This month’s design challenge from the Art Elements team is brought to you by the color white. White: the color you perceive when an object reflects all light in the visible spectrum equally. White: the color of snow, clouds, and quartz or limestone sand. White: the color of polymer clay most likely to attract every last particle of lint, dust, and cat hair in your workspace. Continue reading
The theme for this month’s Art Elements design challenge is “stars” and today is the reveal of our creations. The challenge was to interpret the theme in any media using any technique. Of course I used polymer clay, and of course, I made jewelry. I had plans to make some ornaments too, but you know what happens when you’re busy making plans. Continue reading
The theme for the We’re All Ears earring design challenge this month was “cornucopia.” The cornucopia is a symbol of plenty in the shape of a goat’s horn that’s filled to overflowing with flowers, fruits, and grains. The design challenge was to create earrings inspired by cornucopia and all they represent, from Greek mythology to modern fall feast celebrations. Continue reading
The theme for this month’s challenge on the Art Elements blog was “petroglyphs.” I signed up to participate in the challenge even though I had no immediate ideas for how to interpret the theme. Sometimes I have a bunch of ideas right away for how to interpret one of these challenge themes, and other times …nothing. That’s part of the fun of the challenge: either narrowing down too many ideas or coming up with at least one.
If you’ve followed my blog, you probably know I often struggle with being too literal when interpreting a design challenge. It’s often only after I’ve seen where other folks let the inspiration take them that I get less literal ideas. One thing I knew with certainty for this challenge: I was absolutely not going to literally carve rocks. Continue reading
The theme for this month’s Art Elements design challenge is “faeries” and as often happens with these challenges, I had a difficult time narrowing my ideas for what to create. This is yet another very rich theme that can be taken in so many directions. Continue reading
The theme for this month’s We’re All Ears earring design challenge is “autumn” The hostess for this challenge, Erin, introduced the theme with a lovely Ode to Autumn on the Earrings Everyday blog. Autumn is my favorite time of the year, and autumnal colors are a year-round inspiration. Continue reading
I thought making something awesome for this month’s Art Element’s theme challenge was going to be super easy because the theme was “swirls.” Swirls. I love swirls. Make something artsy with swirls? Piece of cake. Until I went and looked up the definition of swirl. Because, you know, what is a swirl, really? And then I was down the rabbit hole of too many ideas and the artist’s block that comes with it. Continue reading
This month’s theme for the Art Elements design challenge was seed pods. Seed pods are especially fertile ground for my muse. The diversity of shapes, textures, and colors in the vessels plants produce to protect and disperse their seeds is very inspiring. There are so many ways to go with this theme that I could easily spend all year making nothing but seed pod-inspired art. Continue reading
This theme for this month’s We’re All Ears earring design challenge was summer beverages. I had a delayed start on this theme because I got myself stumped trying to think of things I like to drink in the summer that could be turned into earrings. Eventually I realized I could just pick some beverages that seem summery and go from there. Continue reading
It’s reveal day for the Art Elements “sunflower” inspired design challenge. Sunflowers are a wonderful color palette for a summer design theme. Especially when you picture fields of sunflowers against a clear blue summer sky. Although sunflowers have been cultured to produce flowerheads in a wide range of colors, I went with the sunny yellow/maroon combination of the common sunflower, Helianthus annuus, for my palette. Continue reading