Butterfly Wing Beads for Spring Projects

I have been making wings - butterfly wings. They are so fun to make, and I love the colors of each type of butterfly.

The canes that I make are small but they make beautiful wings. I have not tried to put the wings together and make a whole butterfly yet, but I see that in the future.

The wings can be used for earrings or dangles on a bracelet.

We're All Ears :: January Reveal

This month the We're All Ears Challenge was to use the Pantone Spring 2016 color palette.

I love pink but I also love blue so I decided that I would make the earrings in Serenity blue, Lipid shell and Snorkle blue. I had recently made polymer clay bird beads in an antique blue. I used blue onyx beads and some ruffled lampwork beads with different shades of blue in them to complete the look. I liked the way the ruffled beads made the birds look like they were sitting on a nest!

The ruffled lampwork glass beads are made by Mermaidglass

September Art Bead Scene Challange

I have been following the Art Bead Scene for a while now and have challenged myself make an entry for the month. This month's painting is View of the Pond at Charleston, East Sussex by Vanessa Bell.

I really liked the colors in this painting and tried to use the dark rose, peach, green and warm beige.
I made a cane using these colors and tried to imagine walking through the area around the pond. I pictured some stepping stones or the tiles around the window sill and came up with a design that I felt
could relate my feelings to the painting.
The result are these beads that are round coin shape with the look of stepping stones with green areas around them.

I do so love following the Art Bead Scene and visit the site almost everyday that I can. They always have interesting  and inspiring posts and great tips.

July Art Bead Scene Challenge

I have been following the Art Bead Scene for a while now and have challenged myself make an entry for the month. This month's painting is Still Life with Shells by Balthasar van der Ast.

For this months entry I wanted to make beads with swirls in them to resemble shells. I combined the colors of red, orange, and taupe to make coin shaped swirled beads. The swirling gives the beads a shell like look and mixes the colors to give the beads a more painterly look. I am pleased with the way that the beads look.

We're All Ears Creative Challenge

This month the We're All Ears Challenge was beautiful detailed quilts like this one:

I had just made a polymer clay cane that I thought looked like fabric and decided to make beads out of it.

Here are the earrings that I made out of the beads:

I added crystals for some sparkle in dark purple and lemon yellow.

June Art Bead Scene Challenge Beads

I have been following the Art Bead Scene for a while now and occasionally make an entry for the month. This month's painting is Feuilles, by Lois Seraphine

I had make a cane with some of the colors in the painting a while ago, and decided to use the cane to make some lentil beads for the challenge. The cane was in a leaf shape and it seemed to fit the painting well:

The lentils are a versatile shape for earrings, bracelets and necklaces.

Owl Delicious

I could not wait to get Deb Hart's Tutorial from Craftartedu. It captivated me and I have made lots of beads, but I have never done cane sculpting before. It is a great tutorial with clear concise instructions. My owl is not perfect of course, but I would not expect him to be.
I began by making the canes described in the tutorial. For the feather cane I used blue, white and turquoise, since those were the colors that I wanted for my owl. Here are the canes that I used - the eye cane and the peacock cane I had already made for another project.

I had never made a project this involved before and was surprised at all the steps that needed to be completed before I even got to start adding the cane slices. It is definitely a labor of love.
Here is what my owl looks like:

I made some mistakes of course but I am quite pleased with the way that my owl came out in the end. I  may just hang him in my studio for inspiration, as I now have a number of new ideas in mind to use this method. Thank you Deb for an excellent tutorial and I had a lot of fun making this guy!