Autumn Flowers Inspiration

The Art Bead Scene's challenge this month is a silk screen print by Marguerite Zorach.  With a background in printmaking this piece really called to me as labor of love from the artist. With the muted colors and modern design elements I knew right away that I would want to make beads inspired by the art. I printed this out and went to the studio to dig in and see what I could create. 

I pulled out some bead molds that reminded me the leaves, flowers and ferns in the painting and created them in autumn hues.

I mixed up some colors in polymer that matched the color palette I created for the ABS. (It will be on the blog tomorrow.) And pulled out some canes that fit the leafy theme for a very limited edition of these Autumn Floral disk beads. Love these! May have to keep a set for myself.

 Feathers in the navy blue and jade pulled from the print.

And I love the ferns stuck in the floral arrangement so I wanted to pull out these fern charms in the navy and copper hues.

I had this mold in the beadmaking stash from something I made years ago that never fit what I wanted for the project at the time. But when I was digging in those molds this week I instantly saw it updated in the new colors and knew it would be perfect. These are my favorite from this week's beadmaking adventures.  I love how they feel like a mid-century pattern. I'd love a skirt or scarf made with this design.

And looking at the inspiration print I couldn't help but think of my Bonbon beads. So I mixed up my favorite colors from the print and got to work on a new batch. Perfectly autumn, don't you think?

So that's what I created for this month's ABS challenge. I'm also a sponsor for this month's round and have donated a $50 Humblebeads.com gift certificate. I hope you'll play along this month!

New beads can be found in my Etsy shop.

The Editors Take the Art Bead Scene Challenge

This amazing painting was painted by Dutch Renaissance painter Balthasar van der Ast in the 1600's! You can read all about our monthly challenge here. When I saw this painting I fell in love with that collection of shells. Shells were considered exotic to the growing upper class during the Renaissance, collected from tropical locations from merchants traveling the globe. The Dutch would paint still lives with flowers, insects and other mementos that would not only show off their wealth but had a deeper meaning that all the things of this world are temporary and transient. 

I decided this month to create beads for the challenge. One thing I loved about the painting was the play of pattern, color and shapes from one shell to the next and created small collections of headpins inspired by the shells and berries in the painting. 

These are one-of-a-kind sets and can be found on my website, here. 

Stop by the Art Bead Scene today to see what our other editors were inspired to create! 

Beady Advice For Happier Times:

Believe good things are going to happen.

Surround yourself with precious friends.

Just bee yourself darling.

Remember, wishes do come true - make at least one a day!

There are seasons of growth, embrace change.

Variety is the spice of life, mix things up every now and then. 

Share your favorite quote or words of wisdom that have helped you lately.

(Click on the images to read more about the beads.)

Wedgwood Inspired Beads

I've been working on some new beads inspired by Wedgwood Pottery. The type of pottery is actually called Jasperware. It has a white raised relief sculpture on a matte background. 

I whipped these up in spring colors and paired them with birds and leafy disk beads.

You can find a few of them in my Etsy shop.

Pantone Spring Colors

Before the holidays I mixed up these colors inspired by Pantone's Spring 2015 picks. I always find their palette inspiring. 

I finally made some time this week to make beads with these colors. 

For this collection I pulled the custard yellow, classic blue, strawberry ice, toasted almond, lucite green, glacier gray and tiny touches of tangerine. The looks so fresh and happy! 

My inspirations were lace patterns, butterfly wings, entwined vines and birds, lots and lots of birds. 

I find as soon as the world turns winter white and gray I am ravenous for color. Thankfully my bead table is quite the color feast!

So which spring hues are you digging? 

Inspiring Bead Shops: Perfectly Paired

I thought I would try something fun today and feature a few online bead shops that are worth a visit. These are friends of mine, but this is just me saying "oh, look here at what they've got" because these three hardworking beady women sure do inspire me! I've paired up their beads with a few of my Humblebeads Bead Mixes. Enjoy!

Ornamentea + Humblebeads
Ornamentea is a brick and mortar bead shop located in Raleigh, North Carolina run by Cynthia Deis. Ornametea has a super inspiring website with lots of free projects from trendy designers. They offer an eclectic array of mixed media and jewelry making supplies.Cynthia works with several different bead artists to round out her collection, which I love to see!

Humblebeads: Wild Bird Bead Mix

Ornamentea: Chexx Beads, Beveled Bayong Wood Beads, Green Girl Shibuichi Bird, Antique Brass Metal Spacers,  Harvest Gold Dupioni Silk
 

Stinky Dog Beads + Humblebeads
Kitty Bozzini has carved out quite the bead inspiring beauty of a website at Stinky Dog Beads. This is an online only bead shop that offers a beautifully curated collection of beads with photographs that just make you want to shop! Stinky Dog Beads offers lots of unique items that have my nature-lovin' heart going pitter-patter. Must shop the clasps.

Humblebeads: Woodland Bead Mix

Stinky Dog Beads: Central cut Picasso Czech glass beads, Double link chain, antique brass, Mykonos Peace dove, twig connector, Halo Heavens English cut Czech beads

The Curious Bead Shop + Humblebeads
Rebecca Anderson is the curious bead propieter behind The Curious Bead Shop. Rebecca's popular Etsy shop is run from home in Scotland! You may have seen Rebecca's jewelry featured here on my blog, she has a way with Humblebeads.  Rebecca's shop offers mainly Czech glass in so many yummy colors and styles but she is also branching out with findings, metal spacers, waxed linen and leather.

Humblebeads: Tribal Pattern Bead Mix

The Curious Bead Shop: Copper faceted cornerless cube, Orange Evening Ember Faceted Rondelles, Royal Blue Faceted Glass Bicones, Violet Opal Petals, Burnished Pink Leaves

Grab Bag Project Inspiration

Happy Saturday!!! My weekend is going to be filled with three things: beads, blueberries and birthdays. 

Beads because every spare minute is now crunch time for Bead Fest. (Booth 559A) Oh my, oh my, do I have some amazing things for this show. I'll be posting tons of picks next week. Follow me on Instagram for a behind the scene peak at prepping for a national bead show. (@humblebeads)

The other two B's - it's Blueberry Festival in my hometown and I love playing tourist. Checking out the craft show in the park, sidewalk sales, eatin' some berries, etc, etc. And birthdays, well for my nephew and my bday is on Monday and I like to celebrate it for a good 2-3 days!!! 

Back to beads - that's why you are here right? I'm having a huge clearance sale making way for all my new goodies. 

You can find 40% off grab bags in my Etsy shop. They are bright and cheerful and start at $25!!! 

It's a great way to stock up on focals and find some rare Humblebeads. 

Here is a free project as an example of what to do with those round focals: 

Dahila Necklace

Check out all the grab bags in my Etsy shop: 

Have an awesome weekend!!!

Bead Table Wednesday

So this is how I started my morning: working on a few pendants to take with those bracelets from yesterday down to my local art center.

They teach yoga classes there and I have these lovely zen-inspired word beads that I made earlier this summer. I'm hoping these speak to those ladies who are there each week to unwind.

I had the pendants at Bead & Button, but just added them to my Etsy shop today.  Maybe you'd like to make necklace that speaks to you!

So what's on your bead table today? 
Share in the InLinkz tool below for Bead Table Wednesday or on Instagram by using #BeadTableWednesday

An InLinkz Link-up

Art Bead Scene's May Challenge

This an Italian Renaissance painting by Bernardo Bellatto and Brandi Hussey's color palette for this Month's Art Bead Scene challenge.

I love using Brandi's color palettes for inspiration and in fact mixing colors is one of my favorite parts about beadmaking.

Here are the beads I made using the color palette. I kept them simple with stripe and leaf canes to tie into my upcoming workshop. You can find these in my Etsy shop.

I whipped up a set of these beads into a fun bracelet yesterday with a ceramic sea urchin from Blueberri Beads, a lampwork spacers from Genea, starfish clasp from Green Girl Studio and wood beads from Rings & Things.

This bracelet is a serious multi-tasker, not only does it tie into the Art Bead Scene's May Challenge, it also happens to be my Jewelry Making Mojo piece, which is all about creating jewelry from a color palette this week!

I cover the stripe and leaf canes in our first week of the Art of Color Polymer Clay Bootcamp. I'm going to show you how using a simple cane can open up a world of possibilities. So yes, you could learn to make beads like these and so much more during my four week class. 

I really wanted to create an online experience that goes beyond watching a video or downloading a PDF. A few points I'd like to share about the workshop:

• It's a self-paced course, your assignments arrive every Monday but you can work on them at your own pace.  
• On Thursday nights I will host an optional weekly chat in our private Facebook group to help you with any questions or troubleshooting from that week's assignments. 
• Interacting in a classroom, seeing what others create, talking to the instructor - all of intangibles that make taking a class so invaluable are what I'd like to create for you in this weekly format. 

If you've always wanted to learn how to make beads, crack the code to using color confidently or pick up some of my baking tricks to achieve that earthy, organic feel - this class is for you!

Early bird registration ends May 15th. Read all the details here.

Garden Patina - Inspirations

I've been spending a few hours this week playing with some new ideas and styles inspired by my trend research.  Loving metallic accents, patina and geometric shapes like daggers, triangles and coins. 

Here is another version on my ginkgo, I'm slightly obsessed with them for some odd reason.  I think I like the art nouveau feel of them.

I'm finding this shape incredibly inspiring and plan on working up an earring tutorial for the Bead Cruise program booklet - you'll be able to see that at the end of March when I get back from the cruise. 

I'm dreaming of old weathered garden gates, the patina on aged copper, walking in warm places and feeling a connection to the past.  Yep, that's all wrapped up into my beads this week.  It's been a long time since I've just played with clay and made one-of-a-kind pieces.  Some of these beads may become part of my regular line, but getting a handle on the patina to make it do what I want every time is a little tricky.  So enjoy them while they are around!

This is a tutorial I did for the Art Bead Scene a few years ago, I could see it in copper and patina to match these beads!  Hmm, I may have to give that a try.  Click here for the tutorial.

The whole collection went in my Etsy shop today.  Stop on by to see what's left, they are already flying out the door!