Margie & Me: March Reveal

Today's the day of the March Margie & Me Reveal!!!! This month's inspiration stems from the color Yellow....and the piece given to us (by Marcie from La Bella Joya) for our inspiration is Van Gogh's The Sower with the Setting Sun

And for the big reveal, I introduce my piece...

"The Sower's Setting Sun"

 I really liked working with the colors especially the deep violets which really reminded me of the sunset. I wire wrapped the flower pendant and hung it on a long chain. This one's going in the Etsy shop (click here tp go to the listing).

Thanks for another great challenge Ms Marcie! I always love your inspirations!

You can check out everyone's take on the challenge - here.

That's all for now...Have a great day!

March ABS Challenge

I'm entering the Art Bead Scene Challenge for the first time this month of March. This month's inspiration is Paul Gaugin's Painting Nave Nave Moe (Sacred Spring, Sweet Dreams)

Here's the piece I created....named after the artwork...

Sacred Spring

(Sorry for all the photos...I just couldn't pick 1 or 2 because they all came out so nice).

The art bead focal was created by Me (*yehey*). It is made of polymer clay, painted with acrylics and watercolor and finally sealed to give a light shine.

I had fun with this challenge...my first at Art Bead Scene Challenge! 

You can check out the other entries at the flickr site here. 

Thanks for a great challenge ABS!

Art Bead February Inspiration - REVEAL 1

I finally finished the jewelry I was making from the Art Bead Scene February Inspiration. Since I didn't actually use art beads, I'm not eligible to submit it to the flickr goup...but never the less, I really liked the inspiration and decided to go ahead and make a piece of jewelry.

The inspiration art they featured was John Sargent's Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose...

And here's the color palette challenge - 

So, I had chosen 2 color palettes but, so far I have just finished my first....here it is...

Summer Twilight

It's a convertible cluster/charm bracelet that doubles as a necklace. I included an extender type chain to be able to do this. You can find it listed in my ETSY shop - here.

Thanks for the fun challenge...I loved the colors. I do have another one to finish up...anyway, I still have 3 days left before February ends!

Margie & Me: February Reveal

Here it is! The big reveal for Margie & Me's Jewelry challenge for February. This is my first time to participate and I find it quite exciting! I've seen a couple of others that have already posted their takes on the challenge and I find it absolutely awesome to see the all the different styles and types of jewelry that they have created according to the inspiration given.

Here's the inspiration I chose to create from...it is an image from JMDasso....

The beads I chose.....

And for the reveal...I introduce 

"The Modern Madrid"

I used copper wire for the wire wrapping and for the beads some freshwater pearls, mother of pearl beads, and very sparkly Czech rondelles.

This necklace will be going in my Etsy shop (click here). You can find more pictures there!

Oh how I enjoyed doing this jewelry challenge! Many many thanks to Ms. Marcie from La Bella Joy..Thanks so much Ms. Marcie.......

You can check out the list of artists that participated on her blog - here's the link!

Color Palette Inspirations...Sneak Previews...

Since I decided to join in a couple of jewelry challenges, I've been digging through my stash of beads. (which reminds me that I really need to start organizing and setting up the craft room). I've looked at the challenge inspirations several times already and tried picking out beads from my stash with the colors from the selected art.

Here's what I picked out....

For the Art Bead Scene inspiration, they chose John Singer Sargent's Carnation, Lily, Lily,Rose -

There's a lot of pretty colors there and I picked out a lot of colors from my stash. I initially chose these....

Although, I loved all the colors, it just seemed to be a jumbled mess. I wanted to cut down the colors and simplify but I loved all of them. So I decided to have two separate color themes..... and it seemed to work out better.

For the first color theme, I used the grape and oracle colors....but I also added a slightly different light pink/flesh color too....

And the second color theme uses logan, lily, blue zodiac, and wewak...

There! Much better, I think.... It looks better and more harmonious!

It's great to have the color palettes all ready. It's much easier to create this way.

And as for the Margie and Me challenge, The Modern Madrid....I've picked out a couple of beads for the first inspiration...a photo by JMDasso

Here are my color choices.....

I'm not quite sure about the center piece bead yet....but, I sure do love the color palette. I also love the second inspiration, however, I may not have enough in my stash to have a complete piece for it. Let's see...there's only about a week and a day left to get going....

Lastly, I posted this new necklace on Etsy today.

It's a simple cluster pendant necklace that's perfect to go with the "In the Ocean of Blue" charm bracelet....

I got the idea from an inquiry today about the bracelet for a wedding party. As I was raking through my stash, I found those beautiful deep blue and violet beads and thought...wouldn't these look lovely with a gorgeous blue gown....so I gave it a try.... check it out in my etsy listing - here.

Here are some gorgeous dresses that would look awesome with this necklace....

Picture Credits from left to right - (1) Adrianna Papell Flutter Sleeve Tiered Dress in dark blue.jpg  (2) ioffer.com (3) Dark blue Tadashi Tiered Ruffle Silk Gown image.jpg  

Finding Inspiration

I've been wanting to get back into creating jewelry but sadly, I am stuck in a rut. I wondered to myself...where can I find inspiration? And I found this nice challenge at Art Bead Scene... It is a monthly challenge where they feature an artist and one of the artist's work is used as the inspirational piece to create jewelry for the challenge.

One of the requirements, however, is that you use an art bead which they defined as ..."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."  Unfortunately, at this time, I use commercially produced beads in the creation of my jewelry. Although, I wanted to start dabbling in clays...I still have yet to start making my own beads. Thus, I am unable to join the wonderful challenge on the site.

However...I figured...why not just go ahead with the challenge using whatever I have. I may not be able to enter it into the contest but, perhaps I can get over my rut! So, I am giving it a go!!! Make it a personal challenge....And if anybody out there that for some reason or another cannot enter the contest at the  Art Bead Scene Challenge but, would still like to give it a try...let me know!!!

So this month...the challenge artist is Wayne Thiebaud. This is the painting they chose....

Brown River by Wayne Thiebaud

Using this color palette:

To find out more about the painting and artist you can visit the actual challenge at Art Bead Scene - here.

Wheels are turning...