And the Winner of the Bracelet Challenge is. . .

Kate Clawson of Ongoing Explorations of an Organic Artist.

Here is her entry! Check out her blog {HERE} to read about her inspiration and process. Thank you, Kate, for your beautiful submission.

And thank you to Richard Shilling for allowing me to use his beautiful Land Art for the challenge.
(Psst, Kate! Send me your address to artymezia{!at}yahoo{dot}com and I will send you your pound of beads!)

Sneak Peek at the Bead Soup Swap

My Bead Soup Swap partner is Heather Pyle. She posted yesterday what she is sending me (sly snicker, hands rubbing in glee).

This is what I am sending her:

Heather is a polymer clay artist and she loves working in color. She is also an art quilter like me. She commented that she loves to incorporate lampwork glass into her pieces ("hint, hint") so I have included three from Lisi, right in the middle there. The rest of the beads are amethyst, dyed fossil beads, dyed Freshwater pearls, some cloisonne, one of my hand-made clasps, and the focal is carved stone in the shape of two fish.

I hope Heather likes what I have sent to her. I am looking forward to seeing what all the other participants do with all the beady goodness that will be revealed the week beginning June 19th. Stay tuned!

Also, The LandArt Bracelet Challenge is still on -- Send me your photos of bracelets inspired byRichard Shilling's Land Art. See this post for more information.

What's Up?!

I have had an overwhelming response of three (that's right, 3) people about the Land Art Bracelet Challenge. Is this something that is just not appealing? Am I timing this all wrong for my faithful readers? Are you thinking about the challenge, even beginning a piece to enter but have not said so publicly? What's up?!

I will happily withdraw the challenge and offer it later if folks just are not ready for it at this time. I just need to know. Please let me know what you are thinking -- my crystal ball is in the shop for a tune up.

Emanda

LandArt Bracelet Challenge

As you all know, I am a big fan of the self-taught Land Artist, Richard Shilling. He lives in the Lancashire region (Northwest) of England and makes his art in the forest, meadows, and beaches near where he lives.

I have posted several of his works on this blog and many of you have found his work to be as inspirational as I have. I have corresponded with Richard and he has agreed to allow us to use some of his beautiful photographs of his ephemeral works for this challenge. If this challenge is successful and well received by you, dear reader, I will host another challenge at a later date.

Now, for this challenge. The images:

Here are the individual photographs:


Ice and Snow Sandwich Towers


Constriction Balance


Middlewood Trust Project


Icicle Sunset


Mayday Colour Totem

Here are the details of the challenge! {With Thanks to Kelly Morgan of the Silver Parrot for the text I modified for this post! No reason to re-invent the wheel!}

Select one of these photos and create a bracelet whose color scheme is inspired by the photo. Post it on your blog with a bit of explanation as to why you chose that particular photo and how you incorporated the color scheme into your bracelet. Come back here to the comments and leave a link to your blog post.

Please post a link to Richard’s site in your blog, so that he benefits from this challenge as well (http://jrlandart.blogspot.com )

Prize: Some Beady Goodness (one pound of assorted beads and things) and a surprise! More about that in a later post.

Rules:

1. You can create and post as much as you like, but you will only get one contest entry.

2. For anyone who publicizes the challenge (and links back here) on their blog, Facebook or Twitter, I will put in a second entry – MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE ME A COMMENT SO I KNOW YOU DID THIS.

3. I have to limit this contest to people with shipping addresses in the U.S. unless you’re willing to pay the shipping on your prize. If you are outside the U.S. but are willing to pay shipping, make sure to note that in your comment so I know about it.

4. Deadline to post your entries and comments is midnight May 31st.

5. Winner will be randomly drawn from all the entries on June 1st.

That should cover everything, but feel free to contact me with questions.

Shepherding

Laurel Reflection by Richard Shilling

I was reading Richard Shilling's {Land Art} blog this morning where he was musing about spring and little lambs leaping through the meadows, and about the cycle of life. It came home to me again while I was sitting in church and heard the readings, which mark this Sunday as "Good Shepherd Sunday".

Adoration of the Lamb, the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan and Hubert van Eyck (detail)

I also thought about one of the most awe-inspiring works of art I have seen in person, the Ghent altarpiece also called the Adoration of the Lamb. (My husband and I saw it this past May when we were in the Netherlands, we went to Belguim.)

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Spring is here, new life is all around us, new ways of looking at life and our place in it also surround us. I have had a lot of changes in this past year and I have learned so much about myself. I have been out of work for most of the year and I have been fretting about it too. So often we define ourselves by what we do, I know I do anyway, and not by who we really are.

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I worked very hard for two weeks and quit my "new" job because of the toll it was taking on me, on my husband, and on our quality time together (oh, and the doggies didn't like it much either!). I was one the road two hours a day and the salary did not compensate for that. Doing the math opened my eyes to that fact.

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So, I am unemployed again, but with a difference this time -- I know who I am and what I am worth and also what I do well.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Now, for something completely different: I did not hear from Loretta, so I did another drawing and picked Katie Nelson as the new winner of the Bindweed Beetle bracelet. Email me with your address and I will get it out to you in just about no time!

Inspired

This weekend has been amazing. Friday I spent with my quilting friends, taking in the Dallas Quilt Celebration -- beautiful quilts and wonderful vendors. And of course, I spent too much money. Saturday, I was back in Dallas with three of my "art school" friends (that's not to say my quilting gals aren't artist, they truly are). Saturday I visited my alma mater to see the Etruscan Exhibit at SMU's Meadows Museum. Dallas is the only venue for this exquisite collection. There were objects from as far back as 900 BCE. The craftsman(women?)-ship in all of the piece, without exception, was breathtaking.

Speaking of breath-taking: that is exactly what happened as I approached the ancient gold-leaf diadem, above, in the glass case where is it displayed. You might have seen the laurel leaf crowns on ancient statues and frescoes. Well, I was looking at the real McCoy. The gold was so fine and thin, it looked as though it could blow way if a strong draft were to enter the vitrine. What a thrill it must have cause for the archeologist who unearthed it. There were a number of stunning gold pieces -- fibulae ("safety pins"), and many, many bronze pieces too. There was a whole room filled with terracotta pieces and stone statuarey as well. All in all, there are about 400 pieces on loan from four museums in Italy. The exhibit closes May 17th. One of my friends said it was, by far, the better exhibit when compared with the Tut exhibit also in town.

Not much is known about the Etruscans (people who lived in Tuscany between 900-100 BCE) except that they may have been immigrants from Turkey and that they were very religious people who believed in equality of the sexes, much to the horror of their Greek and Italian neighbors. Almost everything known about them comes from temple and tomb excavations.

In other news:

Richard Shilling, the English Land Artist I have mentioned before, has had a few very fortunate turns of event. Check out his blog to read the news and to see his new work. We have discussed some sort of collaboration for one section of the textbook I am writing for my college class. How exciting!

This is Spring Break in my neck of the woods and I hope to get a lot of writing done without interruption (Ha!).

Our May vacation in Amsterdam is taunting me and whispering to me to spend some time online checking out all the places to go and things to see (but I have to write, darn-it!).

By the way, my little counter says I've had just over 300 views of my blog -- I think a few of those are me checking in, but I'm glad to see the traffic. Thank you, especially, to my faithful "followers". Sorry I can't seem to post more often.

Questions for your comments:

Do you find inspiration alone or in collaboration. Do you find that being with others inspires you to create? I'd love to hear your thoughts, so comment below.