Yellow Wildflowers

Texas Bluebonnets

Bradford Pear Tree Blossoms

Art Bead Scene has a challenge every month. For March, a painting by Van Gogh was chosen. I LOVE this painting, and went to work right away making the glass beads. I didn’t have the exact color blue that I wanted, so I used a transparent blue I had on hand, and then rolled each bead in a deep blue enamel. That gave the base bead a nice painterly feeling. The branches are applied stringer, made with silvered ivory glass. And the blossoms from a mixture of white and very pale pink glass. Two flowers made from clear glass rolled in frit completed the glass beads.

The finished beads hung out on my bead board for a while until I found a little branch Jim cast in silver. Perfect! I pulled out some bits of antique chain, some links Jim made, and others, arranged and rearranged them all, and my “Branches with Almond Blossoms” burst into bloom. Ah, welcome spring.

Meanwhile, Saturday Beads for Sale slid by without a nod. We went to Houston on Friday (always a challenge for us, we are no longer city traffic friendly). However, we did our medical chores, and afterwards, I enjoyed shopping at Rings and Things. I buy a lot of my findings from them, and gemstones as well. I love to pick out the beads I purchase  in person, so I enjoy their once a year hotel show in Houston. Therefore, no torch work on Friday this week, nor Saturday either, as I spent most of yesterday re-painting all my booth displays for my first show of 2010, coming up in Dallas next week.

Meanwhile, thanks to my new interest in learning what they are up to, I discovered that Erin is sponsoring a beading challenge based on The Solar System. Erin’s posts  are all inspiring in different ways. Her Solar System challenge, however, inspired me to make a necklace. It is strange, since just a few days ago I listed some of my beads for sale, beads I hadn’t been inspired to use in my own jewelry.  I named one group “Starry Night.” Go look at the picture of the loose beads – you’ll see why I pulled them out of the “For Sale” bin, and proceeded use them to make a necklace for this challenge. 

The result: “Milky Way Necklace”

Milky Way Necklace Closeup

I added natural stick pearls, silver seed beads, howlite stars and some other goodies to create a Milky Way with my glass beads. Learn what inspired Erin, check out what other challengers have done, and enjoy my necklace, “Milky Way.”  Thank you Erin.

Memories: Aegean Tideline

I changed it a fair amount from the first photo I showed you here.  I totally cut apart the first crocheted “net” I made, and redid it using a smaller fishing line.  I learned alot about shadow boxes (I’ve never used one before) – and am sure my second piece will be even better. “Tideline’ will be for sale beginning March 6, 2010 at  The Gallery at Round Top. All proceeds will benefit ACT. Contact the Gallery if you would like to bid.

Luna Park by Vestie Davis

I still haven’t finished looking at all the Bead Soup websites. Have you? My post and info about what I made  for the  Bead Soup Party is here.  Meanwhile, I have been working on yet another challenge – The Art Bead Scene challenge for February based on a painting entitled “Luna Park” by Vestie Davis. Read the ABS challenge blog  here.  Garnering inspiration from this painting really did challenge  me, since I don’t like the paintings’ colors, don’t like the paintings’ style of painting, in fact, just plain don’t like it. How negative is that?  Hey, that’s the challenge part of it, eh? So, scratching my head, I blinked at those pinwheel things in the center, and thought “Murrini.”

Yep, murrini, those little intricate jewels that we lampworkers make by combining lots of colors of glass together into patterns, then pull out into a smaller glass cane. Afterwards, we chop the cane into little bits, and melt the bits into a bead.  I forgot to take pictures of the murrini I made in Luna Park colors, however, here is a picture of other murrini I made  and is leftover from other projects. You’ll get the idea. So, anyway, I made murrini in  Luna Park colors, and was off and running.

Murrini

I made some hollow and flats beads, applied the murrini, and added decorations in other colors from the painting. Made some solid color beads.  After all the beads were annealed, cooled, and cleaned, I strung a long necklace using them.

 Bingo – a winner. All inspired by something I initally didn’t think was inspiring. How’s that for fun? ( and Luna Park does look like a fun place, I admit).

Here is the February Art Bead Scene challenge necklace I made -entitled, what else, “Luna Park Necklace.” Look closely and you’ll see the pinwheel murrinis. Enjoy!

Long Necklace Inspired by the painting "Luna Park"

This month, however, I am beginning something new – Mixed Media Art. Actually, it is so new I don’t really know what to call it. Two other beginnings led me to start this new art.

I recently joined Art Bead Scene, a group hosting an event called “Blog Carnival.” Posting a blog on a secret topic with a group of other bead artists sounded like a fun challenge. I squeaked in under the wire to join. This month’s post, due today, and linked into the group on February 17th, is on the topic, Beginnings. How apropos, as I am beginning a new phase in my art.

I’ve been creating works of wall art in my head for about a year now, and telling myself, “Oh, I’ll figure out how to do this soon.” My procrastination has dragged on an on. I even discussed my ideas with Karen Vernon, owner of The Gallery of Round Top (one of the galleries that sell my jewelry). Karen said, “Just do one piece of wall art a month – just one. It will get you started.” Great idea, only January slid by and I still hadn’t done anything except sketch out another idea. I envisioned combo glass and fiber piece, suspended inside a shadow box. The box would protect the glass yet at the same time, since the work would hang away from the box, light could move around the glass. A crocheted net would enfold the beads. Flotsam and jetsam trapped in “An Aegean Tide Line.” I see it clearly.

Meanwhile (also at the last minute) Karen invited me to join ACT (Artists Changing Tomorrow). Here’s their mission statement: “ACT, Artists Changing Tomorrow, is a program developed to sustain and maintain the arts: visual, literary and performing. This program’s goal is to provide art education, school and community art programs and performances, and overall community arts outreach. The program is supported by artists, patrons and benefactors who are aware of the contribution that the arts make to society and who selflessly seek to support the creative process.”

Act’s first benefit auction/show begins March 17th – and guess what? All the pieces are 12” x 12” and can either be a flat painting, or a dimensional piece inside a shadow box. I picked up the box yesterday.

Here’s the sketch I did a while back, with a few of the beads I haven’t put in yet.

My sketchbook with a drawing of the wall box art, and a few of my vessel beads

And here’s the beginning of the piece, with some of the beads already on the crocheted net. It’s a beginning.

I’ll keep you posted as the piece progresses. Some coral and barnacle beads coming out of the kiln this morning – beginnings ———–!

Silver Flowers and Pearl Necklace by Jim Foley

My husband, partner, jeweler, and all together exceptional person, Jim Foley, made the above necklace last week. Isn’t it beautiful? Yes!! (Of course it sold almost before it was finished).

I’m sharing the picture with you in order to acknowledge Jim on his birthday tomorrow, February 1st. (yes, our birthdays are close together, I’m three years older.) Jim has been a metalsmith since college, when he apprenticed to a German Goldsmith. Jim learned jewelry making from Horst the old fashioned way, starting with how to clean the shop, and gradually learning jewelry techniques, from designing, metal working, soldering, fabricating, wax modeling, lost wax casting, stone setting, and more.

Jim was a natural, and even his first pieces were original, beautiful, and well made. I know, because I met him right around that time, and bought a ring from him. We’ve been together 36 years now. Many, many pieces of exquisite, award winning jewelry have sprung from his fertile imagination and out through his skilled hands.

In 1990, at age 42, Jim was diagnosed with “Early Onset” Parkinson’s Disease – a progressive, degenerative neurological disorder, with no known cure. The three cardinal symptoms for P.D. are: rigidity or slowness of movement, tremor and postural instability or imbalance. In other words, Jim sometimes could barely move, sometimes went rigid or “froze” in place, sometimes shook uncontrollably, or sometimes fell over unexpectedly. Among other things, P.D. stole Jim’s ability to make jewelry from him. Gemstones fell out of fingers that couldn’t close correctly, the torch shook in an arm that couldn’t quit shaking, delicate wax used to make models couldn’t be guided into place.

We gave up our jewelry store, and set off to sail around the world instead. A crazy thing to do (read the first chapter of our book here). Medicines helped some of the symptoms, didn’t do anything for others. Jim made lemonade out of the lemons life had dealt him. He volunteered in programs searching for a P.D. cure. We went on with life, completed our circumnavigation. Each year we checked in with Jim’s neurologist, always hoping for any new medicine or treatment that would help Jim as the awful disease continued its march through our lives.

In 2001 one of the experimental treatments helped Jim enormously. Many of his symptoms were reversed – he could pick up small objects again, like pennies. He could button buttons again, zip zippers. So in 2002 when we moved back to land, he decided to try making jewelry once more. Some days he still shook too much to hold a torch, or a gemstone. His hands didn’t have the control to guide the wax as before – but still, he persevered. Techniques that took him minutes before P.D. took him many attempts, sometimes hours, to accomplish. He couldn’t use gold as he did before – his P.D. afflicted hands burned the gold up too quickly. So he turned to silver, and once again beautiful jewelry appeared.

Jim never gives up. He rarely complains, even when he has fallen down for the umpteenth time in a day, victim to the P.D. loss of balance that throws him unexpectedly to the floor. He puts his torch down, and waits patiently until a tremor passes and he can solder again. Just the effort of sitting sometimes overwhelms him, and he naps until his strength, zapped by P.D. returns.

Jim, in spite of P.D. is a master player of life, playing full out, with joy and love. And look at this latest beautiful nceklace he created in January. Jim, I salute you, and wish you a very happy birthday. I love you, and thank you for being in my life.

Beads from my Bead Soup Partner, Cindy Wimmer

Here are the beads from my Bead Soup Party partner, Cindy Wimmer. If you click on the photo you can go on over to her site and see the terrific jewelry she makes using her own wire work and other beads. She makes really fun jewelry, and she writes articles for several magazines. I was in the grocery store the other day, and wanted to treat myself to something, so I picked up a copy of “Easy Wire”, mainly because I really liked the bracelet on the cover. Guess what? The bracelet was Cindy’s!

I don’t usually do wire work – if any of that happens around here, it is done by Jim. And his style of work is entirely different than Cindy’s. So, I learned a lot from her articles in the magazine, and as a result have decided that my necklace for the Bead Soup party will have some wire work by me in addition to Cindy’s meticulous yet fun links. She has inspired me to step outside my own jewelry making box, and party! Stay tuned.

All of us in the bead party will be posting our results on February 10th. Read more here: The Bead Soup Party