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

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.

: : :

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.***

September Challenge Recap

Looking at this month's painting, I was struck by the varied swath of colors. The strong coppery red color of the curtain... the cool reflection of the pond.... the warm walls... the utilitarian grey ceramic pitcher... the fresh sun-kissed green yard. Sometimes when I am unsure where to let my Muse lead me, I turn the picture upside down. As I created my own interpretation of this painting for September Simple Truths Sampler Club, I flipped the image so that I could select different areas of the painting to focus on for a bead set that I made.

Do you see the inspiration I drew from the painting? The curtain....the grasses and fence posts....the handle on the pitcher....the view from above, like when flying in an airplane and seeing the shimmery reflection of ponds, the winding black roads and the rolling hills.

I loved seeing the variations in this month's challenge, both beads and jewelry designs. The color palette for this month was unexpected for the fall, but really couldn't be more perfect. There is a riot of color exploding all around us, and the textures that this, my favorite season, displays makes it hard to succumb to the inevitable. The last days of summer are waning and the warmth is fleeting (first frost advisory of the year tonight!), giving me glimpses of the cold and barren vista that is to come. But I need to fill myself up with the beauty of this season to make those wintery nights feel less stark. So let's take a last lingering look at the changing landscape of autumn to store the rich colors and textures until we meet this season again.



September Challenge Recap by Slidely Photo Gallery 

Be sure to click the image to make it full-screen and to listen to the beautiful song Autumn Walk by Brad Jacobsen.

Now it is your turn! Show us what you made so we can celebrate you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Get the InLinkz code for your blog.

get the InLinkz code

September Monthly Challenge

View of the Pond at Charleston, East Sussex

by Vanessa Bell

c.1919

Oil on canvas, 79.8 x 84 cm

Collection: Museums Sheffield

About the Art

At the Royal Academy Schools Vanessa Bell was taught by and admired the work of John Singer Sargent. She was also greatly influenced by Whistler, and in the final pages of this letter to her friend Margery Snowdon she described the influence of his technique on her painting style.
Bell's first commissioned work was a portrait of Lady Robert Cecil. This was also the first work she ever exhibited, at the New Gallery, London, in 1905.
After her marriage in 1907, Bell continued to paint portraits, but with the birth of her son Julian in 1908, her paintings adopted more domestic themes such as still lifes and interiors

About the Artist

Vanessa Bell, 1879–1961, was a British painter and interior designer who established her reputation as part of the avant-garde Bloomsbury Group. Her most innovative works, which fused fine art and decorative design, show the influence of post-Impressionism, Matisse and Cubism.
Bell was the elder sister of writer Virginia Woolf. She was married to the art critic Clive Bell, with whom she had an open marriage, and had intimate relationships with the artist Duncan Grant and the critic and artist Roger Fry. In 1910, Fry organised the first Post-Impressionism exhibition in London. This made a strong, if brief, impact on Bell’s artistic development, and marked a milestone in the history of British taste.
In 1906, when Bell started to think of herself as an artist, she formed the Friday Club in order to create a place in London that was more favourable to painting. Vanessa was encouraged by the Post-Impressionist exhibitions organised by Roger Fry and she copied their bright colours and bold forms in her artworks. In 1914, she turned to abstraction.
Bell rejected the examples of Victorian narrative painting and rejected a discourse on the ideal and aberrant qualities of femininity. Some of Vanessa Bell’s works were related to her personal life.
Bell is one of the most celebrated painters of the Bloomsbury group. She exhibited in London and Paris during her lifetime, and has been praised for innovative works during her early maturity and for her contributions to design.
Charleston House, Firle, Sussex, where she and Grant lived, is perhaps her best known work. Bell and Grant decorated the interior of the farmhouse in the bold signature style of the Omega Workshops, a design group founded by Fry in 1913.

Our Sponsors

Our Sponsors this month are Mary Harding Jewlery and Indian Creek Art Glass.

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 31st. 

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 31st.

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 July 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.***

September Monthly Recap

Such an ethereal and beautiful painting for this month. The swirls of the roses, the long and lovely ladies with their porcelain skin, the entwined threads studded with jewels... a truly magical and romantic inspiration. I think interpretations of this inspiration painting were so lovely. Let's see what inspired you!

Your turn!

Click the InLinz Link-up below to add your blog post to the hop!

Please add your exact URL to the blog hop for the

September 2014 Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge Recap.

An InLinkz Link-up

Perfect Pairings: Tres Jolie Designs by Sue

Hello there, it's Rebecca here today, stepping in for Erin who is off doing very exciting things this week and unable to post today.

When I popped over to the Flickr group, Sue's stunning necklace immediately leapt out at me. This necklace really connects with this month's artwork for me - not just the beautiful colours that Sue has chosen to work with - both in her incredible polymer work as well as in her necklace design. I love that she has picked up on the linear aspect of Margaret MacDonald's gesso panel with her beaded wire twists. Great and inspiring work Sue - thank you. 

Featured Designer + Bead Artist :: Tres Jolie Designs by Sue

Just one more week left...
Let's see what YOU can create inspired by this beautiful piece of artwork!

Perfect Pairings :: Ditzy Blue

Karen had just created this rose mold and it fit the theme of this month perfectly. What serendipity! I like the worn and faded colors that she painted on the clay rose. The way that she used the soft silk ribbon to soften the harder lines of the pretty glass beads in complementary colors pulls this all together for a very cohesive look.

Featured Designer + Bead Artist :: Ditzy Blue

Perfect Pairings :: Ann + Bethanne + Sue

The inspiration for this month is soft and romantic and flowy. I think that Ann Schroeder captured that feeling perfectly with this statement necklace that has a big impact with just a whisper of color. The pearls dotting the necklace are a perfect accompaniment to this hand drawn focal paired with a little glass pop of color. A pretty start to the month!

Featured Designer :: Ann Schroeder

Featured Bead Artist :: Bethanne + SueBeads

September Monthly Challenge Color Palette

If you've been playing along with ABS during our monthly challenges, you'll know that our challenge paintings have been full of subtle colors the last few months. We're continuing that for September; in fact, September is all about muted shades.

As you can see in the above palette, I've pulled out every major color that's represented in Margaret Macdonald's "The White Rose and The Red Rose." The color swatches are pulled directly from the painting, as always, but you'll also notice that color amounts are going to be key to this month's challenge. Because while you can find the sage-y greens, reds, purples, and that bright blue, the majority of the painting are shades of cream, beige, tan, and gray.

So, if you love bright colors, you can use pops of them around your challenge piece against a backdrop of those muted beiges and tans - just like the challenge painting does.

But as I was putting together that first palette, I realized that while it's a faithful representation of the challenge painting, that bright blue was sticking out in a way that didn't blend well (for me) with the other colors. So, I created a second palette option that swaps out just the bright, saturated blue for a softer, calmer gray. Take a look:

What I like about this palette over the first is that all of the colors have the same saturation. None are too bold and bright, none stand out in a bad way. Instead, they all flow together well and in a way that makes sense visually. From strictly a color perspective, this palette matches the feeling I get from the painting better than the first, even if it doesn't represent all of the colors you can see in the painting.

But as always, it's your choice as the designer! Which direction do you plan to go on this month? What palette are you loving?

September Monthly Challenge

"The White Rose and the Red Rose" 1902 

by Margaret Macdonald

Hunterian Art Gallery Mackintosh collections

99.0 cm x 101.5 cm

Gesso, painted, set with glass beads and shell; on hessian on a wooden stretcher

About the Art

This gesso panel formed part of an exhibition setting 'The Rose Boudoir' which the Mackintoshes exhibited at a major international exhibition in Turin in 1902. This is their duplicate of the exhibition piece. The panel is one of the finest surviving examples of Macdonald's work in gesso, retaining its original finish and ornament. Gesso, a plaster-based medium, is applied to a support - here burlap, and worked to a variety of finish, from the broad swirls of the background to the porcelain-like finish of the faces. The fine lines were piped onto the surface like icing. The symbolic meaning of the subject is not clear, but the rose is generally accepted as a symbol of love and art in the Mackintoshes' work. Margaret Macdonald was one of the most outstanding women artists in Glasgow and arguably in the UK at the turn of the last century. Her achievements with the use of gesso- plaster- for decorative panels were among the most creative of their time. The image shows the item on public display in The Mackintosh House at the Hunterian Art Gallery.

About the Artist

Margaret Macdonald (1864 - 1933)
Born Margaret Macdonald, at Tipton, near Wolverhampton, her father was a colliery manager and engineer. Margaret and her younger sister Frances both attended the Orme Girls' School, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. In the 1881 census Margaret, aged 16, was said to be a scholar. By 1890 the family had settled in Glasgow and Margaret and her sister, Frances Macdonald, enrolled as students at the Glasgow School of Art. There she worked in a variety of media, including metalwork, embroidery, and textiles. She was first a collaborator with her sister, and later with her husband, the architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Her most dynamic works are large gesso panels made for the interiors that she designed with Mackintosh, such as tearooms and private residences.
Together with her husband, her sister, and Herbert MacNair, she was one of the most influential members of the loose collective of the Glasgow School known as "The Four". She exhibited with Mackintosh at the 1900 Vienna Secession, where she was arguably an influence on the Secessionists Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann.
Macdonald was celebrated in her time by many of her peers, including her husband who once wrote in a letter to Margaret "Remember, you are half if not three-quarters in all my architectural work ..."; and reportedly "Margaret has genius, I have only talent." It is not known exactly which of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's works Margaret was involved with (or the extent to which she worked on them) but she is credited with being an important part of her husband's figurative, symbolic interior designs. Many of these were executed at the early part of the twentieth century; and include the Rose Boudoir at the International Exhibition at Turin in 1903, the designs for House for an Art Lover in 1900, and the Willow Tea Rooms in 1902. Poor health cut short Margaret's career and, as far as is known, she produced no work after 1921. She died in 1933, five years after her husband.

Our Sponsors

Our Sponsors this month are Bandana Girl and Staci Louise Originals.

Please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

Monthly Challenge Recap

• Please post at least one single shot of your creation in the Flickr pool. 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 Flickr 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 Flickr pool.
• 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 October 1st.

Perfect Pairings :: Designer + Art Bead Artist
• Formerly the Featured Designer of the Week, our new Perfect Pairings will now 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 in the Flickr pool. 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.

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:

1. 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.***

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.

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. 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.

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

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

September Challenge Recap

So, we have decided to shake things up a bit.
 
I will still be highlighting the designers of the week in something new I will be starting in October called Perfect Pairings :: Designer + Bead Artist (formerly Designer of the Week). I have already been doing that so that we can give a shout out to designers and the art beads artists that they love. We are the Art Bead Scene after all!  

At the end of the month, I am going to make a photo collage of all the entries on the ABS Flickr group, not just the ones that have the blogs. The problem was always that I might miss adding someone because they didn't post their exact URL for the blog post, or it was buried and hidden in the comments. I don't like the feeling of letting anyone down. And this way, everyone who submits a picture to the Flickr pool will be highlighted in the end of the month recap. Just a kind request...in order for the end of the month collage to work, it will be best to have at least one picture you upload be a single shot of the piece. You can always upload a second one in a collage with closeups, but for this use, we will need one single shot. I did a lot of research this week on collage making applications, and have decided to use Ribbet for making the collage directly from the Flickr pool. Pretty cool!

As for the blog posts that you reference in the Flickr description... it has always been hard to be sure that we were getting that right, and the exact URL is very important. And not everyone blogs. We still want to encourage you to blog about your process, your inspirations and most especially the art beads. This way, you can get your picture posted to Flickr without the worry of having the blog post done and then go back to finish that later. Hopefully, that will encourage more participation!

I am going to start using the InLinkz system for you to add your blog post to the monthly Challenge Recap post (the former Monthly Challenge Blog Tour). That way we can check out the eye candy and then hop around to different blogs. So... it will be up to you to add your blog to the monthly recap post.

We always had two sponsors, with two generous prizes. Going forward, we will split the sponsor prizes into two: one prize winner for a random picture on the Flickr pool and one prize winner for a random poster with a blog link. So if you want to be considered for the blog link prize, be sure to use the InLinkz code at the bottom of the post!

So without further ado (and there will be much less ado in subsequent months) here is our inspiration and our amazing creations inspired by this painting.

 The flowers and grapevines, the flowing tresses and the reclining beauty, the golden hues punctuated by sage greens and merlot reds. This painting gave us much to encourage our creativity.

Your turn! Click the InLinz Link-up below to add your blog post to the hop! And thanks for all you do to make the Art Bead Scene a place for celebrating art and beads!

An InLinkz Link-up

P.S.I am currently completing this in a hotel room in D.C. for the ArtBliss weekend. I am actually leaving for the airport, but if you would like to contact me directly my email is enjoytheday @ tesoritrovati .com. I hope that you will come to enjoy this change and I promise that I will work out any kinks for the next one. Thanks for your support!