Art Bead Evolutions :: Tropicalico

There are sooooo many possibilities with this month's inspiration art..... stormy sky.... blowing leaves... waving grasses.... tiger stripes..... and of course with so many choices it is really hard to choose! Also, since I am full-on in the midst of creating kits for the two classes that I am teaching at the upcoming Adornments Retreat (time is running out but there is still space in classes and we would LOVE to see you!), and Sunday night we celebrated my husband's 49th birthday with dinner out and a Phil Vassar concert (Ended up in the FRONT ROW, which was awesome, until mid way through the concert they didn't hold back the people who just bought general admission so then we couldn't see a thing for the drunk hoards that careened in front of us )...so, needless to say, I was very short on time. 

We were so close to Phil that it was like we were practically best friends. Soooo good!
In addition to his own songs - and he has written so many great songs that other artists have made famous -
he did an amazing rendition of Come, Sail Away and Piano Man that had has all singing.
Hey! I just noticed how awesome his background looks and works so well with this month's palette!

I toyed around with the idea to make a sort of modified tiger stripe cane, but I also know how hard it is to create a beautiful cane (which is why I will gladly buy any beautiful caned work from my favorite polymer clay artists!), so I knew that was not going to make sense for me even if I had the time, because I clearly lack the patience. So I settled on focusing on the color palette and a very simple stylized leaf shape, since the jungle foliage dominates the entire scene.

I started by mixing all my own colors. That is something that I spent a lot of time on in the Julie Picarello class at the Bead & Button show. Sure, right out of the package there are a vast variety of greens along with gold and yellow and russet red and flame orange, but Julie really instilled in me that you need to take it just another step to make it great. These colors are all very earthy and while bright they are a bit more subdued in hue. I think they play well together.

Next I spent some time cutting out strips in varying widths and laid them on the diagonal on a backing sheet of black.

Finally, I cut them into an inverted teardrop shape for a mod leaf, slightly off center, adding texture to various parts.

And.....that is where I left off.

I am actually not sure what will happen next! Perhaps some more distressing.... definitely some patina.... not really sure where I am going with this. I am baking some up right now to experiment with some options. With any luck, I will have some to share at the Adornments Retreat! ;-)