Studio Saturday: Humblebeads

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

From two weeks ago:  Ashleigh Becker won a digital copy of Erin Siegel's Bohemian Knotted Earrings tutorial.  Ashleigh email Erin and she'll send your prize right over to you!

Welcome this week to the Humblebeads' studio.  We have been busy gearing up for fall events like trunk shows, craft shows and my upcoming retreat.  The weather has cooled down perfectly over the last few days and I am energized by the change of the season.  I love fall.  Passionately.  If my soul could have one season, it would be autumn.

I think one of the reasons I loved Robin Hood stories growing up is because I would so love to live in the wilds of the woods, the trees for my roof tops and pine needles underfoot.  But I'm not really that wild, a little rustic cabin would do wonders.  Some place quite, tucked away and a little fire burning to keep the chill at bay.  A place where I could sit and watch as the colors of autumn filled the scene around me.

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. 

- Albert Camus

I love the change in schedule, the routine of mid-America.  Farmer's markets and football games, back-to-school supplies and piles of leaves to jump in.  I love the sweaters and scarves that we don as nature adorns her trees with autumn hues.  I love the rush of possibilities and need to create as the holidays unfold during the season.  There is a rhythm and family traditions that come alive in fall that sit so well within my heart.

Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.

- Emily Bronte

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.

 - Stanley Horowitz

These beads look so much like my illustrations. I think this is where both words cross over, painting and beadmaking - taking those printmaking and watercolor skills to create tiny worlds in bead form.  The beads start out as sketches.  I carve them into molds and after the beads have been pressed and cooked, I handpaint each one.  I love this process and wish I had more time to paint larger works of art. For now, it all pours into the beads. 

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

- George Eliot

Visit my Etsy shop to view the new fall collection of Humblebeads.

 

So that is what I've been up to and where I am.  This week I'm giving away one of my Oak Leaf Pendants, the color will be a surprise as I have them in a rainbow of autumn shades.  For a chance to win, you'll have to work a tiny bit - leave me a link of a fall-inspired art bead that you are currently lusting after.

If you love fall, nature and jewelry - check out my Inspired by Nature Retreat happening in October.