Seasons Challenge

Today is the reveal for the Season Blog Hop, hosted by Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures. Each participant was sent a selection of beads, which we could combine with beads and findings from our own stash, to create a piece of jewelry reflecting either a season of the year, or a season in our lives.

Here are the beads I received from Lisa:

When I tipped them out into a dish, the beads initially said "Fall" to me, but their colors also reminded me of the cockle shells my sister and I loved to collect during summer vacations at the beach.

I combined Lisa's fun shapes with a few playful shapes from my own stash, and in no time, the mix was singing Summer.

Freeform spiral stitch is becoming one of my beading staples and its lush texture was perfect for this project. I noticed how the rich, warm browns in Lisa's soup brought out the striking details in the dark blue spikes, so I mixed in a strand of 3mm lapis that matched the tones in the spikes, then tossed in some additional wood beads and abalone discs to keep the necklace looking organic -- and feeling as light as, well, a walk on the beach!

Much thanks to Lisa for inspiring us with this challenge. You'll want to follow the links below to Lisa's and all the Season participants' blogs!

                    Your Hostess: Lisa Lodge, Grateful Artist

                    Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

                    Cassi Paslick, Beads: Rolling Downhill

                    Stephanie Sanner Haussler, PixyBug Designs

                    Leah Mifflin Tees, My Beady Little Eyes

                    Karin Slaton, BackStory Beads

                    Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution

                    Lori Jean Poppe, Lorillijean Creative Corner

                    Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

                    Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

                    Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life

                    Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

                    Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

                    Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

                    Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

                    Toltec Jewels, Toltec Jewels for Jewel School Friends

                    Lennis Carrier, Windbent

                    Erin Kenny, Beadifultherapy

                    Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress

                    Cilla Watkins, Tell Your Girlfriends

                    Renetha Williams Stanziano, Lamplight Crafts

                    Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

                    Sierra Barrett, Giraffe Can Has

                    Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

                    Shirley Jones Moore, Beads and Bread

                    Dawn Horner, Northern Adornments

                    Charlene Bausinger Jacka, Clay Space

                    Tara Plote, The Newbie Beader's Blog

                    Candida Elkins Castleberry, Spun Sugar Beadworks

                    Miranda Ackerley, Daze and Days

 

May Art Bead Scene Challenge

The inspiration for this month’s Art Bead Scene challenge is Vase with Flowers in a Window by Dutch artist, Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder.

Every time I look at Bosschaert’s still life, I’m reminded of my grandmother’s house, with its dark-paneled vestibule that smelled of aged wood and fragrant roses. A small table in the entry hall always held a vase like the one in Bosschaert’s painting, overflowing with flowers from her garden. Each August, we set out from Kentucky to her house in Scranton for a week that included mouth-watering pies made from the cherries we picked from her trees, glasses of sarsaparilla from dark bottles kept ice cold in her cellar, and cozy talks on her front porch glider. Great memories!

 

 

My focal for this month’s challenge piece is by California artist, Erin McAlister, and features the mustard yellows, warm browns and red-oranges of the painting. Erin handcrafts each glass bead with sand and donates a portion of all her sales to the Surfrider Foundation to protect oceans and beaches.

The central section of the neckstrap combines  peach-toned seed beads with carnelian teardrops in brown, maroon, deep oranges, peach and cream. Firepolish beads and Czech glass give additional texture. This was my first attempt at freeform spiral stitch, which can be found in Carol Cypher's Mastering Beadwork. It was great fun to experiment with, and the perfect stitch to convey the lush, opulent feel of Bosschaert’s flowers! The neckstrap is finished with calcite chunks and carnelian agate roundels.

Many thanks to Art Bead Scene's editors for choosing such a fabulous work of art to inspire us this month. You'll want to click over to the ABS Flickr group to see all the entries!