Art Elements Theme of the Month April 2020: Bees

When I first saw that the April Theme of the Month from the Art Elements blog was bees, I was equal parts excited and nervous.  I actually had a moment where I was worried that I wouldn't have much to choose from in my stash since I made a whole bunch of bee jewelry last year for a different challenge.  It was clearly a needless concern... (and full disclosure, I found a few more things after I took this picture!)

The first thing I whipped up for this month's challenge was a cute little pair of earrings with beehive charms from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio.  Since yellow isn't always the best seller for me (sad face) I decided to pair the ceramics with some lightweight polymer clay discs with honey yellow, bronze, and turquoise from Heather Powers of Humblebeads.  I topped things off with an extra pop of blue from a little Czech glass bead.

Next, I decided to put together a little bracelet rich in art beady goodness.  I took a set of coin beads from Humblebeads and just added a few extra beads to the mix.  As much as I love the colors and textures in this set, I've been at a loss as how to best use them.  I ended up getting inspired by an old bracelet design that Heather shared ages ago... it was the perfect way to get these cuties out of my stash and into the world!

I knew that I wanted to make at least one buzzy bee necklace.  The obvious place to start was with one of the lovely hand painted wood pendants from Summer Wind Art.  I had picked out some Czech glass flower beads to go with one of them a while back, but hadn't circled back to the design until now.  Since I'm kind of guilty of going monochromatic sometimes, I really wanted to push beyond the blues for this one.  I chose some lovely faceted citrine rondelles to break things up and echo the golden yellow from the bee's body and the center of the flower.

Since I had my box of yellow beads out already for the citrines in the last design, it only made sense to whip up one more necklace that used mostly beads from that same box!  (I'm not the only one who logics my creative flow this way, am I??)  Anyway, I wanted to give the the cute little bee and honeycomb pendant from Humblebeads a little more physical and visual heft and a little Yellow Jade nugget was just the thing!  I made bead links with Czech glass in both an ivory Mercury glass finish and yellow/amber, faceted golden blood quartz, and some fun copper hexagons from Allegory Gallery.

Here's a closer look at the front and the back of the pendant.  It would be just as pretty worn backwards!

This is a blog hop.  Please check out what the other participants were inspired to make!

AE team:

Niky

Sue

Jenny

Jen

Cathy

Marsha

Guests:

Tammy

Cat

Alysen

Kathy

Sarajo (you are here)

Kelly

Evie and Beth

Hope

Inspired by Reading: The Bees

This month's book club selection for the Inspired by Reading Book Club was The Bees by Laline Paull.  I really tried to get into this one... I gave it way more pages than I normally would before giving up... but after 170 pages I finally had to let it go.  For whatever reasons, the story of the lowly sanitation worker bee, Flora 717, just didn't do much for me.  To me it seemed like strange circumstances just buffeted Flora from one job to another in the hive... jobs that she should never have held.  Since I didn't read any farther, I don't know for sure, but it felt formulaic like she was just going to keep getting new part time positions all the way up the chain of command.  I also had a hard time with the mixing of what felt like authentic bee behavior with the anthropomorphisms the author gave the bees.  

Not liking (or finishing!) a book didn't stop me from playing along!  Just don't be looking for deep symbolism here!  Anyway, I have a bunch of bee themed beads in my hoard so it was a challenge to decide what to play with first... especially knowing I might not finish more than one design at this late date.  In the end, I chose to start by playing around with a little design set that I bought from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio at Bead & Button this year.  There was actually a third piece to the set, a matching round bead, that I ended up not using in this necklace but I'm sure I'll eventually find the perfect use for it!

I had some copper wire that I had darkened with liver of sulphur a while back (memo to self... I need to patina another batch soon) that I used to make my wire wrapped links.  My design started with the ceramic donut from Michelle's design kit.  I knew I wanted to use it as a wire wrapped link so I dug around and found some yellow Mookaite coins to balance out that side of the necklace.  for the other side I did a mix of Mookaite faceted rondelles and smooth yellow agate rounds in a honey yellow.  I had a vision for the back part of the necklace to be strung with a mix of Czech glass and seed beads so I wanted something a little different for the clasp.  I decided to dust off my wire working skills and try my hand at a copper hook clasp.  I used raw copper and then antiqued it with liver of sulphur.  It's not perfect, but pretty good for a first try!

Next up: a necklace featuring a pendant by our very own Andrew Thornton he made for Allegory Gallery's Sweet Honey Challenge.  I love the way he created the effect of honeycomb dripping with honey in this polymer and resin focal.  I added a little raw brass bee that I "antiqued" with some black paint.  (I actually started out with a different, darker brass bee from Vintaj, but it didn't pop like this one does.)  As I was pulling beads together I thought that this would be a good time to use some little hexagonal hematite beads as well as some honey colored Vintage German glass.  I strung those with some seed beads and tiny Czech glass rondelles for one side and went with beaded links for the other. using Czech glass flowers and rounds.  I guess I was just keeping up the asymmetrical theme!  I love how this one turned out and I don't think I can bear to part with it!

I also whipped up a little seed bead and jump ring bracelet in colors that made me think of honey and a button that TierraCast calls "Flower of Life" but I think looks like honeycomb... especially in this gold plated version.  This one was made with some lovely metallic leather from Tracee Dock's shop Classic Elements.  These seed beads have the loveliest glow that I'm afraid my picture doesn't capture.

Thanks for stopping by to check our my latest book club creations!

Sweet Honey

Since Andrew Thornton started up his monthly challenge kits again through his wonderful store, Allegory Gallery,  I've only managed to play along once until now.  I've had bees on the brain lately so I couldn't pass up his Sweet Honey kit!  I'm fascinated by these amazing little insects and a sucker for the delicious honey they make.

Here's the bulk of what each participant got to play with...  What's missing is the AMAZING mystery component that Andrew made.

In addition to the challenge kit, I also recently bought some lovely polymer clay honey bee beads from Heather Powers of Humblebeads.  I knew I had to play with some of those for this challenge.  I'd also been playing with some riveted and letter stamped pieces with a bee theme, so I had lots of things to choose from when I sat down to start creating!

The very first thing that I made combined some of the amber colored glass cube beads with an earring charm pair from Heather.  I also added in some coated hematite from Dakota Stones.

Next up was a bracelet using ideas and techniques that I pulled together from a class and a tutorial from Erin Siegel.  You can see the free tutorial that inspired me HERE.  I used a lot more from the design kit this time... I added the brown waxed linen, some extra seed beads, and a new TierraCast button that's supposed to be a flower, but it has a honeycomb feel to it.

I decided to make a second bracelet and try my hand at memory wire for the first time.  I figured it would be a good use of a lot of items from the luxury bead mix and some of the seed beads that were in the kit.  I used some Vintaj/Ranger black paint to "antique" the little bee hive and tiny bee charms that were included.  I liked the effect which make them a little less shiny.

I couldn't end things without doing at lest one necklace!  I made the pendant with a copper blank and bee connector from Vintaj... and my newest letter stamping set.  The teardrop shaped glass bead was one of the first things that caught my eye when I started digging into my kit when it arrived.  I picked out a few more glass beads to wire wrap and put everything together with a mix of brass and copper.

For an added bonus, here's the other bee bracelet that I made... not from the design kit, but along the same themes.  I had such fun stamping the copper bracelet blank and riveting that little honey bee onto it!  I added in some faceted yellow jade coins and a little citrine dangle at the clasp.

I hope you've enjoyed my little tribute to the honey bee... I had such fun making these pieces, all of which are currently available at Unearthed Arts in Waconia.  I've got several other designs using this kit in various stages of planning but just ran out of creation time.

I hope you'll check out the links below to see what everyone else made with this delicious design kit!

Carole Carlson

Alison Herrington

Shaiha Williams

Ann Schroeder

Christina Hickman

Dolores Raml

Cheri Reed

Sarajo Wentling (you are here)

Karin Grosset Grange

Gloria Allen

Andrew Thornton, Kate Enniss-Reid, and Sandi Bass