September Monthly Challenge Recap

I think this painting by Paula Modersohn-Becker of the Old Poorhouse Woman is a fun choice for the start of fall. The garden of poppies on the field of green really grab me. The floppy heads of the poppies are mimicked in the circle pattern on her skirt and her bonnet. The colors are muted yet vibrant shades of red, pink, gold, green and blue. So much to love in this painting! Thank you to Mary Harding for pointing out this wonderful artist to me and suggesting we add her to our 2016 lineup!

Let's see what you did!

If you created something for the September challenge, please share your link with us! Get the InLinkz code for your blog: get the InLinkz code

Designing with Wood Beads

A few weeks ago, I was selling my ceramic beads in Pompano Beach, Florida and during a quick power shopping moment, I discovered natural wood beads and sticks at the Koru Beads booth. Tracey Jackson sells the most beautiful beads made from nature - shells, stones, wood, and so much more.  But the wood - I had to have it!  So many types and shades.  I was thinking earrings with the sticks and mini logs, pendants with the drift wood pieces (layering a beachy ceramic bead on top perhaps) and a stacking pendant with the longer sticks.  I also purchased a beautiful strand of Tibetan Agate that the color stripes matched up in pairs for earring accents.  Here's my haul:

So far I have made 2 pairs of earrings.  I made the birds out of mid fire buff clay and glazed one pair in shiny brown and one pair in shiny smokey blue.  So with the mini logs, a little bling gets thrown in to break up the brown tones.  I used 20g Vintaj wire and earring findings to wire wrap the pieces together.

The smokey blue glaze matched this pair of Tibetan Agate beads nicely.  I used the 2 shortest sticks, a crystal accent and again, 20g Vintaj wire and earring findings to wire wrap the pieces together.

Tracey will be adding the wood beads to her website this week, so be sure to check out www.truthjackson.com to get some for yourself!  I know I am excited to use the rest of my treasures in the near future.

Monday Muse and Beady Link Party

Hello! Daylight is getting shorter, temperatures colder and all things fall have captured my attention this week. I'm loving owls right now and have round up some of my current favorites. 

First up is this sweet little owl from Andrew Thornton with an intriguing painterly treatment found in the Allegory Gallery Etsy shop.

A minimal ceramic pendant in a perfectly rustic glaze from Cherryhill Studio.

My bead crush of the week are these adorable owl lampwork beads from Glass Afternoon.

The flowers on the belly of this owl just makes the whole design for me, what a stand out from Havana Beads.

Tiny owl charms from me over at Humblebeads - so cute as earrings or as tiny charms.

I love everything about this ceramic owl from Jenny Davies-Reazor. The color is so perfect for fall and the two holes opens up so many design options for this piece.

Beady Link Party

We invite our readers to share their blog post links with us each week. As long as they feature jewelry or beads, share your favorite post from last week with us. We hope this will inspire you to blog a little more often and bring our community closer together.

1. Please only post blog new links each week. *

2. Visit at least two other blog links and leave a comment. We want to grow our blogging community and encourage you connect with each other.

3. You have until Wednesday each week to share your blog post.

We want to connect more with our readers! Join the party and share you latest beady blog link.

Haven't blogged in a while? It's the perfect time to share what you have been up to, what you find inspiring, your creative process, interview a favorite beadmaker, review a beady book - get creative and get blogging!

The beady link party is open to jewelry designers, beadmakers and group bead blogs.

Share you link using the "Add a Link" Inlinkz button below.

*We ask for fresh links, if you have a post that you haven't shared with us yet but it's a few weeks old, that's cool.    

An InLinkz Link-up

Inside the Studio with MaryHardingJewelry

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 will leave  comments!  As an incentive, we offer a PRIZE each week to encourage you to use that keyboard and tell us what you think.

At the next Inside the Studio post a WINNER is chosen at random from all eligible entries.
Here are the results from the last Inside the Studio post.

Congratulations to Victoria Lee!!!  You are the winner of a $20.00 gift certificate from GardanneBeads.  Please contact GardanneBeads to claim your prize.

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Hello from MaryHardingJewelry!! 

 I am happy to be back  posting after a six month hiatus while I waited for my broken ankle to heal.  I just got back into my ceramic studio about 2 weeks ago so I have limited new ceramic work to share with you today.   Below is a picture of some I made in June, 2016 but could not glaze and fire until a few days ago!!  My studio was inaccessible to me until I healed well enough to get around with a cane.  When I was laid up I had to keep my ankle elevated most of the time, so I could spend limited time making beads and jewelry but I adapted!! I made the beads below for use in my free form peyote stitch jewelry.

                            Picture below is some beads I glaze fired this week.

Beads in their unfired, greenware state by MaryHardingJewelry

Here is one of the peyote bracelets not quite finished that I worked on during this time.  I am excited about using my new beads in some new bracelets and necklaces.  So happy to have been able to fire them.

Since I have been back in my studio, I have also been working on orders for some very patient customers and for an update in my Etsy shop. I have about 5 racks full of greenware waiting to be sponged and bisque fired (hopefully this weekend.)

                                         greenware awaiting further finishing

Since I could not fire my ceramic beads, and I was feeling the need for more immediate satisfaction, I turned to my polyclay skills which I learned a few years ago at Christine Damm's Art on The Farm Intensive Workshop.  I was able to work in polyclay while keeping my ankle elevated in my LazyBoy chair.  I devised a tray for the clay and conditioned it with my hands and worked from my lap. 

I share below some pictures of what I made.  Most importantly, the making helped me tremendously in terms of keeping up my spirits and and filling my need to be creative.

                                   Poly open tube beads by MaryHardingJewelry

                        poly beads made in my lap and stored on a soft surface before being cured

                                                       more uncured polybeads

     Large leaf necklace I made to  participate in a challenge--poly  clay MaryHardingJewelry

Large hollow beads in polyclay using technique learned from Claire Maunsell

         Lillies inspired by the art work of Paula Modersohn Becker  ABS September  Challenge artist

I hope you have enjoyed this look at how I adapted to not being able to create in my usual way and medium. 

And this brings me to my question for today.  What medium would you choose to express yourself if you could not engage in your usual way for an extended period of time?

Leave a comment below and you will be automatically entered to win a $20.00 gift certificate to my Etsy shop. Hopefully it will be restocked in a couple of weeks.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I love being able to post again!!

Mary

    

Perfect Pairings :: Raspberry Fields Design + Golem Studios

The pendant in this necklace is crafted from a ceramic poppy cabochon from Golem Studios and some really fine bead embroidery. Seed beads have always been my nemesis in the beading world. So I am always stunned to see them wrangled so handily. I love the mix of colors (that bright pop of red!), the finishes (matte and metallic!), and the intricate nature of the design (those twigs holding the glass leaves!). This is a gorgeous piece of handcrafted goodness. We thank Raspberry Fields Design for sharing it with us!

Featured Designer :: Raspberry Fields Design

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Featured Bead Artists :: Golem Studio

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 September 28th to get your pictures posted to the Pinterest boards for the creation of the Monthly Challenge Recap post for September 30th.

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

Monday Muse and Beady Link Party

Hello! Today my muse is ready to take flight, she's not quiet ready to face the week and is definitely ready to spread her wings and leave Monday in the dust!

Let's start out with this dreamy feather from Firefly Design Studio. I love the mottled blue, brown and cream colors.

This porcelain bohemian inspired feather is from Majoyoal from Spain. I think this might be my favorite pick from today.

Then is there is a perfect feather, it would be from Heather Wynn of SwoonDimples. From the color blend to the texture to the tiny bird stamp to the silver bail detail, it's amazing! 

I'm a big fan of these leather creations from TreeWingStudio that are textures and hand-painted in these fun geometric patterns. The trick to using a leather pendant like this is to pair it up with chain and stones or ceramic for a contrast of textures. 

 Ah yeah, these please! Copper electroplated feathers from Fottiniya - boy are the singing my song!

And finally, my latest feathered friends - birds, nest and feather totems. You can find them in my Humblebeads Etsy shop. 

Beady Link Party

We invite our readers to share their blog post links with us each week. As long as they feature jewelry or beads, share your favorite post from last week with us. We hope this will inspire you to blog a little more often and bring our community closer together.

1. Please only post blog new links each week. *

2. Visit at least two other blog links and leave a comment. We want to grow our blogging community and encourage you connect with each other.

3. You have until Wednesday each week to share your blog post.

We want to connect more with our readers! Join the party and share you latest beady blog link.

Haven't blogged in a while? It's the perfect time to share what you have been up to, what you find inspiring, your creative process, interview a favorite beadmaker, review a beady book - get creative and get blogging!

The beady link party is open to jewelry designers, beadmakers and group bead blogs.

Share you link using the "Add a Link" Inlinkz button below.

*We ask for fresh links, if you have a post that you haven't shared with us yet but it's a few weeks old, that's cool.    

An InLinkz Link-up

September Monthly Challenge Color Palette and Bead Picks

I really like the dark and somber color palette in this month's challenge painting. Mixed in with those muddy neutrals are the loveliest unexpected pops of fall colors - the minty green in the sky, the pink mixed in with those red poppies, the periwinkle and my favorite is that ocher yellow. Even though the poppy red is the predominate color I would probably use it as an accent in my jewelry and focus on those smaller patches of interesting colors. 

And that's the interesting thing about the monthly challenge - you can pick and choose which colors that speak to you and use that as the inspirations for your next challenge. It's been a while since I've done the monthly challenge but these colors are so intriguing I think I will jump in and create a few new pieces with this fun fall palette. 

I picked some beads from the Art Bead Scene team shops that I would love to use for this challenge!

Top left to right:

Gardanne Beads, Tesori Trovati and Mary Harding

Bottom left to right:

Humblebeads, Firefly Design Studio, Creative Impressions in Clay

September Monthly Challenge Sponsors + Prizes

Our Wonderful sponsors for the September Challenge.
We will have 2 Lucky Winners this Month!

Allegory Gallery

Andrew Thornton of Allegory Gallery creates handmade jewelry, jewelry components and unique art.

"We are a creative space that's one part bead store, one part jewelry boutique, one part fine art gallery, and one part gift shop. The aim of Allegory Gallery is to promote artisan craftspeople, inspire the community to explore their creativity, and act as a focal point for classes and artistic education in the area."

Allegory Gallery is located in Ligonier, Pennsylvania.

Andrew is donating a $50 gift certificate to the gallery.

Visit Andrew on Facebook, Etsy, Twitter, Instagram, Andrew's Blog and Allegory Blog.

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Tsin Design

Sue-Lin Tarnowski of Tsin Design creates wonderful polymer clay jewelry components, vintage tin components and handmade jewelry.
Fun and unique and would be great for your jewelry creations!!

Tsin Design is located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Sue-Lin is donating a $50 gift certificate.

Visit Sue-Lin on her Facebook and Etsy.

: : :

Submit photos of your wonderful Jewelry creations using one or more Art Beads here.

Submit photos of your wonderful Bead creations here.

Old Woman from the Poorhouse in the Garden with Glass Ball and Poppies by Paula Modersohn-Becker. This Month's art has many different elements that can be used for inspiration: Female form, figurative, flowers, hats, circles, reds, greens, pinks, blues and yellow ochre .

We can't wait to see where your creativity takes you with the art for this month's challenge! 

**IMPORTANT** Please remember to put SEP ABS in the title or tag of your submission(s).  Pinterest doesn't keep Pins in the order they are posted.

Provide us with the artist of the Art Beads used and we always love to know all the materials you used. 

***Art Beads MUST be used in your entry.***

September Monthly Challenge

"Old Woman from the Poorhouse in the Garden with Glass Ball and Poppies"

By Paula Modersohn-Becker, 1907

Oil on Canvas, 37 9/10 × 31 3/5 in, 96.3 × 80.2 cm

About the Art

The Old Woman from the Poorhouse in the Garden with Glass Ball and Poppies depicts Paula's devoted friend among the Worpswede peasants and old people from the poor-house who posed for her. Nicknamed "old Dreebeen"—her much-needed cane served as her third leg—Anna Schroder appears in numerous drawings paintings, and letters (she is first described on 18 September 1898, and last cited in October, 1907 offering folk wisdom about pregnancy). Having first painted several realistic pictures of the old woman, Modersohn-Becker suddenly transformed her into a spooky, apparition from a primitive past, with an ominous crystal ball and looming poppies and foxglove, plants of medicinal and magical power. The style of drawing, the color harmonies the woman's pose, and even the huge flowers recall Van Gogh's Berceuse with her decorative floral background, of which two versions were shown in 1905; this also was an ordinary provincial woman raised to symbolic grandeur as the eternally comforting mother.

About the Artist

Paula Modersohn-Becker was a German painter and one of the most important representatives of early expressionism. Paula Becker was born and grew up in Dresden-Friedrichstadt. She was the third of seven children. Her father, the son of a Russian university professor, was employed with the German railway. He and Modersohn-Becker's mother, who was from an aristocratic family, provided the children a cultured and intellectual environment in the home. In 1888 her parents moved from Dresden to Bremen. While visiting an aunt in London, England, she received her first instruction in drawing. Apart from her teacher's training in Bremen in 1893-1895, Paula took private instruction in painting. In 1896 she participated in a course for painting and drawing sponsored by the "Verein der Berliner Kunstlerinnen" (Union of Berlin Female Artists) which offered art studies to women.
At the age of 22, she encountered the artistic community of Worpswede. In this "village", artists such as Fritz Mackensen (1866-1953) and Heinrich Vogeler (1872-1942) had retreated to protest against the domination of the art academy and life in the big city. At Worpswede, Paula Modersohn-Becker took painting lessons from Mackensen. The main subjects were the life of the farmers and the northern German landscape. At this time she began close friendships with the sculptor Clara Westhoff (1875-1954) and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926). She also fell in love during this period, and in 1901 she married a fellow Worpswede painter, Otto Modersohn. In marrying Otto, she also became a step-mother to Otto's daughter, Elsbeth Modersohn, the child from his first marriage to Helene Modersohn, then deceased.
Between 1900 and 1907, Paula made several extended trips to Paris for artistic purposes, sometimes living separately from her husband, Otto. During one of her residencies in Paris, she took courses at the école des Beaux-Arts. She visited contemporary exhibitions often, and was particularly intrigued with the work of Paul Cézanne. Other post impressionists were especially influential, including Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gaugin. Fauve influences may also appear in such works as Poorhouse Woman with a Glass Bottle. The influence by the work of French painter, Jean-Francois Millet, who was widely admired among the artists in the Worpswede group, may be seen in such pieces as her 1900 Peat Cutters.
In her last trip to Paris in 1906, she produced a body of paintings from which she felt very great excitement and satisfaction. During this period of painting, she produced her initial nude self-portraits (something rather unprecedented by a female painter) and portraits of friends such as Rainer Maria Rilkeand Werner Sombart. Some critics consider this period of her art production to be the strongest and most compelling.
In 1907, Paula Modersohn-Becker returned to her husband in Worpswede. Their relationship, which had been particularly strained in 1906, had taken a turn towards improvement. Paula's long-lived wish to conceive and bear a child was fulfilled. Her daughter Mathilde (Tillie) Modersohn was born on November 2nd, 1907. Paula and Otto were joyous. Sadly, the joy became soon overshadowed by tragedy, as Paula Modersohn-Becker died suddenly in Worpswede on November 20th from an embolism.

Our Sponsors

Our Sponsors this month are Allegory Gallery and Tsin Design

Please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:

1. You need to have a Pinterest account. Go get one ASAP if you don't have one already. It's easy, fun and inspiring.

2. Email us at absmonthlychallenge@gmail.com to get added to the monthly challenge board.

Subject: Monthly Challenge Board Request

You will be emailed an invite to the board within 48 hours. Accept the invite and you are ready to pin your entries.

3. Two ways to pin your entry to the board.

Pin your photo from the internet (on your blog, Etsy shop, etc.)

Add your photo directly from your computer

Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. We post the art to be used as your inspiration to create. 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.

An Art Bead must be used in your piece to qualify for the monthly challenge.

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

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

Deadline is September 30th

You may upload 2 entries per month.

ENTRIES for ART BEAD ARTISTS!!

• Beads Makers Pinterest Board-Art beads must be created by you and fit the Art Bead Scene's monthly challenge theme. They can be made for the challenge or ones you have made before. 2 entries per month are allowed. 

One entry will be picked by the editors each month for a free month of advertising on the Art Bead Scene. Bead entries have to be pinned by the 30th of the month.

Beads only - do not post jewelry on this board. If a post doesn't fit the challenge it will be deleted.

Monthly Challenge Recap

• Please post at least one single shot of your creation on the Pinterest Board. This will be used to make a collage for the Monthly Challenge Gallery. Every creation will be added to the collage, regardless of a blog post. So everyone gets included!

Your entry must be on Pinterest 2 days BEFORE the recap to be included.

• Be sure to share with us the name of the art bead artist in the description of your photo so that if you are selected for the weekly Perfect Pairings on Wednesdays, both you as the designer and the art bead artist can get the credit you both deserve!

• An InLinkz button will be added to the bottom of the Monthly Challenge Recap post. Here you will be able to link up your blog post if you have one. It is no longer necessary to add your blog post URL to the description unless you want to. Be sure to hop around and see all the great inspiration and leave some comment love!

• The Monthly Challenge Recap with Blog Tour will be posted on September 30th.

Monthly Challenge Winners

• One prize winner will be selected at random from all pictures posted on the Pinterest board.

• One prize winner will be selected at random from all blog posts added to the hop for the Monthly Challenge Recap post. So if you want to be in the pool for the second prize, be sure to use the InLinkz code at the bottom of the post to share your process and inspirations!

• Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on September 1st.

Perfect Pairings :: Designer + Art Bead Artist

• Formerly the Featured Designer of the Week, our new Perfect Pairings will focus on both the jewelry designer and the art bead artist. 

• Be sure to point out all the art bead artists in your work in the description of the photo on the Pinterest Board. Links to their website or shop are appreciated. That way we can all find new art beads to love!

• From all the entries during the month, an editor will pick their favorite design to be featured every Wednesday here on ABS, so get those entries in soon.

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.

Beaded beads, stamped metal pendants or wire-wrapped components are not considered art beads for our challenge.***

August Monthly Challenge Winners

Congratulations to the August Monthly Challenge winners! 

1 winner was chosen randomly from all the challenge entrants.
1 winner was chosen randomly from the InLinkz blog entries.
Winner of a month of advertising on ABS from the Monthly Challenge Bead category.

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Our First lucky winner is Sarah Raines.
She has won a $50 Gift Certificate from Swoondimples.

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Our Second lucky winner is Melissa Trudinger/Bead Recipes.

She has won a $50 Gift Certificate from East O' the Sun West O' the Moon.

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Our Winner from the Bead Entries of the Monthly Challenge is Terry Wlaschin of Shanty Chic Beads. She has won a Month of Advertising here on Art Bead Scene. Please e-mail an image and link for your ad.

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Swoondimples and East O' the Sun West O' the Moon our August Monthly Challenge sponsors!

Winners, please E-Mail Tari, tari@claybuttons.com or claybuttons@gmail.com 

(claybuttons.com email address is acting wonky) with your information (Name and address) so your prizes may be sent to you.

A Big THANK YOU to everyone who entered this month! We were so fortunate to have so many beautiful entries and experience such creativity from our wonderful readers.

Visit us tomorrow to see what September's challenge brings.