Inspired by Reading :: In Other Lands

After a long hiatus, the Allegory Gallery Inspired by Reading Book Club is back!  I missed the first online meet up (for both January and February selections), but I did read the January book and actually make something.  It may be a sign of the apocalypse, lol.  

This young adult was totally new to me... it hadn't been on my radar at all.  It was an enjoyable read even if in some ways it didn't totally break new ground.  The main character Elliot comes from a bit of a troubled home where his mom left when he was very young and his dad pretty much totally checked out.  As a young teenager Elliot is is invited "over the wall" and into the Borderlands where elves, harpies, trolls, and, yes, mermaids all exist. The book follows Elliot and his two best friends Serene and Luke over the course of their schooling at the Border Camp and their various exploits along the way.

For whatever reason, Elliott's infatuation with mermaids, even though they are not exactly the beautiful creatures of some fairy tales, really amused me.  He was really so excited to meet ALL the mythical creatures of the Borderlands and that was endearing.  Anyways, it was the mermaids that inspired my creation for this book.  

Originally, I was planning on making a necklace and earrings set with some mermaid tail pieces I have from Michelle McCarthy.  Time ran out on me and I never had an idea fully some together for me on this so I pivoted.  I found a lovely mermaid key from Green Girl Studios in a patinated copper finish that seemed like a good fit.  I had just gotten some Czech glass beaded chain and decided to meld the two things into one design.  The chain has a raw brass finish so I set about to combine the two metals throughout the necklace.  

To give more visual and physical weight to the pendant, I wire wrapped a turquoise nugget with some copper plated beads, Czech glass in a coordinating color, and brass wire.  Not my normal for mixed metals, but I really like how tis came together.

I'm sure that I won't be able to keep up with every month... (heck, I've already missed February!) but I'll enjoy playing along with the book club when I can.  I may start reading the April book on my upcoming trip to Alabama to ensure I get it read in enough time!  

If you're interested in finding more about the Inspired by Reading Book Club and maybe joining in this creative challenge, you can read more HERE.

Insects! Art Elements June Challenge

The editors over at the Art Elements blog occasionally host themed challenges (as opposed to their fabulous Component of the Month challenges where participants get an art bead to play with).  The theme for June's challenge is Insects!

Cecropia Moth. Photo by Ashley Fly

I love how open ended this challenge is since the only rules are that you use art beads that relate to the theme.  I've got lots of good bug beads in my stash to choose from... bees, moths, butterflies, fireflies, ladybugs.  Oh my!  What to choose?  I decided to set the bees aside at least since that ties into this month's Inspired by Reading Book Club selection.  (If you're interested you can see those designs HERE.)

While working on a design for last month's book club, I ended up with a stringing pattern using labradorite and Czech glass that I liked but didn't work for the project I had in mind.  Instead of scrapping it, I decided to pair a sweet little firefly pendant from Green Girl.  Voila!   

Next up, another new necklace!  This one started with a small blue dragonfly pendant from Earthenwood Studio that I got in a mixed lot of beads from one of Andrew Thornton's destash events.  I guess I've just been in a stringing mood because I didn't even consider doing anything different for this one.  I had just gotten the perfect blue Czech glass rondelles at Bead & Button from Nirvana Beads that became the main component of my design.  I added in some darker blue Czech glass beads in a variety of shapes including a set of flowers with some brass accents in the mix.  

Last but not least, I also made a little pair of earrings for the challenge!  I made good use of some of new goodies from Bead & Button... an adorable pair of butterfly charms from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio matched up with some wonderful disc beads by Heather Powers of Humblebeads.  Simple and sweet to finish things off!

This is a blog hop... stop by and see what all the participants came up with!

Guests

Mona Arnott 

Melissa Trudinger 

Sarajo Wentling - YOU ARE HERE

Divya N

Art Elements Team

Cathy Spivey Mendola

Diana Ptaszynski

Lesley Watt 

Caroline Dewison

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lindsay Starr

Niky Sayers

Claire Fabian

Inspired by Reading: A Girl of the Limberlost

It's time for another installment of the Inspired by Reading Book Club!  This month we read Gene Stratton-Porter's novel A Girl of the Limberlost.  This book was recommended by book club member Terri Greenawalt, who happens to be a descendant of the author... how cool is that?

This novel was written in 1909 but I think it really holds up.  In a strange way, it almost felt like something more modern written to feel old fashioned... if that makes sense.  Occasionally the dialect tripped me up a little bit, but overall I found the whole thing quite charming.  Sometimes it's nice to revisit a kinder, simpler time.

The story centers around Elnora Comstock, a teenaged girl living with her spiteful mother along the edges of the Limberlost swamp and her journey into young adulthood.  As usual, I'm kind of terrible at summing up the story without giving too much away.  Suffice it to say, Elnora overcomes the financial obstacles to furthering her education when she discovers that she can sell butterflies and moths and other items from the natural world around her.  The first part of the book follows Elnora's early days in high school and then the story fast forwards to just before her graduation when money troubles once again rear their ugly heads.  The second half of the book picks up there and introduces a slightly star crossed romance into the mix.  You'll just have to read it to see how that all turns out!

While at times I was pretty annoyed at how nasty Elnora's mother could be, she eventually sees the error of her ways toward her daughter and mends their troubled relationship.  I appreciated how determined and plucky Elnora was throughout the book and how pragmatic and even keeled she tended to be.  I would have pitched a purple fit if I found myself in some of the situations she faced!  I loved one Amazon reviewer's description of the book: "Think of it as Midwestern Cinderella story, but with no glass slipper and plenty of moths."  That made me giggle.  But enough about the book... onto jewelry creations!

The ideas started churning around in my brain pretty early in my reading.  I knew I wanted to focus on the moths that were so integral to the story arc... that provided a way for Elnora to follow her dreams.  A couple of beads jumped immediately to mind, but as I started digging through my beads, I soon realized I have amassed a decent sized collection of butterfly and moth beads.

So much to choose from!  Beads from Humblebeads, Vintaj (painted by me), Round Rabbit, Kylie Parry, Green Girl, and Summer Wind Art

The first thing I created was a variation on a design I've made before.  In my last round of painting metal I worked up a couple of the butterfly in profile pieces from Vintaj... one in purple with a bronze-tinted glaze over the top.  I paired the pendant with various Czech glass beads as well as some ametrine rondelles.  I picked beads in shades of purple, amber, and palest yellow to represent the illusive Yellow Emperor moth from the story.  Who knows, maybe this necklace would have complemented Edith's ball gown from that ill-fated soiree!

For this challenge it seemed fitting to finally make something with the contents of one of the destash bundles that I bought from Andrew Thornton a while back.  I snatched this lot up for the wonderful Green Girl pewter moth pendant and the really unusual glass beads that reminded me of ampules, but there was plenty of other good stuff and I decided to keep it all together.  I'm happy that I was able to use so much of Andrew's carefully curated collection of beads together for this necklace and still have plenty of the ampules and the grey glass nugget beads left for future jewelry making!

Last but not least, I managed to pull together a third necklace this month with a cool luna moth pendant from Summer Wind Art that Eric bought me for Christmas.  (I think I'm overcompensating for only making earrings for the last few challenges!)  I love all the rich shades of green and brown in the pendant and tried to capture some of them with my bead choices.  I used a mix of gemstones (including a couple of shapes of bronzite beads... I'm not sure what the green ones are) and Czech glass.  I'm not 100% sure about the jump rings with seed beads on them... I'd love to get your opinion on that part!  

Lack of sun makes for a not so great picture... 

P.S.  While I didn't make it for this challenge, I did make a necklace with a wonderful luna moth bead set from swoonworthy lampwork artist Kerri Fuhr for the Art Bead Scene a while back.  If you missed it you can see it HERE.