Art Elements Component of the Month Challenge April 2017

It's that time again - I don't know how we're already on the fifth month of 2017.  This month over at the Art Elements blog, our fearless leader shared her new northern lights inspired beads with us!  As usual, I left my project until the very last minute.  I mean it - I didn't start any beading until Sunday...2 days ago.  Whenever I procrastinate that badly I reach for my stash of WIP's and cross my fingers that something in there will coordinate enough to boost my progress to a manageable point.  I was not disappointed by my stash this time.

I managed to find this partially embroidered polymer clay face cab that I made quite awhile ago.  I had done the bezel and a bit of embellishment only, but the colors worked with the bead so well, and the texture and shimmer seemed to pull the two together, I quickly grabbed some beads and did a couple more rows of embroidery before backing and edging the cab.  Rarely do I pause in a project long enough for progress pictures, but here you can see the two steps described above - right after I finished the embroidery and trimmed the backing, and just after the edge was fully completed.  I usually do a picot edge on my embroidered pieces because I like to use the picots to connect to other things.  This piece is no exception, but you might notice that I alternated between twins and 15/0s as the picot...

This is why!  I used the twins to add more layers beyond the edge of the embroidery, both to connect Jen's bead, plus more shape, texture and movement surrounding the face.  I feel like all of these things items relate back to the original inspiration of the bead.  If you've never seen the aurora borealis before - you should definitely add it to your bucket list.  It is so surreal to see the layers of light dance in the night sky, and I wanted to add that reference to this piece.

 Before I get into specific details, here is a closer view of how everything ties together.  I'm going to proudly wave my nerd flag here, and say when I was starting to add the outer layers off of the edging, the face started to strongly remind me of the Naboo queens and their amazing outfits in the Star Wars (prequal) movies.  So much so, that I've been calling this piece the Queen since then...

Look at all the layers of depth and texture in Jen's bead.  I love how no matter which way the bead shifts, every color and gleam is incorporated somewhere in the surrounding beads.  I'm not sure if you can tell, but I suspended the bead from the first row of edging connection, and used a twin as the bead at the tip of the "fringe" strand.  This allowed me to connect the surrounding loop of beads to the end of the fringe and keep the separate elements from getting twisted or tangled.

Here you can see closer the embellishment on each side of the face, plus the strap.  I went fairly minimal on the strap, partially due to how busy the focal already was, and partially because I did not want to go find more beads!  To pull the colors from the focal up into the strap I used some of the giant transparent gray AB peanut beads that are in the rest of the embellishment, along with the pearly teal 6/0s in the embroidery.

This still a WIP however - I'm ready to finish it, but for the life of me I can't find my crimp beads.  I'm headed back to dig some more, because I really want to wear her to work tomorrow!

 

And so I give you the Queen.  Of what, I'm not sure.  Possibly simply the queen of my accessories currently.  Who knows when she will succeed the throne, but not for awhile.  I am extremely happy with how everything turned out and can't wait to wear her!  Thanks for sharing your beautiful beads with us this month Jen!  ...now where are my darn crimps...

I do hope you will hop along and check out what everyone else made this month!  I'm off to do that right now!  Thank you for joining us!

Guest Designers:
Sarajo Wentling
Deb Stewart
Art Elements Team:
Sue Kennedy
Laney Mead
Lesley Watt
Claire Fabian
Karen Totten
Cooky Schock
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Caroline Dewison
Cathy Spivey Mendola
Niky Sayers
Lindsay Starr
Jen Cameron