Probably Definitely Finished

Tags

art bead, Art Bead Scene, bead, colourful, freeform beading, polymer clay, primary colours

Today I am sharing a bracelet that I started making back in March 2013 and which I have finally decided to declare finished! I began it as part of the Art Bead Scene monthly challenge. Since I was expecting to have a baby that month I didn’t really suppose I would finish in time, but seven and a half years is slightly longer than expected.

Here is the inspiration painting.

Deer In the Forest, 1911
Marc Franz
Oil on Canvas, 100.97 x 104.78 cm
Philips Collection, Washington DC, USA
(Please note this art is copyrighted and is to be used only as inspiration.)

And <drum roll> here is the bracelet. It’s my first real attempt at freeform beadwork. There was a lot of stop-start (mostly stop) and unpicking and redoing involved.

Freeform bead bracelet by Cate van Alphen

The focal art bead was made by me and is polymer clay with a foil core for lightness. I tried to balance the weight by using a glass nugget on the giant press stud closure. I haven’t worn the bracelet enough to decide if this has worked successfully.

Glass nugget closure.

The most difficult part with this kind of freeform piece is knowing when to stop. So I think it’s finished. Definitely… or at least I don’t think I want to do anymore to it.

What do you think? Was it was worth the wait?

I finished a… thing

Tags

abstract art, bead, freeform beading, handmade, mixed media, polymer clay

A few years ago I made a Bead Habitat. You may have noticed that all the pictures are fairly tightly cropped. This is because I hadn’t finished the edges.

I had intended to frame it as a picture to go on the wall, but my mother objected, saying that it was too tactile for that and needed to be explored closely rather than hung from a wall. After that it got buried under all the debris on my beading table.

As part of my recent tidying, I came across it again, and decided to finish it. I’ve done a bead edging and a backing fabric to hide my workings. I had to try really hard not to embellish the back too!

I’m not entirely sure what it is. It’s a kind of sculptural, 3D painting, abstract, mini landscape, ornament… thing. It’s purely decorative and quite small, so I’m thinking of it as “coffee table jewellery”.

It’s a mixed media piece including some of my polymer clay beads and components, silk covered wire, embroidery and glass beads on fabric.

Let me know what you think it is. Sometimes feel that I don’t make these things, I’m just there when it happens. 🙂

I won

Tags

ABS, Art Bead Scene, bead, bracelet, challenge, etsy, freeform beading

I haven’t been able to keep up with my blog reading recently, but last night I realised it was a new month (yes it took me 6 days) so I headed over to the Art Beads Scene blog to see the new challenge and… Surprise! There was my bracelet as one of the randomly selected winners for June.

So instead of going to bed early like I was supposed to, I stayed up browsing Tesori Trovati’s Etsy shop. 🙂

*Happy Dance*

Speaking of Etsy shops… I am starting to move everything over to my Etsy shop. (Long/silly story… either it’s a new feature that I can list in GBP on Etsy or I just didn’t figure it out before.)