Tutorial Tuesday: Harvest Owl Earrings

 

Inspired by this month's Art Bead Scene challenge I created these Harvest Owl Earrings for today's tutorial. These simple earrings use a petal headpin as the backdrop for a tiny charm.  

Supplies: 2 Petal Headpins, 2 Vintaj Arte Metal Owl Charms, 2 Copper Earwires
Tools: A pencil, buffing block, round and chain nose pliers, bench block, ball peen hammer

Directions:
1. Use a buffing block on the owl charms to highlight the metal details.
2. With the chain nose pliers bend the headpin to the right at an angle.
3. Wrap the headpin around a pencil to form a large loop.
4. Hold the loop with the chain nose pliers and wrap the wire under the loop several times.
5. With the wire in the front, slide on the owl charm.
6. Wrap the rest of the wire at the base of the loop, above the charm.
7. Hammer the loop with the ball peen hammer.
8. Add the earwire.

Special Offer: 
As a gift to our readers and to celebrate our new changes here at the ABS, I'm offering a special Art Bead Scene discount for Humblebeads.com from now until Friday.  Use discount code ABS20 for 20% off your order.

Thank you for following along and supporting our fun blog!  We so appreciate you!!!

Show Me Monday! with Rebecca of Songbead

Welcome to the first of my new Monday posts! Show Me Monday....well, that title will do for this week, but I feel like there should be a better title....can you think of something better for me?!

This week, I am sharing some handmade button finds. Not strictly beads, but I bet everyone reading this has a button or two (or twenty-seven!) about their bead stash. I know I certainly do. 

Orly Design

Something to do beads

Green Girl Studios

Lush Lampwork

Mamacita Beadworks

Bo Hulley Beads

Mary Harding Jewelry

Share your handmade buttony finds in the links below - and why not share any jewellery you've created, using handmade buttons? We'd love to see! Here's a bracelet of mine, featuring a gorgeous handmade pewter button from Mamacita Beadworks:

And now, kick-start your week with the Beadblogger Links:

Art Bead Scene

Check out our October monthly challenge colour palette! Spooky!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton

To celebrate the launch of our latest porcelain pendant design, we're hosting a giveaway! Find out how you can enter to win!

A Bead A Day

It's time for the big reveal at A Bead A Day! Lisa's sharing her sparkly winter necklace

Resin Crafts Blog

This fall Resin Crafts is looking for crafters/jewellers who want to show off their resin work. We are shipping a wonderful bezel to anyone who wants to participate!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!

Jean reviews the great artist and author Jamie Cloud Eakin's most recent book, Bead Embroidery Jewelry Projects, Design and Construction, Ideas and Inspiration, and does indeed find it to be VERY inspiring! 

Beading Arts

Cyndi enjoyed taking part in her friend's Sequintastic September blog hop. Come see what she made, and find links to all the rest of the gang!

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer, currently living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 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.

Studio Saturday - Humblebeads

Welcome to the last Studio Saturday post! 

What!!! I know! But don't worry - we are still doing studio posts they will just now pop up on Friday since we know everyone is off enjoying life during the weekends!

We have several new changes happening here at the ABS that we are so excited about and hope you'll love the new format too.

Monday - Rebecca will be sharing links and great finds with you.
Tuesday - watch for free tutorials every week from the ABS editors and guests.
Wednesday - Erin will be presenting Perfect Pairs - formerly known and the Featured Designer of the Week.  She will be highlighting her pick from the Flickr group and sharing information about the designer and bead artist.  (Sometimes it's the same person!)
Thursday - Great new posts from the ABS team.
Friday - Inside the Studio - formerly known as Studio Saturday. Enter to win our weekly drawing before you run off to play for the weekend.
Saturday - Art Bead Round Up - take a moment from your busy weekend to see what beads we are featuring for the weekend.
Sunday - We are taking Sunday off and encouraging you to spend some time that day creating!

The first week of the month join us for our new challenge and winners from the previous month. And Erin will be hosting a blog link party at the end of every month for those who participate in our monthly challenge.

********************

Now back to this week's Studio Saturday!  First, it's been a few weeks since our last studio visit with Erin Siegel.  Susan Delaney was our randomly picked winner and will receive an Irish Waxed Linen Cord Color Mix courtesy of the Jewelry Accord shop on Etsy! Susan please email Erin to receive your prize!

Welcome to the Humblebeads studio today!

The photos above feature work I created for the Bead Chat Magazine's October issue.  And it got me thinking about challenges, homework and assignments.  And how very much I love a good challenge, blog hop and theme.  And how rarely I join in and what to do about that!  Some of my favorite pieces of jewelry have been from challenges. 

One thing I've worked into my schedule is committing to creating a free project every month based on the Art Bead Scene's challenge. Visit me on Tuesday to see the first one!

Tips for joining challenges & blog hops and how to get the most of our them.

1. Subscribe to your favorite blogs that host regular challenges, like the Art Bead Scene, the Bead Soup Party and Treasure's Found.  I recently disovered Blog Lovin as a super easy way to follow my favorite blogs.

2. Pencil in those dates - deadlines can help really bring out the creative muse - but if you don't write them down somewhere it's hard to remember them.

3. Take great photos of your challenge piece and when you post about them, share about your creative process or inspiration.  

4. Get social - be a good participant and visit blogs on the hop or challenge.  It might not be possible to visit all of them, but be sure to check out a few new ones.  Share your favorites on social media and don't forget to share your entry on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instragram - but not all on the same day - spread the sharing throughout the week and at different times for maximum coverage.

5. Why join a monthly challenge or blog hop?  It's a great way to connect to the beading community, share your work with new people, increase visitors to your blog, you'll have new jewelry made and possible a new source of inspiration after the event. 

These are some beads I've pulled that match this month's theme! 

So this week I am giving away a $25 gift certificate to Humblebeads.com.  

All you have to do is leave a comment and we'll pick one random winner on Friday's new Inside the Studio.

What makes you want to join in a blog hop or challenge?  

Is it the theme, prizes, exposure,  you adore the host? (hello Erin?) 

And if you are feeling really chatty - what stops you from joining a challenge or blog hop?

October Monthly Challenge Color Palette

This month's challenge painting is a study is subtle shading, and uses what I call an accented neutral color palette. The majority of the colors are going to be shades of black, white, and gray, with small touches of color elsewhere. The only true colors we have to work with this month are olive greens, dark golden yellows, a dark charcoal brown, and a muted peach.

What strikes me, though, is that you can find both warm and cool shades of gray in the challenge piece, so feel free to mix those together. If you're following the painting closely, opt for clean, almost minimal designs, with a heavy emphasis on those neutrals - say 75% neutral, 25% color - to really bring the painting into your work.

Ordinarily, I'm a color fan, but this particular palette is just so lovely, and warm gray is my very favorite neutral to use. How about you - what's your favorite color from this month's challenge palette?

October Monthly Challenge Sponsors + Prizes

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

Erin Siegel Jewelry

Erin Siegel designs and make jewelry. She is an author and instructor. 

Check out her website for jewelry tutorials! 

Erin is donating a 3 Jewelry Kits valued at $55.

Visit Erin at her website, blog and Facebook.

: : :

Glass Bead Art

Marysw Fritzsch-Thillens of Glass Bead Art creates wonderfully simple, organic, rustic looking lampwork beads in her Luxembourg Studio.
These would be a great addition to your collection and designs!

Maryse is donating a $50 gift certificate to her Etsy Shop.

Visit Maryse at her Etsy Shop, Blog and Facebook.

: : :

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

Owl on Gingko Branch (Scops Owl Under Crescent Moon) by Ohara Koson has with many different elements that can be used for inspiration: owls, yellow, brown, nature, texture, birds and tonal values of colors.

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

Please remember to put OCT ABS in the title or tag of your submission(s).  

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.***

October Monthly Challenge

Owl on Gingko Branch (Scops Owl Under Crescent Moon) 1915

Ohara Koson

Woodblock Print on Paper

(Please note this art is copyrighted and is to be used only as inspiration.)

About the Art

Skillfully executed "bokashi" shading throughout; nicely visible woodgrain entire background; the crescent moon's edges, owl, and ginko leaves raised in "gauffrage"; "burnishing" to owl's black eyes; sharp key-lines, much fine detailing.

A delightful image of a little scops owl perched on a ginko tree beneath a thin crescent moon. 

About the Artist

Ohara Koson - (1877 - 1945) was a Japanese painter and printmaker of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, part of the shin-hanga (new prints) movement. He was born Ohara Matao in Kanazawa, Japan. It is thought that he started training in painting and design at the Ishikawa Prefecture Technical School in 1889-1893. He also studied painting with Suzuki Kason (1860-1919), although accounts differ on whether this happened during his school years or after he moved to Tokyo in the middle to late 1890s. In Tokyo, he produced some woodblock triptychs illustrating episodes of the Russo-Japanese War, but most of his production was prints of animals (kacho-ga). He worked at first with publishers Akiyama Buemon (Kokkeido) and Matsuki Heikichi (Daikokuya), signing his work Koson. Starting around 1926, he became associated with the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, and signed his work Shoson. He also worked with the publisher Kawaguchi, signing his works Hoson. Through his association with Watanabe, Oharas work was exhibited abroad, and his prints sold well, particularly in the United States. He was active designing prints until at least 1935, and died at his home in Tokyo in 1945.

Our Sponsors

Our Sponsors this month are Erin Siegel and Glass Bead Art.

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!
• 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 Mondays, 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 October 31st.

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 November 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 Monday 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 OCT 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 October 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.

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 Monthly Challenge Winners

Congratulations to this Month's winners! 

We have 2 winners chosen randomly from all the challenge entrants.

Our first lucky winner is Organic Odysseys. 
She has won a $50 goodie bag from Songbead's Etsy Shop, The Curious Bead Shop.

Our second lucky winner is Klassy Joolz.

She has won a $50 gift certificate from Mary Harding jewelry.

       

                Songbead                     Mary Harding Jewelry     

                 

Thank you Songbead and Mary Harding Jewelry for being our September Monthly Challenge sponsors!

Winners, please E-Mail Tari, tari@claybuttons.com with your information (Name and address) so your prizes may be sent to you.

A Big THANK YOU to everyone who entered this month using "Autumn from the Seasons Series" by Alphonse Mucha, as your inspiration. 

We were so fortunate to have so many beautiful entries and experience such creativity from our wonderful readers.

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