25 Friday May 2012
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Today I finished my drawing for the Virtual Paintout – another invitingly open door, this time in Jerusalem. The inspiration picture is from a “walk” around Jerusalem’s Old City using Google streetview.
“Ancient Garden” by Cate van Alphen
Oil Pastel
12 Saturday May 2012
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52 earrings, Art Bead Scene, bead, challenge, earring, MAY ABS, necklace, polymer clay
After missing the Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge last month… AGAIN… I was determined to complete it this month, and I have! The idea of the challenge is to create a piece (jewellery or otherwise) incorporating at least one art bead inspired by a given piece of art.
Italian’s House at Monmarte by Maurice Utrillo
Oil on panel, 53 x 76 cm
I was most drawn to the piece of sky at the back with the contrast of the dusky sky and the dark green trees. I decided to make a hollow doughnut pendant and “paint” the trees on with polymer clay giving an impasto effect.
For stringing the pendant, I made green beads in the same colours as the trees, but I also wanted to make some reference to the architectural element of the inspiration painting. I had planned to make textured white cubes until it occurred to me that they would look like sugar cubes! At this point there was some cross pollination between the 52 Earrings Challenge (this week’s theme is “Faux”) and the idea of “ivory” squares came to me. Ivory beads seemed appropriate to me given the era of the painting.
The turquoise colour of the cord in the earrings came back to the necklace in the form of stone beads I salvaged from an old necklace. These picked up the blue colour of the sky and lightened the green shades which were rather heavy against the ivory.
Unfortunately I could not use the same cord to string the necklace as I did for the earrings as the holes in the stone beads were too small. I used gold ribbon instead which picked up the touches of yellow ochre in the trees. While I am happy with both the earrings and necklace separately I am not quite sure they make a SET – they are clearly related, but perhaps there is just a hint of sibling conflict?
09 Wednesday May 2012
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Sometimes I know exactly what I want to make, other times I only get one step at a time and I just keep adding elements until I get something I like…
I made the three spotted rings years ago (I got stuck)… then the inner core (at which point it looked a bit like a cotton reel)… then I added the beads and wire and finally the spiral end caps. It reminds me of a prayer wheel as the rings rotate around the core.
and sometimes not…
These started as wire “twigs” for the 52 earrings challenge.. then I added a membrane of transparent polymer clay… then some wire and beads… then more wire with spirals… and finally some wire weaving. It’s interesting, but I’m not sure if I like it.
What do you think? Fab or flop? Finished or f*ed?
06 Sunday May 2012
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beads, glass charms, orphan bead, polymer clay, stemmed glass, unique, wine charm, wine glass charm, wire, zibbet
I have a real problem with production work – I start off intending to make 50 beads for a necklace and after I have made 4 or so I get bored and start to wonder what they would look like as cubes or with yellow polka dots. This results in a lot of orphan beads which, until now, I haven’t known quite what to do with.
Recognizing my weakness I tried to think where one-off unique beads would be an asset rather than something slightly awkward, and it came to me – wine glass charms! The whole point of them is that each one should be different. Suddenly it felt like my wayward sons, whom I love dearly, but just didn’t know what to do with anymore, had gone off to the colonies and made good (I have been watching a lot of period drama recently!).
Making these got rather addictive, so now I have a shiny new Wine Charm section in my Zibbet shop.
Cheers!
30 Monday Apr 2012
Posted in Inspiration, My work
Tags
52 earrings, beads, challenge, coloured pencil, earring, Gdansk, google maps, polymer clay, texture, travel, van alphen, Virtual Paintout
Or should this post be titled “Where did April go?” or “Things I didn’t make”?
I was very excited to discover the Virtual Paintout this month. The idea is that every month a new location is selected and you “walk” around the area using Google street view and find inspiration to paint. April’s destination was Gdansk in Poland. What a wonderful idea – it had never occurred to me before to use Google maps to be an armchair tourist! I started off a bit like a car-chasing-dog who has suddenly caught a bus – I didn’t know how to take it all in and I started clicking randomly all over the map (with not much success). Then I decided to pick a hotel and travel from there. I found a delightful house with a door intriguingly ajar. It looked so invitingly cool inside and baking hot outside. Here is the location if you’d like to have a look around for yourself.
Doors open in Gdansk by Cate van Alphen
It’s been years since I did any drawing and I found it required a surprising amount of concentration, but I did enjoy myself (although next time perhaps I’ll choose something quicker to work with than coloured pencil and I’ll select an image which actually includes the focal point!).
“BUT WHERE’S THE POLYMER CLAY?” I hear you cry. Disappointingly nearly all of it is still in my head. I did manage to start on some texture stamps, but not any of the exciting things I had planned to make using them.
Then there are the architecturally inspired beads from the Royal Road I haven’t started yet…
I had a wonderful idea for the Art Bead Scene Challenge, but alas, on Saturday the 28th I discovered the deadline was the 25th!
Still, watch this space, some of these ideas may make an appearance eventually – one of the major culprits for my missing the challenge times is a bead that has been sitting in my “in progress” bucket for YEARS which suddenly demanded to be finished, and has grown up into something quite interesting. Sometimes these things have their own timescales.
Amazingly I HAVE managed to keep up with the 52 earrings challenge.
17 Tuesday Apr 2012
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bead, bracelet, free, gift, giveaway, pay it forward, PIF, polymer clay
So my first PIF (pay it forward) has found its new home. The idea is that in exchange for a handmade mystery gift you agree to spread the love and make three gifts to give to other people. I still have two available, so if you like surprises, and you love making things* comment on my original post, or follow the branches and comment on the blogs down the line.
I made this bracelet for Cara Hayman inspired by the artichoke pendant workshop by Eva Ehmeier at Polymer Pamper Play earlier this year (where amazingly Cara sat opposite me!). I love the effect – they look like empty seedpods to me (have they engineered cuboid flowers yet?) but I don’t think I’ll be making many more – they are REALLY fiddly.
* For me this roughly equates to “if you like breathing”.
11 Wednesday Apr 2012
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This gallery contains 14 photos.
This is my variation of Page McNall’s air-filled bead tutorial (I use a slightly different method for getting a dome …
01 Sunday Apr 2012
Posted in Inspiration, My work, Tutorial
Unfortunately the Polymer Pamper Play weekend had to come to an end, and a teething baby (5 new teeth at the same time!) and a half moved into house (i.e. a tip) have prevented my from experimenting with all the new techniques I learned as much as I’d like.
Fairwell Farncombe Estate
Here’s what I made during the weekend…
Eva Ehmeier workshop - Artichoke Ball Pendants
In addition to Eva’s demonstrated pendant I made some matching earrings, and a cube shaped bead (there will be more of these appearing soon – I hope).
Ana Belchi workshop - Bento Series
Melanie Muir workshop - Bangle Cuff
Combining Ana’s subtle mokume gane technique (you can see it in the inside of the Bento pendant) and Melanie’s finishing tips, and a nifty tutorial for an air filled circular bead I made this pendant.
No doubt there will me more good things to come inspired by this weekend!
*Edit: The Jade Doughnut pendant above is now available in my Zibbet shop.
12 Monday Mar 2012
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I can’t remember if I blogged about making buttons… I got a little bit carried away trying to make the ultimate button making tool that I didn’t ACTUALLY make many buttons. OK – I made two (and I haven’t got the tool right yet either). The point is one of my buttons has been featured on Zibbet’s blog which is always nice encouragement.
My button (the featured one).
My other button (this one has a jump ring shank).
Perhaps I should simplify and actually get down to making some more buttons – but not this weekend as I am off to Polymer Pamper Play. I’m so excited!
05 Monday Mar 2012
Posted in Inspiration, My work
I am enjoying the blog hop for the 5th Bead Soup Blog Party, and in addition to all the beady inspiration, I discovered a fun game of Pay it Forward inspired by the movie of the same name. (It’s a lovely movie in case you haven’t seen it). The idea is that someone does something nice for you and in return you do good deeds for three NEW people, so the circle widens.
Here’s how to play along:
So wherever you are, please comment (I’m not afraid of international postage) and please join in to share your handmade loveliness 
Make sure you give me your email address if there isn’t a way to contact you through your blog.
