Saturday, March 12, 2011

Grubby Muses


Here's a little art project the Short One recently completed at school. I have to admit, I like it quite a bit. It reminds me of a similar project I made when I was his age (although, times being what they were, mine was an ashtray, not a coaster).

But I also really like the colors, the shapes, the spacing. In fact, I think this combination would work very well as a necklace. It's just another reminder to me that most of my inspiration comes from the grubby little muse in my house, the one who's glued too much to his Dad's iPod and enjoys conducting "experiments" (his latest involved sticking gum in his hair and, when it wouldn't come out, taking his safety scissors and cutting it all out - Sandra, the lady who cuts his hair, said that she's seen worse and that it ought to grow out after the next two cuts or so. But I digress...).

Seriously, all of my favorite designs were inspired in some way by time I spent with my son. The dragon in the keyhole pendant photographed in my header, above, came to me after we spent time reading books about dragons and dinosaurs. The maze pendant I designed for the 2010 Bead Dreams competition (there's a great photo of the piece on the Bead & Button website, here) was inspired by my son's love of puzzles.

When the SO was a baby, I used to dream of a time when we would be able to make collaborative artwork, but really, there are already little, metaphorical (sticky) fingerprints all over my pieces.

So, how about you? Who/what are your muses, grubby or otherwise?



Monday, March 7, 2011

Shameless You-Know-What



It took me ages to track them down in the U.S., but I did finally manage to get copies of Issues 27 and 28 of Bead Magazine - with full coverage of the 2010 British Bead Awards. With the winners split between the two issues, I had one piece in each magazine.

The photography of the winners is really spectacular, and I enjoyed seeing all of the pieces from the various categories. Vanessa Walilka's garment (which she calls a "first scale mail armor piece"), in particular, is incredible - kind of a female-warrior-industrial-age-of-dragons jacket. If you can't find a copy of the magazine, you can see the piece on her website, here - and I strongly encourage you to check it out.

Thank you, Bead Magazine, for making my work look so good - I loved the photo of "Geology"! (You can see my much less impressive entry photo here.)

Thursday, March 3, 2011

One of My Favorite Things


Sarah Moran sent this photo to me ages ago, but, of course, since I haven't exactly been lively on the blog, it got buried. We traded beads a while back, and here's what she did with one of my skully pendants. I can't imagine any silver bead not looking spectacular when strung with Sarah's fantastic lampwork, but I particularly love the way they all look on this heavy sterling ring. Thanks, Sarah!