EBWC Spring Around the Corner Challenge

The voting for the April Challenge of the Etsy Beadweavers Team is now open!  Stop by and take a look at all the beaded spring beauty!  http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/  My entry is #7.

 

My entry for this month's challenge is my Spring Lilac Brooch.   It's a large brooch...more like a corsage...so I'm calling it a Broosage!  Perfect for your new Easter dress and it would make a fabulous Mother's Day gift! 

I've created this piece for the EBW Team's April 2011 Challenge "Spring Around the Corner". Here in North Carolina spring is spectacular and it has arrived! The dogwoods and azaleas are just about to pop! But I still miss the lilac season back in my hometown of Rochester New York, where spring truly began in May with the Lilac Festival at Highland Park. Lilacs in amazing variety bloom abundantly on a lush hillside and the fragrance is on the breeze blocks away.

This lovely large Brooch is really more of a Corsage...A Broosage! It starts with a seed bead encrusted base in deep lilac and color lined green size 11 beads with a matte brown stem. On top of the embroidery, I've created a bouquet of tiny little lilac florets made from tiny little size 15 seed beads in a luster lilac with an amber crystal at the center of each. I've also included some beautiful gold luster lilac czech glass flowers anchored by tiny pearl yellow seed beads. The leaves are embellished with a handful of rainbow peridot crystal "dewdrops" for some sparkle. The finishing touch is a couple of irridescent pink glass butterflies. The brooch is carefully edged in seed beads, backed in a lilac tie-died felt and has a 1.5" gold plated pinback. The Broosage is 5" long and 3.5" across the widest part.

This is a picture of my "Rochester" Lilac that bloomed a little early this year.  It came to me as a twig from a tree my aunt had in upstate NY.  Lilacs are not as happy here in NC where the summer is too doggone hot and the winters are not quite cold enough, but this one presents me with a small bouquet every year and I love it!  

I've created quite a few treasuries lately, stop by and check them out!

Simply Black and White

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d9216c592f06d91b28df506/simply-black-and-white?index=4

 Mom's Favorite Things

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d9f430015746d913cde17a6/moms-favorite-things?index=0

Turquoise, Purple and Gold, Oh My!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d9b3796884a6d91e2958eba/turquoise-purple-and-gold-oh-my?index=1

Spring Lilacs in Beads and Art

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d9c885d60116d91b1d7349b/spring-lilacs-in-beads-and-art?index=1

Bring Back the Sun!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d94ad179ae88eefe6c3316f/bring-back-the-sun?index=3

Etsy Beadweavers Team March Challenge Fashion Throughout Time

I've created this wonderful piece of wearable art for the Etsy Beadweaver's March Challenge "Fashion through the Ages". Having been born in the 60's, I remember the Flower Power Generation and the bright groovy colors and designs that were so popular in the 60's-70's so I used one of the most iconic fashion designers of the time as my inspiration.

This bib style collar necklace is fully encrusted in seed bead embroidery in array of cool colors. While Pucci's designs were bold and the patterns were bright, the color palette tended to be on the cooler side. I've used a soft cheyenne pink, turquoise, lime green, deep purple, medium and dark blue, accented by lustrous white in a loopy, swirly design. The scalloped necklace is edged in luster rainbow white beads with borders of matte brown beads throughout to accentuate the colors.

The beads were embroidered onto a stiff felt backing and backed with another piece of blue/purple tie-dyed felt. I've finished off the necklace with a "chain" of beads ending in a little medallion with a hook that can fasten at the back into any of the loops making it fully adjustable from about 15" to about 19". It is designed to be worn closely against the neck to create a bib that can sit atop a dress or just underneath an open collar.

This bib style neckpiece collar is 9.5" across the widest part and about 6" long from the middle. Truly a showstopper for your next big occassion!

History of Pucci
Emilio Pucci, Marchese di Barsento (20 November 1914 – 29 November 1992) was a Florentine Italian fashion designer and politician. He and his eponymous company are synonymous with geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colours. Initially he used his knowledge of stretch fabrics to produce a swimwear line in 1949, but soon moved onto other items such as brightly-coloured, boldly-patterned silk scarves. Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus encouraged him to use the designs in blouses and then a popular line of wrinkle-free printed silk dresses. Marilyn Monroe was buried in one of his dresses, and his designs were worn by everyone from Sophia Loren to Jackie Kennedy and latter day pop icons such as Madonna in the early 1990s. His clothes were known for their brilliant colours and well-defined prints. He led the way for the colourful revolution of the 60's. The house of Pucci still goes on reviving the fashion house's glory days to make it relevant for a new generation. Capitalizing on Pucci's bold, instantly recognizable prints, The Pucci revival has been gathering momentum for several years.

Here's a sample of a Pucci Blouse.

I am a proud member of the Etsy Beadweavers Street team. Voting for the March challenge starts on March 9 and is open until the 15th on the bead weavers website (http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com). Stop by and vote for your favorite!

Etsy Beadweavers Team February Challenge Royalty Throughout Time

I've just finished and listed "Elizabethan Ruff and Pearl" as my entry to the EBW challenge for this month.  The first challenge of the new year was chosen by Miriam of CeiloDesigns winner of the November challenge "Holiday Treasures", Miriam has challenged our members to design for Royalty throughout time - From the aristocrats of the French revolution to ancient kings and queens and modern day princesses, royalty has always inspired and set new trends in the jewelry world.  

Ever since I can remember, I've been a big fan of the Elizabethan era.  Almost since the moment I began to sing in Jr. high school, madrigals were my very favorite songs.  From "Fair Phyllis" to "Now is the Month of Maying" to PDQ Bach's "The Queen to me a Royal Pain doth Give", and "My Bonnie Lass She Smelleth".  Good times ;~).  Later on when I joined the professional choral group Bel Canto Company, the early music of Byrd, Tallis and Gibbons would always make my heart soar.  We staged a Renaissance Feast and participated in a local Medieval Faire where I created many of the costumes and banners we used.  So when the challenge theme of Royalty through the ages was announced, there was no question I would go Elizabethan.  

  
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The elaborately starched and ruffled collars worn by the Queen were high fashion during the Elizabethan era as were pearls of every shape and size.

This collar necklace is inspired by the use of pearls and ruffs in Elizabethan fashion. Antique gold glass pearls are woven in a netted pattern with cream pearl and luster bronze seed beads to form a slightly ruffled collar. The middle of the collar is embellished with 11 beautiful antique gold glass pearl drops. The 18" long necklace is finished with a peyote loop and bronze firepolished crystal closure and another pearl drop at the back.

Please visit our team blog, www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com (http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com) between the 9th and 15th and vote for your favorite entry.  Until then, you can go to Etsy and get a preview of all the incredible entries fit for royalty  http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_query=EBWC&search_type=handmade&shopname=beadn4fun

November EBW Challenge

Time again to vote for your favorite beadwoven item in November's Challenge for the Etsy Beadweavers Team.  "Holiday Treasure".  My entry is number Three!

Etsy Beadweavers Team's November Challenge is Holiday Treasure: Choose your favorite late fall or winter holiday and create a beadweaving to celebrate the occasion.

As a professional vocal musician for many years, the holiday season started early with rehearsals and concerts throughout November and December. Everyone loves to hear a choir during the holidays! So my richest memories of the holiday season are of singing and going to concerts. I wanted to interpret my love of choral music in jewelry that could be worn to many musical events.

Choral singing is a weaving of many voices into one exquisite harmony. I used freeform peyote stitch to weave several strands and colors (gold, silver, purple and olive green) of seed beads together to create a cuff braclet with rises and falls and bridges, and punctuated the strands with crystals and pearls for a bit of shimmer and shine. At the center is a stunning gold crystal rivoli with a beaded bezel surrounded with a ruffle. 

Haute Couture Beading Contest Entry

Christina Neit of Good Quill Hunting has created a truly inspiring beading contest!  Now in its second year, the contest gives bead artists an opportunity to choose from among a couple dozen examples of Haute Couture fashion to inspire a piece of wearable art.  As a member of the Etsy Beadweavers Team, I've entered three of their monthly challenges so far and find it a wonderful way to stretch my creativity.  That's extremely helpful since I still consider myself to be  fairly new to bead artistry and wearable art.  This contest really challenged me to push the bead box!

I first chose the garment that really caught my eye and took a little time to imagine the possibilities.  Purple, in all its many hues and shades, is my favorite color and I'm easily drawn to anything in the purple range.  And this dress just looks like it would be fun to wear with that flirty, ruffled purple-lined cape.

Once I chose the dress, I let my imagination wander through my bead and gem stash for ideas.  Lately, one of my favorite creative times is just as I lie down before falling asleep.  Mentally creating bead art allows me to focus away from all the "real-life" cares and drift off to sleep with visions of pretty, shiny beads dancing in my head.  As much as I love actually beading, I really love riffling through my bead cart as part of the creative process just about as much.  For this challenge I needed a real statement focal piece and I wasn't really finding it.  So off I went to the Intergalactic Bead Show in Durham and found THE piece almost as I walked in the door.  This gorgeous set of sculpted Sea Sediment Jasper in an awesome deep pink/red color!  There is something about those stones and that color that hit the "oh yeah!" spot in my brain.

 I played around with the placement of the stones and added a perfect little deep pink paua shell cab to the mix.  I was going to create this piece using primarily bead embroidery which starts with gluing the stones to a felt backing and then securing the stones with peyote stitched bezels.  I pulled out every bead and accent in my stash that remotely matched or complimented the color of the stones and took time to place and re-place them to find just the right accent.

So, after using a handful of czech glass 4mm round beads, bugle beads, size 15, 11 & 8 seed beads and delica beads, and some gorgeous wine colored fresh water pearls, "Mariposa" was born!

I'll let you know how it all turns out!