Art Bead Scene - July Reveal

In addition to all of the challenges I do on a regular basis, I decided to try something new this month. You see, I follow the Art Bead Scene blog and have been wanting to participate in their monthly challenge for awhile now. Only, it's never really worked out.

...Until this month, that is. 

When I looked at this month's inspiration--a painting by Henri Rousseau--I knew exactly what I wanted to make.

For information on this painting and the painter, please check out the this post over on the Art Bead Scene blog... they do a wonderful job introducing both.

For my interpretation, I knew that I wanted to make something using this bead by lampwork artist Carol Christensen-Day (GlassyFields):

Not my picture!
Taken by the artist, seen on the Etsy listing.

The bead has so much swirling and internal movement, that it made me think of the storm depicted in the painting. And, what better way to emphasize that movement than by making a necklace that would also move and sway.

Yep. In other words, I made a tassel necklace.

Here it is in the planning stages, as I sought to capture the colors from the painting in just the right ratio:

And here is the finished necklace!

I paired Carol's lovely bead with: crystals, glass, peridot, dark green aventurine, and orange crackle agate. Everything is wrapped with bright copper wire, with a few dark copper findings as accents. 

Oh, and I choose the glass leaves (and the copper leaf bead caps) as a nod to the source material... the tiger is in a jungle, after all.

All in all, I'm extremely pleased with how this necklace turned out. It does indeed have a lot of movement, much like Rousseau's painting, and the bright color palette makes it feel very, well, jungle-y. :)

Thank you so much for stopping by today to see what I made for this challenge... I greatly enjoyed myself, and hope that I get a chance to play along again!

Have a wonderful Thursday, everyone!

Pretty Palettes - July Reveal

The inspiration for this month's Pretty Palettes was the bright colors and bold patterns of Marimekko. 

Now to be honest, I had never heard of it before... Or rather, I had encountered it, but didn't know it had a name. So, I had a great deal of fun doing research--not just in the post introducing this challenge, but also on the Marimekko website.

For this particular challenge, the talented Molly Schaller took the above sample of a Marimekko swimsuit and pulled this palette together:

Bright and bold and perfect for summer!

When it came time for me to select which beads to use, I found no shortage of options... After much deliberation, these are what I picked out--although I ended up both taking some out and putting more in. 

...As I said, so many options!

I played around with several different ideas, but none of them worked. Eventually I realized I was trying too hard to fight my original inspiration, so I decided to just relax and go with my first instinct: a tasseled design. Yes, I know I've been making a lot of tassels recently... but it just felt right. So, instead of trying too hard to be clever, I just went with the flow.

However, once I settled on that, I had another challenge to overcome. I had to choose which color metal to use--bright silver or brass? 

Eventually, however, I realized it was a false choice... why not use both! 

...And that is how these sister necklaces came to be:

These two necklaces are not exact copies of each other, but rather gentle inverses of each other. This is most readily seen in the focals and their respective tassels, but there are other evidences in the necklace strands themselves (namely, the green and blue beads have traded places in the pattern). 

When paired with the different metal choices, these changes make these necklaces similar but unique... And certainly bold enough to fit the Marimekko style!

Now, since these two aren't meant to be worn together, here's a look at them individually:

The construction for both of them is the same: links wire-wrapped with their respective metals, a toggle clasp, a hand-stitched tassel with seed beads and faceted oval crystals. In fact, this is probably as close as I get to making the same thing twice! (I tend to go from one idea to the next; I'm not very good at sitting down and duplicating something I've already made.)

So, there you go! Those are the Marimekko-inspired necklaces I made for this challenge. 

Thank you so much for stopping by today to see what I made... Be sure to hop over to the Halcraft Blog to see what everyone else created to go with this inspiration!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Reveal - SJ Designs Jewelry Honey Do List July Design Challenge!

Every month, Sarajo Wentling over at SJ Designs Jewelry hosts the Honey Do List Challenge. 

What is the Honey Do List Challenge, you ask? It's where her husband, Eric, issues her a beading challenge--with the intent that she both use up some of her bead stash and get out of her comfort zone. Luckily for me, she lets others play along, too!

For this month's inspiration, Eric picked a lovely photo of a very fancy peacock:

Here is what Eric says about this photo: 
We spent a wonderful day with our friends Vicky and Ken in New Ulm last month.  As part of that day trip we visited the grounds of the historic August Schell Brewery (the second oldest family owned brewery in America) and found this beautiful peacock out courting.  I took about a hundred pictures and this side view though his feathers was my favorite. Now is the time to break out those colorful blues and greens and show us YOUR stuff!

It didn't take me long to decide what I wanted to make!

First up, here's the very first thing I made based on the picture: a pair of earrings.

They are made with Czech glass daggers and freshwater pearls, wrapped with silvertone wire. I love the way the spots on the Czech glass echo the spots on the peacock's feathers... and the royal blue pearls are positively luminous. (I need to find more of those... the picture doesn't do them justice; they really are lovely!)

For the second set that I made, my interpretation was a bit more... literal. While digging through my stash, I also found some beads very much inspired by peacock feathers, and I couldn't help myself.

See what I mean? :)

With those peacock-printed shell coins, I made this set:

I paired the coin beads with crystals (blue iris), green aventurine (dark green), and peridot (light green). Oh, and brass. Lots of brass.

Fun fact: I made the earrings two weeks ago, but it wasn't until yesterday (Sunday) that I decided to make a matching necklace. There was lots of scrambling and last-minute wire-wrapping, but I'm very pleased at how well it came together. What can I say--after all this time, I'm still a sucker for matching sets! 

So, there you go! Those are the pieces that I made for this month's Honey Do List Challenge. As always, I want to thank both Sarajo and Eric for letting me play along... It's always fun to join the challenge!

Thanks so much for stopping by today... Have a wonderful week, everyone! :)

We're All Ears - July Reveal

This month's inspiration for the We're All Ears challenge was music.

...More specifically, the visual representation of music.

When introducing this challenge, the very talented (and creative!) Erin Prais-Hintz included quite a few different sample visualizations for us to consider. (To see the list, go here!) I looked through quite a few of the videos, but found myself continually coming back to this piece: 

It's Debussy's Clair de Lune, performed on solo guitar by James Edwards and visualized by Stephen Malinowski (or smalin). I was fascinated by the colors, the combination of lines and circles--and the fact that it was played on guitar, since I'm so used to hearing it on piano.

So, I decided to use it for my inspiration. With that in mind, I looked through my stash and found some bubble-like circle components. I also found some pastel paper beads I had made during last month's trip to Baltimore. 

Soon, one thing led to another, and I made these:

In making these, I tried to echo the combination of lines (the vertical paper beads) and circles (the bubble-shaped connectors and the small blue rounds). I also tried to echo the colors--and even though I didn't include anything spring green, I still think it works. :)

So, there you go! That's what I made for this month's We're All Ears challenge. Feel free to hop on over to the Earrings Everyday blog to see what everyone else made, too.

Thank you so much for stopping by today... Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Wednesday's Worktable

It's Wednesday! We've made it halfway through the work week... hurray!

My worktable is currently overflowing with projects--just the way I like it. I've got pieces going for my personal Monthly Challenge, for the We're All Ears challenge, for the Pretty Palettes challenge, and even for this month's Art Bead Scene challenge (a new one for me!). Every time I think I'm going to cut back on the amount of challenges I do, I find another one that sparks my interest and my creativity goes into overdrive. What can I say--I'm inspired! :)

Yet another project on my worktable this week--one not dictated by a reveal date--is the following selection of beads: 

That's the Bargain Bead Box for July. It's their second anniversary, so the theme this month is growth. The collection is full of green and brown and silver... oh, and leaves. :)

I haven't quite decided what I'm going to make yet, but here are some the components I picked out as possibilities:

Whenever I have brown and green, my first instinct is to put them with either copper or brass or even gold--one of the warmer metals. Having silver as the metal of choice is intriguing for me... It cools the palette down. 

I'm still debating whether or not to keep the brown, or just stick with the greens... I guess we'll just have to wait and see what I go with!

Thanks so much for stopping by today to see what I'm working on... As I said, my worktable is quite the hub of activity this week! :)

Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone!

Wednesday's Worktable

I have so, so many projects rattling around in my head this week. Happily, I've been making good progress on them, too. It's always exciting when the inspiration comes in a rush--even when it's hard to keep up! (I have to remind myself to get up, walk around, get my exercise, drink some water. Heh. It's so easy for me to get caught up in my work, and sometimes I ignore things like that.)

So! Time to show you one of the many things on my worktable this Wednesday:

Inspired by my success with one of my Monthly Challenge projects last month, I decided to revisit that same idea again... this time, in the above shades of black and brass.

Yep, you guessed it... it's tassel-making time!

Once I (mostly) finished the tassel, I laid out the order of beads to go in the main strands (only partially seen above and below):

...And then I wire-wrapped it all together!

I haven't gotten a good picture of the final necklace in its entirety yet, but here you get a good idea of what the finished piece looks like:

What can I say, I really like the look of this type of design. This one is actually quite light, too... the brass beads are all hollow, and some of the other beads are acrylic (not that you can tell, unless you study them). All in all, I'm quite pleased... especially since I bought the beads for this last week, and I've already finished it. Hurray!

Thanks for stopping by today to see what I've been working on... Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Wonder and Whimsy Monthly Challenge - July Edition

As I was thinking about what my Monthly Challenge should be for this month, I realized that it's been quite some time since I dedicated one to a visual artist. Considering my love for Art History, that's a shame.

So! The inspiration for this July's Monthly Challenge, then, is another of my favorite artists. I've already done James McNeill Whistler and Edward Gorey, as well as Louis Comfort Tiffany and even the mosaic artists of ancient Rome.

Who am I focusing on this month, then? Let's see if you can guess:

Self-Portrait, 1887
Not my photo! From Wikimedia commons, found here.

That's right! Vincent van Gogh!

Vincent van Gogh is a fascinating character and a fantastic artist. He's probably most well known for his painting The Starry Night:

The Starry Night
Not my photo! From Wikimedia commons, found here.

...Although his other works are also quite lovely, and just as compelling.

Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers
Not my photo! From Wikimedia commons, found here.

Honestly, trying to sum up Van Gogh in one short blog entry is a bit daunting. He's known for his broad use of brush strokes, bold use of color--and his mental instability. In fact, he "exists in the public imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius, the artist 'where discourses on madness and creativity converge'" (quote from the Wikipedia article, with an interior quote from Melissa McQuillan's 1989 work entitled Van Gogh).

Wheat Field with Cypresses
Not my photo! From Wikimedia commons, found here.

For some biographical information: he was born into an upper-middle-class family in 1853. He was very close to his younger brother Theo, the latter of whom supported him financially and encouraged him in his art. He had a rather complicated friendship with Paul Gauguin--which, incidentally, led to the famous ear-mutilation incident that everyone associates with Van Gogh. 

He died at age 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, after a life of poverty and perceived failure. The ultimate "tragic artist," he only became famous after his death... And the physical causes of his psychotic episodes, depression, and mental turmoil have long been discussed by art historians and medical professionals alike.

Starry Night Over the Rhone
Not my photo! From Wikimedia commons, found here.

Just remembering him as a madman or a tortured genius doesn't do him justice, though. He was a innovative and prolific painter--with over 2,000 artworks credited to his name. These artworks include landscapes, still lifes, portraits of others, and portraits of himself, and are "characterized by... dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art" (source: again, Wikipedia).

Also of note is his use of color. He was fascinated by it. According to Robert Hughes in his work The Portable Van Gogh (2002), "Van Gogh perceived color as having a 'psychological and moral weight', as exemplified in the garish reds and greens of The Night Cafe, a work he wanted to 'express the terrible passions of humanity'. Yellow meant the most to him, because it symbolised emotional truth. He used yellow as a symbol for sunlight, life, and God." (Quoted from, you guessed it, Wikipedia).

The Sower
Not my photo! From Wikimedia commons, found here.

So, what does all this mean for my challenge this month? Mostly, I'm hoping to pay homage to this remarkable artist--inspired by his use of color and his broad painterly style.

I'll leave off with a quote from one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who, wherein the eponymous Doctor is talking to a museum curator about Van Gogh's legacy:

The Doctor: Between you and me, in a hundred words, where do you think Van Gogh rates in the history of art? 

Curator: Well... um... big question, but, to me Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all. Certainly the most popular, great painter of all time. The most beloved, his command of colour most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world, no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again. To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world's greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived.*

Wow, those are some big shoes to fill! While I certainly don't think my offerings will be quite to that level of magnificence, come back on Friday, July 28th to see if I do justice to this challenge!

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* - Disclaimer: While I love too many artists to say that I think Van Gogh is the best to ever live, I certainly agree that he was pretty spectacular! :)