Findings Worth Finding: Metal Lilies

Here are a few findings that I found on Etsy that fit this month's theme.

Lotus Pendant by Green Girl Studios, featured in Cathy Dailey's esty shop.

Brass Filigree from BeadSupplies

Krya Lotus from Hint
Vintaj Brass Waterlily Ring from Bluemarblebeads

Leaping frog Toggle Clasp from Lea Anne Hartman, featured in pixieindustries' etsy shop.

Bonus Sponsor!

Surprise! We have one more sponsor for this month's challenge and two more reasons to work on your entry today. Mary Harding Jewelry has donated two beautiful garden inspired ceramic pendants. One lucky winner will have quite a stash of beads! Can't wait to see what you create for the challenge.

May Challenge Prizes

I think today will be more show than tell. Here are the prizes for this month's challenge! Enter more than once if you feel inspired! Our theme is Monet's Water Lilies.

Our first sponsor is Chinook Jewelry who makes amazing ceramic pendants, charms and components. Chinook is giving 3 pendants: there’s a key connector, an organic circle pendant, and a cut out circle that can be used as a pendant or a closure.

And I (Humblebeads) am also sponsoring this month, since I love Monet's lilies! I've had a chance to see a few of them in my lifetime and the large, room-size paintings are amazing. I'm giving away a Monet 6-hole spacer bead, 2 Monet's Water Lily long beads and a set of Monet disk beads.

Pull out those art beads and join in the fun this month!

Monthly Challenge - Monet's Water Lilies

Water Lilies, 1916 by Claude Monet

The inspiration for this month's challenge is a lovely impressionist painting from Monet. Water Lilies were a series of approximately 250 paintings that Monet created over the last thirty years of his life. We can see his failing eyesight which translates into abstract colors and shapes over time. An impression of nature rather than a duplicate was the thrust of the work of the French Impressionists, of which Monet was one of the founders.

Have fun with this calm color palette of blues, purples and greens. Pull out the floral art beads, grab a few lotus/water lily inspired charms and let's see what you can come up with for this challenge!

Your entry this month can be influenced by the colors, pattern or whatever you choose to focus on for your creation. Just remember to include at least one art bead in your design.

The Prizes:
A winner will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on May 1st.
Our sponsors this month our Chinook Jewelry and Humblebeads, please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

Featured Designer of the Week!
From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on the ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, 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. 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.

***Beads by themselves and beads simply strung on a chain 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. If you can't upload to Flickr, send your entry and information to Heather.

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

Deadline is May 31st. 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.

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

Sunday with Cindy: Color Inspiration Yellow

Spring is in the air! I love this time of year, the spring daffodils pop out of the ground and scream, "Spring!" I'm a yellow lover - all kinds of yellow so today, before we peruse the paper, I'd like to share a little color inspiration with you. I went to Flickr and typed in the word "yellow" and got a mountain of lovely photos - here are just two of them:


Yellow Flame Tree taken by Natasha on Flickr



Yellow Rose taken by comin or goin on Flickr



A pale yellow in this forsythia in my backyard, taken last week!

Ahhhhh...now that we've warmed up our eyes with color inspiration, let's see what's going on with the beady news....

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy has some knotting jewelry tutorials for you, as in making jewelry with fiber. It's an often inexpensive media that can add a unique twist to your jewelry designs.

Art Bead Scene
Wings are the backdrop for a visual treatise on creativity.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi turns a dried crab apple into something wearable.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie shares her thoughts on ethics in art and an example on how she used inspiration from another artist's work in her own work, finding her own expression with the idea without copying.

Jewelry & Beading
Use antique optical lenses to make wonderful mixed media jewelry!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Kim Miles is on the road and she is giving away beads as she blogs! Check it out!

Studio Saturday - Gifts of Collaboration

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.

Last weeks winner is Leslie. Congratulations! You have won one of Heather Powers' Dandelion Beads, you lucky duck! Send us an e-mail with your address in the suggestion box and we will get it right out to you.

Welcome to the ExpeditionD studio for a busy Saturday of creativity! As some of you who read my blog, I attended Artfest 2009 about a month ago now, it was a lot of learning and fun! I thought I'd share some thoughts about the conference and the influence on some of my own creativity since I've been back in the studio. And for more in-depth information about my Artfest experience I created a special blog, you can see lots of photographs and more information about the events!


When you arrive at Artfest there is a lot of trading that goes on the first few days, you get packages with beads and paper ephemera in it. I had created the 'ART' medal medallion piece before I left, but I wanted to finish it off with things that people gave to me at the event, to make it a collaboration of unusual items.



I noticed that some of the items combined with each other, and started to tell a story of their own. The cupid charm, the red heart medallion and the conch shell, all came to me from different directions, but they started to tell a story about art. In some cultures the conch shell stands in for currency, for money and barter exchanges. The cupid has a meaning of love, based on the ancient image of the roman god, the son of Venus, with his quiver full of arrows of love.



Being among so many creative people who work in different media, in an atmosphere of enthusiastic support, leads to an overflow of new ideas and sharing. I am betting that the Bead Cruise that Heather Powers organizes has this same energy, it's very different from being alone in your studio, creating!

If you get a chance to attend a conference or collaboration, or host a play date at your studio with a few friends, I think you'll agree that it opens up your possibilities for creativity and can open new directions for exploration!

So here's my question for today's Studio Saturday, I'd love to hear your thoughts about how to share a creative experience with friends or family, or an event you've wanted to attend:

Have you attended a creative conference to learn (or teach) a new technique or method of creativity, and how did it affect your work afterward? If you haven't done it yet, have you considered being the one who creates the opening, by inviting others to participate in shared creativity? What ideas and plans could you come up with to make fun collaborative creating an event you can share?

Leave a comment on this post and share your ideas or experiences to win one of my heart charms for your next project. Especially the results, love hearing how you changed and the fun you've had or plan to have soon!

Posted by Lynn Davis, who is finally done unpacking the supply bag that went to Artfest so the experience is officially over now, at least until next year.

Monthly Challenge Winner

Congratulations to Janet McDonald! You are the winner for this month's challenge. This entry was randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries this month. Janet has won a set of silver charms from Hint and buttons from Creative Impressions in Clay.

Join us on Monday for our next monthly challenge with new sponsors and prizes!