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I Took the Art Bead Scene Challenge

So it's time for another round of the Art Bead Scene editors taking a turn at creating jewelry the monthly challenge and sharing our work in a blog hop. This month's painting is by Martin Johnson Heade.

For the challenge, I dug into my bead boxes to see what I already had and started my projects from there. I would say I was inspired by the challenge but not in a literal way. My pieces have hints of the inspiration painting, but I found the beads led this way this time around!

I started this necklace with my Orchid pendant. I made this pendant early this year in honor of Pantone's color of the year: Radiant Orchid.

To accent the pendant I paired up lampwork from Sea of Glass, ceramic round from White Clover Kiln. The purple ceramic charm from Marsha Neal reminded me of the shape of the nest in the painting. I thought the butterfly charm from Gardanne pulled in some of the darker colors from the painting, the Green Girl Pewter nest seemed an easy pick, and then the copper leaf charm from Vintaj added a little tropical charm along with a tiny glass teardrop. The design has a toggle clasp above the pendant with a copper branch and a fine brass chain.

I tried to capture that lush feel that the painting has with lots of layered elements.

The next piece is further removed from the subject matter and pulled the inspiration from the colors of the painting.
 
I started out with a pink ceramic owl pendant in the same shade as the orchid - the pendant is from Andrew Thornton. A Diane Hawkey Inspire bead brings a little message to the necklace - always good to encourage random inspiration! A tiny orchid bird that I made is paired up with a green ceramic bead from White Clover Kiln. I added a few wrapped beads that has sari silk ribbon and seed beads. 
 
This necklace just makes me all kinds of crazy happy, must be those fun and playful colors! 
Earrings with enamel leaves from Gardanne, speckled wobbles from me and Czech glass from a little punch of color. 

For the next set, I pulled the color palette back and focused on the purples with a neutrals of grey and my metals. The lampwork headpin is from Pumpkin Hill Beads, the pewter nest is a Green Girl Studio creation and then I paired them up with my speckled wobble and tiny bird in shades of orchid and lilac. 

Matching earrings with enamel oak leaves from Gardanne, my wobbles and Czech glass.

And then I felt like I only make pendants for these challenges so I wanted to work up a bracelet. I don't make enough bracelets - what's up with that? I started with my tiny bird in emerald and few wobbles, added in a great ceramic bead from Starry Road Studio that looked very nest-ish. The toggle is from my friend and fellow ABS editor, Mary Harding and then I used a Vintaj leaf that I textured for the other side of the bracelet. The leaf is from Pumpkin Hill Beads.

 I really love how this turned out!

I have mixed my metals using copper, brass, and steel/arte metal to play with the darker colors found in the painting. And to finish today I have a pair of earrings that fit the tropical theme with enameled leaves from Gardanne and my speckled wobbles (can you tell they are a fav!).

Head on over to the Art Bead Scene today to check out what everyone else has done. And you should definately pull out your beads today or later this week and play along with us!

Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge

The ABS Editors Take the Challenge Blog Hop - see what everyone made for this month's challenge!

Humblebeads Jewelry  - these will be available in my jewelry shop later this afternoon.