Tropical Island Bead Picks

Let's talk tropical!  I picked this month's challenge painting because: 

1. I'm ready for some serious color

2. I'm ready for tropical islands. 

Thankfully the tropical islands are my destination at the end of the month when I head out on the Bead Cruise.  The color, well there is no shortage of color here in the art bead world so let's celebrate those tropical hues today.

Let's get this party started - top left to right:

Jangles, Humblebeads

Cindy Gimbrone, Lynn Davis

Miss Fickle Media, Mary Harding

Marsha Neal, Creative Impressions in Clay

Kylie Parry, Pinocean

Classic Bead, Jade Scott

So go make with the fabulous and show us what you create for this month's Art Bead Scene Challenge!  You could see your work here on Monday as a Featured Designer.

March Monthly Challenge

Nave Nave Moe (Sacred Spring, Sweet Dreams) by Paul Gaugin 1894, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

About the Art

Gauguin painted this after he moved to Tahiti in 1891, seeking inspiration from the native "primitive" culture, which he regarded as more real and more sincere. It is characterized by clear outlines, flat forms, and vibrant colors, which reflect the influence of native art on the artist.

About the Artist

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin, 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903, was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer. His bold experimentation with colouring led directly to the Synthetist style of modern art while his expression of the inherent meaning of the subjects in his paintings, under the influence of the cloisonnist style, paved the way to Primitivism and the return to the pastoral. He was also an influential proponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms.

Challenge Color Palette

Blog Challenge

On March 31st we will host a blog tour of everyone who blogs about their challenge entry! To participate, blog about your challenge piece and leave a link in the comments below. Your link must be posted here by March 30th to be included in the blog tour. There will be a bonus prize for those who enter in the blog tour and a prizes for our readers!

The Prizes:

Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on April 1st.

Our sponsors this month are: Ornamentea, and Golem Studios please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

Featured Designer of the Week:

From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on the ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, so get those entries in soon.

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:

1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. We post the art to be used as your inspiration to create. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.

***Beads strung on a chain, by themselves and beads simply wire or cord will not be accepted.***

2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group.

Please add the tag or title MAR ABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Deadline is March 31st. Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn't followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.

What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.

***A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.
Beaded beads, stamped metal pendants or wire-wrapped components are not considered art beads for our challenge.***

p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness.

January Monthly Challenge

Brown River by Wayne Thiebaud

About the Art

"River-delta views from the Sacramento area, cityscapes from San Francisco and beach scenes from Southern California, no matter the subject, these works uniformly attest to the artist’s ability to sensuously manipulate pigment and capture clear light and vibrant color. It is this technical virtuosity, along with the artist’s tongue-in-cheek humor and ability to capture the realities of our place in time, that have helped to make Thiebaud a uniquely American painter."

About the Artist

Wayne Thiebaud (born Mesa, Arizona, November 23, 1920) is an American painter whose most famous works are of cakes, pastries, boots, toilets, toys and lipsticks. His last name is pronounced "Tee-bo." He is associated with the Pop art movement because of his interest in objects of mass culture, however, his works, executed during the fifties and sixties, slightly predate the works of the classic pop artists. Thiebaud uses heavy pigment and exaggerated colors to depict his subjects, and the well-defined shadows characteristic of advertisements are almost always included in his work. 

His family moved to Long Beach, California when he was six months old. One summer during his high school years he apprenticed at the Walt Disney Studio. He earned a degree from Sacramento State College in 1941. From 1938 to 1949, he worked as a cartoonist and designer in California and New York and served as an artist in the United States Navy.

In 1950, at the age of thirty, he enrolled in Sacramento State where he earned a Master's Degree in 1952 and began teaching at Sacramento City College. In 1960, he became assistant professor at the University of California, Davis, where he remained through the 1970s and influenced numerous artist students. On a leave of absence, he spent time in New York City where he became friends with Willem De Kooning and Franz Kline and was much influenced by these abstractionists as well as proto pop artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. During this time, he began a series of very small paintings based on images of food displayed in windows, and he focused on their basic shapes.

Challenge Color Palette

Blog Challenge

On January 30th we will host a blog tour of everyone who blogs about their challenge entry! To participate, blog about your challenge piece and leave a link in the comments below. Your link must be posted here by January 30th to be included in the blog tour. There will be a bonus prize for those who enter in the blog tour and a prizes for our readers!

The Prizes:

Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on February 1st.

Our sponsors this month are: Marsha Neal Studio, and Artybecca please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

Featured Designer of the Week:

From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on the ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, so get those entries in soon.

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:

1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. We post the art to be used as your inspiration to create. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.

***Beads strung on a chain, by themselves and beads simply wire or cord will not be accepted.***

2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group.

Please add the tag or title JAN ABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Deadline is January 31st. Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn't followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.

What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.

***A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.
Beaded beads, stamped metal pendants or wire-wrapped components are not considered art beads for our challenge.***

p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness.

Monthly Challenge Blog Tour

Thank you for joining us for our first Monthly Challenge blog tour!  Our participants created jewelry inspired by our Monthly Challenge painting and blogged about their creation.  Visit the links below for a look into their creative processes and inspiration.  Check out the awesome prizes that YOU can win at the bottom of this post.

Paulmbo Polymer Jewelry created three versions of her entry and you can get a peek into the creative process where she shows how she made the mold for her pendant.  Here is the second take of her pendant paired with vintage jewelry components. And the third time is a charm, it's amazing to see how using different colors for her focal bead can completely change it's look. 

Mad Maggie Designs shares what happens when her muse strikes.  I love the beaded toggle clasp, it's a beautiful detail.

Zenith Jade Creations was in inspired to pair her polymer clay focal beads with gemstones in two fairy themed designs: 1st entry & 2nd entry

Kristi Bowman Designs pulled out a de-stashed treasure and lampwork beads for her necklace.

Beautifully Broken Me takes her cues from Fitzgerald's use of color in her necklace.  I love the copper and resin bezel paired with the Picasso glass beads in a warm red.

For My Sweet Daughter alters Vintaj findings with alcohol inks in her woodland pendant.

Birgitta Lejonklous was inspired to create a wearable storm with her porcelain pendant.  She created two pieces of jewelry mixing art beads and fibers for this challenge and ended up with a whole series of pendants for more fairy inspired jewelry.

Subversive Bead Surprises rose to the challenge with seed beads and resin this month.

Too Aquarius created a drool worthy necklace of polymer clay floral components with glass accents.

Makin-Art paired a collection of seed bead leaves with a beautiful glass lampwork bead in her unique necklace.

Klassy Joolz found a perfectly whimsical focal bead for her lampwork bracelet.

Ex Post Facto carved out some time at the last minute during the busy holiday season to whip us this robin inspired creation. 

********************************

And now for the goodies!  We have three special blog tour sponsors.  The first two prizes will go to one of our blog participants.  The other 4 prizes will go to 4 lucky readers.  To enter in the reader giveaway leave a comment.  I will randomly draw our 5 winners on Monday.

One of our bloggers will win a copy of Cynthia Thornton's Enchanted Adorments thanks to Andrew Thornton for sending us copy.  This lucky blogger will also receive a pair of ceramic pendants from Spirited Earth.

Now for 3 of our lucky readers, I have three beadmaking books from Lark Books: Ceramic Bead Jewelry by our own Jennifer Heynen, Making Metal Beads by Pauline Warg and The Complete Book of Glass Beadmaking by Kimberely Adams.

One of our readers will also win this charming pair of ceramic pendants from Spirited Earth.

To enter to win the books and pendants let us know in the comments below if you plan on our entering the monthly challenges in 2011 and what would make you more likely to enter.  (Noting that I can not help with adding extras hours into days.) Do you want to know the challenges ahead of time?  Are you tired of art inspired challenges? Let me know your thoughts for 2011! Blog participants you can enter the reader giveaway too.  You can leave a comment until Sunday at midnight to enter.

You still have until Midnight tonight to enter our monthly challenge and win beads from Gaea and Fired Up Ladies.

Have a Happy New Year!

Monthly Challenge Blog Tour Reminder

I know you are all as busy as can be getting ready for Christmas.  This is just a friendly reminder to blog about your Monthly Challenge entry and leave a link on THIS (follow the link) blog post.  That's all you have to do.  We'll host the blog tour here on the ABS on the 31st.

I have a few awesome books to giveaway, including a copy of Cynthia Thornton's Enchanted Adornments and I have some bonus beads from Spirited Earth.  These special prizes will go to both bloggers and blog readers this month! Bonus prizes - what a great way to end the year.

If you didn't get a chance to make something new for this month's challenge, feel free to use something that you already have made that fits in the theme.  The only criteria is that it includes an art bead.  I can't wait to see what you've made!

December Monthly Challenge

I'm mixing things up this month for our Monthly Challenge.

First, you'll notice we have two inspiration paintings.  I just couldn't pick one from this painter and thought it would be fun to offer two inspirations.  You can pick your favorite or create more than one entry if you are inspired by both pieces.

The second change to this month is that we are going to end the challenge on December 31st with a blog tour of everyone who blogs about their challenge entry!  To participate, blog about your challenge piece and leave a link in the comments below.  Your link must be posted here by December 30th to be included in the blog tour.  There will be a bonus prize for those who enter in the blog tour!

Everything else will be the same, see below for the complete guidelines.  Now let's go on to the inspiration...

 The Storm, John Anster Fitzgerald



The Captive Robin, John Anster Fitzgerald, c.1864

John Anster Fitzgerald - (1819? – 1906) "Victorian fairy painter John Anster Fitzgerald is one of the most delicate and imaginative of the Victorian Fairy painters. More than any of the other artists working in this genre, he was able to suggest the existence of a coherent alternative world which was ethereal and bizarre." - from the Faerie Keeper website.

"As an artist, Fitzgerald appears to have been largely self-taught. His work was first shown at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 1845; he also exhibited at the British Institution, the Society of British Artists, and the Watercolour Society. In the late 1850s he created a series of Christmas fairies for The Illustrated London News."  - Wikipedia

Click on the images for a closer look at the paintings, they are filled with visual delights.  Pull out your fairy inspired beads, florals, birds, etc.  Choose from two color palettes, the icy hues with holly red accents or the sparkling gem tones of a fairy hideaway.  Have fun and great creative!

The Prizes:

Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on January 1st.

Our sponsors this month are: Gaea, and Fired Up Ladies please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

Featured Designer of the Week:

From all the entries during

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:

1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. We post the art to be used as your inspiration to create. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.

***Beads strung on a chain, by themselves and beads simply wire or cord will not be accepted.***

2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group.

Please add the tag or title DEC ABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Deadline is December 31st. Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn't followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.

What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.

***A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.
Beaded beads, stamped metal pendants or wire-wrapped components are not considered art beads for our challenge.***

p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness.

Tree of Life Inspiration

(Left to right:) 1. HigherChakraSupply 2. Humblebeads 3. MamacitaBeadworks 

4. Shaterra  5. Genea

6. MarshaNealStudio 7.Green Girl Studios from BeadLady

8. Erica  9. FlameCrazy

November Monthly Challenge

Tree of Life, Stoclet Frieze, 1909

Gustav Klimt 1862-1918

About the Art

Klimt's representation of "Tree of Life" is an important symbol in nearly every culture. With its branches reaching into the sky, and roots deep in the earth, it dwells in three worlds- a link between the Heavens, the Earth, and the Underworld, uniting above and below. It is both a feminine symbol, softly bearing sustenance, and a masculine, visibly phallic symbol- forming another union. Looking closely, the swirling, concentric branches draw us deep into the painting, where we see Klimt's multiple, varied symbols therin, including geometric leaves and fruits, as well as flowers on the ground, that appear as eyes peering back at us. Of note is the gorgeous bird in the right center, set apart from all other detail by its darkness. Some say it is an owl, representing wisdom, or, more likely, a raven, representing death. As a print, the work is often split into three images, with the figure on the left titled, "Expectation" and the two on the right, "Fulfillment."

About the Artist

Gustav Klimt was a Viennese painter and the founder of the Vienna Secession, the Austrian Art Nouveau movement. His early work, consisting principally of large murals for theaters, was painted in an unremarkable naturalistic style.

After 1898, Klimt's work moved toward greater innovation and imagination, taking on a more decorative, symbolic aspect. He continued to paint murals, but the harsh public criticism of the three murals Philosophy, Medicine, and Jurisprudence led him to concentrate on panel painting. Klimt's best-known works are his later portraits, such as Frau Fritsa Reidler, with their flat, unshadowed surfaces, translucent, mosaic colors and forms, and sinuous, curling background lines and patterns.

Among his most admired works is the series of mosaic murals (1905-1909) in the Palais Stoclet, an opulent private mansion in Brussels designed by the architect Josef Hoffmann, who was also a member of the Vienna Secession movement.

The Prizes:

Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on December 1st.

Our sponsors this month are: Genea Beads, and Humblebeads please visit us Thursday to see the prizes!

Featured Designer of the Week:

From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on the ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, so get those entries in soon.

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:

1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. We post the art to be used as your inspiration to create. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.

***Beads strung on a chain, by themselves and beads simply wire or cord will not be accepted.***

2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group.

Please add the tag or title NOV ABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Deadline is November 30th. Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn't followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.

What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.

***A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.
Beaded beads, stamped metal pendants or wire-wrapped components are not considered art beads for our challenge.***

p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness.

Monthly Challenge Inspiration

We love featuring our readers on Monday but there haven't been any entries yet this month for the challenge.  So pull out those beads this week and show us what you've got!

To help inspire you here are some examples that would fit our challenge from our Art Bead Scene jewelry designers.

 Erin Prais-Hintz

 Lorelei Eurto

Lori Anderson 



October Monthly Challenge

October Monthly Challenge

ABS Art for October Inspiration

Hildreth Meiere 1892-1961

Drama Medallion, Radio City Music Hall, 1932

About the Art
On the façade of the International Music Hall fronting on Fiftieth Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, are three of these ornaments.  The three are circular and eighteen feet in diameter.  Each is placed sixty feet above the sidewalk forming a complete decorative scheme in harmony with the entire development.
Oscar Bach, metal craftsman, who personally undertook the execution of these plaques, following a design by Hildreth Meiers, said yesterday that they were the first and only building decorations of this type in the world. They required six months to build.
“These plaques are akin to gargantuan pieces of jewelry,” Mr. Bach said yesterday.  “No machinery being available to cast these huge figures we were obliged to beat them into shape by hand in the manner of a silversmith.  The riot of colors that are part of this scheme are due to a special enameling process we have used calling for a lavish display of genuine vitreous enamel.  This process is almost imperishable.  I believe these plaques will last as long as the universe. This is not hard to comprehend when I tell you that these plaques are chromium steel, duraluminum, bronze, brass and copper.  And each has a specified purpose in the makeup of the pieces.  Indeed, it is interesting to note that in recent Egyptian discoveries the enamels uncovered are in an almost perfect state of preservation, being as bright and shiny today as they were when they were made thousands of years ago.
“It was necessary to execute these three plaques and also the thirty-seven feet long rectangular one on the north façade of the RKO Photoplay theatre entirely by hand.”
New York Herald Tribune, November 13, 1932

About the Artist
Hildreth Meière a distinguished Art Deco muralist, mosaicist, painter and decorative artist, ranks with the very small number of women artists -- such as Violet Oakley, Berenice Abbott, Isabel Bishop and Georgia O'Keeffe -- whose achievements gained the recognition of the established art world during the first half of this Century.
Educated at New York's Convent of the Sacred Heart, Manhattanville, the Art Students’ League, the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in Florence, Italy, she became the country's leading practitioner of the art of mosaic, and one of America's most gifted embellishers of architectural environments.

The Prizes:

Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on November 1st.

Our sponsors this month are sponsors: Cindy Gimbrone, and Artisan Clay please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

Featured Designer of the Week:

From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on the ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, so get those entries in soon.

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:

1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. We post the art to be used as your inspiration to create. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.

***Beads by themselves and beads simply strung on a chain, wire or cord will not be accepted.***

2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group.

Please add the tag or title OCT ABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Deadline is October 31st. Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn't followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.

What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.

***A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.
Beaded beads, stamped metal pendants or wire-wrapped components are not considered art beads for our challenge.***

p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness.