Pearls, Pearls, and More Pearls!

Michelle from MiShelDesigns has thrown down the gauntlet for those of us brave enough to accept it. The challenge...PEARLS!  We were to make jewelry (or not) using PEARLS.  We could use other beads also, but I got the feeling she wanted PEARLS, PEARLS, AND MORE PEARLS. So....I went though my stash...and man do I have some PEARLS.  I didn't realize I had so many.  Big ones, little ones, colored ones, and the list goes on.  After days of going back and forth I knew I wanted to do something out of the box and with crochet.  (I have been crocheting for oh....30+ years).  I had found some faux PEARL button covers, so I took off the backs, found a pattern to crochet and then sewed the button covers on the finished piece and then added a few accent PEARLS. I sewed a couple of PEARLS on the edge to fasten it with.  The yarn is silvery white. I also crocheted up a ring with the last button cover.  Around a size 9 - 10...

Then I decided to do a second more conventional piece using PEARLS and Swarovski crystals.It is a three tiered necklace with matching earrings. It has a PEARL chain closure set so that it can be adjusted. The earrings are just simple dangle.

Thanks for looking and for more delicious PEARLS hop over to Michelle's.

Art Bead Scene - Sept 2013

For this months challenge I really wanted to try some new techniques that had been swirling in my head. They involved clay and wire.

First I had seen some clay pendants that Erin at Treasures Found had done that I fell in love with.  She gave a link to Stroppel Cane to show how she did it.  I went and reviewed it and was hooked!  So when this months challenge came out, I was like, ok , perfect time to use this technique. Of course....I didn't do it quite the same since I was relying on my memory to do it.  But making mistakes is how you learn!

As you can see....my clay design didn't come out quite like I wanted, and I think I used to much red. Plus since my pasta machine died....I didn't the thinness required. BUT, I put my pendant on the back of washers that I had to give them some stability.  Then I put black felt over the backs after running the satin ribbon from the bottom up to use for the hanger.

I also have a Coiling Gizmo that I like to use. I coiled copper wire and used it in the design. I wanted to see how clay and wire looked together so I encased the copper wire in between the clay.  Then I drilled holes in the clay disks and ran the coil through two of them, connecting them on each side. Then I used the coils to make earring dangles...I put the clay on the ends of each coil before baking.  If you look at the bottom right picture you can see what NOT to do when baking beads and that is to lay it on a flat surface....it burns.... Anyway I then used my wire to make another coil but this time with beads on it to use to hang the pendant on. I love working with the coil and beads. Maybe I'll make some to sell.....

Any way this is my submission for this months ABS challenge.  I think I am going to hang it close by, so I can make sure NOT to make the same mistakes.

Thanks for looking.

For more info hop over to ABS Monthly Challenge

Blogger/Non Blogger Challenge

For this challenge we were given two photos to create jewelry from

. 

(One day I will figure out how align these pics)  Any way, being the over achiever, that I can be....here is my offering for the pictures.

 

These were done based on the Teal Goddess.  Love those colors! The collage picture of the necklace shows where I crocheted silky fabric strips from a dress my daughter was making.  That was fun and I am definitely going to do it again!

These (below) were based off the Time Fly's picture. I is a pin. As you can see the top is free form wire wrapping with seed beads. To that I wired in the watch with the charms. Some one said it almost look like a head with wild hair.  How funny.  I didn't notice that until it was mentioned. Any way,  these were my offerings.  Thanks for looking. 

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!