Scuptural Chakra Ring

Today I finished making a ring whose inspiration came from Beading - the Creative Spirit by Wendy Ellsworth wherein one of the projects involves creating a chakra flower sculpture.  Preferring wearable art to beaded objects that serve as dust collectors, I decided to see what would happen if I put it together in some fashion to make an interchangeable ring as I have a colleague who is passionate about huge funky finger decoration.

I tried to make each layer beautiful in its own right and managed to come up with an "undo-able" wire mechanism to hold it all together.

Here are a few of the multitude of possible variations that could be put together.

Watercolor Pendant

Watercolor Pendant
Originally uploaded by Everlasting Glass Art

Very pretty lampwork bead by Everlasting Glass Art.

Her photo stream at Flickr is worth looking visiting.  She does lovely work.

Jan Atherton November ABS Challenge Entry

Fairy Fellers 1 November ABS Challenge Entry
Originally uploaded by JanAtherton

Amazing seed bead work!

It's worth exploring her photo stream to see other examples of how beautiful seed bead work can be both on its own and as a complement to lampwork beads.

Coupe Boules de Neige, 1903 by Camille Naudot (1882-1938)

The Musée d'Orsay has a wonderful repository of images and commentary on their website.  This lovely bowl makes me wonder what I might be able to achieve with translucent polymer clay canes.  Hmmm....

Art Bead Scene January Monthly Challenge

Among the several beading-related blogs I discovered in my research, I find Art Bead Scene really interesting.  The main contributors seem to have created an eclectic, germane and quality resource that is entertaining, enlightening and inspirational.  It appears to be a very active on-line community which engages in creative activities of various kinds.  In a lot of ways it reminds me of Ravelry, the fiber arts social networking website.  (More about Ravelry here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravelry.)

As with Ravelry, Art Bead Scene members often participate in creative activities which they share via their blog.  One of their regular events is a Monthly Challenge that epitomizes their objective (celebrating art beads, inspiring those who use them) by proposing a theme and inviting artists (jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artists, etc.) to submit work that includes at least one art bead and fits within that theme.

The January Monthly Challenge is Claude Monet's painting La Pie (seen above).  The thought of creating a project inspired by another piece of art fascinates me.  I'm going to put the idea into my think-tank and see what happens!

Twisted Rope Lariat Necklace and Earrings

Having decided there were certain skills that would serve me well if learned, I embarked on this ambitious project. The necklace is based on what I believe is called a Dutch spiral. I decided that I wanted lots of possibilities for wearing it and thought a lariat version would allow for that.

These earrings on are based on a flat spiral stitch. They are bright and colorful.






Since the previous earrings are too imposing to wear with the necklace, I came up with the idea of these mandala / star earrings which have a lighter, more airy nature.