Art Bead Scene Challenge February 2013

Art Bead Scene's Monthly Challenge for February:

Heijinja, 1941

Tōshi Yoshida

Woodblock Print

(Please note this art is copyrighted and is to be used only as inspiration.)

What first caught my attention was of course the beautiful and striking color scheme with the orange-red buildings and all the subtle hues of beiges, pinks and greys. Secondly I was attracted to the people in the picture, and particularly the lady and the child feeding the birds, and also the beautiful blooming tree. And in fact I started there, and I have a few more sketches laid out for two or three more bracelets that I don't yet know if will end up completing.



But then I somehow ended up with this bracelet. It came about because I one night, as I so often do whilst sitting in front of the TV in the evenings, was making beaded beads. I thought I could maybe make one especially inspired by this challenge. And so, after a few attempts, a new design was born. One that I am very pleased with, and I believe I will end up making many of, but in different color constellations.



I saw the beaded beads inevitably combined with the round opal pink beads in a bracelet. And as a final celebration to the bloomy-ness in the inspiration picture I added one of Joanne Tinley of DaisyChainExtra's absolutely beautiful handmade copper clasps.

On a final note:
I have given myself the task of making at least one piece for every month of Art Bead Scene challenges this year. And I did indeed also make one for January. But for some reason I was never pleased with the photos I took, and the month went by and I had missed my chance to present it on Art Bead Scene. Never mind, it is still sitting here on my table, and when I have the photos I find good enough I will show it to you.

I was inspired to give myself this task by the always inspiring Cece Cormier of The Beading Yogini. She did it last year you see. And I find that for myself I always stretch a bit further for these challenges when I participate. So, there you go. I hope I will be able to live up to my task for all twelve months of the year.


All my best,
Malin

Necklace Tahiti - ABS Challenge March

Art Bead Scene's inspiration piece for the March challenge is a colourful painting by Paul Gaugain, which he painted on Tahiti where he lived for many years. It is the colours that really struck me with this piece. They are so bright and ... well ... yes colourful. Everything in the picture is just bathing in strong sunlight. There is a calm and relaxing atmosphere also which I wanted to capture.

I was looking through my bead stash for suitable pieces and found this beautiful porcelain flower pendant by Tracee Dock of ClassicBeads and ClassicElements. And please look closely at the close-up picture further down at the absolutely gorgeous use of glaze. That is a master at work who has done that. Multi-dimensional perfection. Yes, the pink, the green and the yellow was colours I lusted for. Perfect! And the honeysuckle pink coral rondelle beads I bought almost two years ago, when I had just started to buy bead from Etsy. Listen, I have a secret to reveal. I have a weakness for pink. I have many many many many pink beads. But I do find it is kind of hard to use them though, without creating a too sweet piece. Musn't be too sweet I think.

Ivory seed beads I have had for about 25 years are strung on 2 strands of Superlon cord and in between the coral beads. The beaded toggle ring I made myself a couple of weeks ago whilst learning to do beaded rings. Turned out nice I think with the two colours of the seed beads. What a lucky coincidence it happened to fit so perfectly in this piece. I made a beaded toggle bar also, but I wasn't pleased with how it looked in this piece, so I decided to give it a try to make my first own handmade hammered brass wire toggle bar instead. That and the Superlon cord which I wrapped many laps around at the attachment points adds just an enough bit of a more rustic feeling to the sweet I think.

And here is the beautiful painting by Gaugain.

Go to ArtBeadScene's flickr group page to see more contributions for this challenge.