Art Elements Theme of the Month: Swirl

As much as I'm enjoying the new Art Elements monthly theme challenges, I wasn't sure that I'd have time to pull it off this month with an 18 day trip overseas.  Luckily, I started thinking about some possibilities before my trip and was able to really focus on getting something done as soon as we got home.  This month it was Marsha Neal's turn to choose the theme and she picked "swirl."  I'm glad that I didn't have to sit such a fun one out... even if I didn't end up making as much as I would have liked.

I thought it was only fitting to use some of Marsha's ceramic charms for this challenge (Marsha Neal Studio).  I had a bunch to choose from that all would have worked, but I loved these little teardrop shaped charms and their mix of aqua and pale green.  They went perfectly with some sage/olive green sari silk cocoons from Anna Pierson of Saga Hus (the charms don't really look so blue in person).  These were a quick and easy way for me to kick off the challenge!

One of the pendants that I had set aside for the challenge, was a fun two holed ceramic pendant by Keith O'Connor.  As luck would have it, a bead mix that I bought in the Czech Republic (more about that in a future blog post I hope) was a perfect complement for the glaze on the spiral pendant.  I decided to limit myself to using just that bead mix and added findings for the most part.  The only extra beads that I added were some brass corrugated rounds to balance things out.  I kept to the swirl theme with the Vintaj brass clasp and the lines that spiral around the barrel shaped beads.

Last but not least, I made one more pair of earrings with some little charms from my friend Diana Ptaszynski that I've had in my stash for quite some time.  I paired the root beer glazed ceramics with some wooden rounds and Czech glass with black findings.

This is a blog hop:  Check out what everyone else was inspired to create!

Guest Artists:

Alison

Anita

Cat 

Caroline

Jill

Kathy

Karin

Kimberly 

Mischelle

Raven

Sarajo (you are here)

Susan

Tammy 

Art Elements Team: 

Cathy

Caroline

Claire

Jen

Jenny & Lesley

Laney

Marsha

Susan

We're All Ears: August 2018: Circles

This month Erin picked a bevy of cool circle-inspired patterns from a contest over on Spoonflower in July.  If you don't know Spoonflower, it's a super cool website where you can get thousands of patterns on fabric, wallpaper, giftwrap, and more!  You can even upload your own designs/patterns to print.  If I were a quilter or sewer, this would be a crazy dangerous place for me!  Anyway... the top 10 winners of their July "Circles are the New Triangles" challenge gave us a ton to be inspired by!  You can see the patterns up close HERE.

I wasn't sure that I'd have time to make anything this month with some serious travel on the August docket, but I managed to squeeze in a little creating time in between gathering essentials, doing laundry, and deciding what to pack for a 16 day trip.  I have to admit that I looked for circle-inspired beads first and then looked to see if they worked with any of the Spoonflower designs.

First up, some I found some little corrugated, enameled circles from Blue Hare Art Wear that worked with the top right option.  They are a little more red than in the design, but they do have an orange tinge to them.  I used denim ???  and carnelian rounds with a little swirl of wire wrapped around the top beads for fun.

For my second pair, I grabbed some fine pewter charms from Green Girl Studios that have some great circle patterns all over them that reminded me of the mandala-esque patterns in the second from the left design on the bottom row.  Once again, I chose only round beads to complement the charms... picking some aquamarine and very pale faceted rose quartz.

This is a blog hop... stop by the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what everyone else was inspired to make!  To those of you participating, my apologies, but I probably won't be able to hop and comment until we get back from our trip!