Sunday, February 20, 2011

Art Bead Scene February Challenge...

The prompt for this month's Art Bead Scene Challenge is the painting, "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" by John Singer Sargent. Although I've been busily scrambling around to meet deadlines, answer emails and catch back up after the Gem Shows and teaching, I wanted to take some time to create something for this challenge. I love the painting and its luminosity. I can almost smell the heady fragrance of the flowers in the garden and feel the cool of the early summer's evening.

I don't use a lot of pink in my work, so I'm always looking for a creative challenge to force myself to utilize it in a design. This was the perfect opportunity to encourage me to expand my creative horizons.

Above is the bracelet that I created. It is composed of a mix of art beads; the ceramic floral focal is from Golem Studio, the enameled flowers are from C-Koop Beads, and the fine pewter floral toggle is from my family at Green Girl Studios. I used these components with a mix of German silver, Swarovski crystal pearls, Vietnamese ceramic rounds, violet opal and light rose satin Swarovski crystal bicones from Fusion Beads, and some candy-colored pink opals I picked up from Scottsdale Bead Supply.

I like the design. It's simple and sweet, and I think it captures the essence of the garden. The pink opals also have the same luminous effect as the lanterns and play off of the opaqueness of the ceramic rounds and the lustrousness of the navy pearls.

9 comments:

Lorelei Eurto said...

Very Pretty Andrew!!

TesoriTrovati said...

That focal bead is really cool, retro and modern at the same time. Nicely done on challenging yourself!
Enjoy the day!
Erin

Lisa Godfrey said...

Beautiful! Those pink opals really do remind me of the lanterns in the painting. They kind of "glow". I love the new clasp too! So pretty!

Malin de Koning said...

Pretty!
I wanna see more pictures, please.
:-)

Rebecca said...

Lovely - I found the painting on ABS so inspiring too - the colours and atmosphere especially. I love this wee bracelet!

Alice said...

A lovely piece! The focal is so sweet, and I love all the dainty floral components.

I had a difficult time finding beads for this challenge. I don't use much pink, so I decided to use the peachy color of the paper lanterns along with my blues. I'm not sure if it works for me.....but at least, for once, I have a challenge piece to enter!

rosebud101 said...

Love the bracelet Andrew!

peggy aplSEEDS said...

how pretty! how interesting to have a painting for inspiration for jewelry and capture it so well.

Kiki said...

So gorgeous!