Sunday, May 17, 2015

Inside the Studio: Humblebeads

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.

Congratulations to Renetha Stanziano!

You have won a gift certificate to spend at Claire's bead or jewelry shop! 
Send Claire an email to claim your gift certificate. 

Hello there! You are back in the Humblebeads' studio today and I'm sharing my pieces inspired by this month's Art Bead Scene challenge. I picked bright and cheery colors from the painting and beads that captured the exuberance of this amazing artwork! 


I mentioned before that the painting reminded me of feathers which led me to pull out some beads and striped disks from my collection. I paired them up with lampwork from Sea of Glass, ceramic rounds from White Clover Kiln and the word bead from Diane Hawkey. I wanted something that pulled in all those wonderful colors. I used the dark textured chain to ground the colors. You can find that chain from Stinky Dog Beads.

My next necklace features the most amazing art bead that I picked up at Bead Fest last year from artist Kris Schaible. I spent such a long time admiring her beads, I think I looked at everyone at least 5 times. I finally picked this bead, the colors called to me and the black outlines reminded me of butterfly wings. I kept the design simple with a lampwork bead from Sea of Glass and one of my bird beads. Again another fancy chain from Stinky Dog Beads.




My last design features a focal from our very own Tari Sasser of Claybuttons.com. Tari makes much more than buttons! Almost every design on her site can be made into a pendant. Another Humblebeads bird made it's way into this creation. The necklace is knotted ceramic beads from White Clover Kiln and stones in peach and minty green. 

So my question this week is why haven't you entered our monthly challenge yet?  Leave a comment below for a chance to win a $20 gift certificate from Humblebeads.com. We will pick one random winner on Friday. 

Need more inspiration? Check out the $150 worth of beads we are giving away this month!

16 comments:

lamplight crafts said...

I am working on various designs for my challenge piece. The inspiration pic is too busy for my brain, but I think I have narrowed it down.

Patti P. said...

I'm workin on it!! 😉. So many colors so I am still gathering! Your pieces are Beautiful!!

Klassy Joolz said...

I love entering the Challenges and I will again...hopefully even this month...love the colors.

Unknown said...

Oh my Heather your pieces are perfection, as always! I love the way the colors fade into eachother in the first one, I must get my hands on some of your disk beads! 😄

Linda said...

Why haven't I entered yet this month - too much brain clutter! But I've done so now! :)

Deb Fortin said...

Love your necklace and the beads in it.
I wish I had a stash of art beads but alas all I own are store bought ones or gemstone beads; the copper pendants I make with recycled copper, or the metal clay pendants I have made over the past few years aren't beads, so that is why I don't participate in the monthly challenge.

Sarah said...

I love your creations! All very beautiful and lovely balance of color and interest. I made my beads last night and now comes the fun part of assemblage! Love the ABS challenge.

Alice said...

I love your colorful pieces. The beads you chose are just perfect for this month's Challenge.
To answer your question I have been knee deep in graduations and just getting over a bad bug.

Sarajo Wentling said...

I was on vacation when the inspiration artwork was revealed and have only been home a few days (that have been crazy busy). I'm hoping to tackle this challenge this week... we'll see how it all goes!

baymoondesign said...

Your colors and jewelry are perfect for the piece. I had a rough time with the inspiration piece. It was just overwhelming with all of the colors and geometric shapes. It wasn't until I focus one just one part and use one of your palettes of colors that I was able to focus on a design. I found this to be a very challenging piece.

Heather Tinkham said...

I have been itching to get working on the challenge since I first saw it! I love the different aspects you focused on here.
I haven't gotten started because we just finished participating in a huge Art Crawl (Art-A-Whirl, 20th anniversary) in Northeast Minneapolis, so all energy until today has been focused on getting that ready. We had thousands of people through the studio building over the weekend.
I do have a display about the ABS challenge that shows the inspiration pieces and my work from them that gained a lot of interest and sparked some wonderful conversations, especially with young art students.

Bijoux Gems Joy said...

Things have been crazy busy this month. I will start working on something in the next couple of days. Like a lot of other folks I was overwhelmed by all that was happening in the artwork. I had just decided to break it down into different sections, smaller than quadrants, when Tari's colour palette blog was published. That and your optional palettes have helped bring focus. I even printed off all the palettes to have at my bench as inspiration. Looking forward to starting.

Erin S said...

I HAVE done the challenge a few times in the past, but not lately, mostly due to time restrictions. (I know, lame excuse.) I actually love this month's month's art, so there's really no excuse!

Carol Briody said...

All so pretty, Heather! These are all perfect! I missed last Month's Challenge due to a few family matters that needed immediate attention. So I am hoping to catch up this month!

Gloria Allen said...

I was getting myself together for the Bsue workshop last week. I intend to have my piece in next week. Love the Necklaces, the second is my favorite so light and springy.

haezz said...

I've not entered yet as my art bead stash is limited. Every month or so it grows; perhaps I'll be able to create a piece very soon. I hope!
Your finished pieces are inspiring. Maybe I'll give it a try this month anyway...