Peacock Feathers

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Elaine

I got smart this year and formally hired help outside of my household. Right now, my friend Laurie comes by every week and lends me a hand with our project of the week. This week, it was feathers including an experiment on peacock feathers. Why peacocks? Well, the Art Bead Scene’s monthly challenge is Black Peacocks with Japanese Persimmons. It’s a lovely painting.

My peacock feather borrowed from a couple of feather tutorials on PolymerClayCentral.com and then… I sort of improvised. It worked out, mostly. When I do another, I’ll brighten up the shading and thin down some lines, thicken other but I really like how it pops on a black bead with the little persimmons.

I took the art bead and wired it up into a bracelet with my usual random collection of rocks and bits. The magpie approach to things. The sparkly lampwork right beside my focal is made by Cheryl Harris of California.

One of my resolutions for the year is to be disciplined and do ALL of the ABS challenges. We’ll see how that goes!

Art Bead Ornaments

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Elaine

Welcome to the Art Bead Scene’s ornament blog hop! We were all challenged to pick from our art bead stash and make ornaments. I went with my birdie and house beads to make simple little ornaments:

Both ornaments were fishing expeditions in the bowls of bead soup in my work area. By this point in my beady life, there are plenty of bits of ribbon, wire, stone and everything else to make some cute little things!

Make sure and check out my fellow Blog Hoppers:

Island Girl’s Insights

Life By The Seat Of My Pants

Tooaquarius (you’re here)

Shelley Graham Turner

Artfully Ornamental

Charis Designs Jewelry

Harrison Hollow Designs

Kimis Jewelry and Gifts

Trellis

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Elaine

The Art Bead Scene’s monthly challenge was an interesting bit of wallpaper by William Morris. The design elements are something along the lines of what I do so I whipped up a little focal bead with a trellis and orange-y flowers and made a necklace:

It gave me the chance to use one of the cute little bird beads I’d bought sometime ago as well as some of my collection of pretty stone beads.

Beady Ornament Goodness

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Elaine

The Art Bead Scene posted a call out to beady folk everywhere to join the 2011 Ornament Blog Hop and I tossed my name in the hat! There are some amazing pieces being featured in this hop! First up we have my group shot:

Then the rings by themselves – these were older beads I’d had for a bit. They finally got used! Yay! Happy beads. One is just a big gold bow at the top of the ring. The other has sparkly ribbon woven around and around. The last has little wire squiggles and red glass beads tied on.

The final one is my little poinsettia wreath. I made a few small loops of brass wire and then wrapped the last of my poinsettias on (there’s a few in my shop yet but last in my box of play with beads, sigh). I added a few leaves and a ribbon at the top. If I do this one again, I’ll use a much thinner gauge of wire to bind the beads on and add pearls!

Don’t forget to have a look at the other blog hoppers:

Not My Thing

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Elaine

The painting for this month’s Art Bead Scene challenge has a colour selection that is totally Not My Thing. These aren’t colours I wear. These aren’t colours I work with. Heck, in the rather parched and cold looking landscape I live in, these aren’t even colours that show up here. I was at a bit of a loss over what to make and what to post.

Then, Susan White, a fabulous bead artist from my hometown commented that this pile of beads in my Flickr would be just the right colours. And she was right. I took the stack of the smaller Natasha beads, linked them with wrapped loops made from my first batch of antique brass wire and made a simple 20″ necklace in wild summer colours.

You know what? They totally go with the painting even if they are Not My Thing.