Art Bead Scene May Challenge

May’s inspiration for the monthly ABS challenge is this painting by Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso, Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle

There’s 2 ways to go with this artwork, emulate the fragmented view seen from many angles, or take inspiration from the colours. Since the Cubism movement has never really appealed to me I chose to focus on the colours

Heartstrings

First up came this bracelet. The cream and red colour of the ceramic button, made by Sienna Orlando a local artist, pull from opposite ends of the artwork, quiet creamy white background and a splash of colour that grabs the eye. I followed it up with green and copper beads that pulled other colours from the artwork, and added more of the red and cream in 2 of the strands and the loop for the button

I’ve got the Rhythm

This lariat style necklace took the colours from the artwork in a different direction. This one focuses on the muted green and brown colours, reflected in the dark green of the porcelain beads, all created by Leslie Watt and in the brown of the waxed cotton cord

I hope you enjoyed seeing my interpretations. Both pieces are available in my shop

Do go to the reveal on the 31st and see what everyone else made. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

Honey Do List May Challenge

The inspiration photo that Eric Wentling took for the May challenge was of a brass sculpture sitting in a garden of field grasses and fruit trees

Photo courtesy of Eric Wentling

That tree with its beautiful spring flowers is the star of the photo. This month though I just wasn’t feeling it for that pinkish purple colour. Instead I focused on the sculpture and the grasses. From those came this necklace

Sculptural

The antiqued brass spacer beads, bail for the pendant & clasp evoke the sculpture while the green and yellow green serpentine beads reflect the grasses and background trees. Flowers are a necessity for gardens and daisies are perfect for one like the garden in the photo

 

Sculptural

The sweet polymer clay flower was created by Heather Powers of Humblebeads. I used an antiqued brass bail and ring to attach it to the necklace of serpentine gemstones and antiqued brass spacer beads

I hope you enjoyed seeing my necklace. It is available in my shop

Do go to the reveal and see what everyone else made. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

We’re All Ears May Challenge

The challenge this month is all about trash transformed, taking something otherwise neglected, forgotten or discarded and making it into something of beauty, substance and ingenuity. “There is a fine line between trash and treasure” and this challenge is all about walking that line. We were given this lovely collage of transformed treasures for inspiration

I must confess that recycling items into art is something that has intrigued me for a long time. I’ve actually been collecting interesting tin containers, old watch parts and broken down electronic parts to experiment with, but never took that first step until now.

All cut apart, prepped and waiting for a decent disc cutter, there were several tin containers sitting in my stash. I took advantage of a sale earlier this year and bought a Pepe disc cutter package with a 14 hole disc cutter, sized from 1/8” up to 1”, urethane pad, holding base and 8 centre punches for the larger disc holes. So excited! It sure beats the cheap newbie punch I bought several years ago

I put the new disc cutter to good use and made these earrings

All of the red circles came from a Christmas tin. The red colour is not solid, shifting and changing shades throughout the tin

 

Red Planet

I added clear faceted glass rondelles to these 1” discs and used silver plated wire and leverback ear wires

Triple Decked

For these earrings 3 sizes of tin discs were put together with silver plated ear hoops and oval jump rings. The pretty light mint discs came from a tin covered in cheerful dots which I pulled in along the edges. The earrings hang just over 2 1/2”

Garden Fruit

Some small tea tins are the source of the discs for these earrings. There are many fruit and leaves on the tins. It will be a lot of fun playing with them. For the earrings I added red glass faceted beads and used silver plated wire and leverback ear wires again

Optical

The final pair use 4 different sizes of discs from the red tin. I simply reversed the smallest and 2^nd largest discs to the silver back so that there would be contrast and more depth. To make these discs I selected the best area on the tin, tightened down the disc puncher, marked the hole location with the centre punches then punched the discs themselves out. Some minor sanding of all edges, completion of the centre holes and doming came next. The bright and cheery yellow bead is a handmade lampwork glass headpin on a copper wire made by Samantha Capeling. The copper wire was used to form the loop and the trailing curl. All I had to do after was add the copper leverback ear wires

I hope you enjoyed seeing the earrings. They are available in my shop now

Do go to the reveal and see what everyone else made. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

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Art Bead Scene April Design Challenge

I’m running a little late with my challenge post. The last week of April ended up being much busier than I expected. The inspiration for this month’s challenge was this artwork by Paul Gauguin. You can read all about it here

 

Matamoe or Landscape with Peacocks, Paul Gauguin, 1892, Oil On Canvas

The warm, no hot, colours of the tropics grabbed my eye from the first time I looked at the artwork. I have to admit I had a little trouble trying to imagine how to design with them. Then, I took a walk through my art bead collection and these happened

 

Other Worldly

Other Worldly

This amazing art bead from Sue Kennedy, with different shades of opaque orange and a silver trail with dots, was buried away in my stash. I had bought it probably 3 – 4 years ago but could not picture a design that would be suitable. The agate ring surrounding it is one of more than a half dozen I bought about 5 years ago. I had used up the smaller ones and still have 4 left of this size.

The combination fits perfectly with some images of Saturn taken from the Cassini spacecraft except mine imagines a fiery world. The pendant is finished with sterling silver and waxed linen in 2 complementary colours

Found at the same time as the first lampwork bead is the one used in this necklace

Burning Sky

Burning Sky

The lampwork bead in this necklace is from Robyn Kirkman of FireSong Creations in Australia. It was a bit of a wait before it arrived but not as long as I expected and well worth it. Unfortunately it again sat in my stash for a couple of years. The transparent bead is a cheerful vibrant pink with black stringers and dots. I used black and light pink wood beads, almost a whole string of farfalle beads, aka peanut beads, in an amethyst rainbow, black leather and silver plated metals with this one

Both necklaces are available in my shop

Please visit the Art Bead Scene site for the blog reveal to see what everyone else made

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day