CC7A April Reveal

Welcome to reveal day for the April edition of the Creative Continuum of Seven Artists, brought to you this month by the lovely Therese Frank of Therese's Treasures. Therese sent moonstone beads, sky blue agate and sparkly clear AB glass, along with a gorgeous one-of-a-kind dichroic glass cabochon she handcrafted. All of which I neglected to photograph, despite the fact that they sat smiling on my worktable for the better part of a month!

Therese's inspiration was the song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, from this album: 

This Beatles' song, filled with musical and recording innovation, has inspired lots of covers since it debuted in 1967, and even more controversy. Was it about tripping on LSD? Inspired by a child's drawing? A modern nod to Alice in Wonderland? A bit of each? Certainly it has consistently garnered attention and remained on playlists for almost 50 years. So cheers to you, John! You have kept everyone arguing even from the grave... you are having the last laugh :)

Here are the lyrics... decide for yourself what John Lennon was describing:

Picture yourself in a boat on a river,

With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.

Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,

A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green,

Towering over your head.

Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes,

And she's gone.

Lucy in the sky with diamonds,

Lucy in the sky with diamonds,

Lucy in the sky with diamonds,

Ah... Ah...

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain,

Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies.

Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers,

That grow so incredibly high.

Newspaper taxis appear on the shore,

Waiting to take you away.

Climb in the back with your head in the clouds,

And you're gone.

Picture yourself on a train in a station,

With plasticine porters with looking glass ties.

Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile,

The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

Here is the bracelet (which started life as a necklace) I designed using Therese's awesome and trippy components (sweet enameled birdie clasp by Kristen Varian):

Be patient while I share some extra photography I experimented with (links to the other designers in the group at the bottom, if you prefer to skip):

Dark background:

I created a polymer clay bezel for Therese's glass cabochon, stamped
with our group acronym. There are four narrow tunnels for
cording between the glass and the bezel.

And while wearing the bracelet (I always forget to take these):

As always, I want to thank Alicia for inviting me into the CC7A, and Therese for providing this month's beautiful components and fabulous inspiration :) And Therese, I DID make several earring pairs with leftover goodies... if I could only find them :( I am literally floating in earrings this month, so I'm hoping I put these special pairs in a "safe place" LOL.

I invite everyone to hop over to the rest of the members and see their creations:

Alicia... All the Pretty Things
*Alicia will be posting later in the week*

Christine... One Kiss Creations 

Cynthia... Antiquity Travelers 

Emma... A Polymer Penchant 

Sally... The Studio Sublime 
Therese... Therese's Treasures

See y'all next month for another round!

What I Won and Upcoming Events

I've been enjoying a little holiday the past two weeks! So today just a quick word on current and upcoming stuff:

1/ I won this beautiful handmade soap from Kathy Weisz of Kathy in Ozarks. Kathy asked what kind of soap I wanted and I said, "Surprise me!" Yesterday I received this gorgeous golden butterfly :) How did she know? Kathy even included a pretty hand-knit face scrubbie from fellow Missourian Etsy maker Rita Hagenhoff of Sticks n Stones Gifts. My own mini-spa :) Thanks, Kathy!

Kathy has two shops on Etsy: one for beautiful hand-dyed fibers, and the second where she sells her custom soaps in all kinds of cute shapes (even some for men and kids):

2/ Also in my mailbox yesterday was the envelope of Ears to You earring cards I have been awaiting. Now I have started to get those 100 pair sorted and bagged, and ready to send out to this very worthwhile organization. Thanks, Amy, for the inspiration to get on board with your 100 Pairs 100 Days challenge!

3/ This Saturday, April 26th, is the fourth reveal in our Creative Continuum of Seven Artists (CC7A) monthly challenge. This time it is Therese Frank of Therese's Treasures who inspires us to get in touch with our inner Beatles, for a Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds blog hop. I have only a pic of part of the awesome cab she provided, but there were also moonstone beads, sky blue agate and sparkly clear AB glass. It is sure to be a great trip... so join us on Saturday :)

Freaky dichroic glass handmade by Therese

4/ I am working away at my beautiful Bead Soup sent by the wonderful Cheryl Brown. How to do justice to Cheryl's amazing gifts? Ai yi yi... The 8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party is set to go NEXT Saturday, May 3rd, with almost 500 bloggers participating. Hope you can drop by for this crazy party, too :)

ABS Challenge April 2014

I will keep this post short and sweet (for me, that is LOL) as I have already posted today for Tanya Goodwin's Shibori Ribbon Challenge. This necklace is my entry for the Art Bead Scene Challenge April 2014, which is this painting:

Swaying Dancer (Dancer in Green), 1877-79 by Edgar Degas

Pastel and Gouache on Paper 26" x 14" (66 x 36 cm)

**with selected palette by colour guru Brandi Hussey of Brandi Girl Blog**

The painting has bold colours well illuminated in Brandi's palette. As always, I learned a lot about an influential painter. As a tribute to the many contrasting aspects of Degas' style, I included both romantic motifs and rather more modern components.  Hope you like it :)

The little design in the Nancy Schindler pendant has always been a "dancing fairy" to my mind. Below is a grouping of little apricot flower bead caps which look like miniature dancers' skirts. The cord part of the necklace features bold lampwork discs by the inimitable Julie Burgard, Aztec Picasso Czech beads in a variety of blue-greens, and chunky dyed and hand-carved Indonesian bone beads. Strung on charcoal waxed linen with a commercial flowery button for closure (just because it was the one I really liked in this design).

Thanks for visiting, and be sure to check the ABS flickr page for lots more designs inspired by Swaying Dancer.

Shibori Ribbon Challenge

Early in March, Tanya Goodwin of A Work in Progress felt inspired to create a challenge around a special type of ribbon called Shibori. This type of ribbon is made with intricate folding and dyeing techniques, which produces a variety of beautifully patterned and shaded designs. Tanya generously sent several of us a length of gorgeous Shibori she had on hand and encouraged us to use it to get creative:

Tanya also shared some links to some beautiful bead embroidered items. As you know, I am not really much of a "beader", so I chose to create a little ribbon sculpture instead. If you saw my design for the Color of Dreams, you noticed I had "adopted" a certain creature as a sort of totem for growth and change. So I once again used it as inspiration for my ribbon design:

I enjoyed working with my Shibori ribbon. This butterfly only used about 1/2 of the piece Tanya sent me. I haven't decided if I will make a different sculpture, or use the remaining ribbon to make a tutorial for the butterfly :) I didn't find other Shibori butterflies out there, but if anyone has seen one, I would love to have the link.

My necklace was finished with uniquely hand-dyed tubular viscose ribbon by Lorraine Stobie, Colour Complements, threaded through heavy decorative antiqued copper chain. I thought this was the perfect "complement" to the Shibori :)

Thank you for including me in your challenge, Tanya!

Here are the other challenge participants:

 Our Hostess:
Tanya   A Work in Progress 

 Maryanne   Zingala's Workshop 

 Alenka   Pepita Handmade 

 Yep**Monique   A Half-Baked Notion**that's me 

 Carolyn   Carolyn's Creations

 Mary   maryhardingjewelrybeadblog

 Catherine   Catherine's Musings

 Christine   One Kiss Creations Beaded Jewelry

 Sharyl   Sharyl's Jewelry & Reflections

 Therese   Therese's Treasures 

If any of you are awake during the night, here in North America there is a total eclipse of the Moon tonight, April 14th-15th. Check the link for times.

Shibori Challenge and Rita's GLOSSI

Join us tomorrow, Monday April 14th, for a blog hop featuring Shibori ribbon, a product which is new to me, but apparently very popular with bead embroiderers. Don't panic, everyone, I have NOT taken up bead embroidery just in time for this hop LOL. But I HAVE created something special and meaningful for me. 

So do drop by and see what has been created by Tanya, Maryanne, Alenka, Carolyn, Mary, Catherine, Christine, Sharyl, Therese and I.

************************************************************************

Also, I just had to share what Rita of Jewel School Friends made with our Color of Dreams blog hop designs. Check out the beautiful Glossi magazine she created. I love this, Rita :)

Click to view The Color of Dreams Blog Hop on GLOSSI.COM

Thanks again for this wonderful and memorable celebration of our dreams, Rita!