Seed pods - Art Elements theme of the month challenge!

This month's theme challenge was "seed pods" at Art Elements. The theme was chosen by Jennifer and I couldn't have been happier about it. Like most people - I guess - I managed only a fraction of my ideas. A little bit was related to the extreme heat wave we have in the moment, but even more simply due to work. But what I manage better and better is to take up my regular sketching habit! So I will show you mainly what is inside my sketch book. :)

I enjoy using my "coffee time" to sketch a little bit. Often I am only using a pencil in the beginning and adding some water colour several days later. 

This is an ongoing process so a lot of the sketches you see may (or may not) get more layers of colour. 

But I really enjoy starting monochromatic. This also helps me to learn more about the behaviour of my water colours and the pigments in the different paints.

Seed pods are an inspiration for me not so much in their realistic shape but rather due to the interesting colours, shapes, textures... all together they give me wonderful ideas especially for abstract designs. There are several ideas I want to try out as acrylic painting or monoprint.

The line pattern with round ovals and smaller ones within a big one I either want to translate to a stencil or stamp.

My sketch book is also a reference book for myself where I can go to if I am stuck or just general need some ideas. 

You can see here on the right side some attempts in simplifying the shapes.

And yes, poppy seed pods were really some of my favorites!

What helps me to keep my habit of sketching on a more regular basis, is to use my travel kit inside my home. A travel kit is wonderful to take on the balcony, before my computer, or anywhere else. It my sound strange because I could have everything at hand being at home but a travel kit makes it even easier.

Sometime during sketching I realized: Seed pods are aliens!

Here I am playing again with more simplified shapes as well as bright colours.

I soooooo love the Horadam water colours from Schmincke! The paper in my sketch book is not the best for them and still, the colours! *sighs happily*

The last one was sketched during a wedding from friends of my husband. In between there was a lot of waiting time and we sat outside. Yes, I take my travel kit to weddings with me ;)

This small dots will become ear studs. They are made of polymer clay and I added white acrylic ink.

These seed pods I already showed at Art Elements - you can find the tutorial I wrote for them here.

And last but not least some ceramic pendants I made and hoped to include in some summer necklaces... but no... still on my to do list ;)

I had made some molds from clay and plants and I am always surprised how well bisque fired clay can hold even the tiniest details! 

I will still work on several of the sketches I have shown here and also go on with more ideas for seed pods. This is really my theme and I so enjoyed playing and experimenting with it!

Please have a look what everyone made for this theme challenge! :)

Guest Artists:

Norma

Tammy 

Raven 

Alysen

Anita

Cat 

Kimberly 

Rozantia 

Sarajo 

Divya

Caroline

Catherine

Kathy

Jill

Art Elements Team: 

Claire (you are here)

Caroline

Lesley

Niky

Laney

Susan

Marsha

Jenny

Cathy

Jen

Tide pools - Theme challenge at Art Elements

It is time again for our monthly theme challenge at Art Elements. This month Lesley chose the theme "Tide pools". I don't know what I should say to this theme other than that I believe it is really, really difficult to not find any inspiration in that!

I started playing a little bit with water colour. Experimenting with the effects I get by combining heavily granulating single pigment paints with ones that are not granulating...

...trying out some plant shapes as well as my new diamont silver aqua bronze from Schmincke (yes, so totally worth the money!)...

...and then going for some sketches. I had a look at Instagram for inspiration pictures just to get started and get a feeling for what I like and not.

I was undecided. I am actually playing nearly daily a little bit with my water colours, but not in any direction fitting for the theme. I use this daily play time more as a kind of diary or in combination with some personal note, so I didn't want to force myself to paint for this challenge.

Then I had a long look at my table after seeing  some sneak peaks from other Art Elements team members. Sitting there, looking at pieces of my work, I realized that I am mostly drawn to colours, effects and surfaces that all fit perfectly in the theme "tide pools".

Like I was not really doing anything else! Bowls, spoons, pendants, beads...

I made a tutorial for these glorious crustiness over at Art Elements, have a look here :)

Therefor I wanted to show you some things I made that I thought would fit for this challenge and hoped that while doing this I would get an idea what exactly I want to create.

This years I am mostly working with mixed media, water colours... not so much beads, ceramics, or jewelery. I spend a long time sitting in front of the cupboard where all my bead boxes are (the ones not sitting on or under the table ;) ) and going through all of my beads and art elements for creating jewelery I have. Gosh, it was a little bit like christmas seeing the kind of treasures I haven't looked at for months now!

I made a huge bead soups with fitting colours because I had the idea to finally make some necklaces from all the pendants I have. Didn't work out because in the end I came back to one of my oldest love "Earrings"!

It was a little bit slow at the beginning because my hands had to get their work memory back but after I finished some earrings pairs, all had come back and I realized how much I missed the joy of creating jewelery.

The photos of the earrings were all taken after some heavy rainfall creating a somehow quite fitting background. ;)

I am never sure whether my earrings will find a person who loves them as much as I do, sees the beauty in the single elements included and the stories they tell... but I was often surprised who bought which earrings from me and (sadly) which ones are still in their box waiting for someone to be treasured.

Please have a look what everyone else made for this theme challenge! And just again a thank you to all the guest who participated in this challenge, I can't wait to see all your creations!

And PS: Lesley, thank you for the wonderful theme! :)

Guests:
Raven
Kelly 
Cat
Kathy 
Tammy 
Alyson
Elaine 
Mischelle 
Deborah  
Anita 
Jill
Shirlee
Sarajo 
Melissa 

AE Team Members:
Caroline
Cathy
Claire (you are here)
Jen  
Jenny  
Laney 
Lesley 
Marsha 
Niky
Sue
Lindsay

Zom-Bee! - Component of the month at Art Elements

Time really seems to fly. It seems Laney Meads adorable little zom-bee beads just arrived and now September is already nearly gone...

This year seems to fly especially fast. So many things happened -good and bad-, so many problems came over from last year, and the general workload from my husband and me seem to have triplicated this year.

We didn't even manage our time out at Formentera and it pays for him as well as me. It is a kind of deep exhaustion and nerves are laying blank. But sometimes it is... like it is. Even in hindsight, I don't know how we could have managed it any other way.

Of course there were a lot of good things (and he is a constant good "thing", even when we fight ;) ), for example some of the research grants I applied for were granted.

But back to the component of the month (COM) of september at Art Elements (AE). I tried a lot with this cute little bee (look at the eyes!) but most didn't work out. Most failures were due to the fact that the zom-bee was not the main focus anymore and somehow got lost.

So I went with a cleaner design with only a few elements: A matte big glass drop to counter balance the zom-bee, tiny beads to get the overall shape right with some metal elements added and a drop of blood red at the top.

The chain is adjustable due to the added rings on top of the pendant. I like both ways.

So that was it in short. I will be in Berlin (again) on saturday, come back in the middle of the night, because sunday is my husband's birthday. Maybe I can find some sleep in between ;)

Thank you so much for this cute little zom-bee Laney!

And please have a look what all the other participants made! (I'll also come over to have a look but it may be late sunday)

Guests
http://fromthebeadboard.blogspot.co.uk/ – Linda
http://www.beadsforbusygals.com/  – Elisabeth Auld

Team
http://www.lesleywatt.com/ – Lesley  Watt
http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog  –  Jennifer Cameron
http://dianaptaszynski.indiemade.com/blog  – Diana Ptaszynski
https://jdaviesreazor.com/blog/  – Jenny Davis-Reazor
http://suebeads.blogspot.co.uk/ – Susan Kennedy
http://blueberribeads.co.uk/ – Caroline Dewison
http://phantasmcreation.blogspot.co.uk/ – Lindsay Starr
 http://cmendola.blogspot.co.uk/– Cathy Spiey Mendola
 http://saraccino.blogspot.co.uk/ – Claire Fabian (you are here)
http://silverniknats.blogspot.co.uk/ – Niky Sayers
http://laneymead.co.uk/ – Laney Mead

"Treasures" - Art Elements component of the month (COM)

Time seem to fly, way to fast to be honest... Strangely enough the COMs over at Art Elements (AE) are a stark reminder that again a month has gone by. It is finally warm again, even hot, around here and the days are long and sunny. It feels good and I needed this. Still, I am not back into full mood.

This is probably why this time I was not challenging myself but rather stayed in my comfort zone. After all it is called comfort zone for a reason, nai? This month Lesley Watt send us beautiful ceramic pendants or cabs (if you want some too, there are some left in her shop). I you follow my blog for some time, you know how perfect they were for me looking like treasures found in the sea and also she chose the perfect colour combination for me. Although all variations of her pendants are nice, turquoise gets me, always!

I made a knotted necklace with grey waxed linen that is long enough that one don't need a clasp but can simply pull it over the head. I chose these matte and silver lined glass beads to go with it. I bought a lot of them several years ago but I never found the exact shade again. I love how they shimmer against the grey. 

I added some accents with some other beads closely but asymmetrical arranged around the pendant. There are some african recyled glass beads, some from thailand and several of my own ceramic clay beads. I think I used up all of my small and tiny beads I made. Mostly I tend to work lager but seeing how well the smaller ones fit here... uh... I need to make more!

 Here you can see the knots a little bit better. On the left side I had to make one a little bigger since the hole was also quite big even with a little bead as "stopper" added.

They way how the end of the waxed linen hung after I finished the necklace was something that I liked somehow. I entangled the single strands and cut them a little bit.

 Although I have to admit I am still not sure whether I should keep it like this or rather cut them completely...

So here you go, all my favorite colours, my favorite theme and one of my favorite techniques... all in my comfort zone... and sometimes this is exactly what I need :)

Thank you Lesley for this beautiful pendant!

Please have a look what all the others created with this months COM! :)

Guests
Linda Newnham

Sarajo Wentling

Jess Green

Art Elements team
Laney Mead

Diana Ptaszynski

Susan Kennedy

Cathy Mendola

Jen Cameron

Caroline Dewison

Claire Fabian (you are here)

Karen Totten

Niky Sayers

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lindsay Starr

Lesley Watt