This is not the official portrait of "Springtime" - for that I have to take down the Christmas tree and all the decorations from half of the room - but I was eager to show you my latest work. It was sooooo good to get off of jewelry and back to an 'art piece' and I really enjoyed watching it come together and take shape as I solved various problems.
I love how the two colors of loose beads in the bottom make it look as if there is water in the dirt! Then come strings of red and yellow beads with 'bumps' of big acrylic beads. Then I use the largest headpins I had to line up the greens for some very stiff grass. Fortunately I also had a packet of those plastic crimps, which I would never use on jewelry!, but found them to be excellent for this job.
I had to do the 'flower' things twice. The first time the wire (24 gauge) bent too much so on Christmas Eve we made a quick trip to a hardware store to get some 18 gauge. I used that as base with 6s strung on the wire and then wrapped 11s on very thin wires around them. I was going for more 'spring' in the springs, but that did not work out.
I felt I needed some sort of a base to the vase and went to S&B Market in Manchester - an all purpose store that sells hardware, clothes and groceries, where I found the perfect glass base (for candles?). Also in my last Fire Mountain order I bothered Vicki one day late to add on a pound of silver-lined 11s and they were just what I needed! So thankful to have everything the piece wanted to have!
It goes in the "You Be the Judge" show on Jan. 9th at Gualala Arts. I have no hope for winning a place (who knows how to judge a work made of beads?) but I greatly enjoyed the journey and the experience of accompanying this piece from sketch and on to its final official picture.