Showing posts with label art beads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art beads. Show all posts

Free Mixed Media Jewelry Project: Shakespeare's Garden for Art Beads


Shakespeare's Garden Necklace by Margot Potter for Art Beads ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

View Two Shakespeare's Garden by Margot Potter for Art Beads ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I received an email while I was in Cincy from the fine folks at Art Beads that a tutorial I'd created for them a while back is live on their site! The necklace above is called Shakespeare's Garden and it features beaded wire circles and stamped resin pendants in a whimsical and sculptural design. What I love most about this is that these circles have dimension, but also fluidity because the wire underneath is not stiff.

I've been playing with these beaded circles for several years and every time I think, we'll that's about all you can do with those, another idea pops into my head. I do love to explore a theme and the circle is such a powerful, archetypal and cross culturally relevant symbol. Endings and beginnings and the journeys we take come around and around and around. Each of us a point on the sacred hoop making our own unique way to the center of higher understanding and universal love. Even Einstein once postulated that if we stood staring into space and could see to the farthest reaches, we'd eventually see the back of our own heads. Round and round and round she goes...

Powerful stuff, that circle. And as for Shakespeare, I've had the pleasure and the privilege of playing some of his greatest female characters...including Viola from Twelfth Night.

If you follow this link, you can get the full tutorial with step by step photos for this design. Enjoy!

"O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love's coming,
That can sing both high and low:
Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.
What is love? 'Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies not plenty;
Then, come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure.
"
William Shakespeare-Twelfth Night

Love
Madge

Siren Song Necklace by Avalon Potter

I managed yesterday to clear off the long desk in my studio that has been totally covered with crap for weeks. Most of my studio cleaning involves moving piles of crap from one spot to another spot...I guess that's what most cleaning involves when I think about it! Cleaning...is not my thing. I do it when I have to, but mostly I ignore clutter and hope it organizes itself when I'm not looking.

I’m not made of the stuff that easily organizes seemingly disparate elements into cohesive groups. I’m impatient, have I mentioned that? At some point though the chaos begins to make my brain stop functioning properly and I have to buck up and get to organizing. It’s absolutely insane how many craft tools, machines and supplies I own. Okay maybe not what since I craft for a living, but dang if it isn’t tough keeping it all organized!



While working on organizing and getting the final details of one of my TSPs* finished, my daughter Avalon was given the task of creating a necklace around an extraordinary miniature canvas pendant from the folks at Art Beads. She's my new intern, but she's far more talented than I could ever hope to be! I love the sleek simplicity of her necklace design featuring Beadalon Quick Links and chain and CRYSTALLIZED™-Swarovski Elements jet black briolette pendants. Stunning! Oh and that gorgeous shell is one she just plucked out of the water in Jamaica and she insisted it be in the picture. She's a designer and a stylist! Love that kid of mine!

I fell madly in love with this artwork. It’s like a Rorschach test! When I look at it I see a large ship being engulfed by an octopus, while my husband said it looks like a tropical island with big palm trees...what do you see? There is an entire collection http://www.artbeads.com/pendants-canvas-on-wood.html of these miniature masterpieces on the Art Beads site all created by surfer and artist Charlie Clingman and each one is both stunning and incredibly inspirational. They are evocative and provocative and exquisitely fashioned.

I’ve got some podcasts pending. I’ll let you know when they go live. I’m slated for CraftyPod with Sister Diane on Thursday of this week and CraftCast with Alison Lee sometime in the very near future. They’re both interesting interviews with women whom I greatly admire. I was humbled and flattered that they each contacted me. I’m also slated to be on Reclaim U with the inspiring Sandy Fowler sometime in the near future, so look out for the 411!

I have a lot of straw to spin today so I must away! Until my most auspicious return...craft on with your bad selves!

Cheers,
Madge

(*Top Secret Projects)