Monday Musings: Art Bead Inspirations for Art Journey Five

I’m not gonna lie… I’ve been pretty nervous about Art Journey Five since I initially saw the artwork for the year. (And I think I may not be alone in this!) While I’m fascinated by Joseph Cornell’s shadow box artwork, it was harder to get thinking about how to translate the inspiration pieces into jewelry designs.

Here’s hoping that my toils (and sometimes gnashing of teeth!) over this challenge will help you all out by giving some flashes of art bead inspiration! I scanned some of my favorite shops (as usual) but also did some searches for some of the prominent themes I saw in each piece of art. I really just focused in on a couple of things for each piece of art… there are tons of other ways to take each of these for sure!

Here’s my standard caveat: This isn’t in any way meant to be exhaustive or a shopping list… I realize that some of these makers are outside of the U.S. and that it’s always possible that not all my picks will still be available by the time you see this post. That being said, I’m providing a link to each artist’s shop in the photo captions for you.

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Tilly Losch

For this best known of Joseph Cornell’s works, I took sort of a three pronged approach to my art bead focus. First, the idea and coloration of the mountains… these are reflected in the lampwork glass beads as well as the first two sets of earring charms. Next I zeroed in on the stripes on the bottom portion of Tilly’s dress. The other idea that captured my imagination was the idea of Tilly Losch being a hot air balloon of sorts… thus, the final set of charms.

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Medici Princess

This is the busiest of the chosen artworks for this new journey but I decided to focus on two main elements… the stars and the orange by the princess’s hand. Stars are always a popular motif in jewelry making. There are lots of fun ways that you take this one. The color orange as well as the fruit itself make an appearance in my art bead collage. I really love the way the mix of colors in the lampwork by Out West reflects the artwork. I’m also crazy excited that I got this particular pattern from Golem Design Studio in a couple of different bead shapes at Bead & Button.

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Soap Bubble Set

This is another place that I decided to focus my bead searching on just two ideas. I was instantly captivated by that single little blue egg in the cordial glass and found a few different egg options in glass and enamel. The diagram of the moon that takes center stage with all it’s craters and texture also seemed like a good jumping off point. I found a couple of different makers with some moon rock bead sets as well as a crater-covered moon pendant from Tina’s Bead Mind.

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Hotel de la Duchesse-Ann

The most obvious inspiration in this last piece for me was the little parrot on his (or her?) perch. I had a lot of fun searching for parrot themed beads to share with y’all. My favorites are probably the enameled charms by Pearly Karpel, but I really like all the birdies that I found. More subtle inspiration came from the postage stamps in the top right corner of the piece… they are insects including beetles. Since I’ve shared plenty of butterfly finds this year already, I focused on some beetles this time!

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Apologies for not having a chance to get pictures of the beads from my personal collection that I’m considering. Time got away from me between a trip to the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee followed immediately by a trip to Great Britain. (I’m still there as this is going live!) You’ll just have to wait to see what I came up with in two weeks. Fingers crossed that I have time to make a couple of things at least!

Here’s to happy creating as we head through Art Journey Five! I hope that I’ve given you some ideas to get you going… Click HERE to submit your creations for this Art Journey. Remember, you can enter as often as you like… the only rule is that you have to use at least one art bead or component.