This collection of sea turtle mandala necklaces was not created for a monthly design challenge. They were made in between making beads and things for the monthly challenges.
The year 2018 was a year of challenges for Paisley Lizard. As in, design challenges. I participated in at least one design challenge each month. In the process, I tried a few new polymer clay techniques and stretched my skills and imagination. Here are some highlights by month. Continue reading
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 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 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
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
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
The theme for the May challenge from Art Elements’ blog team was ‘tidepools.” Tidepools are a marine micro-habitat full of inspiration for any artistic medium. They’re filled with textures and colors and movement. In fact, there’s so much inspiration in tidepools that I had an impossible time narrowing down what to focus on. Where to start: the colors, the textures, the critters? Continue reading
So many horses, so little time. The theme for this month’s Art Elements design challenge was “horses.” I had soooo many ideas for this theme. Wild horses, rocking horses, carousel horses, four horses of the apocalypse, night mares, sea horses, horsing around, hold your horses, gift horses, high horse, dark horse, winged horse, unicorns, and on and on. As usual, I had far more ideas than time. So I focused on just two of my ideas: wild horses and water horses. Continue reading
When I read that the theme for this month’s We’re All Ears earring design challenge was a tropical paradise, I wasn’t feeling very inspired initially. Our hostess was setting off on a Caribbean cruise, which would be one of my worst nightmares. I hate feeling hot and I get sunburned in less than thirty minutes even with sunscreen, so nothing about a tropical vacation could possibly be fun. But that doesn’t mean I can’t find some jewelry inspiration in the idea of a tropical paradise. Continue reading