Art Elements Component of the Month October 2017

I was super excited to see that Laney decided to send off a flock of her zombees for us to play with this month...  If you are not familiar with Laney's whimsical (and sometimes beautifully realistic!) lampwork creations - you should be!  I had bought half a dozen zombees last fall because they made me laugh out loud when I saw them in my facebook feed.  I love seafoam green, and opal type glass, bugs and funny beads so they just ticked every box for me.  Laney sent me one more little critter this month for participating, which expanded my stash into a hoard...oh what to do!?!

My friend Kelly had given me this gorgeous lampwork skull by Nikki Thornburg-Lanigan awhile ago, and I knew he would look great with the zombees.  I had a fun idea, but then decided I didn't have enough time to do it and started beading this halo-esque support for the skull.

My thought was for the beadwork to be the under-structure for a zombee laden flower crown...but I knew I couldn't get it done in time and cramming all the zombees into such a tight space seemed...wrong?  Like they need more space to bumble (because that's totally what zombees do instead of shamble...) around.  Back to the bead board.

So I strewed things around and pulled out a bunch of beaded components and Czech glass, just to make sure I was ok with cutting off the beading I had done.  I hate "wasting" beadwork, but sometimes it's best to stop right when you realize you're going the wrong way.  I ended up re-imagining my original idea of long scarflike netting with bees sprinkled on the ends around the central skull, into something simpler.

I made a zombee hoard, guided by a necromancer with a few bats (also by Laney!) thrown in for good measure!  And a zombee hoard (hive?swarm?) has been on my mind since the first ones came home last fall.

My favorite little zombee is this guy - I'm calling him Beenjamin.  I wanted to set him apart from the others, so he is suspended on a single strand of fringe, opposite the rest of the swarm.

 Beenjamin is really special - I love his smaller, wide set eyes because he always looks beefuddled!

While I love a clasp that blends in, there is so much going on in this necklace that I don't mind having the simple brass toggle right in the front of the piece.

Opposite the swarm, I strung the strap with large opal green and black Czech glass beads, as I needed some substantial weight to balance the zombees.

The ladies of the swarm - Beeulah, Beetrice, and BeeBee...

In the middle you can see Barbee and Beena, along with bats Thomas and Tyrone...

And last but not least, Bambee with Tyrone below and Theo above.

I love these emerald opal vintage glass beads for the texture, and variation in color they add to the whole piece.

I'm just so pleased with how everything turned out!  The swarm seems happy in their new home, and the balance of the whole piece means that I don't fidget with it all day long. 
I do hope you will buzz along and check out what everyone else has done with their zombees!  I am off to do just that!

Guests

Linda

Elisabeth Auld

Team

Lesley  Watt

Jennifer Cameron

Diana Ptaszynski

Jenny Davis-Reazor

Susan Kennedy

Caroline Dewison

Lindsay Starr  (you are here!)

Cathy Spivey Mendola

Claire Fabian

Niky Sayers

Laney Mead