my smaller blue beads were a little too bright and red is the more dominate color in the inspiration piece, so there's a definite focus on the red in my bracelet.  I added in some plated steel seed beads and pewter rice shaped beads to pull in the chrome from the car.

I'm surprisingly pleased with how this piece came together... proof that it's good to get out of your comfort zone from time to time.  This baby is headed to Unearthed Arts later this week! 

New Earring Monday '15: Weeks 29 and 30

Happy New Earring Monday, everyone!  Every year I, foolishly, think that things will settle down... that next summer won't be as crazy, etc.  Every year I am WRONG... dead wrong.  Well this year is no different.  The last few weeks have been nuts and there's really no end to that in sight for now.

I have not been as diligent about making sure that I get plenty of studio time lately, but I did make time to fulfill a special order for my friend Andrea.  I was honored that she asked me to make a jewelry set for her to wear to her daughter's upcoming wedding.  Here it is!

The set started with Andrea picking out a lovely purple and silver lampwork bead from Beadygirl Beads.  I added in some lampwork spacers from both Beadygirl Beads and the Spacer Bead Shop, amethyst, ametrine, and crystal to complete the necklace.  For the earrings, I went dangly... Andrea has short hair and these will show off great!  Faceted ametrine rondelles are paired with amethyst teardrops and some sterling and Swarovski crystal ear wires from TierraCast.

Adding to all the travel and other fun things my husband and I have been up to, I also really need to be in production mode for my biggest show of the year... Edge of the Big Woods Art Wander.  (Twin Cities friends, I hope you'll check it out!)  So, to that end, my second pair of earrings for this week is really a whole batch of my best selling chiclet earrings!  Not exactly innovative or new for me design-wise, but it is a small dent in the work that needs to get done in the next two months for me to be something that resembles ready for my show!  Thanks for humoring me (and letting me bend my own challenge rules)!

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Art Bead Scene Challenge: January 2015

Per my recent patterns, I'm once again fairly late to the party for the Art Bead Scene monthly challenge.  After last month's muted, almost monochromatic palette, this month is a welcome riot of bright colors!  This was one of three versions of a poster that Hundertwasser designed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the IUCN, The World Conservation Union in November of 1998.  You can read more about the artwork and the artist over on the ABS blog HERE.

Imagine Tomorrows World (orange version), 1998

By Friedensreich Hundertwasser

With all this glorious color to work with, the first artist that came to mind was Tera Belinsky-Yoder of Beadygirl Beads.  She is someone who is NOT afraid to use color!  Most of my little stash of her beads are actually on the more subdued side for her but still plenty bright.  I ended up choosing three similar beads in coordinating colors from the poster.  I added in smaller spacer beads in solid colors in between the larger beads.  To round out the length of the bracelet, I added in a couple of smaller spacer beads from the Spacer Bead Shop and then finished with some Arte Metal chain from Vintaj and a blackened metal clasp.

The finished product feels bright and modern to me.  Hopefully this little bit of arm candy will find a happy home once I bring it to Unearthed Arts.

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!

Halloween - Day of the Dead Blog Hop!

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays, so I just couldn't resist joining in the fun when Diana Ptaszynski from Suburban Girl Studio put out the call for a blog hop around Halloween and/or Day of the Dead!  Part of her challenge was to include at least one art bead in each design.

When I think Day of the Dead, I think sugar skulls, flowers, and bright colors.  I originally wasn't as focused on the Day of the Dead aspect of the challenge, but I knew I had some Green Girl Pewter sugar skulls (and other skulls!).  When I started looking at my art beads, I found that I was draw to a super bright and fun lampwork glass bead by Beadygirl Beads and I thought it would work great with the pewter.  I added in some other colorful lampwork beads from The Spacer Bead Shop and some Vintaj arte metal chain and other blackened pieces, and here's the result!

I got so excited by the Green Girl skull pieces that I had that I decided to make a second Day of the Dead necklace.  This time I used some faux cinnabar, lampwork lovelies by both Tanya McGuire and the Spacer Bead Shop, and a silver plated ring by TierraCast.  I used Vintaj arte metal wire for my links again, but this time used silver plated antique silver chain from Nunn Design.

I'm not 100% sure if these designs count as art beads, but I'm going to include them anyway.  I had some fun with some subtly seasonal scrapbook paper and some copper plated bezels.  I love the way this spider set turned out!  I had hoped to get some other Halloween themed things done, but my travels this month got in my way.

Big thanks to Diana for thinking up and organizing this fun blog hop!  All of these pieces are available in my Etsy shop.  Click HERE to check it out.

You can see all the other great jewelry that my fellow participants made too, please consider hopping around to see everyone's great stuff!

Diana Ptaszynski   

Staci Smith  

Kathleen Breeding  

Sue Kennedy  

Dianne Miller  

Lisa Liddy  

Toltec Jewels  

Linda Landig  

Laura Medeiros  

Veralynne Malone  

Lynn Jobber  

Michelle McCarthy  

Karen Totten  

Jayne Capps  

Jenny Davies-Reazor  

Joan Miller  

Melissa Meman  

Melissa Trudinger  

Kari Asbury 

Inge von Roos  

Andrea Glick  

Stephanie LaRosa  

Lola Surwillo  

Jennifer Cameron  

Diane Hawkey  

Kristi Harrison  

Nicole Valentine Rimmer  

Tanya Goodwin  

Shai Williams  

Sandra McGriff  

Sarajo Wentling   You are here!

Marie Covert  

Lisa Stukel  

Laurie Vyselaar  

Sherri Stokey  

Pam Traub  

Lori Dorrington  

Kristen Stevens  

Eleanor Burian-Mohr  

Sally Russick  

Dawn M. Gallop  

Christine Damm   

September Art Bead Scene Challenge

I skipped last month's challenge over at the Art Bead Scene Blog but I'm back for September!  Fall is my absolute favorite time of year (which may be surprising since I know that fall's arrival means we are one step closer to the long, cold winter).  I've always loved that crispness to the air, the leaves changing color, pumpkin and apple picking...  Fall is a magical and fleeting season and I couldn't resist the gorgeous palette of Alphonse Mucha's "Autumn" and the chance to celebrate the new season.  If you'd like more background on this month's artist and his artwork, click HERE.

Alphonse Mucha, Oil on Panel

Autumn from  "The Seasons (series)", 1896

For once, I didn't go digging through my art bead stash to see what I had that might work.  I knew that I had a Vintaj "Treasured Maple" altered blank in my stash (a thank you from my very first whole sale order) that I could turn into the perfect focal for this challenge.  While they call it a maple, I think it really looks more like a grape leaf.  I ran it through my BigKick with an embossing folder, added some color with the Vintaj Patinas, and voila! 

Freshly painted!

I added in an assortment of beads that pulled from different parts of the color palette including carnelian, Czech glass, and even a Swarovski crystal.  I also mixed in a couple of lovely little lampwork spacers from Beadygirl Beads along with a couple of small copper beads.

I got lots of practice doing wrapped loops on this necklace and I'm certainly feeling way more confident in my wire wrapping skills than I did even six months ago.  I thought the darker color of the Vintaj natural brass chain lent itself well to the darker browns in the artwork.

I hope my necklace captures the feeling and colors of Mucha's painting and the season that we are heading into.  I hope you all have some fun and exciting plans to celebrate the coming of fall!