Designer of the Week: Bay Moon Design

Each week the Art Bead Scene features a Designer of the Week.
One of our editors picks her favorite from the Monthly Challenge entries.

  This week's winner is Kathy of Bay Moon Designs!

Here is what editor Erin Siegel had to say about the design:

" I love the natural, organic design of this necklace. The freeform sea glass and the swirling polymer clay art beads convey the natural feel. The colors in this necklace are spot on and a perfect match with the inspiration art! "

You can read more about Kathy's design on her blog: Bay Moon Design.

Show Me Sunday

Ceramic snowflake charm by kylieperry

 It's a new year and that always brings about new goals, resolutions, and changes.  This year, my plans are to explore new avenues for my bead business and to focus more on a jewelry and gift line.  To help me better pursue these new avenues, I will be leaving the weekly Show Me Sunday posts in the very capable and creative hands of Rebecca Anderson!  I know she will have lots of great links and stuff to show you!

Show me... Bird beads!

This month, we are looking for your finest feathery and bird themed handmade beads and jewelry components, to go along with our monthly art inspiration theme.  Show us your doves, ravens, peacocks, feathers...anything bird themed!

Post your links in the comments here and Rebecca will select some of the links you leave on this post to highlight in another Show Me Sunday post. 

Here is what some of our beady friends have to show off this week: 

A Bead A Day 

Looking for a way to collaborate with blogger friends? How about creating a jewelry collection? 

About.com Jewelry Making 

This was a woot of a trend in jewelry as well as home decor items during 2012. 

Art Bead Scene 

Beautiful colors and textures inspired by lovely peacocks form the theme of inspiration for this month's Art Bead Scene challenge. 

Beading Arts 

Cyndi is looking for bead artists to feature in 2013. Have some work you'd like to share? Come see how! 

Carmi's Art/Life World 

A fun t-shirt yarn necklace is blue! 

Resin Crafts! 

Fun imagery and resin can result in fabulous pendants that will make you smile. 

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton 

Exploring peyote stitch, Andrew shares how he transformed inspiration into a pattern. 

Studio Saturday with Erin Siegel

Welcome to Studio Saturday! 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.

This week's winner is Kathy Lindemer! Congratulations, Kathy! You have won a goodie bag from The Curious Bead Shop from Rebecca! Send Rebecca an email with your address and she will get your prize out to you soon!

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This week we visit the studio of

Erin Siegel of Erin Siegel Jewelry

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Yoga-Inspired Jewelry and Works-In-Progress in the Studio.

Buddha Head Pendant by Second Surf
Serenity Lotus Earrings in my shop
Namaste Bracelet in my shop
Lotus Pendant by Second Surf

My jewelry is very me. I use jewelry-making as my chosen medium to express myself. Most often, my pieces are a direct reflection of me, what's going on in my life at the time and what inspires me. I love to create jewelry that I'm excited about wearing each and everyday.

As the new year rolls around, I always find myself thinking about self-care and developing healthy habits. One of those things is starting a new yoga practice. One of the things I can do to make that more fun and easier to incorporate into my life is to create yoga-inspired jewelry! Not only is it fun but, creating and wearing yoga-inspired jewelry helps me keep my goals and good intentions at the forefront of my mind no matter what I'm doing though out the day. Whether I'm making a bracelet or wearing a necklace, I will keep my goals in mind and stay inspired and motivated. I love being able to use my creativity as an advantage to better myself in this kind of way. 

 Also, bringing yoga into my jewelry helps me to integrate my creative life with the rest of my life goals. Something I've had trouble doing in the past. Many of us tend to compartmentalize our lives into separate categories that don't necessarily mix. I'm trying to remind myself that my life is a whole and all the facets of it are connected. There may be multiple facets, but they are all on one beautiful jewel!

Do you think of your life as a whole? How do you meld your creative life with the rest of your life? Do you have trouble fitting all the pieces together to work as one? What ways do you use your jewelry and creativity to help or enhance other areas of your life?  

Leave a comment answering any of these questions and you will be entered for a chance to win a polymer clay Buddha Pendant from Barbara of SecondSurf.com.

 

Erin Siegel is a jewelry designer, beading instructor and co-author of the jewelry book, Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry: 50 Designs Using Leather, Ribbon and Cords. To find out more, visit her blog: Erin Siegel Jewelry. 

January 2013 Challenge Color Palette

What a gorgeous painting, and an awesome way to kick off the new year, don't you think?

What catches my eye about this month's challenge artwork, Black Peacocks with Japanese Persimmons by Jessie Arms Botke, are the patterns I see everywhere. The movement of the water, the delicate feathers in the tails, the stylized plant life - it's all lovely and so pleasing to the eye.

It also doesn't hurt that Botke uses some of my very favorite colors, either!

The teals and mustard yellows pull me in, naturally, while the dark browns and almost blacks help ground the palette. Creamy beige, light gray, and touches of light blue help keep it from feeling oppressive, and the sprinkling of medium or dark blues hidden in the feathers and grass at the top are a fun touch of color.

I think this is a great choice for inspiration, especially since there are several different color directions you can go in. With the first half of the swatches falling into an analogous relationship, and within the same value range, they'll look great together no matter the design. The last four swatches can help lighten up or darken the color scheme, and using them would add a lot of interest no matter the combination you choose.

What about you - which combination pulls you in? Which are you planning to use this month?

January Monthly Challenge Sponsor + Prizes

Our wonderful sponsors for the January Monthly Challenge. 

We will have 2 lucky winners this month.

Erin Siegel

Erin Siegel designs jewelry, is an instructor and book author. She creates bohemian style jewelry using different types of beads and jewelry finding. Erin incorporates art beads into many of her designs. Catch her on the Bead Cruise!

Erin is donating $50 gift certificate to her Etsy Shop.

 Visit Erin on her website, blog, Etsy,  and Facebook.

: : :

Sarah Hornik

Sarah Hornik of Glass by Sarah is a lampwork bead artist living in Tel Aviv, Israel. My favorite beads of Sarah are the multi-color, non traditional shapes with lots of bumps. She also is an instructor teaching her craft locally and in other countries. 

Sarah is $50 gift certificate to her Etsy Shop.

Visit Sarah on their website, blog, Etsy (beads and eBooks), Etsy (jewelry), eBay and Facebook.
: : :

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

Black Peacocks with Japanese Persimmons by Jessie Arms Botke has with many different elements that can be used for inspiration: trees, persimmons, peacocks, teal green, golds, eyes and foliage.

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

Please remember to put JAN 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.

January Monthly Challenge

Black Peacocks with Japanese Persimmons
Jessie Arms Botke, 1940
Oil and Gold Leaf on Panel
32 x 40 inches
(Please note this art is copyrighted and is to be used only as inspiration.)

About the Art

This is representative of Botke's detailed, intricate style and her signature gold leaf technique, whereby thin sheets of gold are applied to the canvas or panel. Botke specialized in depicting birds such as peacocks, flamingos, geese and pelicans, often against an imaginary landscape or a background of exotic flowers and plants. As in many of her peacock images, the elaborate tail feathers of the black peacock take up a large portion of the canvas. In 1849, Botke wrote about her fascination with birds, “My interest in birds was not sentimental, it was always what sort of pattern they made.”

About the Artist
Born to English parents in Chicago in 1883, Jessie Arms Botke spent much of her free time as a child sketching and painting. At the age of fourteen, she took art classes at the School of Art Institute of Chicago. When she graduated from high school, she enrolled as a full-time student at the Institute. During her summer vacations she participated in intensive painting workshops in Michigan and Maine, which led to her first exhibition at the Art Institute's American Annual in 1904. After school, Botke worked in wall decoration and book illustration and refined her skills as a decorative artist. Inspired by an exhibition of friezes, decorations, and tapestries from Herter Looms of New York, Botke moved there in 1911 and immersed herself in the city's artistic climate. Several years later, she was employed at Herter Looms where she worked on tapestry design, painted panels and friezes, and began to specialize in painting birds. 
In 1914, Jessie Hazel Arms met design artist Cornelius Botke in Chicago, and they married a year later. Together, the Botkes worked as artists in Chicago, San Francisco, and Carmel, CA, and they traveled often to New York City and Europe. They both worked on major art commissions and held their largest joint exhibition in 1942 at the Ebell Club, a conservative club for the advancement of women and culture. When Jessie's eyesight began to fail in 1961, she continued painting small watercolors until surgery and contact lenses restored her vision and she resumed painting full-time. A stroke in 1967 destroyed her ability to paint, and she died four years later at the age of 88.

Blog Tour

The Blog Tour deadline is January 29th.

Links must be added to the Art Bead Scene flickr page where you upload your entry. 

The Blog Tour will be on January 31tst.

Monthly Challenge Winners

Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on February 1st.

Our Sponsors

Our Sponsors this month are Erin Siegel and Sarah Hornik.

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 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. 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 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 JAN 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 January 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.

December Monthly Challenge Winner

Congratulations to this Month's winners! 

We have 3 winners chosen randomly from all the challenge entrants.

Our first lucky winner is Klassy Joolz.
She has won a $50 gift certificate from Songbead to her etsy shop.

Our second lucky winner is EB Bead & Metals.

She has won a $50 gift certificate from Jan Atherton to her etsy shop.

Our third lucky winner is MackinArt.

She has won a $50 gift certificate from Humblebeads to her etsy shop.

              

           Songbead                              Jan Atherton                          Humblebeads 

                                                                   

Thank you Songbead, Jan Atherton and Humblebeads for being our December 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 "Sleeping Beauty" by Erte, 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 January's challenge brings.