March Challenge Recap

Don't you just love this painting? I was so delighted when I found it! I love the light and the soft colors. I love the jumble of teacups and the teapot. And you know I love the pussy willows!

Lots of wonderful pieces created for this month. Let's check them out!

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Perfect Pairings :: Sarah Raines

There is something so primitive yet so classic about this pretty little brooch that Sarah created. It totally reminds me of my chubby little girl fingers clutching them to present to my teacher int he spring. The sparseness of the copper twigs and the pearly white dots of the catkins are simple and stunning. I think that this could be a great brooch, but also a pendant, or even something wired to a cuff. A quiet statement that spring has arrived.

Featured Designer :: Sarah Raines

Tomorrow is the day for the recap! I won't start this until later tonight so there is STILL TIME for you to get your entry into either the jewelry or the beads for this month's challenge!

We are now using Pinterest! 
You can find more details in this post about the exciting new changes,
including a board devoted to art beads inspired by the monthly challenge!
(Ooh! Look! More pretty beads to lust after!)

Pretty please make sure that you post a link in your Pinterest description
so that I have someplace to attribute the picture! 

And don't forget to tell us about those art beads - providing links to bead makers is appreciated!

Deadline March 29th to get your pictures posted to the Pinterest boards for the creation of the Monthly Challenge Recap post for March 31st.

TIP: If you upload your photo rather than pin it from your blog or shop, edit the pin (the little pencil button) and add your link as the source. Save your edits. This will allow us to click directly on your photo and go to your blog or shop to read more about your entry. If you don't, I might not be able to access the photo to share it.

Jewelry Monthly Challenge Entries

Beads Monthly Challenge Entries

Doodle Designs

I have been playing around with doodle designs and drawing them onto ceramic clay.  I use a dull pencil to do this.  This becomes my mold or texture for making my pendant.

Here is my original doodle:

Here it is drawn into the clay and fired:

I rolled the ceramic clay into a 1/4" thick piece and pressed it onto the mold and cut it into a rectangle pendant.  I added holes at the top corners.  After it dried, I cleaned all the rough edges and fired it into bisque.  Then I glazed it in shiny ice blue and fired it in my kiln on special racks for the second time.

Ready to use pendant:

I wanted to keep this necklace simple, so I used 22g silver wire to make connectors to the chain.  I accented the pendant with 5mm silver spacer beads and Czech glass.  The chain is 18" and is finsihed with a small silver toggle clasp.

I have a bunch of ideas brewing for more designs.  This is really a lot of fun, and if you need some ideas, Pinterest has endless doodles you can try.  You could also do this technique with polymer clay and other mold making materials.

Michelle McCarthy
Firefly Design Studio

Amuse the Muse - birds and butterflies - with Rebecca of Songbead

Happy Easter Monday everyone! We have today as a public holiday here in the UK, although I have, as usual been working anyway - such is life when you're self-employed! For me at least. I have a spa day (a late christmas gift) booked on Friday (eek!) and so I thought I'd do some work today so that I can really enjoy that. I rare treat for me! 

Anyway, enough about that. Sharp-brained readers may have realised that today is my last ABS post. Gulp! If you've missed that news, then you can check out my proper farewell post here. Things are moving and a-chainging and shifting, and it feels like, however hard it is (and it is/was a very difficult decision), it's the right thing for me just now. 

But I'm not going to bog this post down with sad farewells - been there, done, that - and anyway, you're here to see the beads! Right?! 

Here's what I found for you this week:

Donna Millard - adore these colours! Just look at that 'paint swirl' on the body of the wee birdie - swoon.

Round Rabbit - hitting Nancy's shop tomorrow at 12pm EST! You'll have to get in the queue behind me, hehe!

Genea - imagine what beautiful butterfly jewellery you could make with these gorgeous wing beads!

Tupper's Perch - love love love the speckles!

Metamorphic Beads - I find this sort of detailed glasswork nothing short of mind-blowing!

More wonderful colour choices from Pink Blue Sky! Love these cute, rustic birdies. 

Grubbi - these punchy colours work wonders together!

Robin the Raven - I love the rich, saturated colours on these polymer pieces!

And really, how cute are these wee birdies from the aptly names Charming Bluebird?

And so - gulp - that's me signing off for now. Like I said in my post earlier this month, it's definitely au revoir. I'll be back, as a reader and as a guest blogger so you will be seeing me sooner rather than later!. Thank you to you the readers, and thank you to my wonderful co-editors. It's been a huge pleasure, and I will miss being part of this art powerhouse so much - so keep in touch over on my blog and Facebook. And keep on showing your art bead love! I know I will :-)

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer; currently living in the capital city of Edinburgh. You can read more about her and her work at her blog, songbeads.blogspot.com and see more of her jewellery at songbead.etsy.com. She also has a supplies shop at thecuriousbeadshop.etsy.com.

Learning new techniques

I love discovering new artists! What's even better is finding an artist who is willing to share their ideas & techniques!!

I am a NEW fan of Nikolina Otrzan, a self taught polymer clay and mixed media artist from Croatia.
Her work is so lovely and could spend hours admiring her Flickr page. 

Nikolina loves teaching new techniques and discovering new ways of developing her ideas into her pieces. She has an exceptional eye for color and I adore the worn scratchiness of each piece. 

I recently downloaded one of  her classes via CraftArtEdu and am SO anxious to dive in and learn! Thank you for sharing your talents, Nikolina. You inspire me.

Inside the Studio with Mary Harding

Inside the Studio: Mary Harding

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 prize each week to encourage you to use that keyboard and tell us what you think. The following week a winner is chosen at random from all eligible entries. And here are the results from last week!

Congratulations to Andrea Porter You have won of a $25  gift certificate from Humblebeads. Please email Heather to claim your prize.

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My Inside the Studio post this month is a follow up on the post I did in Februrary titled Inspiration Part I  about being inspired by some sea shells sent to me by a friend.  Today I am revealing the results of using the textures of these shells to create ceramic clay beads.  

                                                various shell textures

I found this set of textures the most useful for making beads. I made silcon molds from some of these shells and used them to create  a variety of beads with.  I also found that some of the textures that pleased me in this set did not make good molds:  either the texture was too great and would result in long protrusions that could easily break off or be harmful or that the texture was too small to be be visible in a small pendant.   Of this set I made 2 molds that turned out really well.  One was of the small clam shell as seen in the picture below:

several small pendants or charms made from a clam shell mold

These clam shell beads came out well because the mold was bold and clear.  It was easy to form these small charms and the addition of an iron oxide stain on the stoneware clay, defined the ribs on the shell and I think make a dramatic presentation.  

                                           2 part silicon mold of the underside of a sand dollar shell

Of all the molds I  made, I found this  mold to be the most versatile and beautiful.  It has an intricate pattern that extends over a wide area so it can be used both selectively and as a whole print.  I chose to use it on several long hollow beads that I made.

                                   

long hollow bead sand dollar texture view 1

                               

                                                long  hollow bead sand dollar texture view 2

I used it again on two other hollow beads:

                                                   sea shells from Florida 

The other shells that I found most successful for making textures were the two clam shells on the far left of this picture.  I did not make a mold from them but rather used them to imprint textures into beads as in the examples below:

                            Long hollow bead imprinted with clam shell and sand dollar textures

                                     Bib pendant with clam shell and other textures

And then I made some toggle clasps with imprints from some of the shells

And finally, I used a sea urchin to imprint the toggle clasp below and glazed both the clasp and the clam charm in a creamy white/red glaze giving the pieces a much less rustic look.

The Ice

And how did all that beautiful ice inspire me? I had a hard time thinking of how to interpret the ice as a texture.   I think it must have been a subconscious effect as I made quite a few drop beads during these last weeks that I dipped into glaze for coloring like the ones below:

Colored icicle bead drops

Not exactly a texture but surely a shape reflection...

Now for our question:  While I was making these beads I realized that there are lots of textures out there that I had never noticed before--like what I found on the sand dollar, or the tiny spirals on the top of snail shells-- you can see one in the third bib pendant.  

 What kinds of textures do you like to use in your work and where do you find them?

Leave a comment in the section below and you will be automatically entered to win a set of sea shell textured charms.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the beads I made with sea shell textures.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Mary

Perfect Pairings :: Gingko et Coquelicot + Numinosity + Glass Bead Art + Wooly Wire

Karin says that she found this month's painting a real challenge, not even sure that she would have the art beads in her stash (although I am quite sure that she has a HUGE stash just waiting for her amazing creations!). Well, she did, and she pulled out some really beautiful pieces that pick up not only the palette, but on the long lean shapes and the fuzzy texture of the catkins.

Apparently, I missed my duties from last week as well (no excuses, just full of busy-ness!). SO I am including BOTH pictures that Miss Karin posted, because it was just too hard for me to choose!

Featured Designer :: Gingko et Coquelicot

+ 

Featured Bead Artist :: 

Numinosity + Glass Bead Art + Wooly Wire

We are now using Pinterest! 
You can find more details in this post about the exciting new changes,
including a board devoted to art beads inspired by the monthly challenge!
(Ooh! Look! More pretty beads to lust after!)

Pretty please make sure that you post a link in your Pinterest description
so that I have someplace to attribute the picture! 

And don't forget to tell us about those art beads - providing links to bead makers is appreciated!

Deadline March 29th to get your pictures posted to the Pinterest boards for the creation of the Monthly Challenge Recap post for March 31st.

TIP: If you upload your photo rather than pin it from your blog or shop, edit the pin (the little pencil button) and add your link as the source. Save your edits. This will allow us to click directly on your photo and go to your blog or shop to read more about your entry. If you don't, I might not be able to access the photo to share it.

Jewelry Monthly Challenge Entries

Beads Monthly Challenge Entries

We Collaborated on this Month's Challenge

               

                    

Still Life with Pussy Willows by Taisia K. Afonina

Back in February when there were no signs of Pussy Willows coming into bloom, Erin Prais-Hintz, Michelle McCarthy and I (Mary Harding) decided that we would do a collaboration on the April Challenge painting, Still Life with Pussy Willows, as seen above.  We each agreed to make a component based on the theme and palette of the painting and send one to each of us and keep at least one for ourselves.  We would then share what we made with our Art Bead Scene readers on March 22.  What fun!!  Reminds me of the Collaboration Exploration post  Heather, Lorelei and I did back in the day.  You can see that 2007 ArtBeadScene post  HERE .

Today is the reveal of what we made.  I will start with Michelle McCarthy of FireFly Design Studio. Happily Michelle took a picture of what she received in the mail and what she used to  make her pieces with.

As you can see, Erin sent us each one of her Signs of Spring Pendants from her Simple Truths Sample Club.

                             Signs of Spring Pendant by Erin Prais-Hintz of  tesori trovati

 Michelle sent us a set of 10 handmade ceramic beads with a pair of each of  5 colors in the painting.

Handmade ceramic beads by Michelle McCarthy of FireFly Design Studio
I sent each of us a handmade ceramic bracelet bar of Pussy Willows that grow in Northern New York. I made several of these, each in different colors and a slightly varied image, as you will see.

                                Pussy Willow Bracelet bar by MaryHardingJewelry


Now for what  Michelle made:

Michelle used the pearls you saw in the  picture and hand knotted them with the gray waxed linen.  She chose the pearls because of their resemblance to the catkins that develop into what we know as pussy willows.  The necklace has a wonderful open and delicate look that goes so well with Erin's pendant.

Next Michelle used my pussy willow bracelet bar and small bird charm in a lovely Spring design.

                           Spring bracelet by Michelle McCarthy of FireFly Design Studio

For this bracelet, she used large hole pearls which she paired with 10mm ceramic rounds and 4 strands of tiny blue Czech glass beads which she strung on linen.  A ceramic bird which I sent to both Erin and Michelle, hangs off the bracelet and makes the perfect charm, she tells me. I love the combination of the larger elements like the bracelet bar and the pearls with those tiny wonderfully blue seed beads.  Such an inviting and assuring bracelet for this time of year when one day is not at all like the next and snow and warm weather mix together for one last blast or two of winter.

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What Erin Made:

Erin started with the bracelet bar. She says she wanted to frame this pretty piece to give it a more dynamic presentation. She used copper sheet that was shaped and hand-cut, hammered for texture and used Liver of Sulfur to give it an aged patina. Simply tying it all together with dark copper leather cord by knotting large hole pearls and finishing with an antique button make this bracelet easy to pull together in a flash.

Next, Erin used her pendant for a necklace along with the wee ceramic bird. She took a cue from Heather Powers' book Beautiful Elements and made a catkin-inspired bail from copper wire (similar to the Reflecting Motif bracelet link in the book, p. 44). Repeating the large hole pearls, the colors play well with the ceramic bird. As luck would have it, Erin found this swirl rose clasp from fellow editor Rebecca Anderson  of the Curious Bead Shop for a perfect finish.

The matched sets of ceramic beads from Michelle were screaming to be earrings, so Erin whipped up a rainbow for your ears. These beads were perfect for that use! She paired them with Humblebeads disk beads (she has quite the hoard of these little beads and the colors match perfectly!) and each pair goes with the bracelet and necklace for an added bonus.

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What Mary Made:
I used Erin's Signs of Spring pendant in a necklace, too.  I went with the darker colors of Spring, probably because I live in the Northeast.  I love the gold hues in the painting and was able to find a set of golden beads in what Michelle sent and in some seed beads I had.  I used a bib bail that I purchased from Lima Beads to give the Pussy Willows a special setting.  The chain is handmade by me from annealed steel wire.  I love its gray black color that feels like cold cloudy days but has the beauty and warmth of aged pewter.

                                                    handmade steel chain

      Necklace made with tesori trovati Signs of Spring pendant by Mary Harding

My favorite piece that I made for this collaboration is my bracelet wrap.  I never tire of making bracelet wraps and I love to mix lots of textures and colors when I do.  For this one I used a variety of wires and chain.  I was happy to be able to polish up some of the brass with my sanding block and turn it into a golden color.  The steel nest links that I made from Heather Power's new book, Beautiful Elements, gave me some gray and some more shine to add.  Michelle's beautiful ceramic beads brought out the colors in the bracelet bar, as you can see in the picture below.

                      Promise of Spring wrapped bracelet by Mary Harding

I really enjoyed this opportunity to work with Erin and Michelle's beads.  It was really fun and very relaxing to make them a component and then to put them all together into jewelry.  Erin makes a new component each month inspired by the painting and was delighted to share this with her talented colleagues. Michelle tells me she had a fun time making her contributions as well.  I hope we get a chance to do this again sometime in the future.

I hope you all enjoyed seeing what we did and what we made.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
Mary

Amuse the Muse - birds and butterflies - with Rebecca of Songbead

Hello lovely ABS-ers! I don't know about you, but Spring has truly sprung these past few days here in Edinburgh. Yesterday I had a perfectly gorgeous spring-y day - a walk on Portobello beach with a friend's doggie, splashing about in the waves and drinking lots of cups of tea. All that was missing was beads and it would have been perfect! 

So here are a few perfectly gorgeous Spring-y beads for you this week - more beautiful birds and butterflies to inspire you:

Glass Daft 

ABS's newest team member - Anne of Gardanne Beads!

Shy Gar Shop

Areto Beads 

I've got a whole new bounty of beads in at The Curious Bead Shop, including this beautiful glass peacock button. 

Lori Lochner

Glass Magic

Jewelry Beads by Katie

Lindsay Drake Beads

Scorched Earth on Etsy

Have a great week everyone! I hope you're able to get out and enjoy yourselves - and have some fun with art beads too!

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer; currently living in the capital city of Edinburgh. You can read more about her and her work at her blog, songbeads.blogspot.com and see more of her jewellery at songbead.etsy.com. She also has a supplies shop at thecuriousbeadshop.etsy.com.