I just love this picture, an illustration for American Cresent Cycles, 1899, by Frederick Winthrop Ramsdell. ,  which is the Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge inspiration for August.  I can't stop looking at the colors and how wonderfully they work together. Since I was so captivated by this painting I decided to try out some of the colors on a few pieces.  Here is what I came up with.  All 4 are in my Etsy Shop.

Art Nouveau Style Daisy Heart Pendant

This is such a wonderful color combo, I think,  inspired by the colors of her dress and hair.               

I can't resist putting in a mellow orange to the mix.  The thought of the lilies brings this color out in me!!

Here I added some red to the mix.  The hand made toggle bar reminds me of the bicycle in Ramsdell's illustration.

This toggle clasp has a hint of fern in a yellow gold and green.

Thank you for stopping by.

ABS Feb Challenge

This month's Art Bead Scene Challenge  is to be inspired by John Singer Sargent's painting Carnation, Lily,  Lily, Rose.  I just love the colors and warmth of this painting and built a necklace around similar colors.  Luckily I had just completed a pendant and toggle clasp that evoked the same color feeling.  I build the necklace around them.  I used Lapis Lazuli sticks and silver lantern beads to make the chain.  I warmed up the palette cooled off by the silver by adding a copper bee, and a piece of copper chain to attach the toggle clasp.  Oh, and  the bar on the toggle clasp is also a copper hue.

Thank you for looking in on me today.

Art Bead Scene January Challenge

Brown River by Wayne Thiebaud

This month Art Bead Scene's Challenge is to create, using at least one art bead, a work inspired by the painting Brown River by Wayne Thiebaud.  The minute I saw the painting I knew I would participate in the Challenge this month.  I was immediately transported to memories of my childhood spent in Hanford, California  located in the southern portion of the San Joaquin valley, part of the same vast agricultural area depicted in  this painting.  I have titled my necklace Brown River Remembered.

Here is what I wrote about my entry

I have fond childhood memories of the San Joaquin Valley as I lived there during 2nd and 3rd grade. We used to play in the irrigation ditches despite being forbidden due to the possible danger of water being released and filling them up suddenly. We were very careful and never had any mishaps. Loved the warm weather, the summer days that stretched on forever, and as an adult the realization that I had lived near where Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat took place.

I also have a memory of tubing down a wide brown river, but don't know the name of it. My Dad went with us and my Mom picked us up later. Seems it was a slow easy current and plenty warm outside.

Brown River Remembered

I think of the copper chain in this necklace as the brown river and the colorful ceramic beads as representation of the multitude of produce grown in the San Joaquin Valley and my love for color.  The necklace is very fluid and the silk ribbon from which the charms hang adds to the feel of the movement of water as the necklace shifts and undulates quite a bit when I wear it.  The stamped copper tag "Create Art" with the heart hanging from it stands for my wish to be an artist which began in childhood long before I knew how I would make it happen.

Indigo Found and Collaboration Complete

Once I found Indigo, as I said yesterday, I was good to go.

Here are the pictures of the beads that Cindy Gimbrone and I collaborated on for the ArtBeadScene December Challenge prize. Cindy has written a wonderful post about our inspiration for these beads. She calls it Untitled, Mary and Me .You can read it here.

And please enter the challenge so you can get a chance to win these beauties. Click this link and you will get all of the how to's.

Art Bead Scene Submission for February

The Art Bead Scene theme for this month is The Kiss by Gustav Klimt. I have had the good fortune to see this painting in the original when it came to the National Gallery in Ottawa, Canada. I have always, it seems, loved Klimt's work. For this submission, I made a ceramic pendant stamped from a Klimt syle stamp and then I hand painted the glaze in colors from the painting. I used a wonderful brass chain I got from Etsy (JemsGems) and wire wrapped black ABS and orange Swarovski crystals. I used some puff yellow agate beads which I also wire wrapped. I was so excited when I discovered that I could lay a link from the chain across the top of the pendant so that it blended in better with the necklace. I guess you can tell that I loved making this one.

January ABS Submission

Here is a photo of my ART BEAD SCENE January submission. This month the challenge is to create a piece of jewelry based on the Van Gogh painting Irises. My color palette is a natural for this challenge. This is a freeform peyote beaded bracelet featuring my handmade raku fired ceramic bead focals as seen in the picture. This is a highly detailed bracelet that captures many of the peyote stitches and decorative detail that I love to use.
I am often inspired by paintings. I am especially interested in the colors used by the Canadian Group of Seven and Frida Kahlo.

Dark and Stormy Night

This month the Art Bead Scene theme is Dark and Stormy Night. I am thinking of some of my beads that go along with this idea well. I have a few others in mind that I haven't got photos of yet.

Art Bead Scene Submission for September

Above are two different photos of my submission for the ArtBead Scene September challenge. The theme for September was filigree. I used a lovely filigree piece in the center of the my handmade ceramic pendant. I wire wrapped some of my handmade ceramic beads and alternated them with wire wrapped mookaite beads. I used one of my toggle clasps. I really like participating in the ArtBeadScene monthly contest because I do work I might not try otherwise. I like trying new things and I like having to struggle within the parameters of the task. I am not completely pleased with my results this month but will keep working on it.

July Art Bead Scene Submission

Here is my bracelet for the July Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge. I used my handmade ceramic button, raku beads, and a ceramic bird along with some glass beads. The cord is macramed Noro Japanese cotton and rayon. The bracelet is light and comfortable to wear. I love the Noro cord which I bought last summer when the new Fiber Options store openned in a small village nearby. I am glad to find a good use for it and am making another bracelet in another set of colors as well.

Art Bead Scene Collaboration Exploration

Beads for the ABS Collaboration with Humblebeads and Lorelei

I have the good fortune of being a part of the Art Bead Scene Collaboration Exploration with Humblebeads and Lorelei Eurto We all have the same set of artists beads(see photo above)--some made by Heather and some by me. I received mine in the mail a few weeks ago with the May 5th deadline. Excited and nervous best describes how I have been feeling since. I have been very challenged by this project and have been pretty pleased with the results. I love working with Humblebeads. The colors have been delicious and I have enjoyed every moment playing with the beads and possible combinations of colors. Since I am not used to making jewelry with other artist beads, this was a very new experience and rather inhibiting at first. I think I began to loosen up somewhere along the way and that was good. I tried some materials I had never used and that was good. In fact, I found ways of stringing my pendants I would have never explored if it weren't for this project. I found my pendants hard to work with and all along I have been wondering what in the world Heather and Lorelei will make. It has been an interesting inner dialogue thinking of our parallel experiences and it has felt like I had company on my journey. I can't wait to see what they have made.

Here are my collaborations.

Heather's lovely brown beads and my Clover pendant and raku beads.

Here I have wire wrapped the Humblebeads with copper wire and copper flowers. I love the way the copper contrasts with my large round bead's shades of green and brown. The brass colored chain seems to pick up colors in both of our beads.

Here Heather's lovely disk beads and long tubes pick up the colors in my Thistle pendant. The dark green fiber chain complements her beads well. See what I mean about delicious colors!!



A close up of the Clover Pendant necklace.



The freeform peyote stitch necklace I began first and finished last. I actually worked on all 4 pieces at the same time so that I would be able to have some of Heather's beads for each piece. I figured the peyote piece would use the most and that seems to be true. I don't have any of her beads left over. I struggled with this piece and had to add a pendant to the front that was not one that others had. I love the way the colors have gone together on this piece and I totally enjoyed making it once I was over the hard part. But that seems to be the way it is with freeform. Always a point in the piece when I think I will have to throw it away (figuratively) and then if I persist and wait a while it will come together.

Close up of the peyote necklace.

Thank you Art Bead Scene, Humblebeads and Lorelei for being in this project with me. It has been a super great experience.