And we're Back! Art Bead Scene entry

Finally after three years, almost to the date, I've returned to the blogosphere!  I had taken a hiatus that lasted longer than expected, from illness and then losing my muse. I have been working on a come back for several months now and have dipped my toes here and there.

Today I have done a little dipping in the Art Bead Scene Challenge. Over the last several months I went to this wonderful blog and perused the months challenge art piece. What I designed in my head never made it further and the month had gone by and I promised myself I would try the following month, but it never happened...................until now.

I have been busy the past month working on something of interest to Polymer Clay artists which I'll save for later, but wanted to participate in this challenge. I was held back by the horrendous heat wave we had as my studio is not air conditioned and running the oven was just out of the question.

Thankfully the past few days we have gotten some cool air from the north and the temperatures have dropped almost 40 degrees! This was a blessing on my family and my electric bill. After enjoying a couple of days like this I remembered the challenge and realized the month was almost over.

 

I had studied the painting a bit of Olga, the Russian wife of Pablo Picasso, and each time I looked at her I thought of Sigourney Weaver.  Instead of designing a piece like I usually do, sketching a design first and matching up beads and findings, this time I did it backwards. I looked at the painting and the things that stood out to me the most were:

• The fabric of her dress and the detail he paints of it. The folds of chiffon? that catch the light and reflect with a phosphorus metallic glow.
• The Large leaves and the huge yellow flower that are embroidered on the tapestry that covers the chair she sits upon.  
• The tendrils that curl around the foliage and create music for this lovely dancer
• The large cluster of grapes

The fan also caught my eye but did not prevail to impress upon my muse to be included. So I had cropped out the above parts and let the painting speak to me.

For the fabric that drapes so lushly I tried to make this the focal bead as this makes up a large part of the painting.  I mixed together various colors of clay to make the base which is a sheer walnut brown. I loved the highlights of blues and used many ways to get this just touched on the folds. Inks, paints, powders, waxes, you name it I used it on here until I was happy with the look.

As a nod to the white bunch of grapes I included between the folds of fabric, three 3-D illusion beads.

 Nine hand sculpted polymer clay leaves gather in a cluster to indicate the lushness of foliage on the Chair. Each has been treated to inks, waxes and more to create a luster and variegation of greens and blues.  These I made without any idea how I was going to incorporate them.

I knew I had some yellow glass flowers that echoed the shape from the painting,so I threw them on the table while I was making the other pieces.

The Grape vine tendrils caught my eye from the beginning as I love curlyQ things.   I wanted this to be part of the design and I have been experimenting lately with faux heavy metal pieces.  I followed the design of the curves in the painting and formed my pieces. These undergo numerous rubbings and polishing to improve the faux look to become more authentic.

 

Once these pieces were cured I did some final finishing , coloring, polishing, and some more until I was satisfied. I think I might have stayed on this task because I really had no idea what I was going to do with these pieces.

But time was getting away from me. That was Friday. Saturday night I finished with the components and left the design until today.

So, what to do with these pieces? Well I tried this and that and somehow came up with this design. I had added chains, taken away things but managed to use every piece I'd made even though I wasn't sure how they would be used or if they would even be used.

Playing around with the yellow glass flowers I happened upon making a lariat necklace, using the flowers and some contrasting beads to make the loop. This solved my problem of a clasp and I really like how that turned out.

The silver pieces were a bit harder to figure. I wanted to use the black ribbon and cord necklace from the beginning but not sure how, but it helped to reflect the ribbon on the dress.

 After playing a bit more I figured out how to arrange them along one side (originally I figured one on each side of the necklace). The cluster of leaves topped off the connection of the ribbon to the bead loop and balanced the piece just right.

It was now getting late in the day and I wanted to take my photos outside, we had had a downpour a few hours before but it was now overcast and I hurried out to snap some pictures. It was a bit hard with all the metallic, but I think they came out well and did justice to the piece.  

I of course had to edit and pick out of all the pics I took but I got it uploaded to flickr which I haven't used in quite awhile so it took me longer than usual with the new system.

I hope to start writing regularly and have photographed some tutorials to share and will as time allows.

Be sure to check out the other entries at Art Bead Scene Flickr Photostream.

Meet you here again soon! 

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Winner of 'Commitment' Giveaway Announced

Thank you for those who came to my blog and read my newest ABS (ART BEAD SCENE) post on Commitments and left a comment. As announced in the post I was having a drawing for these earrings for anyone that left a comment to this post.


I was supposed to make the drawing yesterday but we had a small break in this horrible hot weather we've been having and after a pretty bad storm passed through we took a drive to a new Lake I've discovered and spent the evening until sundown there having our picnic dinner under a young apple tree right on the shore. I'll share more pictures tomorrow.

Now for the winner......................................

Patty Lankinsmith! congratulations Patty, send me your snail mail and I'll get these right out to you! Patty makes Gorgeous lamp-worked beads, a must see at her shop on etsy.

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Need Some Color?

Been really busy but thought I might post a really great mosaic of Color for you of a treasury one of my OrganicOdysseys pieces is featured in . Poppy Fields Forever.



I love poppies and used to live near a whole field of them. I miss seeing them at this time of year. I'm not a great fan of red, but this is just beautiful and I hope it perks you up if you need a lift!

It was made by Xaosart who has a beautiful Fine Jewelry and Glass art shop on etsy. I love the colors of this handpainted glass she makes and then encases in her own metal work.


Thank you also to all those who have featured me this past week:

opened-a-dictionary-hoary-meaning by DiggerBren
bastille-day-en-rose by hoganfe
natures-bounty by phofun
slow-buds-the-pink-dawn-like-a-rose by Silvia66
the-heirloom-garden A bounty of Summer goodness! by MySelvagedLife
sweet-summer-corn by divinedepth
love-is-everywhere by drndesigns
animal-antics by hoganfe
coffee the-elixir-of-life Deep Dark Coffee Browns by OklahomaMama
sky-blue-sky by JennyNdesign
sew-i-think-i-love-you by HeatherKent

Many of these have some cool looking beads or bead work!
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Hope you're Keeping Cool!

'Hey! You Splashed me!'


Click for larger view.

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June Winner of Mystery Monday Announced

We didn't have that many entries this month and that is understandable, so I am taking a vacation from it for the rest of the summer. I know we are all so busy in the summer months so we will resume in September.

Here is a reminder of all the mystery photos posted for June. I couldn't get the one to upload properly for me so it is all by itself, but the dates are printed on each photo.


I tried to give you an eclectic mix this month, hoping to stir up more interest. These are what the Photos were of:

June 7 - A Van Gogh painting titled: Draw bridge with carriage, This Mystery photo was a close-up of the brickwork with the Arles Sunshine reflecting the water below. This is on a very cool vintage tin I've had for over a decade or more. There is another painting on the other side. I just love his use of color in this one.

June 14 - That one was a close up of the center of one of my Challah bread loaves, back when I could eat it, before I got Celiac Disease. Here is the loaf in full. I love how the camera captured the braids in a glowing way that reminds me of mist between the mountains very early before the crack of dawn.




June 21 - This photo was a close up of the Native American Pottery featured on a this stamp from the 1970's - Folk Art Series. I used it in a brooch/pendant I made with polymer clay and copper wire. It took me forever to drill those holes to weave the wire through, I wish I'd have thought to do this before I baked it!





June 28 - Very close up of the foot of my resident (one of them, we have a pair now) hawk. He was sitting only 12 feet from my patio door for over an hour one day and I took the opportunity to snap some photos of him while he watched me and about a dozen squirrels and chipmunks frolicking in the yard. Here he is perched on the framework of the roof of our tent gazebo, we haven't put the top or sides on yet and the birds love to perch there.


And of the entries we had, most which were on the last photo, where tallied together and this is the winner drawn: Cindee! I will be emailing you shortly about your prize! thanks to all who played this month, I know it's been very busy! See you all in September with a new Mystery Monday Photo!


I did take the time to stop and smell the roses as promised here in my Commitments post, Friday evening and have posted some pics here for you to enjoy if you aren't near a rose garden. I also got some excellent ideas for future organic beads for Heart of Eden Beads so look for those, coming soon I hope!


The end of last week was so beautiful I spent most of it outside enjoying the temperatures in the 70's with clear blue skies and low humidity. At times I even had to pull on a sweatshirt to stay warm! Oh how I loved that. But On Saturday it took a turn, the mercury started climbing, yet was still bearable. But yesterday when I woke up I could feel the humidity creeping in. Saturday night my feet had swollen to almost half size, very uncomfortable! They went down and for that I am grateful but this coming week it is promising to be downright awful! High humidity and in the highest 90's into the 100's! I don't think I will be going out anywhere this week, nor firing any beads in the studio, there's enough high to combat with our two air-conditioners. I really can't go anywhere anyway as hubby's car died and I am left without one till we find another. But I will be working on some sketches for those beads, and will finish up some other projects that don't require much heat.


Yesterday was very hot but we went over to the park to watch the fireworks (the first time in 10 years I've been able to do this and it is only because Jazmine died last August, as we always had to stay home with her because she got so upset it would cause her to go into a seizure.) They were pretty good, we had great seats by the river and it was so cool there, and the sky was clear so I got to take for the first time with my digital camera some shots of fireworks. I love the ones that look like dandelions in the moonlight, I shall have to make some more dandelion beads.

Hope you had a great 4th! Stay cool this week!

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