Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Monthly Challenge

The inspiration for this month's challenge is from one of my favorite artists and paintings, Wassily Kandinsky, Farbstudie Quadrate (Color Study of Squares).
Kandinsky was a Russian-born artist, one of the first creators of pure abstraction in modern painting and is regarded as one of the originators of abstract painting, or abstract expressionism. His forms evolved from fluid and organic to geometric and, finally, to pictographic. Kandinsky, an accomplished musician, once said `Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.'
Have fun with this vibrant color palette of reds, yellows, blues, purples and greens. Pull out the abstract art beads, grab a few brightly colored charms and let's see what you can come up with for this challenge!

Your entry this month can be influenced by the colors, pattern or whatever you choose to focus on for your creation. Just remember to include at least one art bead in your design.

The Prizes:
A winner will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on July 1st.
Our sponsors this month are 3 Ceramic Artists Artisan Clay, Creative Impressions In Clay and Round Rabbit, please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

Featured Designer of the Week!
From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on the ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, so get those entries in soon.

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:
1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.

***Beads by themselves and beads simply strung on a chain or cord will not be accepted.***

2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group. If you can't upload to Flickr, send your entry and information to Heather.

Please add the tag or title JUNEABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Deadline is June 30th. Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn't followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.

What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.

*** A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.

p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness.

9 comments:

Rosanne said...

Great theme for this month Tari.
Color, color and more color! My favorite thing in the whole world.

Tari of ClayButtons.com said...

"Life is way too short not to use every color available"
A tile I made many years ago that is hanging on my studio wall! It's all about color!!!

Diva Designs Jewelry said...

Wow, this will be a great challenge. I can't wait to see the entries!

TesoriTrovati said...

What a strong color statement that makes! I will be seeking out some inspiration at Bead & Button for this one for sure! Enjoy the day!
Erin

Katie said...

Ooh - I can already think of some beads that I have for this one :o) This should be fun...

Patty said...

Cool - I am energized by this month's theme, and can't wait to create and see everyone's entries!

Anonymous said...

OMG -
I HAVE this picture!! It's hanging in my upstairs hall and I'm looking at it! I loved the abstract and colors as soon as I saw it and was fortunate to get it from my former employer. Yes, great inspiration! So it'll fun to see everyone's 'interpretation' this month. Good luck everyone.
sandi

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous choice, I can't wait to get started.... and I can't wait to see what everyone else has created also!
(just tweeted about it, too)
Angie at LonesomeRoadStudio

Nowvintage said...

A beautiful painting!! what a great idea for a contest to be one medium expressing another, or being inspired by another.. these can be some of the most creative jumps!
bobbie