bead soup reveal 7-28-12

Title:  FROM THE HEART

When the Bead Soup ingredients arrived, I fell in love with the southwest color beads and the beautiful delicate heart shaped pendant bead that came from Cheryl Roe.  I started visualizing necklace designs and ran into two self  inflicted problems.  I wanted to lengthen the look of the heart pendant, but the bead hole ran from side to side.  In my mind, I saw delicate and I wanted statement, how could I accomplish a

bold statement with the small beautiful heart?  I placed the ingredients in the hands of my muse, and allowed my intuition to take over.  I constructed a wire and clay base. I added a hand painted  textured button to bring the eye to the area of the heart pendant which was now suspended  by a delicate chain.  I continued to add various charms to create texture and volume. This included a copper colored faux resin bead to pick up the color of the copper wire clasp which I separated and placed one on each side as they became charms.

Among the charms are, a mother of pearl shell that a student brought for me from the beaches of New Zealand, a tassel made from silks that came with me from teaching in Japan, handcrafted and painted fabric beads from my line of beads called Modern Acorns, and a bunch of other favorite orphaned beads.  I added two sizes of round wire circles to repeat the round shape of the button.  The lovely beads that Cheryl sent are attached to the wire circles and a small patinated brass clasp holds everything in place.  All in all I am very happy with the end result. My muse presented me with bursts of inspiration and improvisatory moments where I added, subtracted, shifted, broke apart, and melted together most of the ingredients.

Please visit Cheryl's website to see the beautiful necklace that she created with the ingredients that I sent to her.  Thanks Cheryl for being my partner and for the wonderful ingredients you sent me.

 Click this link to visit the other participants of the first reveal.

 A big thank you to Lori Anderson, a beautiful jewelry artist, for creating this wonderful challenge.

collage on canvas

CROSSING BOUNDARIES

16 x 20 Mixed Media Collage

I would like to invite you to paint with me.  I will be teaching Mixed Media Classes at Hobby Lobby in Peoria  and Avondale, Arizona starting in September.  Peoria classes will be Mixed Media Painting and Collage on Monday afternoons.  Avondale classes will be Mixed Media Painting and Collage and also classes in Unique Jewelry Design held on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  I will be posting class information on my other website soon. Click here for information.  Seating is limited, so reserve your space early.  Comment on this post or email me if you are interested in reserving a space.  All levels welcome.

Stop by, say hello, and register for a class. I will be demonstrating my work at 

Hobby Lobby Arrowhead in Peoria AZ, August 18, 2012 from 1 to 3 pm.

bead soup...here we go

These are the lovely Bead Soup ingredients that I received from my partner Cheryl Roe, thanks Cheryl, I love the Southwest colors, but you threw me a curve with the white beads, I rarely work with stark white, the fear of the blank canvas, I presume.  But... this is the fun of the challenge.  I love, love, love, the simple designs on the beads and pendant.  Feels like they have been painted in watercolor.  I so wish that the pendant was larger, here again, another challenge.  Please visit Cheryl's website, she makes lovely beads and jewelry.

I would also like to thank Lori Anderson for partnering me with Cheryl.