October Monthly Challenge

This month's inspiration painting was chosen by ABS editor Jennifer Heynen/Jangles who has been taking folk art classes.

Piano Playing Cow by Ruby C. Williams

"Along the highways of central Florida, there are plenty of produce stands offering just-picked local crops. But the stand run by Ruby C. Williams is definitely unique. Ruby and her family farm the same land that has been in their family since slavery. Some years back while waiting for the next car to stop, Ruby began painting signs on scrap wood advertising the

butterbeans, strawberries and other seasonal goodies that she had on hand. The painted signs soon became as popular as the produce. Ruby’s bright paintings are rich with folk wisdom and observations of human behavior. Over the years she has developed many recurring characters and phrases. Her little produce stand/artist studio has become a colorful environment where the local community holds an annual celebration in her honor. Check out Ruby’s website on folkvine."

Have fun with this color palette of bright red, blue and orange along with the boldness of black and white. Pull out the striped art beads, layout some fall colored 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 July 1st.

Our sponsors this month are 2 special clay artists Diane Hawkey and Jangles, 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
OCTABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Deadline is September 30th. 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.