New Year Resolution

When it comes to beading I simply just like to create, but I confess that I have not done a lot of 'blue sky' designing in the past many months. I've either been working on a commissioned piece of jewelry, a challenge (with a theme and parameters) or something for a friend. All good things; mind you, but sometimes I just want to sit in front of the beads and create with no limitations. 

Lately, however, I've started doing a couple series just for me. I did the Van Gogh Series with a focus on earrings; inspired by the colors of his art. I am currently working on my latest one called Native Peoples with a focus to the simplicity of art from native cultures.

And yes, I do have at least half a dozen more ideas for themes in my head. I am enjoying these series as I feel like I'm able to let my creativity soar. I'm not trying to create it for someone else, but just to create. Some people paint, I guess for me ... my beads are my way to express my art. Who knew?

So my New Year's resolution for the year is to find time for this part of my jewelry. I know, I know ... I need to set a quantifiable goal for this. How about at least one post a month, and to introduce at least 2 more of my series. 

The question I have for all of you is whether any of you want to play along? I have 2 more Van Gogh paintings (Stary Night, and The Cypresses), at least 3 more Native Peoples themes (dream catchers, petroglyphs and Pacific Northwest Indian Art). If so, let me know and I'll send images for inspiration. Perhaps even commit to a reveal date. 

Happy New Year everyone. What will you resolve to do with your beading this year?

The Van Gogh Series :: Flower Fields

Recently I was shopping with a couple of beady friends and we happened across a booth filled with wonderful artisan beads, including these beautiful flowers. The artisan is Patricia Dugmore of pjBeads. I knew I had to pick up a few for my Van Gogh Series, but the question was ... which ones? 

Right away I decided I wanted red, which reminded me of his Field of Poppies seen here. Poppies are often associated with blooms covering expansive open fields in the South of France. I love the way Van Gogh captured flowers, whether in a vase or waving in the wind out in the fields. Simply stunning. 

Van Gogh's earliest paintings of poppies were during his time in Paris where he painted mainly cut flowers as he did not have the money to pay models. Still-life was just more practical. 

He notes years later in a letter to his sister Wilhelmina that he used the brilliant red of poppy blooms against the bright green of the alfalfa fields because of the color contrast it created. He says, "these are the fundamentals, which one may subdivide further, and elaborate, but quite enough to show you without the help of a picture that there are colours which cause each other to shine brilliantly, which form a couple, which complete each other like man and woman." A bit of a run-on sentence, but hey he's an artist. This use of complimentary colors is what Van Gogh became known for, and what sets his paintings apart from other still-life work.

The red pair of earrings came together quickly. I wanted them to focus on pops of red with green as background; just like Van Gogh had done in his paintings. The result is an abstract pair of dangle earrings with large pops of red. In my Etsy shop.

The white ones gave me more trouble. I pulled them apart several times as adding leaves just put the whole thing off kilter. In the end, simplicity won. I knew I wanted to do something that had the look of snowdrops with the flower facing downwards. I just love this beautiful, simple flower with its hopeful sign of spring. Also, in my Etsy shop.

I went in search of any paintings that Van Gogh might have painted with snowdrops. I didn't find any. But what I did stumble across was a crazy sub-culture of snowdrop collectors. One man apparently gardens in secret; living in fear that someone will steal his precious bulbs. There was a run on his garden (literally) when people found out that he had sold a rare variety on eBay for £357 [$577 USD] ... holy smokes. 

He promptly moved his precious bulbs to a super-duper secret location. He says he always gives one bulb away to a friend for security (in case one is stolen; he'll have a back-up). He is quoted everywhere as saying "stealing snowdrops is like stealing a Van Gogh. If it’s rare, all the galanthophiles [enthusiastic collectors of snowdrops - nope I did not make that up] will know who propagated it and where it was stolen from." 

Ok, so I think that has got to be the most anyone has ever paid for a crazy friken bulb beautiful flower - right? Nope. A mutant variety sold for £725 [$1,172 USD] on eBay. Ian Christie, a local nurseryman in Scotland, spotted the 'one in ten million' plant and propagated it as a new variation. He sold it and gave the money back to the elderly couple who run the nursery since financing has become more challenging in recent years. Now that is some Christmas spirit!

The Van Gogh Series :: Peach Blossoms

I still have several 'singles' that I've been working into pairs of earrings. I'm a tad behind on posting as things always tend to get crazed at the end of the year. But I'll try to get more posted over the next week.

One of the many styles I love from Van Gogh is the the way he captured flowers and blossoming trees. The paintings feel so organic and natural with accentuated colors that bring out the uniqueness of each style and type. He painted a peach tree (below) many times, through several color ranges that doesn't fail to disappoint.

When Van Gogh first arrived in Arles (1888), he didn't find the warm climate he'd expected. Instead he found snow on the ground, but still he painted what he could find. He painted indoors at first because of the weather, concentrating on still life and portraits. Likely when sprigs like this almond blossom (above) were just coming into bloom.  

But once spring was in full bloom in Arles it brought on a flurry of painting by Van Gogh where he was fascinated by blossoming fruit trees, including peach, almond, apricot and plum trees. He made 14 paintings on this series shown here of a Peach Tree in Blossom. He wrote Theo, his brother, "I will have to seek something new now the orchards have almost finished blossoming." 

He picked up this style of painting during his time in Paris where Japanese art and painting blossoming trees were popular. Lacquerware and porcelain from Japan poured in from trading ships during the 19th century, and artists began to copy the powerful colors and clear lines of Japanese works. Van Gogh was impressed by Japanese prints, as were many of his fellow Impressionist painters. My earrings for this post are clusters of pink Czech glass with pale pink quartz-faceted briolettes. Simple cluster earrings that you'll find in my Etsy shop.

The Van Gogh Series :: Sunflowers

I did a guest post over at Gloria's New End Studio blog last Sunday. What a fun idea, and exciting to see myself posted over on a bloggy friend's site! Just in case you missed it click over, or read on below for my continuing Van Gogh series .....

Vincent Van Gogh is an artist who had periods of visionary creativity juxtaposed with times of deep despair. Such a complex story, but then that is what this series is about. Taking certain aspects of his life and using that as creative juices.

You might recall that I mentioned having a bowl of earring 'singles.' I have this bad habit of creating only one earring because I love the creative process, and then I grow tired of duplicating my efforts. As inspiration, I've chosen Van Gogh and his rich use of color to motivate me.

Van Gogh moved to Arles, France in 1888 where he was enchanted by the local landscape and light. His works from this period are deeply influence by intensity of color and light on his subject. Yellow is prominent in his paintings of the wheat field series, haystacks and sunflowers. A letter home from Vincent to his brother Theo noted of painting bunches of sunflowers on multiple panels "the whole thing will be a symphony in blue and yellow." He worked on it from early sunrise to afternoon when he lost the light on the flowers. You can see the richness of color throughout his many paintings during this period. And as a little inspiration I created an Etsy Treasury as a tribute to Van Gogh's sunflower yellows. 

I picked up my unfinished pair of lemon quartz dangle earrings. I love this color, but wanted to add a rich secondary color with them as the quartz can be a little timid. I don't normally mix and match colors like this, but I was going with it from Vincent's influence. I added ruby rondelles to mimic the deep richness of the center of the sunflowers which play off the yellow. That is influence for this pair that you'll find finally posted in my Etsy shop!

The Van Gogh Series :: Bearded Iris

Iris is a very popular flower at my house, particularly any that are in the purple hue. They are my husband's favorites and he's got them planted all over the yard. Our favorite is the bearded variety as they are just so lush in the way their petals cascade. 

It is no wonder that it was a favorite subject for Van Gogh to paint. His Iris paintings are some of his best known and most recognized pieces. But what I find interesting is when in his life he started to paint these gorgeous flowers. In 1889 he committed himself to the asylum at Saint Paul-de-Mausole in Saint Remy, France after many hospitalizations and self-mutilation. 

It was during his stay here that he painted some 130 paintings with the surrounding gardens at the clinic. He started work on his Irises within the first week of his stay at the asylum. He also painted Starry Night during his stay here, but I'll save that one for another post in this series.

His Irises painting is on the list for one of the most expensive paintings ever sold, selling for 54 million dollars in 1987. Currently Irises is on display at The Getty Center in Los Angeles, CA.

To understand a little bit more about what was going on with Vincent during this period, you can read some of his letters. He mentions that he's had epileptic seizures and that it was one of these episodes where he's injured his ear. There seems to be many stories about how he ended up with a bandaged ear! He had several primary subjects during his stay, but the flowers in the landscape seem to capture him. He writes "the landscape of St-Remy is very beautiful." and that he has "two subjects taken from the garden - violet irises and a lilac bush."   

I took inspiration for these earrings from the gradation of purple hue in an iris, and the cascading petals from the bearded variety. They are a diamond cut amethyst that stacks in a cascade as you layer them together. I like the effect of these, but also wanted them to have that long hang to them like the long stocks of the flower. This pair you'll find posted in my Etsy shop! Also for a little fun, my friend Gloria over at New End Studios has allowed me to guest post on her blog, and I've got a Sunflower inspired Van Gogh pair there and also listed in my Etsy shop. I'm working my way through that bowl of single earrings! 

The Van Gogh Series: On the Bead Table

I have a new series I'm starting to encourage myself to finish a large bowl of 'half finished' earrings. I'm calling it my van Gogh Series. This painting by Vincent Van Gogh is known as Self Portrait with Ear Bandaged, 1889. There are several accounts of how exactly he lost a part of his ear. Most believe that it was not van Gogh's issues with sanity, but instead the result of a fight with his friend Paul Gauguin who sliced it with a sword.

I figured that as I dig through a little history, and dust off a few art books that I'd use them as inspiration to finish up some jewelry projects. I have this bad habit of creating a single earring because I love creating patterns, but I hate making the copy to finish the pair of earrings! So I have a bowl of singles. 

To kick off my series, I'm posting a very unusual piece (at least for me). It is called an ear cuff, but it isn't your usual ring cuff that wraps around the ridge of your ear. But instead wraps around that backside of one ear with beads hanging down from behind. 

This was a custom request from a bloggy friend of mine: Marcela of Fashionadictas. She asked if I thought I could make this piece, and well I just can not pass up an opportunity to try a new pattern. 

It was a bonus that it calls for only one ear! I don't have to make a pair for the other ear - ha! Sign me up. 

The trick for me with this piece was trying to figure out how to create loops for the several dangles coming off the cuff. I don't solder, but it just might be time to take a class to learn. My excuse up to this point has been that I have young children and don't really want a torch in the house. But my oldest is in High School, and my youngest just about to go to middle school. So that excuse might have expired. For now, I decided to use a pattern that might be considered abstract expressionist ... Miro comes to mind. I created a shape and hand hammered it in silver. My friend Marcela is an artist, and so I'm hopeful that she will appreciate the pattern and style of this piece.

I really don't think that in a million years I would have come up with this pattern. But then that is the fun of meeting all these new people in the blogosphere, and finding new inspiration to create with. Thank you Marcela.

Anybody else have a bowl of singles? Feel like taking the challenge with me? Over the next few weeks, I hope to make it to the bottom of the bowl. AND have several new pieces to list on my Etsy for the holiday season.