Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you’ll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner. Last weeks winner is Summer Studios. Congratulations! You have won a set of 4 buttons from Creative Impressions in Clay. Send us an e-mail with your address in the suggestion box and we will get it right out to you.
It’s party time in the Humblebeads Studio! For two weeks in April San Antonio pulls out the all the stops and celebrates our heritage and mixed culture with over 100 events during Fiesta. It’s like a Tex-Mex Mardi Gras. Today is my favorite event, the King Williams Art Fair. I love arts & crafts shows, meeting the artists and seeing their work up close. This is one of the few in San Antonio with all hand-made goods. 
With Fiesta comes our summer season here in Texas. The dandelions are already waging war on my yard! So why fight them, here they are in all their glory. My dandelion beads are some of my favorites and ones I’ve been working with for some new summer and fall designs. They are a good fit for today too, they remind me of fireworks with their bursts of layered colors.
So my question today, what designs/symbols/motifs remind of you summer? Are you all about the shells when it comes to summer jewelry? Inspired by abundant gardens? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment to win one of my dandelion beads.And speaking of winning free beads, I’m hosting a contest on my blog. Check it out to play along!
Anonymous
April 25, 2009 at 3:23 pmDandelions are definitely a beautiful summer motif. Another thing that always reminds me of summer is butterflies.
Hannah B.
No Easy Beads
April 25, 2009 at 3:46 pmI know spring has come when the dragonfly arrives. They are every where right now. The other sign of spring is the magnolia trees are in full bloom. My favorite flower
Bead-Mused
April 25, 2009 at 4:55 pmHey Heather!
For me, it’s flowers. If there are flowers, it must be summer. When the weather starts getting warmer, I start using more flowers in all of my designs.
Theresa
Melanie
April 25, 2009 at 6:38 pmOne of my favorite summer motifs is navy and white, add other crisp nautical colors like red or gold. I am reminded of pennants snapping on thier lines in an ocean breeze.
Kiwiken
April 25, 2009 at 8:00 pmHmm… definitely everything that reminds me of the beach: shells, starfish, urchins… if at all possible with some caribbean shades of blue, maybe some mother-of-pearl, seaglass and wood.
But flowers is a close second, I’d say. Been making a lot of cute little flower charms lately, to use in my summer jewelry.
gerri newfry
April 25, 2009 at 9:30 pmi’m definitely inspired by an abundant garden. i spend a lot of time in mine, nurturing it to encourage abundance. i’m not always successful (i hate watering), but i do my best. these dandelion beads are great. i especially like the yellow ones. i have a few dandelions in my garden now. they’re pretty, but i don’t want them to take over everything else. so i guess they have to go.
paula
April 25, 2009 at 10:38 pmSummer says Nautilus to me. The eternal never ending spiral. !
baglady
April 25, 2009 at 10:55 pmI’ve never posted a comment before but am lured by your beautiful beads. I think specific colors remind me of summer- like turquoise and silver, orange cream, and yellow with blue. I sometime use bumble bees if I can find one I like. Thanks for the opportunity to win a bead. Nancy
Alice Howe
April 26, 2009 at 1:39 amSince I live in Colorado, shells aren’t part of my summer, but it’s definitely the wild flowers of the Rockies – Indian paintbrush, columbine, now THAT’s summer in Colorado.
Alice Howe
falxumbra
April 26, 2009 at 2:12 amI’m a little weird, but when I think summer, I think insects! Ladybugs and bumblebees and grasshopers, and bright, primary colors. Leaves and flowers, too, but those can overlap with spring motifs sometimes.
Pamela
April 26, 2009 at 2:19 amThis one is oh-so-easy to answer!! Spring and summer in my area seem to merge together anymore. It seems that once the tulips have bloomed, it leads to the phlox, to the bachelor buttons and roses and pinks and coneflowers and iris….Did I mention flowers?:)And then with that come all the beautiful birds that my husband has taught me to identify. I am spending more time paying attention to the color combinations and texture plays and using this in my designs.
Fab Fibers
April 26, 2009 at 2:36 amSummer to me is every color you can think of. I love the colors of my container plantings, the more exotic I get with flower
and plant combos the better they look. Its blue skies, green grass.
The color of the lake that changes all the time, sunrises, sunsets.
Stormy skies…color, color, color!
Valerie C.
April 26, 2009 at 2:37 amThe colors of your dandilion beads remind me of the hot summers here in Las Vegas. I mean it gets so hot you can fry an egg on the pavement and it will burn in about a minute if you leave it there. Burnt summers of yellow and browns and reds. Spring is much prettier.
sharon
April 26, 2009 at 5:19 amFlowers, flowers, flowers, poppies, zinnias, echinacia, foxglove, lavender, delphinium, dahlia,all blooming in my yard!
The Beading Gem
April 26, 2009 at 11:17 amThese beads are incredible! Such craftmanship.
For me summer = flowers. Pearl
Alice
April 26, 2009 at 12:38 pmDandelions, bees and a dose of bad weather mean summer here in Kansas.
For my jewelry I like beach themes with shells and wattery colors. I also like to use bright summer colors.
I love your dandelion beads! So cute!
Artisan Clay
April 26, 2009 at 1:17 pmTo me summer is Blazing hot sun! Yellows -oranges -reds
And definitely lush jungle like foliage!
I love these beads!!! Dandelions! Have to love them, who can resist that puffball?
Jenny J.
April 26, 2009 at 1:58 pmHi Heather! Happy Fiesta!!! It was great to meet you yesterday! I love me some art beads…and I’m soooo ready for summer. I’m starting out my summer designs with big colors and lots of chunky glass…just makes me so happy!!
I LOVE SAN ANTONIO!!! HAAAAAAA
Jen
peacockfairy
April 26, 2009 at 3:16 pmThe brighter the colors, the better when it comes to summer jewelry. Bolder pieces with motifs like dragonflies or butterflies.
Mary K. McGraw
April 26, 2009 at 4:40 pmI love your dandelion beads. Summer here on the Gulf coast is emerald green water, palm trees, sand dollars, flip flops, and straw hats.
rosebud101
April 26, 2009 at 7:29 pmFlowers, lovely, beautiful flowers are my symbols of summer!
Jeannie
April 26, 2009 at 7:53 pmIt would have to be roses. My mother had this beautiful rose garden with ginormis roses. I remember Better Homes and Gardens coming to our house to interview my mom and take pictures. I thought we were royality..for a day anyway
Leslie
April 26, 2009 at 11:26 pmHi Heather! I think that to me flowers, butterflies, roses, wildflowers, summer birds, and dandelions are what reminds me of summer, as well as “summer colors” of bright candy and popsicles! Thanks!
Warmly,
Leslie
bellajoya
April 27, 2009 at 3:51 amSummer is ice cream and color, lots of color, beach towels, bathing suits, flip flops, bright tank tops and hair in a ponytail…hhhmmm, wonder if I could bead all that??
Shaiha
April 27, 2009 at 4:06 amSpring hasn’t arrived for me until my pear trees blossom. Seeing and smelling those blossoms just make me smile and give me hope that summer will soon be here. Then it is time for the beach.
Terry Biz
April 27, 2009 at 5:10 amWhen I think of summer, I think of the hot sun and the fun things to do in it. So the sun is one of my favorite symbols to use. I like stars, too, but the sun image is more powerful and exciting to me.
Mellisa - Chinook Jewelry
April 28, 2009 at 4:55 amSo many options, hummingbirds, insects, flowers, beach… When I lived somewhere with winter everything associated with summer was huge! Sprinklers in the yard would be one major sign of summer from childhood though.
FrankandRox
April 29, 2009 at 9:26 pmI love warm summer nights when you can hear the breeze ruffling the leaves in the trees. Nice big beautiful trees! That makes me think summer