Monthly Challenge Accepted

I was looking for a fun distraction yesterday and an excuse to pull out some of my new beads so I thought, hey I should play along with this month's Art Bead Scene challenge! I love the color palette and delicate line work of our inspiration painting this month.

I grabbed a pair of lovely rose colored enamel bead caps from my talented friend Anne of Gardanne Beads. I had these Green Girl Studio leaves in my stash for a while and thought they were just what I needed for a pair or rose inspired earrings. I used new disk beads that I recently created that seem to fit the bill as thorns.

The back of the earrings have a secret message: "Love Life". Which has been particularly meaningful to me lately as one of my parents battles with an illness. Each day is a gift and the world is filled with so many amazing things.  Who knew one could pack so much meaning into a tiny pair of earrings!

On the back of this Green Girl Studio pendant it reads "Life is a rose beware the thorns." And that is just so true. Life is beautiful but not without it's challenges.

Along with the rose pendant I stacked a ceramic bead from White Clover Kiln from my new bead kindred spirit Mary Hubbard and then paired it with another one of those thorn looking disk beads.

My final piece was inspired more by the color than subject matter.  Pulling in some of the green from the painting and golden hues of the brass owl pendant to complement the rose colors.

Art beads on this necklace include the owl pendant from Andrew Thornton, the grow bead from Diane Hawkey, lampwork from one of my favs, Sea of Glass and then the ceramic bead from White Clover Kiln and another disk bead from Humblebeads.

Resources: Humblebeads, Gardanne Beads, Green Girl Studios, White Clover Kiln, Sea of Glass, Andrew Thornton.

It's only the middle of the month, plenty of time to play along and get inspired by our monthly challenge. Click here for complete details.