Amuse the Muse - birds and butterflies - with Rebecca of Songbead

Happy Easter Monday everyone! We have today as a public holiday here in the UK, although I have, as usual been working anyway - such is life when you're self-employed! For me at least. I have a spa day (a late christmas gift) booked on Friday (eek!) and so I thought I'd do some work today so that I can really enjoy that. I rare treat for me! 

Anyway, enough about that. Sharp-brained readers may have realised that today is my last ABS post. Gulp! If you've missed that news, then you can check out my proper farewell post here. Things are moving and a-chainging and shifting, and it feels like, however hard it is (and it is/was a very difficult decision), it's the right thing for me just now. 

But I'm not going to bog this post down with sad farewells - been there, done, that - and anyway, you're here to see the beads! Right?! 

Here's what I found for you this week:

Donna Millard - adore these colours! Just look at that 'paint swirl' on the body of the wee birdie - swoon.

Round Rabbit - hitting Nancy's shop tomorrow at 12pm EST! You'll have to get in the queue behind me, hehe!

Genea - imagine what beautiful butterfly jewellery you could make with these gorgeous wing beads!

Tupper's Perch - love love love the speckles!

Metamorphic Beads - I find this sort of detailed glasswork nothing short of mind-blowing!

More wonderful colour choices from Pink Blue Sky! Love these cute, rustic birdies. 

Grubbi - these punchy colours work wonders together!

Robin the Raven - I love the rich, saturated colours on these polymer pieces!

And really, how cute are these wee birdies from the aptly names Charming Bluebird?

And so - gulp - that's me signing off for now. Like I said in my post earlier this month, it's definitely au revoir. I'll be back, as a reader and as a guest blogger so you will be seeing me sooner rather than later!. Thank you to you the readers, and thank you to my wonderful co-editors. It's been a huge pleasure, and I will miss being part of this art powerhouse so much - so keep in touch over on my blog and Facebook. And keep on showing your art bead love! I know I will :-)

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer; currently living in the capital city of Edinburgh. 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.

Amuse the Muse - birds and butterflies - with Rebecca of Songbead

Hello lovely ABS-ers! I don't know about you, but Spring has truly sprung these past few days here in Edinburgh. Yesterday I had a perfectly gorgeous spring-y day - a walk on Portobello beach with a friend's doggie, splashing about in the waves and drinking lots of cups of tea. All that was missing was beads and it would have been perfect! 

So here are a few perfectly gorgeous Spring-y beads for you this week - more beautiful birds and butterflies to inspire you:

Glass Daft 

ABS's newest team member - Anne of Gardanne Beads!

Shy Gar Shop

Areto Beads 

I've got a whole new bounty of beads in at The Curious Bead Shop, including this beautiful glass peacock button. 

Lori Lochner

Glass Magic

Jewelry Beads by Katie

Lindsay Drake Beads

Scorched Earth on Etsy

Have a great week everyone! I hope you're able to get out and enjoy yourselves - and have some fun with art beads too!

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer; currently living in the capital city of Edinburgh. 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.

Amuse the Muse - birds and butterflies - with Rebecca of Songbead

It's Monday - it's Amuse the Muse! If you read my Inside the Studio post this last Friday, you'll know that I won't be writing these for very much longer (sniff!), but happily, I still have a few of these left until I'm signing off at the end of the month. And boy, have I chosen the perfect theme for me to close this chapter with! Birds and butterflies? Yes please! I know that sometimes they can seem cliched and overdone - but that's just an added challenge, isn't it? As they say in Portlandia, I do love to 'put a bird on it'. 

Here's what I came across this week:

Gaysie May

Pink Blue Sky

Kiln Fired Art

Christine's Jewellery Box

Masque Beads

Kitz Bitz Art Glass

Laila Strazdina

Violet Vox

That's it for this Monday. Have a great week everyone!

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer; currently living in the capital city of Edinburgh. 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.

Amuse the Muse - birds and butterflies - with Rebecca of Songbead

Happy Monday everyone! It's March. Who's feeling happy about that? *Puts both hands up* Yep, I'm super happy that Spring is springing here in the UK - days are getting longer, there's a bit more sunshine about and (despite some snow in parts this week!) things are generally a little bit less bitter than they have been! 

As I'm in the mindset of Spring - change, growth and regeneration - I thought that this month we'd look at things with wings - butterflies and birds. Some of my favourite elements to work with - sure, they can both be overdone, but that's because they are such enduring symbols of growth and change - and also rather pretty!

Firstly, a pair of earrings of mine along this theme:

I just love this design - sweet birdies, handwoven colours glass orbs and then the airiness of the open rings and tiny flowers beneath. Pretty much classic Songbead! I love long earrings, but the negative space and the way the flowers can move give this pair a fluttering delicacy that makes me happy. Handwoven glass {song}beads, sterling silver rings, pins and earwires from me (you can shop most of these at The Curious Bead Shop), porcelain birdies from Something to do beads. You can pick up these earrings here.

Let's look at some offerings from the Art Bead Scene Team:

Tarri Sasser - love the delicacy of the dragonfly's wings!

Mary Harding - take a stroll through Mary's shop and you will really imagine that you are with her in her garden - it's wonderful!

Heather Millican - Swoondimples - Heather has a whole selection of cheeky, chattering birds in her shop at the moment - I struggled to choose but these ones looked so happy on their bright blue backdrop!

Michelle McCarthy - Firefly Design Studio - Michelle has a couple of there feathers in her shop - I just love this mottled glaze, absolutely beautiful!

Heather Powers - Humblebeads - the colours of Heather's pendant are just magical! I love how the magenta, burnt umber and amethyst purple melt into one another.

Tesoro Trovati - Erin Prais-Hintz - and last but not least, Erin's pendant really just sums up what March feels like to me. Potential, positivity and hope. 

If you have any bird, butterfly or other winged creature beads that you'd like to share then do leave your links in the comments below - we'd love to see! 

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer; currently living in the capital city of Edinburgh. 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.

Inside the Studio with Mary Harding

Welcome to Inside the Studio!

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, Lori Bowring Michaud!! You have won a set of three Tropical Tide Pool Beads from Erin Prais-Hintz.   Please send Erin an email  with your information so she can mail that out to you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today we visit the studio of

Mary Harding

of

MaryHardingJewelry

I am delighted to be back again this month filling in for a team member.

 I want to thank one and all of you for your very interesting and thoughtful comments about your studio space that you left here last time I posted.  I have read every one of them and have learned a great deal about how varied our needs as artists are.  I think as a whole all of us want that special room of our own so that we can have  our creative supplies at hand and not have to feel interrupted by putting them away before we are ready to.  And for many different reasons we would choose to be in our homes or in a studio separate from where we live.

I also was so delighted at everyone's response to our old barn and the studio spaces inside of it. Again, thank you so much for your wonderful comments.

Ceramic Birds     Mary Harding

Today we are visiting my studio to look at some birds I have been making.  I have been inspired by the subject of our March Monthly Challenge, Birds on Riser, by Adolf Dietrich.

My birds don't look much like the ones in Dietrich's painting since I am going for a more folk art style bird.  I am hoping that they have a presence but don't convey a specific species of bird.

I make all of my birds by hand forming rather than using a mold.  I start with a ball of clay that will turn into a bird. It is surprising to me what a small amount of clay it takes to make a bird.  

After I roll out a ball of clay, I pinch it to rough out the bird shape as in the pictures above.

picture of clay shaper, ball stylus, orange stick(manicure tool)  and wooden skewer

Once I am satisfied with the shape of the bird,  I use these tools, in the picture above, to add some markings for texture and use the wooden skewer for making the stringing hole.

Birds beads with textures  not yet fired in the kiln

Yesterday afternoon I spent some time painting the birds I had made recently. You can see I work in small batches.  They will be coming out of the kiln in time for this post. 

Birds that have been bisque fired and are now ready for painting/glazing and one then one more firing in the kiln.

Finished Birds  Painted and Glazed by Mary Harding

in my Etsy shop

Now for the question:  Other than birds, what is your favorite creature to include in your bead work?  Leave a comment below to be entered to  win a pair of my hand formed ceramic birds like the ones in these pictures.  A winner will be picked randomly and will be announced next week.

Thanks so much for stopping by.
Posted by Mary Harding

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:

Tupper's Perch

Elise Thomas

The Glass Bunny

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

Blueberri Beads

Areto Beads Jewellery 

- 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 ~

A Bead A Day

There are lots of heart beads and charms floating around these days! Lisa's sharing a fun heart & chain project from PrimaBead.com.

Art Bead Scene

Check out more Pinterest Inspiration Board advice from Kylie Parry!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton

Busy, busy, busy! Andrew shares some of the things he's been up to lately!

ACreativeDream

A few more folk art dolls before moving on to mail art!

Hooking Up

Even the furry children need something soft to snuggle with. Here's an easy little afghan for them or a lap-ghan for you. 

Resin Crafts Blog

You'll never wonder what to put in resin again after viewing the 60+ artist submissions currently on the Resin Crafts Blog. Twenty more will be added next week!

Carmi's Art/Life World

I have never made a baby mobile. It was so much fun to create one with Peter Rabbit imagery from Crafter's Companion.

Valentine Craft Project Ideas

Are you looking for some Valentine's Day inspiration? The Artful Crafter has everything from card designs, to decorated candles, recipes and more. Do you know what a bagalope is or how to make a multicolored heart shaped crayon?

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!

Marcia DeCoster's new book, Marcia DeCoster Presents, is a great inspiration! See Jean's review of this unique collection of interviews of 30 of the most remarkable beading stars in the world on jean's blog, and comment if you are a US resident for the GIVEAWAY, ENDING FEB. 6th! 

Mixed Media Artist

Cyndi is taking her resolution to use up previously made samples veeeeeery seriously!

Beading Arts

The Bead Journal Project has started up again for a seventh session! Here's how to get involved, or just to enjoy the eye-candy!

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.