Art Element monthly challenge reveal - Flowers.

 This month the challenge theme for the Art Elements team blog was flowers and it was hosted by Marsha.  To see the original blog post you can click HERE

 It has proved a very popular theme with so many entries this month but given the time of year I am not really surprised nothing says summer like an abundance of flowers and even, if you are like me, I just love the fact that the garden is green and buzzing with life, the flowers are an added bonus to the beauty that is this time of year. 

Posca paint pens and wooden tag.

 I have never thought of myself as a flower person, although I spent a good couple of years 'just' creating lampwork glass flower beads and I love looking through my huge book of Flower Fairies by Cicely M Barker, which was originally brought for my daughter many years ago and I have taken it back now she has grown up.

I have had a bit of a tough time this month and Lesley from the team sent me a wonderful gift of a set of Posca pens - I have admired her collection in several of the Art Elements blog posts.  I was moved to tears; not all of it hormone induced!  Having been in a bit of a slump creatively they kick started me into doing.  Above is a wooden tag with bright Posca paint pen folk art flowers.  I love using these paint pens and can't thank Lesley enough for dragging me out of my fog.

Before my lovely new Posca pens arrived I had experimented with using my coloured pencils on some other wooden supports.  They give a love effect, grainy and tactile looking.  The one above is a small disc for hanging. 

The flower above, again pencil on wood, hasn't worked enough for me, it just doesn't appeal.  The disc itself is quite small, magnet sized, maybe I should have gone for a different style/abstract to counterbalance the size of the disc?  

I am a little addicted to paper dolls.  They make me smile.  This one, and others, will be in my Etsy shop as soon as I pull my finger out and list the pattern, they are most relaxing to just sit and colour in, cut out the pieces and by adding the brad pins you have used an hour by indulging in a bit of art therapy!    The bunch of flowers is removeable and of course the head and tail move.  I have stuck a magnet on this one and he is now on my fridge, you just can't help but move him a bit when you pass!  

This came about because I was hanging out the washing!  Honest!  I have some wooden 'dolly' pegs.  I got them last year because they reminded me of my grandmother every time I hung out my washing, all those long school summer holidays spent with my grandparents on their allotment picking flowers for market or peas for Sunday lunch.  I have wonderful memories of those long sunny days.

Quite often, over the last year, I have looked at these pegs whilst pegging up thread bare underwear - they don't hold jeans very well you have to use boring old regular pegs - and thought they would make great wooden dolls.  One day, thinking of flowers for the challenge whilst hanging out the clothes I had an idea of a wooden cat doll in a garden of paper flowers.  I think Gordy must have been out with me that morning.

Straight after hanging out the washing I grabbed my little jewellery saw and on the garden table I sawed off the 'peg' bit and was left with a head and body which I painted with my Posca paint pens.. of course!  I spent TWO evenings doodling small flowers and leaves and cutting them out.  They are teeny tiny!  I had this snow globe which makes the perfect 'home' for my garden and with some painted polyfill for grass I spent quite a bit of time getting covered in glue attaching small flowers to wires - I am that 5 year old with a glue stick it goes EVERYWHERE! I enjoyed this so much I might have ordered some 'proper' wooden peg dolls, for my Posca pens you understand....

As I said earlier I 'used' to make a lot of glass flower beads so my son asked me to create for him a special bead to give to his wife to be on their wedding day next month.  I decided to go with 'something blue' as my daughter has seen the dress and described it to me - my son was obviously clueless!  so the bead has to be small to fit with the neck line of the dress. 

..and finally.. more glass and more flowers but  his time more my whimsical style...well it is nearly Halloween - I did say the year is flying by!  This pendant bead will be in my next show over on Facebook.  You can find out more about the show by visiting my Facebook group

Considering I was very out of sorts this month this challenge has seemed to have helped me be creative!  Hope you enjoy visiting the other blogs that have taken part.   Thank you for the theme Marsha.  

Here is a list of our Visiting Artists:

Alysen

Cat

Divya

Evie and Beth

Jill

Kathy

Linda

Martha

Melissa

Michelle

Rozantia

Sarah

Sarajo

Tammy

Hope

And our Art Elements Blog Contributors:

Claire

Jenny

Lesley

Marsha

Susan

Caroline

Cathy

Laney - you are here

Head pins and weddings.

 

I have been making head pins.

 

 

 

 

Head pins on Etsy

Head pins on Etsy

I have some available in my  Izzybeads Etsy shop and a lovely lady contacted me to ask if I could do her some for a wedding bouquet and the flower displays, she wanted my bumble bees and bugs.  After a bit of a play I found the bumble bees looked better with 'sticky up' wings rather than the lay flat ones on the little beads and by using gravity to help angle the bees they turned out rather fab!  I have asked for pictures of her finished pieces when she does them and she has agreed which is lovely, but I have a little wait as her wedding isn't until the summer.

Talking of weddings....

My brother got married last week and the hubby and I went to the service and reception.  My brother lives on the east side of the UK and we live on the west,  its about 3-4 hours driving in the car.  The service wasn't until the afternoon, so we got all dressed ready and drove straight to the registry office as hubby worked the night before and that way he could get some sleep first.  As what normally happens, half way there I needed a wee.  Hubby pulled into the services on the motorway, and parked the car out of the way of the fuel pumps and queues of traffic but was much closer to the lorries and where they fill up with fuel.  Not usually a problem, but on this day it was.  There I was in high heels and a dress *shock*, me in a dress!  and I had to teeter my way from the car, past all the big burly truck drivers and their big lorries and into the service station to use the looe.  I was sooooooooooo over dressed, but hubby got a chuckle out of it!

Laney x

A head for flowers.

Autumn Fruits

Its something new for me.  Tiaras.  I was asked to enter a competition, open to all mediums.  I wanted to do a finished piece, as opposed to 'just' beads, but didn't want to make a necklace or bracelet, so I took a few days to think about it.  At first I was going to do something 'arty' like stitching the flowers onto a canvas to create a picture, but decided that my sewing skills are not good enough and eventually came up with tiaras, no sewing skills necessary!  This is the one that I am going to enter into the competition, a collection of Poppies, Blueberries, Acorns, Blackberries, Poppy seed heads and sculpted leaves.  My daughter modelled the tiaras for me, but I wasn't allowed to use her face...she had no makeup on!  I did get one with a smile though.....

Autumn Fruits Tiara with a smile!!

 

 

 I made two tiaras.  This is the second one, even though it was the first one I made! 

Blue Roses

 I really enjoyed making these, even if my fingers were sore for days, all that wire wrapping! 

As the sun has been out over the last couple of days, making it actually feel like summer, I have taken a few pictures of my beads for putting on Etsy, the sun really makes a difference.  These are Meadow Cranes Bill.

Click here for link to Izzybeads Etsy shop

The sunshine really makes glass sparkle.