Findings Worth Finding

I have been dreaming up all sorts of ideas using these fun flexible beads that Mallory Hoffman had used with one of my Jangles beads back in March. I fell in love with the bracelet and the flexible beads. The company is called Bead Me a Story and the artist is Mary Soucy. She has all colors of tubes and rings. Check out here website for loads of ideas using the beads.
Have fun!
Jennifer

Bracelet by Mallory Hoffman

Featured Designer of the Week - Stories They Tell

Each Monday we feature the Designer of the Week. One of our editors pick their favorite from the Monthly Challenge entries.

This week Heather picked Stories They Tell, Lascaux Necklace. Heather noted, "I couldn't think of more perfect color combination for this month's challenge. I love Christine's polymer clay beads that are obviously inspired directly by the cave paintings. I love the combination of metal, shell and clay to complete the primitive look." To see more of Christine's work please visit her etsy shop.

Want to see your work featured on the Art Bead Scene? Our theme for the month of July is Lascaux Cave paintings. The deadline to enter for the monthly prize is June 31st! Create something that combines the theme with art beads and then send in your submission for the July Challenge.

Sundays with Cindy

Good morning Beady Readers!

Melissa Lee gets the prize this week for the most outrageous beads - check out her blog to see what they are:

Strands of Beads
Melissa wants to know what outrageous materials are in your beading stash?

Well, was it "ewww?" or "cool?" Let us know by leaving a comment :-)


The alchemist is coming out in several of our beady bloggers - Copper metal clay is all the rage for Cyndi and Tammy. Andrew is pressing coins in Bronze metal clay.
Beading Arts
Cyndi reports on her experiences with firing and finishing CopprClay pieces. This stuff rocks!

About.com Jewelry Making
Heard about copper clay or coppr clay? Find out more about this great new metal clay product and check out some new metal clay projects too.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Stop by and say hello to Andrew in Charlotte, NC this weekend. Check out his new designs and some delicious new metal clay coins!
(Andrew's coins are pictured below - picture courtesy of his blog)




Carmi, Cindy and Lorelei are trying out something new:

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi tries Ice Resin and upcycles a greeting card into a necklace.

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
Cindy learns to make murrini and deals with mud. (Russ likes the murrini - photo courtesy of Cindy's blog)


Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Instead of continuing on with the tried and true techniques of jewelry design, Lorelei is finally ready to take the leap and try something new.


New designs and projects....
A Bead A Day
Do you love Swarovski Crystals? Inspired by talented jewelry designer, Lillian Chen, Lisa creates a Swarovski “sculpture” ring.

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Sometimes you need to have a jewelry makeover.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Even without a lot of time on her hands, Melanie finishes a clockwork themed bracelet using Swarovski faceted rings from ArtBeads.com.

Jean Campbell Ink: Eureka!
Jean gives a sneak peek of her next Beadwork magazine piece.

Katie's Beading Blog
Check out Katie's wire-wrapped dragonfly!



Heather of Humblebeads shares her Bead and Button buys....
Humblebeads
Bead & Button stash and Heather's inspired creations.



Jean and ABS get creative...
Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean gets her cool stash from Use the Muse II, and muses about it.

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene gets creative with the "Best of ABS."



Read any good beady news? Leave us a comment and tell us about it!

Studio Saturday - On the Go

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 Alice. Congratulations! You have won a Kandinsky button from Creative Impressions in Clay. Send Tari an e-mail with your address and she will get it right out to you.

Welcome to the Humblebeads mobile studio. I'm out and about this weekend. If you follow my blog you know that I'm in Michigan for most of July. Of course I packed more beads & supplies than clothes. This is a working vacation for me and I knew I'd have to make beads while I was here. I'm looking forward to working on some ideas that have been rolling around in my head, taking a break from production work. It's nice to not 'have' to make beads but to branch out with some new ideas. My vacation time is always a chance to refill the 'creative well'. (Above is a simple necklace I made to wear to on my vacation!)

Along with my fun beadmaking we are planning some adventures in resin and metal etching. The we is Rosanne from FabFibers. Rosanne and I have been stashing away supplies for the last few months. I have an awesome collection of bezels to fill from Susan Lenart Kazmer and Vintaj. I have been hunting used book stores for images to use along with tiny starfish, mica glitter and a sundry of goodies.

My mom and I did some bottle caps with diamond glaze earlier this year. It was fun, but I'm not crazy about the bottle cap things, so I've kept them under wraps. I used some of my canes that were baked and sliced. I plan to do that again for the new ones.

So I have to ask a question of you, if you had a free week to experiment or work on a new project what would you do? Leave a comment and I will send you one of my experiments from this week's beadmaking sessions.

Monthly Challenge Prizes

There are 3 different prizes again this month! We love our sponsors!

Please let us know if you have an interest in being a sponsor for one of our monthly challenges.

In keeping with the flavor of the Lascaux Cave Painting posted yesterday, Cindy Gimbrone is offering a selection of The Glyph Series beads, antique silver coated ceramic beads and a faux stone hand pendant.

BeadLady features Green Girl Studio's wonderful pewter beads is giving the 2 beads show to the lucky winner of the July challenge. April&Bruce are a husband and wife team who sell the full GGS line of beads in their Etsy store.

Evie's Tool Emporium will be giving the lucky winner a $25 Gift Certificate to be use in their Etsy Store! How cool is that! There are so many items to choose from; metal stamp sets, hammers, pliers, dapping block etc. It will be great fun choosing!

Get your Art Beads, Buttons, Charms or Pendants out and start creating! Lascaux Cave Paintings is an earthy inspiration for your creations!

Monthly Challenge

The inspiration for this month's challenge is from Lascaux Cave paintings.

Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. They contain some of the most well-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 16,000 years old. They primarily consist of realistic images of large animals. Rooms in the cave include The Great Hall of the Bulls, the Lateral Passage, the Shaft of the Dead Man, the Chamber of Engravings, the Painted Gallery, and the Chamber of Felines.
Have fun with the earthy color palette of reds, yellows, and browns. Pull out the yummy art beads, grab a few accent 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 August 1st.
Our sponsors this month will be revealed tomorrow, 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.***

. 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 JULYABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Deadline is July 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.

June Challenge Winner

Holly's Folly Kandinsky Project 1
Originally uploaded by HollysFollyGlass

Congratulations to HollysFollyGlass! You are the winner for this month's challenge. This entry was randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries this month. Holly has won beads from Artisan Clay, Creative Impressions in Clay, and Round Rabbit

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