Bead in the New Year: Part 3

 My friends Andrew and William of Allegory Gallery in Ligonier, Pennsylvania have designed a fun creative challenge to kick off the new year.  They're calling it Bead in the New Year and it's been a wonderful way to get my creative juices flowing after a bit of a holiday break.  January is often a time of year that I find myself in a slump and this has been a fun way to get me out of that funk and making something everyday.   This is my second installment chronicling what I've made for the challenge.  You can see Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE.  This is the calendar that they've come up with for us:

Here's what I've made since the last installment:

Day 18: Focus on metal as the main element in a new piece.

This is actually another piece inspired by a project in a past Bead Cruise booklet!  Finally used that leather clasp from Bandana Girl!

Day 19: Be inspired by a piece of art to create a new design.

Ok, slight cheat here... I did actually make a new piece inspired by Heather Powers' artwork on this day, below, but I figured I'd share the first two things that I made for it too since I'm so smitten.

This piece features a faux tin pendant by Heather Powers of Humblebeads along with some copper that I textured and Czech glass beads.  You can see the other necklace I made from this inspiration over on the ABS blog HERE.

Day 20: Utilize natural materials to create a new piece.

Wood, waxed Irish linen, brass, and polymer clay by Humblebeads.  Not all made of natural materials, but a healthy dose!

Day 24: Create a piece using vintage materials.

Not sure about the gold and teal beads, but the brass leaves are vintage.  I'm not usually much for gold, but love how these turned out!

Day 25: Put together a piece using seed beads.

It's not all seed beads, but I did use seven different types of seed beads in this long necklace featuring a lampwork glass pendant by Wendy Mosman.

Day 26: Use a color you don't normally use.

Mustard yellow isn't my normal jam, but I love this chunky hollow bead by Mary Ila Duntemann!  This one also fits the category for Day 31... big and bold! 

Day 27: Make a piece inspired by a book you've read.

Here's the pendant I made in response to A Discovery of Witches.  To see the whole finished design, pop over to my post about the January Inspired by Reading Book Club HERE!

Day 29: Use an Allegory Gallery wood pendant.

I had fun painting this wooden pendant with a lovely goldfish design by Andrew Thornton.  I kept the stringing simple and chose glass and coral beads on the smaller side.

Day 30: Create a piece inspired by nature.

I've been in a moth mood this month!  Pendant and larger ceramic beads by Gaea with a mix of other gemstone and ceramic beads on leather and brass.

Day 31: Make a piece that's big, bold, and over the top.

This Golem Design Studio pendant is bigger than my norm, but I fell in love with the rich, bright colors and had to have it!  Lots of Czech glass flowers and leaves help complete this statement necklace design.

A HUGE thank you to Andrew and William at Allegory Gallery for inspiring me to have the most productive January ever as far as jewelry making goes.  Not only have I made a ton of new designs that I love, I was excited to get to my bead table.  What a gift, my friends!

I suppose after neglecting many household chores and my taxes for far too long, that I should attend to some of that now.  But never fear, I've got another date with my bead table soon to keep working on the ideas that cropped up while I was working on the Bead in the New Year prompts!

Art Bead Scene: January 2017

This month's inspiration for the Art Bead Scene challenge is Field of Flowers by Egon Schiele.  I'm just loving the burst of much needed color... it has been bitterly cold in Minnesota and spring is still a distant, fuzzy dream here.  I love how the chalk gives the jumble of flowers a bit of a blurry and almost childlike look.  Oranges and rusty reds dominate the color palette but there's also plenty of cream, gold, and pops of greens... plenty to be inspired by!  Since art historian I am not, you can read more about the art and artist on the ABS blog HERE.

 Field of Flowers

Egon Schiele

1910

Chalk on Paper

I had less in my bead stash than expected to work with the colors of the artwork but, luckily, I did have an amazing hollow lampwork glass bead by Mary Ila Duntemann that was just perfect!  Here is what I originally pulled together for this challenge:

When I first started, I thought I would make a long necklace with fun flower beads in shades of orange and dark red.  I began making wire wrapped links with the hibiscus style flowers but the more I thought about it, the more worried I became about that lampwork bead getting knocked around and possibly damaged.  If I had been making it for myself, I probably would have stuck to the original design since I'm super careful with my jewelry.  But, as I plan to sell this one, I erred on the side of caution and went back to the drawing board!

Plan B involved grabbing some pretty red leather cord and digging through my stash to find a variety of larger holed beads to coordinate with the gorgeous focal.  I'm still trying to decide if I add some copper wire wraps below the knots to further secure the ends and to add another pop of copper... otherwise I would just trim down the cord ends a little more.  I would love to hear your thoughts on that!

Now, since I had already made most of the wrapped bead links for the original design, I was determined not to let those go to waste... so a second design was born!  I picked up a pretty poppy bead by Heather Powers of Humblebeads in a bargain bundle a while back that worked nicely with my little Czech glass flowers.  It's a pretty simple design that showcases the dominant colors from the artwork.  It's tough to tell, but the tiny glass beads on either side of the orange flowers actually have a little bit of green in them.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to lately.  I took a bit of a beading break during the holidays so it felt really great to get these two necklaces finished and dive back into creation mode.  I've got lots to catch up on so I'd better get back to my bead table!!