What's New Wednesday

Remember me telling you about the Richard Shilling Land Art challenge that Emanda J had on her blog last month? You can read about it here and see my entry.

Artemesia's Richard Shilling Challenge

Well this is the special gift that Emanda made and I got just a few days ago~! It is a perfect size to take with me Sketchbook. On it she made a cool sticker with Richards May Day Totem which I used to make a bracelet echoing his organic leaf and twig totem. And even on the spine she has placed a smaller version of the totem and 'Kate's Notebook'. I absolutely love it and will take it with me everywhere. As I told her I have many large sized ones (and they are heavy too) and a very small one that you really can't do much in, but this is the perfect size! Thank you again Emanda!

Richard was thrilled with seeing my entry and even blogged about it here Richard Shilling Land Art Blog How Cool! Land Art Jewelry!



Then I received another package in the mail,
I Didn't remember ordering anything but when I saw the name on the return label I remembered. A few months ago I won a giveaway on Lisa Orams blog. Lisa and I had talked back and forth and we decided she would make me a few crocheted bead pieces. Well this is what I got in the mail, four lovely and long strands that I am having fun deciding what to do with. I have lots of ideas floating around, and am sure to get to it as soon as I get my Bead Soup Swap piece done. Thanks so much Lisa for your generous gift. I will be sure to post it here when I make my final decision!


And more about another giveaway. Next Wednesday I will be premiering my Bead Soup Swap design. This is a long week of partying many blogs to visit, so to entice more of you to come see my ' Main Dish' I am having a little giveaway.

A half a cup of Beads and a recipe for making beads and a Bead Mystery novel! How's that for an incentive? All you have to do is visit my blog and view my 'dish' from the Bead Soup Swap and make a comment, any comment will do and your name will go into a drawing for all the prizes.

So make sure to come back next Wednesday to see what's new. I have been having fun playing with Melissa Memans soup ingredients she sent me (and congratulations again Melissa for winning the Designer of the week at ABS! ) and adding what I got at the bead show and some things I had on hand. I've played around with a few designs and now I think I've got a 'bead' on where it's going. Stay tuned, I may be able to post a sneak peek by the weekend!

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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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