For my exploration into the current ABS journey, I went with the quilt that grabbed me the most and that was the Nine Patch by Emma Mae Hall Pettway. I love the garden feel of this design with bright pops of color on the leafy green backgrounds. I think in some ways it reminds me of the background of Gustav Klimt’s painting, The Kiss. So definitely a geometric garden vibe was my inspiration.
For my first design, I grabbed some wood geometric beads and my Vintaj patina paints to transform them into a playful take on the patchwork quilt. I painted each facet in a different color and then sanded the edges. Sanding hime gave them a wonderful rustic feel and helped clean up my messy paint job. Win, win. I used red leather to knot on the beads, taking my color cues from the quilt. I added in a few Humblebeads disks to play on the smaller patterns of floral elements in the quilt. I decided to go with a rustic twig branch that felt right with my wood beads. And the nest, just seemed liked this design was calling out for it.
I grabbed these thread tassels and a few Humblebeads for this simple pair of earrings. Fibers seemed like the way to go for this journey. Which leads me to my last design.
I had this tassel in my bead stash and it’s perfect for the colors in the quilt I choose. By adding in a little bit of the coral tones with the red, it takes the design away from looking Christmasy and brings it more fully into that garden arena. And recycled silk is a nice reference to the upcycled materials used in the Gee Bends Quilts.
I paired one of my flower pendants with a Diane Hawkey word bead, a cluster of Czech glass flowers and a textured rope jump ring from Vintaj. I strung the pendant on brown leather.
So that’s my take on the Gee Bends inspired journey. How will interpret this quilts with beads. I’m so looking forward to seeing your creations this month.
Here is the post showing all the quilts for Journey 3. Be sure to upload your images to the gallery in our Facebook group to enter the current drawing.
Christina Vallem
April 8, 2020 at 11:17 amI ador wood geometric beads with the painted facets. Heather’s bracelet is brilliant.
Ann Schroeder
April 8, 2020 at 9:31 pmGreat designs. I love the greens from this quilt. Your bracelet is especially wonderful with those painted wood beads. And I love the tip about adding coral to the silk tassel to make the colors not read as Christmasy. I love green and red, and sometimes struggle with that.
Divya
April 9, 2020 at 2:09 amLovely ideas, thanks for sharing them. I would love to take one of your faux tin classes. Please do think about doing an online class.
moois van mie
April 9, 2020 at 3:51 amI love what you did with those wooden beads! And the final result is superb!
Sarajo Wentling
April 13, 2020 at 3:00 pmI’m always so excited to see what you design, Heather! Your gorgeous pieces helped me snap out of my design paralysis on this Journey. Those wood beads are so very cool and the bracelet made me swoon!
Monday Musings: Creating for 2020’s Art Journey 3 – Art Bead Scene Studio
April 27, 2020 at 10:03 am[…] that was inspired by (ok, ok, totally copied from!) Heather’s earrings from her most recent post. When I saw them I immediately remembered that I had a package of little black tassels that I got […]