Tiger Lilies

This week's challenge for Humblebead's "Inspired by Nature" series is tiger lilies. They grow wild around here. One summer my oldest and I picked up a friend and drove to the next town where driver's education classes were held. The road to her house was covered with tiger lilies. A sea of orange. Almost like driving through Knoxville on a football weekend. I wanted to incorporate the orange with a little black for the speckles on a real tiger lily. The disk beads at the base of the necklace were caned with black and white spirals, some of the pendants use the watercolor mosaic technique. Not visible at the upper part of the necklace are tiny rondelles in shades of orange. To get the pendant collection to hang properly I strung everything on leather. All beads are polymer clay and handmade by me.

Fading Through the Door Into Summer

And he thought he heard the echo of a pennywhistle band...and the laughter from a distant caravan...and the brightly colored line of circus wagons in the sand...fading through the door into summer.
This is a song from an old Monkees album. I know, I know, but I still have two copies of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones.
Summer is fading slowly as the heat lingers on. The trees are still green, but everything looks dusty and tired. Let's start fall early, shall we?

The Plight of the Bumblebee-Inspired by Nature

I don't know if I got this necklace finished in time for the challenge deadline, but it was wonderful to get so wrapped up in creating. The theme was bees. Right outside my studio window is a crepe myrtle bush visited daily by bees. I was so excited to use them as models. I started by making a bunch of black beads layered with silver foil and yellow alcohol ink with a translucent overlay. These were my base layer interspersed with glass seed beads in black and yellow stacks. Then I mixed translucent and burnt sienna to get my beehive color and extruded strings to get the hive effect. I needed a dark pearlex powder for the shadows between layers, but didn't have any. A quick trip to the drugstore and some black eyeshadow worked perfectly. The bees were simply tranlucent with a bit of yellow and extruded black for the stripes,stinger and antennae. Tiny translucent wings sort of disappear, but are there. I then made some rectangular tubes in a bit stronger yellow with white flower cane overlays. I have some left over and hope to have enough for a bracelet and earrings as well. A honey of a challenge! Thanks!

Brave New World

Once again I am amazed at the possibilities of beading now that I've finally learned to use the jewelery pliers. These are book thongs made with little abstract heartlight beads on one end that seemed too special to include in a bracelet or necklace but needed a setting where the melting colors could be contemplated a bit more. The bead on the other end is an experiment with flattened disks, stamping and pearlex powders that I could never get to fit into a bracelet but feels the perfect weight for book thongs. I made some with leather and some with this nice cording. Need to decide which works best because I want to make lots. Such a nice little giftie for readers.You can leave it in your book and don't have to lay it aside to get lost while you read. Don't know what to do about the Kindle crowd; what can I bead for you?

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

I made this little mermaid back in the spring, listed her on etsy and waited. Nothing happened. The listing expired and I put her away. Just this week I made some experimental beads with the new Premo white translucent and had no idea what to do with them. Today I cleaned out my workspace and found lots of unrelated things: pirate coins I'd made while playing with pearlex powders, a bit of chain bought on sale, silver seed beads. Everything seemed to come together to make this necklace that I just adore. This time I won't mind if the etsy listing expires before it sells, I'll keep it just for me.

ABS July Challenge

I must admit that the July challenge painting for ABS had me bumfuzzled. I just couldn't get the colors to jibe. My first attempt was a dismal failure. I was determined this month to use all the colors: red, yellow-green,yellow-orange, pink,forest green, crimson, periwinkle and blue-purple (my own labels-not the official names). The epiphany came when I looked at the new style of bead I'd been working on this week based on fifties fabrics and grouped the colors to make miniature abstract tropical flowers using the periwinkle as background. The forest green provided a leafy color and the other colors combined to make some splendid spiky flowers that Lucie Hessel might have added to her garden. I decided to make a very simple bracelet to showcase these beads and matching spacers. Quite a challenge!

Fifties Fashion

I've been making polymer clay beads lately with muted abstract designs in the colors of summer dresses from my childhood. I remember the fabrics of the fifties. All of the ladies I knew then wore cotton dresses made with yards and yards of fabric. There were shirtwaists and sailor style dresses and A-line and scoop neck styles. The fabric had a tropical feel. The colors were muted and soft, but the art was flamboyant and abstract. Flowers, birds and leaves were mere suggestions. You could look at a skirt and see all kinds of pictures just like when you saw images in the clouds. I didn't appreciate the dresses then, but as I grow older there's a certain nostalgia for things from the past, and I see how beautiful those dresses really were.