Monthly Challenge-Red Fish

The inspiration for this month’s challenge is Henri Matisse, The Goldfish.
“In 1905, Matisse and a group of artists now known as “Fauves” exhibited together in a room at the Salon d’Automne. The paintings expressed emotion with wild, often dissonant colors, without regard for the subject’s natural colors.”
Your entry this month can be inspired by the colors, pattern or whatever you choose to focus on for your creation. Just remember to include at least one art bead in your design. A few places to start: Tourmaline for the pink and green colors, Coral beads, multi-color Fabric Beads, Seed Beads, and Ceramic focals in hues of Gold, Green or Reds. We can’t wait to see what you create!

The Prizes:
A winner will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on April 1st. Our prize this month is a set of lampwork beads by CindyGimbroneBeads.

Featured Designer of the Week!
From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on the ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, so get those entries in soon.

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:
1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.
***Beads by themselves and beads simply strung on a chain or cord will not be accepted.***
2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group. If you can’t upload to Flickr, send your entry and information to Heather.
Please add the tag or title MARCHABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one. Deadline is March 31st.
Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn’t followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.

What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.
*** A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.
p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness.