Artemisia's Richard Shilling Challenge

I meant to pass this on before the last minute (Emanda forgive me) but this month has gotten away from me. I've been back doing some teaching unexpectedly and so many things had to be put on hold. But a quick look through my blog list reminded me that Emanda was having a Bracelet Challenge this month using the wonderful natural works of art by Land Artist, Richard Shilling.

I love anything to do with nature as you all know and this was right up my alley. I had an idea of what I wanted to do when I saw Emanda's post at the beginning of the month. But it slipped my mind and when I remembered this weekend and went to double check on the post, I realized that I had been thinking it was a jewelry challenge and not specifically a bracelet challenge. So my entry went from the icy snowy trees that I was going to turn into earrings using beads and some recycled plastic, to going with the one that really caught my eye, the fall leaf ladder.

I really love stones though so it was hard to resist doing that but time is what made my choice for me. The idea seemed to fall into place rather quickly for which I am grateful since I've spent all weekend working on a bead order that I will tell you about later in the week. But I did manage to get this done and photographed between thunderstorms outside.

My choice of inspiration piece is titles 'Mayday Colour Totem' as seen above. I loved the way the sun was coming through the leaves. It reminded me of a Mystery Monday photo I had awhile back of a croton leaf with the sunlight shining through it lighting up all it's wonderful veining and colors.

I tried to capture that back lit look as best I could using Alizeran red, Lemon Drop and Wasabi. I imprinted each hand formed leaf with a skeleton leaf to make it more realistic. I also wanted to capture the sticks they were strung on and used wooden beads for spacers and bamboo to round out the back. I decided that on my totem leaves there rested a little dragonfly from a pond nearby.




Thanks Emanda for this great challenge and for introducing Richard to many whom I think will be inspired in many ways!


The last photo for the Mystery Monday for May follows this post. Since they were both posted the same day, they ran them together for some reason! :)
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