ABS Challenge August

Tags

abstract painting, art bead, beads, bracelet, handmade, handmade beads, macrame, polymer clay, purple, red, silk yarn, surface texture

For this month’s ABS challenge I have made a micro macrame wrap bracelet with a selection of my handmade beads. The muse took a slightly scenic route this time so hang in there…

Tres Personajes, (Three People) 1970
Rufino Tamayo
Oil on Canvas 51″ × 38″

First of all the inspiration painting: I loved the vivid red and purple colour combination and the rough surface texture that looked almost chalky.

I want to improve my cane building skills, so I have been thinking it’s time for me to practice building canes to a planned design. Thanks to my toddler I remembered the “scribble patterns” I used to make as a child (i.e. draw a scribble and colour in the shapes) and I thought this would be a good place to start.

I made a rough mockup on the computer to test my idea. Now I had an abstraction of an abstract painting which amused me but…

I didn’t like it so much multiplied out into a kaleidoscope pattern.

Going back to the earthy texture of the painting I was reminded of the Cosmic Ceramic tutorial I still haven’t been able to play with. So I decided to combine the ceramic tutorial with my cane design and make a toggle to use with Sherri Stokey’s micro macrame wrap bracelet tutorial.

Micro macrame wrap bracelet

Wrap bracelet unwrapped.

The result is pretty difficult to photograph!

I used silk yarn instead of nylon cord (I was too impatient to order it) so the knotting is finer than I had hoped. I had intended only to make the toggle and use existing beads for the bracelet, but I ended up making all the beads from scratch. It was a fun exercise to make a variety of beads using the same colours. I even ended up with an extra set of beads that I love but the pattern seemed too crisp in comparison to the painting so they will go to my Etsy shop.

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