Guest Artist :: Ann Schroeder Explores the Beautiful World of Viktor Zaretsky

Today we welcome long time reader and wonderful designer Ann Schroeder. I really like the way that Ann thinks about the world and how she processes her inspirations into her wearable works of art. And of course, she also loves to use a special art bead to give her jewelry a unique look. Ann Schroeder muses about beads and jewelry on her blog: http://www.beadlove.wordpress.com. ~ Erin Prais-Hintz

I’m so excited to be writing a guest post for the Art Bead Scene blog and Art Journey #2 which features a thrilling Ukrainian artist, Viktor Zaretsky. I particularly love the chosen collection of his portraits. They are bursting with color, pattern, and magic. When I saw the teaser in January of the painting Nastya, the poppies on her dress made me think of a gorgeous lampwork bead I have by Australian artist  Terri Kraehe. 

In my necklace, Terri’s bead is flanked by lampwork spacers from BuliBeads. It’s somewhat subtle in the painting, but there is a graduation from green grass on up to blue sky. I wanted to show that flow that also exists in the art bead. I used chartreuse flower dangles and classic blue vintage dimpled glass beads (which are really more a color match with A Girl in Blue.) I introduced a bit of the mottled purple from this painting’s background with some vintage lucite beads. I brought the red-orange of the poppies to the upper part of the necklace with a ceramic barrel bead by Gaea, bright copper spacers and clasp. 

The somewhat more subdued colors in Kalina Snow brought to mind an amazing grunge flower pendant I have been hoarding by Kathrin Kneidl of Donna Perlinplim. I am in love with how it looks like it was excavated in an archaeological dig. 

There is a wonderful teal blue in the petals and while looking through my blue gemstones, I found these tab beads in that color. Their irregular shape echoes that of the rough brush strokes in the background of the painting. I included iolite rondelles, bright red seed beads and a hand forged black iron clasp from Creating Unkamen. There is such a lovely balance of colors in this painting, and I wanted to reflect that in the necklace. 

This last necklace, which I actually made first, was inspired by Eugenia. This painting is exceedingly bold and juicy. The different patterns in the bodice of the dress remind me of this pendant by Cate van Alphen of Fulgorine. It has been waiting for some time to be included in just the right project. It is a large, lovely, vivid piece that allowed me to use some of my chunkier beads. 

A textured copper bail by McDaddio made the polymer piece into a pendant.  I brought in some green with beautiful hammer cut stones, then added amber, agate, rustic copper and African glass. I finished it to size with a doubled strand of copper chain, a clasp by Miss Fickle Media and a nice jump ring from Handmade by JGL. I often prefer a darker patina on metal, but I love how the brighter copper looks here. 

This Art Journey is super inspiring. I just keep seeing art beads everywhere in these paintings. Mine tended toward the colorful because that’s my default. However, one can really derive inspiration based on shapes (diamonds and triangles caught my eye), themes (flowers, peacocks, faces) or a more limited color palette pulled from any of the artworks. I hope you all are inspired to find some things in your stash and play along. Thanks for reading!