Thursday, February 6, 2014

February Monthly Challenge Sponsors + Prizes

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

Rebecca Anderson of Songbead makes wonderful jewelry from beads, notions and other curiosities.  Rebecca offers Czech glass beads, handmade findings and waxed linen cord at The Curious Bead Shop on Etsy, perfect to compliment your art beads. Hop over there to see all the fun stuff she has to offer!

Rebecca is donating over $50 in findings and curiosities from her Etsy Shop.

: : :
Earth Butter Beads

Desiree Malan of Earth Butter Beads founded EBB as a means of providing part-time employment for single mothers from impoverished communities in the surrounding rural areas.
Beads are hand-rolled and hand-painted to produce little ceramic works of art, in which even the fingerprints of the bead-makers often remain, making each bead truly 'one-of-a-kind'. Beautiful, colourfast and durable. Earth Butter Beads will enhance any jewellery or craft project. 

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

Visit Desiree at her Blog, Website, Etsy Shop, and Facebook.
: : :
Submit photos of your wonderful creations using one or more Art Beads.
The Rose Garden by Paul Klee has with many different elements that can be used for inspiration: pinks, reds, fuchsia, yellows, buildings, lines and cubism.
We can't wait to see where your creativity takes you with the art for this months challenge! 
Please remember to put FEB 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.***

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

February Monthly Challenge

The Rose Garden, 1920 
by Paul Klee
Oil on cardboard
19 1/4 x 16 3/4 in. (49 x 42.5 cm)

About the Art
Cubism had a heavy influence on Swiss-born artist and graphic designer Paul Klee, as demonstrated by the flat 2 dimensional planes and geometric shapes in his painting but his ambitions with colour never faltered. 
In his painting of The Rose Garden, Klee broke down the scene into well-defined lines and painted with various patches of a single predominant color. Different objects in the picture (such as a church, tower, fish, etc.) were outlined blocks before adding various tones of a single color to create depth and a multi-dimensional picture. The effect is that you see something new each time you look at the picture from a different perspective. The painting looks like a patchwork quilt, but with more dimension. 

About the Artist

'Art does not reproduce the visible but makes visible' Paul Klee


Paul Klee (1879-1940) is one of the 20th century's most influential and much-loved artists. He is best known for his vibrant colour compositions, cosmic metaphors and fantastic landscapes. Much has been made of their inventiveness and of their humour however Klee’s charm as a storyteller conceals a profound exploration of picture-making which produced one of the most original bodies of work realised by a modern artist.


Our Sponsors
Our Sponsors this month are Songbead and Earth Butter Beads.
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 February 28th.

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 March 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 FEB 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 February 28thPhotos 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.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

January Monthly Challenge Winners

Congratulations to this Month's winners! 
1 winner was chosen randomly from all the challenge entrants.
1 winner was chosen randomly from the InLinkz blog entries
Our first lucky winner is Jill Palumbo.
She has won a assortment of components and buttons worth over $50 from Creative Impressions In Clay.

Our second lucky winner is Rebecca Payne/TreeWingsStudio.
She has won $50 gift certificate from Mona's Lampwork.

        Creative Impressions In Clay          Mona's Lampwork               
                 

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 "Textile Design for Cretonne" by Lois Mailou Jonesas 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 Febuary's challenge brings.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Amuse Your Muse Monday with Rebecca of Songbead

Happy February to you all! If you're anything like me, you'll be glad to see the back of January. It's such a looooong month - cold, dark, dreary, wet - and with February to follow! And although February is similar weather-wise, it is short, and is followed by March. Which is still a bit chilly, but it does have the promise of Spring. There is light at the end of February's tunnel! Hope for sunnier weather, longer days and light! LIGHT is what I am missing more than anything right now. 

In keeping with the peek of light that February brings, this month's theme is birds. Here's one of my favourite poems that I come back to again and again, which perfectly captures the imagery of birds and hope - their fragility and yet their tenacity.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

Emily Dickinson

Here are some bird beads I find particularly inspiring:






And another from The Glass Bunny - too sweet not to also share!



- like me, based in Northern Ireland! Very happy to discover this seller :-)




Now, before I wrap up this post, I want to share some beads from last month's RED theme. Monique of A Half-Baked Notion linked to some beautiful mosaic polymer pendants she had created for a blog hop. She mentioned that because she does not sell her beads, they might not be appropriate to share here on Art Bead Scene. This couldn't be further from the truth! Please, please please - share what you have created with us! We want to see where you are going in your art bead journey - whether you buy from others, or create your own, or both. Here are Monique's pendants - aren't you glad that she shared them?


And now for the BeadBlogger Links ~












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.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Tutorial: Double Wrap Spruce Bough Bracelet


                                       Double Wrap Spruce Bough Bracelet by Mary Harding


My tutorial for today is a Winter themed double wrap bracelet made with one of my ceramic spruce bough bracelet bars,  lots of gorgeous chain and a smattering of blue green beads.  Before we get started I want to thank all of you for your very kind and supportive comments on my Introduction post.  I so appreciate such a warm welcome.

           This double wrap fir bough bracelet is made like a long chain--measures 16 1/2 inches end to end  It fits a 6 1/2 inch wrist comfortably.

Materials

1 ceramic spruce bough bracelet bar (www.maryhardingjewelry.etsy.com)
3 blue green  8 mm enameled copper beads:  2 round and one oblong (www.artisanbeadsplus.etsy.com)
3-6  inches of blue green patinated 10mm oval copper chain  (www.missficklemedia.etsy.com)
6 3-4 mm green jade stones
1 Large copper S clasp 1 1/2 inches long  in black or antique copper  (see tutorial by Cindy Wimmer  Here for directions on how to wire wrap this clasp)
6-7 inches of lightbulb links made from 16 gauge copper wire (see Cindy Wimmer's book The Mssing Link for directions on how to make this link  on page 41) 
1 loopty loop link (see Cindy Wimmer's book The Missing Link for directions on how to make on page 45 )
8 inches  20 gauge antiqued copper wire from Vintaj available in craft stores
3 feet of 22 gauge antiqued copper wire from Vintaj available in craft stores
2 11mm brass jump rings (www.ornamentea.com)
1 16 mm antiqued copper jump ring 16 gauge (www.ornamentea.com)

Tools
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Bailing pliers Smallest size
Flush Cutters
Tools for making the Cindy Wimmer links are included in those project directions 



Overview of how we are going to make this double wrap bracelet starting from your left of the spruce bough bracelet bar

Step 1  Flush cut an 8 inch piece of the 20 gauge wire and wire wrap loops on both ends of one of the round enamel beads.

                                                         wire wrapped enamel bead

Step 2 Attach the wire wrapped enamel bead to the spruce bough bracelet bar with one of the 11mm antique brass jump rings

                                               enamel bead attached to spruce bough bracelet bar

Step 3  Open a link in one end of the blue green copper chain and attach it to the other wire wrapped loop of the round enamel bead

round enamel bead attached to the blue green copper chain

Step 4   Open one end of  the loopty loop link
open end of loopty loop link


Step 5   Attach the loopty loop link to the blue green copper chain
loopty  loop link attached to the blue green copper chain



Step 6   Open the other end of the loopty loop link and attach it to the first long loop of the light bulb link chain
attaching loopty loop to light bulb chain



Step 7  On the 2nd  link of the light bulb chain open up the long side

                                                   opened long side of the light bulb link

and slide  one of the blue green enamel beads onto the wire and then close up the link
                                               enamel bead strung onto the light bulb link

Step 8  Open the 4th link in the light bulb chain and slide on the oblong green enamel bead as you did in Step 7

                                                 oblong enamel bead attached to light bulb link


Step 7 On the last link in the light bulb chain, open the small side of the link and attach it to the bottom of the large wire wrapped S clasp

                                            light bulb link attached to the bottom of the S clasp

Step 8  Wire wrap the small jade green stones with the 22 gauge antiqued copper wire using the larger barrel of the small bailing pliers to make the loops. 

             small barrel bailing pliers one barrel is larger than the other  use that one to wrap the loops




Attach the stones to each other as you go until you have a chain of 6 beads. It should measure about 4 1/2 inches long.
                         wire wrapped small stones attached to each other as in a chain


Step 9  Fold this chain in half and insert an 11mm jump ring in one of the wire wrapped loops at the fold.  Then attach the 11 mm jump ring and chain to the spruce bough bracelet bar.
                                jump ring in loop of small wire wrapped bead at the fold





Step 10  Attach the 16 mm jump ring to the two wire wrapped loops at the open end of the wire wrapped chain of small green stones.



   The S clasp will hook into the 16 mm jump ring to close the bracelet.  The 11 mm brass ring attaches the small green stone chain to the  bracelet bar


Step 11 Wrap the chain you have just constructed around your wrist  two times and hook the clasp into the 16 mm jump ring that you had attached to the wire wrapped beads.  Make adjustments to the length of the bracelet by adding or subtracting links from the blue green copper chain  until it fits you the way you like it. 



Step 12. Enjoy wearing your new bracelet.


I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and it gave you some ideas for making one of your own.  Thank you for stopping by.

Art Beads
Spruce bough bracelet bar Mary Harding
Enamel beads  Artisan Beads Plus


                                              Spruce bough  and spruce bough bracelet bar




Posted by Mary Harding