Thursday, July 11, 2013

Pablo Picasso's 'Portrait Of Olga In An Armchair - Artbeadscene July Challenge

I have been meaning to work on Artbead Scene Monthly Challenges religiously this year. I look up the inspiration painting every month, even wait for it eagerly, pull out beads and components that might work, but unfortunately, time always slips away, and its the last week of the month, and my pile of components is still sitting where it was in the first week.

This time was different. The sequence of events was turned around :)Sometime toward the end of June, while looking for beads for the black and white challenge, I pulled out a 3-hole bracelet bar made by Heather Powers of Humblebeads. I bought it last October when I went for her retreat in South Haven, Michigan, and had been hoarding it since then. I left it out because this time around, I felt like using it. I finished the black and white challenge piece and started working on figuring out what to do with the bracelet bar.

I decided to use it as a pendant, figured out a design, and laid it all out on my workspace (just a glorified name for the bed in the guest bedroom). I knew what I wanted to do, but was stuck with the "how-to". So I just let it sit there. By then, it was the first week of July, Google Reader was gone, Feedly lost my subscriptions, but I remembered to go check out the Art Bead Scene blog to see the new painting. And I found the beautiful Olga :-)


And I laughed out loud..with joy. Because this is what I had started to make...


 

Can you see serendipity at work here? I had picked out the beads I wanted to use, and how I wanted them arranged, but was stuck on how I could put the middle disc bead (also a Humblebead) there. After much thought, I used two pieces of  24 gauge black wire and wrapped the bead with the other components. The copper charm is by Kristi Bowman, have been hoarding that one since over a year! Its a little shinier compared to the other components, but I like that contrast.

To finish off the necklace, I added some white crystals to the chain and left the rest of it simple. I wanted the pendant to really stand out. Here is another view.


And here is the full necklace...


I loved this so much, that I decided to create these cute little earrings to match...


They are itty-bitty...less than 1.5 inches long, and seriously cute...see...


Don't they just make you smile? :-)

Will be putting this set up on my shop soon! Let me know if you are interested!

7 comments:

  1. Love your colour choices, Kashmira, and your pieces are beautiful! I have been so fixated on the greens, I was not even seeing the rest of those lovely shades.

    Still waiting to hear all about that retreat with Heather. Or maybe you wrote about it elsewhere and I missed it :(

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    1. Haha, I, on the other hand, did not even look at what colors the painting really had. I just had to convince myself that the necklace I was making will fit in somehow :)

      I never did the post about the retreat :( And now I don't remember much of it, I do have all the pictures, maybe I will remember when I look at them. Not promising, but lets see if I can remember to post them one of these days

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  2. Gorgeous as always! love your inspiration, and the flow of this piece - divine. Sweet little, itty-bitty guys are the perfect compliment to it

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    1. Thanks Cynthia! I was dying to use that 3-hole spacer that way. Finally got around to doing it and now I am happy :)

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  3. Hi, Kashmira! Love to read about how others go through their design process...thanks for sharing yours for this sweet necklace. And the little 'coffee bean' earrings are adorable. On another note, congratulations on your interview and emag article at Artisan Whimsy about the anklets! You deserved to be center stage on that one.

    Lynda

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  4. I was commenting on the ABS Flickr page about how much I loved this and didn't even notice you had made this necklace! And now the earrings, which are an incredibly sweet addition! Glad you entered this time, Kashmira! These are delightfully creative pieces!

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  5. Very creative and intriguing design!

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