Monthly Winners
Lindsay Starr / Phantasm Creations (you are HERE!)
AJE Blog Team
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month October 2014
I am so fortunate to have been chosen as one of the recipients of the Art Jewelry Elements blog component of the month for October. This month, the component is one of Starry Road Studio (by the marvelous Karen Totten) ceramic spiral fossil disk components. I have loved Karen's ceramics for a long time, so it's been fun chatting with her recently. Karen gave me a couple of pictures, loaded with disks to choose from. I mean, just look at these!
I waffled around with Karen for a bit...I really wanted to be surprised. But one of the pieces in these two pictures totally stuck out to me. Can you guess which one I asked for? You'll only need one hint...purple...
I don't normally remember to take a picture of the beads I start out with...I'm always too eager to start beading! But I love seeing other people's pictures of this step, so I'm trying to remember! I got the idea for the color palette from the mix of beads in the lower right corner - plum, brown, and a teensie bit of teal. Here's what happened next!
The dilemma I always face when using art beads is how to create an environment for them to live in, enhancing the other artist's work, while not overpowering or distracting from it with my own. I love the balance I achieved here. I think it's because most of the beadwork is not directly touching the component - it is surrounded by darker beads and beadwork, drawing the eye to the central disk.
Dangling off the bottom of the disk, I decided to use a cedar twig bead that I made (with the help of a friend that has tools), encased in beadwork. I love how the rich, grey-brown makes the plum and cream in the component stand out.
I love all the texture in this component! And the colors! It's vibrant and earthy at the same time.
Above the component, I injected a bit more teal for contrast, along with making a couple of messy coiled beads out of WoolyWire. I thought it was fitting to use, since Karen's daughter is the creator of WoolyWire. Amazingly, I just so happened to have the right color for this project (thanks again Diana!). It pulls the brown from the cedar up further, and has just a teeny glimmer of brassy color, allowing me to go with brass for the clasp...
The strap is beaded with matte metallic brown beads that match the cedar, and vintage plum opal beads...love this color. I made my own oversized S-hook out of brass wire. I love how it reflects the gold splashes on the teal beads and in the WoolyWire.
I think I'm going to wear this necklace a lot! It's lightweight, feels nice, and goes with all of my clothes...I definitely have a new favorite. Please check out what everyone else did with the component of the month too! The amount of creativity exhibited in these challenges just amazes me, every month. Thank you for letting me play! As always, you can keep up with my daily beading exploits on my Facebook page, and shop on Etsy anytime! Thanks for looking...now go click on all these links below!
LOVE the colors! you did that bead justice and then some!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I love what you did too :)
DeleteBeautiful and as always unique design Lindsay and I just love that cedar twig.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yes, I really need to see if I can make some more sometime...I've got a ton of LARGE beads that I made, but now I want more twigs!
DeleteJust amazing! I love the focal you got and how you really made it shine! The colors you chose to go with it are perfect! You need to teach a class somewhere - I'll take it! Thanks for playing along this month!
ReplyDeleteI do teach, just not currently! And it's hard for me to write classes...because I prefer to teach technique rather than projects...because I don't really do projects more than once? If that makes sense? Enticing people to take a class when there's not a predictable end result is difficult, especially at the places I've had opportunities teaching.
DeleteThat's beautiful! I love your colour choices and all the little details are just perfect!
ReplyDeleteI love how you chose darker colors in the same color palette as Karen's component to help it stand out. Your piece is absolutely stunning. I adore that cedar bit. It almost looks like an ancient dinosaur tooth that has been worn down over time. Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteThanks for participating in the art jewelry elements design challenge this month!
Thank you for the compliments! And thank you for having me! I wanted to play every month, even when I wasn't blogging. The CotM challenges are actually one of the things that really spurred me to start blogging again, so it's been really awesome to play this time :)
DeleteBeautiful necklace!! I love the bright colors of the component and your beads mixed with the early twig added at the bottom is genius!!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm really pleased to have found the perfect home for that cedar twig.
DeleteI love how you always have your own vision for your pieces and combine your own style so seamlessly with the other components. Your piece is gorgeous and really does let Karen's disc shine!
ReplyDeleteLOVE! The colors and textures are so amazing. The stick element, the woolywire embellishment, I love everything about this!
ReplyDeleteYour necklace is gorgeous! I love the vibrant color combination..two of my favorites! Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI always feel the way you do when using art beads, but you've done this exactly right. Karen's component shines, yet you've added this fabulous wooden element. You got in great pops of contrasting color and so much texture. I really love this necklace. Great job!
ReplyDeleteWill you teach me how to do that "chain"? Please? And how to bead the cap for the twig? I have some antler tips... I love all that you did. I love how you explain your design process!
ReplyDeleteYes, just message me over on my Facebook page - I can send you pictures there!
Delete