Summer Color Surprise 2013 Blog Hop

Here is my final pieces for the Summer Color Surprise hosted by Lisa Lodge of Grateful Artist.  She sent all of us varying color of beads to use our creative juices while hopefully stepping out of the box....

When I first received mine, I loved the colors...

My first thought was turquoise, yellows, reds. The islands, calypso, bright, bold, totally out of the box with color.  So I started digging through my stash.... Yeah, I had all those colors....I shop at Walmart a lot, (who doesn't) and they have these packages of acrylic beads in all the primary colors and more.  So I pick some up every time I go.  Acrylic is light weight, and I hate jewelry that is so heavy, I have a headache when I get home.

So I put everything out on my work space. Figuring I would let it stew awhile.....

can you see them stewing??????

I also wanted to try something with crochet wire so I got out my wire and put on some beads and gave it a whirl.  Here is what I came up with...

 I am not sure how well you can see the crochet, but I used the smaller beads in the crochet and then hung the other beads with head pins.  I think I need to do a bit of tweaking. My daughter says it is a little long.

The rest of the beads I worked on for days, putting them on head and eye pins, working on different combos, undoing, redoing...well you get the picture...but finally this is what I came up with.

It has colored chain, colored beads, head pins, eye pins, and just about everything but the kitchen sink.  It was fun working on it.  I had it strung across some hooks on a pole I use in my craft events so that I could see what I was doing.  It helped...some.  I kept moving things around and finally my daughter told me to stop, it was suppose to be a fun necklace so quit trying to make everything equal.... (She's 19)

So I did, to me, it is very bold, calypso looking, colorful and out of the box!

I did a pair of earring too!

So here is my offering for this blog. Had a great time an can't wait til the next one...

For more great designs hop over to Lisa's website to check them out!

And thanks for looking!

Art Bead Scene - Aug 2013

Painted in 1970, Tres Personajes is regarded as a masterpiece of the artist’s mature period, the synthesis and culmination of a career and a celebration of his approach to universalism in art via color, abstraction and texture. It is an abstract depiction of a man, a woman and an androgynous figure in a rich palette of purple, orange and yellow, with Tamayo's signature rough surface texture, made of sand and ground marble dust mixed into the paint.
Carmen Melián, Head of the Latin American Art department at Sotheby’s, said, “Tamayo introduced abstraction as a possibility in Mexican modernism at a time when the prevalent style was figurative work. Tamayo emphasized formalism while illustrating Mexico’s indigenous past, managing to combine aspects of the modern avant-garde with the language of the native Amerindian cultures, making use of the colors of Mexico in a modern way.”

This painting is featured on the cover of the 1974 book by art historian Emily Genauer, Rufino Tamayo, the most important monograph in English addressing the artist’s career. The work was exhibited in a 1974-75 exhibition, Cent Oeuvres de Tamayo (One Hundred Works by Tamayo), in Paris at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and in Florence at the Palazzo Strozzi.

Tamayo was born in 1899 and began his career as a figurative painter when he was in his 20s. In the 1930’s, Tamayo began visiting New York, and he continued to travel between the United States and Mexico for much of his career. Tamayo’s lasting legacy to art history is the re-examination of Cubism and the explication of Mexico’s pre-Columbian history while incorporating elements of the mainstream movements of 20th century art. Tamayo is known for his vivid coloring and innovative use of texture, often incorporating sand and raw pigment into his works.
Tamayo himself was an extensive collector of American post-war artists. One of his lasting legacies is the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City, which not only displays his works and a collection of 20th century art, but also is one of the premiere collections of Contemporary art in Mexico City. The museum will hold a Tamayo retrospective, Tamayo: A Modern Icon Reinterpreted, from October 26, 2007-January 21, 2008. In his native Mexico, Tamayo is known as a pioneer of modern art and as one of the most important painters of the 20th century.

When I first saw this months challenge, I thought WOW, something with color!  I had been wanting to try something new with crocheting and ribbon. So I crocheted up a large disk and put a black pendant in the middle...

But when I asked Erin about it...she said not it didn't quite fit...so back to the drawing board.  My daughter likes it so I'm going to make it into a necklace for her.

So I decided to try my hand at clay again... In the picture I see a head/face....no one else in my family did....anyway I worked away on creating my face....

after th 4th try I finally had a decent face, so I crocheted a smaller disk and attached the face to it...

Isn't he purty???? Needless to say, I think I need more practice....but...I have a hand made bead that I glued into the  bottle cap...so hopefully it will pass muster....  Thanks for looking, below are more pictures...

Thanks for looking! Have a blessed day!

  

Summer Color Blog Hop Preview & A Great Find!!!!

I am participating in the Summer Color Blog Hop sponsored by Lisa Lodge of  Pine Ridge Treasures   gratefulartist.blogspot.com .  Below is a picture of what she sent me...

  Ohhh, I forgot the color........

AND this is where I am at now.....(hehehehehe)

I am working on the piece. Come back on August 24th to see the finished pieces (in color)












Now for my FAB FIND!!! The JC Penny Store in the Crystal River Shopping Plaza is closing up shop AND everything....I mean EVERYTHING is on sale..... while I was leaning on the jewelry counter waiting on my daughter to look around....I just happened to look down.....and then the clerk asked me if I needed help.....AND $18 later......

Yep, yep, jewelry displays...white leather....now I have a place to take pictures of my jewelry for my Etsy store....WHAT A FIND!!!!

Black & White Jewelry Challenge

 ”Colour is black and white put together.” ~Unknown

For this challenge, Sally Russick of Studio Sublime challenged us to create a piece of jewelry using only black and white. The objective of the challenge was simple (ha! seemed simple). Participants were also able to use base metal colors or crystals as accents.

So I have had some black and white buttons sitting on my table for oh so very long just looking at me. So I said OK! I played with them for ever so long and just couldn't get them to behave on wire. So I found some ribbon and that seemed to do the trick!  I have incorporated some black chain and closures.  I think it still needs something, but I am going to let it sit a bit and come back to it. Maybe it will tell me.  But in the meantime, this is what I came up with.

My camera is not behaving....I think it is time to branch out to a new one.  

The cameo in the middle is a button. The more I look at it the more I think I want something more around it....

I used white ribbon to connect the buttons to the chain. The small beads are just black and white beads that I had in my stash....

You would think it would have been a snap to make  but it really took me to my limit.  






I think I need to some more tweaking. But for now it will hang over my desk til I am ready to get back to it.

For more wonderful inspirations hop on over to Sally's Page and see what the rest of us made. 

Thanks for looking!

Seasons Blog Hop

Sorry for the delay....my doctor prescribed a new antibiotic for me, and well, I am highly allergic to it. I have been in bed for two full days. Today is the first day I have ventured out of it. So I am a day late!
Today is the reveal date for the Seasons Blog Hop, a challenge put together by Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures and the blog A Grateful Artist. Lisa's blog hops start with a kit especially created by Lisa containing unique combinations of beads, findings, pendants and art beads.

In this blog hop, Lisa asked us to create jewellery that fits one of these two themes:

A season of the year—Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall

A season in your life—for example, first love, collage days, and so on

Lisa sent me some wonderful blue crystal seed beads, then some large oblong beads and then those small round beads.  She also included the little butterflies and the clasp. Of course  I forgot to take pictures of my stash before hand....But below is what I came up with. 

The blues reminded me of the beach and how growing up we used to go to the beach all the time.  I can't tell you how many shells we collected along the way.  Or how many sunburns we got! But I loved looking for those unusual shells that were always hiding a low tide.  Or to go out after a storm and see what the sea had offered up for me to see on the beach. Even after I got married (to a sailor) our first place was a furnished apartment on the Chesapeake Bay.  I love it. The waves crashing, the seagulls challenging each other as they dove for fish. My perfect spot to live would be in the mountains, but facing the sea....I would be in seventh heaven!

Anyway, to Lisa's beads I added some small conch type shells. And then to the focal piece which I made off kilter, I added some metal birds.  And to a piece of cool looking chain, I added metal shell beads.  I love this piece. It really came out better than I expected.  

I am glad you stopped by, for more go to A Grateful Artist

It's here!!! Reveal day for My Country............Of Thee I Bead!!!!!

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Hi all, as usual I am late.  BUT, my dad passed recently, (was expected) and today we had to deal with an estate sale and such and sooooo totally forgot about this til I sat down this even.  But I have had my piece done for weeks....It all just came together for me.

Anyway, while my roots originate in Germany, I am an American.  But my husband is German so I took both flags....

DESCRIPTION 

The Germany flag was officially adopted on May 23, 1949. It was used by West Germany when the country divided itself into East and West. Note that both were reunited into one nation in 1990. 

The tricolor flag was designed in 1832, and the black, red and gold colors were taken from the uniforms of German soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars. 

The flag of the United States features thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars; the 50 stars represent the 50 states, the 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies. 

 The flag is known as Old Glory, and no one knows for certain who designed it. Many historians believe that U.S. Congressman, Francis Hopkinson was the original designer, while a few still think that Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, made the first one.

If you notice, they both have red so I utilized that in the earrings...

The topper beads and wire are red, then the ribbons are black, white, yellow (gold) and blue.

The necklace I crocheted with ribbon yarn and added red, yellow, white and black buttons.  The yard is a dark blue.  It didn't turn out quite like I had imagined but.....

I really enjoyed this challenge, hope to do another one soon.


For more countries hop over to Wired Nan

Art Bead Scene - May

Vaas met bloemen in een venster :: Vase with Flowers in a Window, 1620

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder
Oil on Copper, 64cm x 46 cm

About the Art

Rendering meticulous detail, Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder conveyed the silky texture of the petals, the prickliness of the rose thorns, and the fragility of opening buds. Insects crawl, alight, or perch on the bouquet. Each is carefully described and observed, from the dragonfly's transparent wings to the fly's minutely painted legs. Although a vague reference, insects, short-lived like flowers, are a reminder of the brevity of life and the transience of its beauty. 
A rising interest in botany and a passion for flowers led to an increase in painted floral still lifes at the end of the 1500s in both the Netherlands and Germany. Bosschaert was the first great Dutch specialist in fruit and flower painting and the head of a family of artists. He established a tradition that influenced an entire generation of fruit and flower painters in the Netherlands.

This month I decided to get an early start so I would make sure my piece was seen! :-)  For some reason this piece came together with no trouble at all.  My focal bead(s) are the two head pins in the middle made by Genea at Genea Beads. They are blown glass with a type of and finish that makes it rough. I fell in love with them and knew that they would match the color scheme!  The I just happen to be at Walmart (hehehe) and found the red/gold/metal beads.  The blue beads I had.  I don't think I have had a design come together so quickly. So enough rambling...below are the pictures.

 

Aren't the colors divine??? For more info hop over to Art Bead Scene!