Pages

Current Contributors

Archives

 

March 2010
S M T W T F S
« Feb    
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Subscribe in a reader
or
Subscribe to Watch Me Create by Email

Sponsors

-Photo Necklace

Categories

Pappashop.com - Affordable Hosting and Shopping Ca

Join my blog network
on Facebook
Blog Networks

Meta

Changing Colors

March 7, 2010 - by chrisbrandel

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed or have it sent to you by email!. Don't miss a thing!

Over the last year or so, I have noticed that my approach to color in my world has changed significantly. I have been a longtime lover of green, black, and earth tones, in my clothing, home decorating, and art-making.  Those colors have always spoken to me, and I have always felt comfortable with them. Perfect for hiding, keeping to yourself, staying unnoticed, right?  Hmmm. Is that the way I want to be?

I have craved a change in my environment. I want to stand out more,  to show my personality. I am striving to make my art more accurately reflect ME, and as I have worked toward that, I have noticed a definite shift in my color preferences. For example, I would never have counted orange as a favorite color. It always seemed too…I don’t know…garish. But last year, I bought a flaming orange t-shirt to wear to the farmer’s markets I did last summer, and it has become a favorite top. My car? It’s a cherry-red Hyundai Santa Fe. No hiding while driving that! My kitchen is bright yellow, my favorite shoes are red, the best bracelet design I made last year was an intense electric blue….you get the idea. Even the motorscooter I bought in December is a gorgeous tangerine!

I’ve been using colored wire in my work for a while, but now, this is the scene on my workspace:

And these are some of the beads I have been making…

I love them! I can’t wait to make something fantastic with them!

The best part, though, is that I feel like I am getting somewhere, making a shift toward making art that is MINE. And that is a very satisfying and inspiring feeling.

all over the place

March 5, 2010 - by sheilamorley

My inspirations come from all over the place.  As I was obsessing about making jewelry beads for my next show; Pac man visited me. I pick colors up and trust them a little bit too much. It is better to use a little bit of color on a 100% base color. If you make a bead with 50% one color and 50% another, the chances of breaking is higher. The metals can tamper with the compatibility. (For more on that you can study eutectic temperatures).

I had two breaks I never photographed, but Pac Man was a nice surprise break.  The bead broke and turned into pac man right away. (The decal made a perfect eye.)  I really LOVE this purple with the opal yellow, and clay colored red. And, it reminds me of a sunset in the Upper Peninsula Rocks on the water.

The decals are the most awesome blue I could ever hope for. Totally electric, and I can not wait to use the LARGE version of this decal with some more of that awesome purple.

Once I saw the sunset in the pac man beads, I was inspired to create a sunset behind a lady in a dress bead.  (This is going to be etched) The entire bead is cracked directly down the center of the bead, from the top to the bottom.  Why? Because my studio is freezing cold, or because there is a compatibility issue?

Intense black Goddess polished in the flame.  I would like to make this bead again the way it should be.  (Not broken) I think I can create a super dreamy sunset with these colors. I especially like how the opal yellow circles sink behind the purple (in the lentil beads). Mysterious.

Star burst decals. So fun. explosions of color. I like murrini, and how you can control an explosion of color with them. The only pet peeve I have with millefiori/murrini is that the results are not always consistent. So, that brings me to decals. (Which, in all reality have a learning curve of there own.)  Photographic or digitally created  images that become one with the substrate.   And! Consistent results. No worries. A burst (my murrini esque decals) on a lentil bead.

Sheila Morley has been studying and practicing Fine Art since 1988-ish, and now she is trapped in a bead makers body, slowly (possibly) emerging into a sculptor (someday) (maybe)…time will tell…

Cabin Fever Creation

March 3, 2010 - by squareonebeads

I live in Wisconsin.  It is February.  We have gotten 14″ of snow this month.  I am going stir crazy like the roaming gnome in the Travelocity commercials.  My backyard has looked like this for far, far, far to long.

I need flowers, I need grass, I need leaves, I need color.  I need Spring!

Try as I might I have been unable to control the weather with my mind.  So to get the color I am so desperately craving I turned to my bead boxes.  As usual, they did not disappoint.

I found a copper cuff I forgot I had and decided the warmth of copper was exactly what I needed.  Copper is often underrated as a jewelry metal because it is ‘cheap’.  That is very unfortunate because while yes, it is relatively inexpensive compared to silver and gold.  It has a warm beautiful glow that silver and gold just can’t compete with and that is one reason I really love to use it.

I went into my next box and found my stash of  Czech glass flowers and leaves, exactly what I needed.  I grabbed my copper head pins and away I went.  The result was a pretty spring bracelet with a lovely warm copper band.

It’s not warm weather but it’s still very nice. :)

And this isn’t something I created but my Angora rabbit Pearl had four kits on the 19th so here is a gratuitous bunny picture taken today for you, because after all – what is more spring-like than bunnies?

Next Page »