Glass Bead Extravaganza Review

For the past couple of months I've been busy preparing for the big show. I haven't sold my work at a show for a number of years so dipping my toes back into the water felt like a really big deal. I'm happy to say the show went well and I had fun! The show ... Glass Bead Extravaganza. This is a show organized by my local chapter of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers (ISGB), The New England Chapter - ISGB. I was surrounded by so many greats in the glass bead world. I won't name names for fear I would leave someone off but suffice it to say I was a wee bit starry eyed.

I must give a huge shout out to the Chapter's leaders and show organizers. These folks worked incredibly hard to bring this show to fruition and deserve a round of applause.

Donna Richey, Chapter President pictured with Lou Crescintini.

Deb Keshishian, Recording Secretary

Susan Sheehan, Treasurer

Doug Wales, Vice President, and Susan Sheehan

My apologies for not photographing Beth Mellor, Secretary of Communications and Debbie Harary, Special Events Coordinator. Beth was outside much of the day (on a cool, rainy New England day) providing visitors with lampworking demonstrations. Other demonstrators included Mike Close and Wes Fleming. Unfortunately (or perhaps I should say fortunately because it was busy) I was unable to leave my table long enough to get outside and see any of the demonstrations.

Here I am, at my table.

My tablemate, Lynn Hahn - Jewels of Earthsea

Lynn and I shared a table. What a wonderful tablemate Lynn was. She saved the day for me. Due to technical difficulties I was unable to access my PayPal account and Lynn happened to have an extra Square card reader with her, which she kindly let me borrow for the day. I don't know what I would've done without her help. Lynn specializes in beautiful, chunky style bracelets. I just loved her kumihimo braided pieces!

My neighbors for the day. With beautiful beads and jewelry for sale.

Sue Underwood and her helper, Andrea of Mystic Moon Beads

Carol Bugarin of Carol Bugarin Glass Art Jewelry

There were so many beautiful beads and jewelry to be oogled over but a couple of pieces really jumped out at me. Let me introduce you to Ann Conlin and her husband, Gary Andriotakis.

I think it's wonderful how Ann and Gary share this beadmaking and jewelry making journey. Ann creates beautiful lampwork beads and Gary creates stunning chain maille jewelry to accentuate Ann's wonderful beads. In the photo above you'll notice Ann is wearing one of Gary's gorgeous creations.

Ann was also offering something I've never seen before. Ann has been decorating glass beads with silver PMC! They were gorgeous! She offered a variety of designs, below is just one example.

Yup! That's silver on glass! Stunning, isn't it? You can head over to Ann's website if you'd like to learn more.

Lori Messenger of DNA Studios and Sylvia de Murias

Sylvia offered unique copper pieces for sale. I had to buy one. They are so cool!

Sylvia offered a variety of designs, it was difficult to decide which one I wanted. I am a heart girl so of course I got this one. These pieces look like ancient artifacts. Some of them have little surprises inside so they jingle when worn. I just love mine.

Sylvia sells her work locally, at The Armory in Somerville, MA or you can contact her via email if you're interested in her work.

There were so many wonderful finds at this show I couldn't possibly share them all. The web has opened up a world of possibilities for both artisans and consumers. It provides us with the opportunity to find material we might otherwise not have access to. However, If you have the chance to visit a local show I hope you do so. As a customer I think there's nothing like touching a handmade item before purchasing it and meeting the maker in person. From an artisans persective I think it's wonderful to meet customers and talk to you face to face. I really get a feel for what customers think about my offerings and what it is you're interested in.

The Bead Extravaganza was a big event for me and I'm happy I had the chance to participate. Thanks for letting me share the day with you.

Ema Kilroy is a lampworker and metalsmith living and working in Central Massachusetts

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Perfect Pairings :: Tesori Trovati Jewelry + Art Bead Scene

Since we just started the month, I know you are all percolating your ideas. There were no entries yet for this challenge painting, so I thought I would share with you what I have been working on these past few months.

You might know that I have a little component line that I call Simple Truths. I offer a Simple Truths Sampler Club where members can select a 3-, 6-, 9- or 12-month subscription to get a new mystery component each month. In 2013 I was struggling with what to use for my inspiration when it hit me. Duh. Use the challenge art on the Art Bead Scene as your guide! This allows me to also try out new techniques and processes through the Club pieces.I have been doing that ever since and it has been awesome!

Unfortunately, I had to walk out of my studio on March 7th to focus my attention on some personal family issues. I actually left the March Sampler in the toaster oven baking! I didn't walk back into my studio until April 12th and then had to pick up the pieces of where I left off and have been playing catch up ever since.

But last weekend I finally finished up the March, April and even the May Samplers all based on the artwork for the last three months right here on ABS. Woohoo! And since there were no entries yet (let's get those creative juices flowing!), I thought I would share with you what my Club members are just now receiving in their mailboxes. I like to send them the goodies with a little note about the artwork and what tickled my fancy about it, so I am sharing with you what I sent to them.

March 2014

I loved the illustration for March 2014! This so perfectly captured the way that winter was still lingering around here. The birds have come back and are slightly confused by the cold and the snow, but twittering excitedly and showing off their pretty plumage!

This made me think of how I longed to leave this frozen wasteland. I have a taste for travel and it just isn’t going away. Of course, I don’t have the wherewithal to travel at will, so I had to travel in my mind, and birds are the perfect image for that, flying off at a moment’s notice.

I release a limited edition bird pendant a few times a year. This seemed like the perfect choice! I was inspired by tribal patterns and bright colors that I was seeing everywhere and it inspired me to create a new series that I am calling Wanderlust.

wan·der·lust

noun \ˈwän-dər-ˌləst\

:  a strong desire to travel

:  strong longing for or impulse toward wandering

I will be offering this very limited edition bird on my site as well as some other pieces in the same style (you can see them in my sponsor graphic in the left column). They are impressed with stamps that I carved myself in all sorts of geometric and tribal shapes and painted with a totally different patina that gives them their bright palette and shiny finish. A complete departure from what I usually do, but I quite like the effect!

 

April 2014

This painting by Degas is a very apropos choice for me in April. You see, my own Tiny Dancer performs her big show in April each year. She does jazz, tap, modern and ballet. And this year is the first year that she was en pointe! So while she didn’t have a costume that looked like this, every time I see this painting, I think of her twirling on the tips of her toes!

I love the way Degas captured the ethereal nature of those tutus. I can almost hear them swishing as a dancer waiting in the wings. The tulle made me think of lace, and I loved the seafoam green with the flecks of peach and black. An unexpected color choice, but very rich and very now!

“On with the dance! Let joy be unconfined.”

~Lord Byron, The Eve of Waterloo

I wanted this piece to have that same tutu effect so I chose a lacy bezel setting and used an ecru blend of clay to keep it looking like old parchment. The intricate swirls of lace are colored with layers of wax pastels  for a more matte finish and the clay was embedded with some glittery embossing powder( that is hard to capture in the picture) for a subtle shimmer. From knowing my own Tiny Dancer, I can tell you that there is no more joyful experience than that of the dance. This piece is my homage to her and her fellow corps de ballet.

May 2014

What grabbed me immediately on seeing this landscape, was the strength of the tower and the graceful arches of the bridge. I am not sure that I will ever see the great structures of Europe, but I imagine that they still look like this, as if plucked from the past, immortal. I find it fascinating the engineering that goes into making these grand structures, how each brick was carefully placed by hand.

“A great building will never stand if you neglect the small bricks.”

~ Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha, life coach

I think about the foundation of my own designs. They are built around something strong and appealing, usually colorful and unique. But often it is the little bricks, the smaller beads that make the piece stand the test of time.

I created what I am calling Building Blocks, brick inspired pieces that work together as the foundation of a design or perhaps stand alone as a unique element. I always struggle with beads in polymer clay that have too tiny holes or that lose their shape from the piercing. I think I solved that with a vinyl core for more of a big hole bead, each set with unique markings and colored and antiqued for that weather brick aging. Yes, they look good enough to eat! But I hope that they will lay the foundation to some wonderful designs.

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I hope that you are inspired by the strong architectural details, the brilliant blue skies and the earthy stone color palette and create something for this month for ABS. We sure would love to see it!

If you are interested in learning more about my Simple Truths Sampler Club, there are some newly opened spots available - limit of 20 in any one month -  please check out the descriptions on my website. And occasionally I have extras of the monthly Samplers that I offer for sale...and I will get those listed as soon as possible!

May Monthly Challenge Color Palette

I absolutely love this month's challenge painting, how about you? It's so warm and inviting.

The majority of the colors in Bernardo Bellatto's Capriccio Padovano are shades of blue and orange, with a touch of olive green here and there. This works because blue and orange are complementary colors, so they are going to play off each other and look a little brighter and bolder when placed next to each other.

The blues are going to range from dark to pale, and dull to saturated. Pretty much any blue can work here, though the darker shades (like the water and shadows in the foreground) have a touch of purple in them, and the medium shades (like the blues off in the distance) can veer a little blue-green, if you're following along faithfully.

The oranges, too, will have a full range of values and saturations, though the bulk of the oranges and browns will fall in the mid to light range of shades. Look to the buildings here for guidelines, and choose browns, tans, and oranges that are a little more red-orange or yellow-orange than true orange.

And if you'd like an extra color to play with, choose an olive green, but use this sparingly. A lot of what we see as green in the painting isn't exactly green, but more of a dark yellow. Because of that, you want to stay on the yellow-green side of things (versus true green or blue-green) if you do use green.

Have fun!

Bead Events Hosted by Heather Powers

Hello dear ABS readers! Heather here, your bead-obsessed editor with news of two events that I'm hosting that I just had to share with you today.

First up is that general registration for Bead Cruise 2015 is opening up on May 8th. This is our 10th anniversary sailing.  This is a dream vacation filled with bead classes, bead parties, make-and-takes, design contests, a costume cocktail party and much more!

Our 2015 sailing is February 15th from Ft. Lauderdale, FL heading to St. Maarten, St. Kitts, San Juan and a private island called Labadee.  Yeah, a day on a private island.  It's paradise!

Pictured above is one of the classes that I'm teaching. Classes include metalwork, wirework, beading, stringing, bead embroidery, felting and polymer clay - something for everyone! Instructors include myself, Tracy Stanley, Beki Haley, Shelley Nybakke, Beverly Herman and Erin Siegel.

Beverly Herman is teaching the Star of the Sea necklace that features a ceramic cabochon from from Suburban Girl Beads.

Erin Siegel, co-author of Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry and former ABS contributor, is a guest instructor and will be teaching this fun and trendy tribal inspired knotting class.

We sold half our spaces yesterday during our early bird registration (for past cruisers) so head on over to the website and see if this is something you need to add to your travel plans for next year. If this has been on your bucket list, 2015 is the year to go! 

www.beadcruise.com

The next event is a little closer to home, in fact - right on your computer screen. I'm hosting my first online workshop on June 16th - July 7th. We'll explore color and polymer clay to make amazing beads. 

It's a four week class to learn color theory and how to create simple to complex cane designs, leading up to making this spectacular Van Gogh's Sunflower cane. You can read the details and sign up here.

May Monthly Challenge Sponsors + Prizes

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

Tesori Trovati

Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati creates one-of-a-kind pieces and jewelry components. She uses everything from precious gemstones, artisan crafted beads and findings to found objects from foreign lands or close to home. Each piece is unique in style, color and texture and is a treasure found just for you.

Erin is donating a donating 3 Simple Truths Pendants worth $50.

Visit Erin at her Etsy Shop, Website, Blog, and Facebook.

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5 Fish Designs

Krista & Karl Tseu are the wife and husband team behind 5 Fish Designs who make wonderful lampworked beads and sculptures. Krista works mainly in Italian Glass creating focals and bead set. Karl works in Boro glass making beads and sculptures.
Their beads would look great in your designs!

Krista & Karl Tseu is donating 1 bead valued at $50.

Visit Krista & Karl on Facebook, eBay and their Website.

: : :

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

Capriccio Padovano by Bernardo Bellatto has with many different elements that can be used for inspiration: Water/River, Architecture, boats, sky, clouds, mountains, shades of blues and yellow ochre.

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

Please remember to put MAY 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.***

May Monthly Challenge

Capriccio Padovano, 1741

by Bernardo Bellatto

Oil on Canvas

19.3" x 28.7" (49 x 73 cm)

About the Art

Bernardo Bellotto's style reveals a taste for what is charming and elegant. He specialized in metropolitan landscapes and historical architecture. Often using a technique called camera obscura in order to achieve the greater accuracy of his urban views. Bellotto lived during a time of political unrest and social upheaval. The old social order imposed by greedy monarchs and enforced by corrupt clergymen was buckling under freedom of the press and an intellectual movement called "The Enlightenment". People were becoming curious about modern science, art and philosophy. Venice, Bellotto's birth place, was an enchanting city of canals, art studios, vineyards, wine, rich cheeses, magnificent cathedrals and a breathtaking marina. 
The Rocco Era 'The Art of the Aristocracy', rocco is derived from "rocaille" (pebble), but the term referred in particular to the small stones and shells used to adorn the interiors of grottoes. Such shells or shell forms were the primary motifs in Rococo ornament.
The Rococo style began as a backlash against Baroque formality and stuffiness. Unlike Baroque, Rococo is not concerned with religious matters or dramatic expression. The highly decorative art and design movement began in Paris, France in the early 1700s. The style is profoundly symbolic of the self-indulgence of European aristocratic rulers. Rocco manner is characterized by graceful, enchanting, lighthearted themes and seldom features anything of substance. Paintings are animated and clever, reflecting an impishly sensual daydream. 
Rocco paintings feature effeminate male aristocrats decked out in velvet, elegant laces, prancing about in high heels. Women are garishly painted sporting dusty, grey powdered wigs. The figures are tall and willowy, stylish and charming. The faces are presented as soft and rosy, effeminate and eternally young. Noblemen are depicted wearing feminine coiffeurs, rouged lips and cheeks, often sporting womanly attire. In a way they resemble modern day drag queens. The Rocco female figures are delicate and light; the faces, are childish and sentimental. The lines of the mouth curve in soft mischief or in a delicate enchanting smile. 
Characteristic of Rococo art was paintings of wealthy carefree aristocrats at play in make-believe settings. These romantic scenes depict luxuriously costumed ladies and gentlemen flirting, picnicking and playing music at gallant country parties. The background scenery is often a serene natural setting with delicate trees and sprays of roses. Colors are a profusion of soothing, light pastels. The Rococo movement was initially restricted to France, later spreading to all of Europe and above all to Germany. The movement continued to develop until the arrival of Neoclassicism which attempted to return to the purism of classical antiquity. 

About the Artist

Bernardo Bellotto, 1721-1780 was an Italian urban landscape painter or vedutista, and printmaker in etching famous for his vedute of European cities (Dresden, Vienna, Turin and Warsaw). He was the pupil and nephew of Canaletto and sometimes used the latter's illustrious name, signing himself as Bernardo Canaletto. In Germany and Poland, Bellotto called himself by his uncle's name, Canaletto.

Bellotto's style was characterized by elaborate representation of architectural and natural vistas, and by the specific quality of each place's lighting. It is plausible that Bellotto, and other Venetian masters of vedute, may have used the camera obscura in order to achieve superior precision of urban views.

Bellotto was born in Venice, the son of Lorenzo Antonio Bellotto and Fiorenza Canal, sister of the famous Canaletto, and studied in his uncle's workshop.

In 1742 he moved to Rome, where he produced vedute of that city. In 1744 and 1745 he traveled northern Italy, again depicting vedute of each city. Among others, he worked for Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy.

From 1747 to 1758 he moved to Dresden, following an invitation from King August III of Poland. He created paintings of the cities Dresden and Pirna and their surroundings. Today these paintings preserve a memory of Dresden's former beauty, which was destroyed by bombing during World War II.

His international reputation grew, and in 1758 he accepted an invitation from Empress Maria Theresa to come to Vienna, where he painted views of the city's monuments. Thereafter he worked in Munich and then again in Dresden.

When King August III of Poland, also an Elector of Saxony, who usually lived in Dresden, died in 1763, Bellotto's work became less important in Dresden. As a consequence, he left Dresden to seek employment in St Petersburg at the court of Catherine II of Russia. On his way to St. Petersburg, however, Bellotto accepted an invitation in 1764 from Poland's newly elected King Stanisław August Poniatowski to become his court painter in Warsaw.

Here he remained some 16 years, for the rest of his life, as court painter to the King, for whom he painted numerous views of the Polish capital and its environs for the Royal Castle in Warsaw, complement of the great historical paintings commissioned by Poniatowski from Marcello Bacciarelli. His paintings of Warsaw, later relocated to Moscow and Leningrad, were restored to the Polish Communist Government and were used in rebuilding the city after its near-complete destruction by German troops during World War II. 

Our Sponsors

Our Sponsors this month are Tesori Trovati and 5 Fish Designs.

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 May 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 June 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 MAY 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 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.

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.

April 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 Lise Anderson.

She has won $50 gift certificate from Humblebeads.

Our second lucky winner is Melissa Trudinger/BeadRecipes.

She has won $50 gift certificate from The Art of the Bead.

           Humblebeads                   The Art of the Bead    

               

Thank you Humblebeads and The Art of the Bead for being our March 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 "Swaying Dancer (Dancer in Green)" by Edgar Degas , 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 May's challenge brings.