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 KatieN, Congratulations! You have won a set of disk beads bead from Humblebeads. Send us an e-mail with your address and we will get it right out to you.
My last Studio Saturday post was all about me thinking spring. I am happy to report where I live in Georgia it has arrived. Along with it the pollen has arrived and that is hard to deal with but I still won’t complain. I took this picture yesterday at the Georgia State Botanical Gardens.
Also, in my last Studio Saturday post, I showed several images of new flower beads that I was making. I received a ton of comments on a particular pendant. You, the readers liked the texture. I took this as a challenge and wanted to see what I could come up with with texture. Well, what I got I really liked. Take a look and see what you think…
To make these new beads when I ma making the pendant out of clay I texture it with stamps. These stamps are made from drawings of mine. I have them made into rubber stamps. Once the beads are fired I paint the underglaze over the bead and immediately wipe it off. The color stays in the crevices. I go back and paint other colors on top. Two coats of clear are painted on top of the beads. I really like the aged look it gives the beads while keeping my bright colors.
I really like this stamp and think it makes a nice pendant so I have experimented with different color combinations .
Personally, this is my favorite of the pendants, it’s got all of my favorite colors.
Once I made pendants and got a look I like I thought I would make some matching beads for earring or stringing with the pendants. Below you can see my pairs.
I would like to give away on of my new pendants for this weeks prize. As you see I gave myself a challenge with the limitations of making some more textured pendants. I find when I have some guidance I feel like I can be more creative. It helps me keep me focused and It clears my mind some. Do you like a challenge with guidelines or do you prefer the sky’s the limit approach? Let me know in the comments this week and I will send the random winner a pendant.
Alice
April 11, 2009 at 1:43 pmFirst, I love all your colorful beads!
Your question is a hard one for me, and the answer depends on my mood for any particular day. All in all, I think I prefer a challenge with guidelines otherwise I’d never be able to reign in my thoughts.
Now, if I’m just sitting down to create, no ‘challenges’ issued, I’m all for ‘the sky’s the limit’!
Alice
EmandaJ
April 11, 2009 at 2:56 pmLove the beads and the lively colors! For me, I like a challenge with guidelines. I like to push the envelope, but if I don’t know where the edges are I get overwhelmed.
Emanda
abeadlady
April 11, 2009 at 4:09 pmI think having guidelines adds to the challenge. Working around the problems they present gets my mind thinking in all different ways. It’s too easy to get off track with no rules.
Arline
Gail W.
April 11, 2009 at 5:59 pmJennifer,I was born and lived in Atlanta until I was 30.And,I Really miss it!When it comes to beads,I’ve been thinking maybe I should draw the design first,then get as close as I can with the billions of beads I have.Excuse me,I meant million!ha,ha!Lori brought it up a couple of weeks ago,and my designs got better.Jennifer,I’m near Biltmore gardens now.Hugs,Gail
Winchell Clayworks
April 11, 2009 at 6:33 pmI’m with Emanda on this one. If I don’t have some sort of guidelines, I end up just sitting and staring at my worktable. I don’t do well with “abstract” and giving me free rein on a project is pretty abstract for me (schooling in the sciences, currently working in accounting). Give me something to work with/towards, and I’m off.
Dorothy Winchell
sharon
April 11, 2009 at 10:42 pmJust looooove these Jennifer! I always thought that i liked unlimited freedom, but when I discovered the ABS a few months ago and started doing the challenges, I found I performed better, with better results, so I guess I like the challenge and guidelines!
michelle
April 12, 2009 at 12:54 amoh that’s a difficult question. Sometimes guideline are limiting, but sometimes they are inspirational. For me, it depends on my mood, but I like to have some guidelines most of the time because it gives me a focus and sort of reminds my of a school assignment, and it really motivates me to be productive!
rosebud101
April 12, 2009 at 1:03 amWhen participating in a challenge, I like to have guidelines because I want to win! It helps to have a bit of direction to follow.
Terry Biz
April 12, 2009 at 1:07 amI love your pendants! They’re so youthful and cheery. I find that I need some guidelines to help me focus in order to create. A great pendant like the ones you create inspires me and gives me a jumping off point.
KatieN
April 12, 2009 at 4:00 amI’m glad I’m not the only one :o) The thought of just walking up to my stash of beads and magically coming up with something can be daunting. But, if I have a guideline for creating (even just like the “create something inspired by XXX” ideas you guys do each month), then I have something to wrap my head around…
Katie :o)
Lisa
April 12, 2009 at 2:19 pmMy first instinct was to say having guidelines kind of limits what I can do, until I started really thinking about it. Then I realized I set my own guidelines when I see a series of necklaces and decide to make one similar, but with this added, or that removed. For instance: I like those sizes together, what if I ….. and then take off from there. In that case, the sizes would be the guidelines, I suppose. Thanks for giving me something to think about! And for sharing your wonderful pendants. 🙂
Christine Hansen
April 12, 2009 at 4:49 pmJennifer, your new textured work is really fun and cheerful – I especially like how you got your drawings turned into rubber stamps – I’ve been thinking about doing that with some of my own drawings, so I can use them in my other art.
My knee-jerk instinct is to say “no guidelines”…my ego wants to be able to say “I can create amazing art without guidelines,” but honestly? I feel I do my best work if I have something to start with – yep, guidelines. For me, the guidelines might be a color, a style, a theme, a mood, or even a size, and I take it from there and put my own (weird) twist on it. Too, having guidelines can sometimes equate to “having rules that are made to be broken” {wicked grin}
peace,
chris
Pamela
April 12, 2009 at 10:17 pmI feel that sometimes guidelines give us the freedom to design with no cares. The guideline gets us started in a direction of sorts and then that personal flair takes over!! Thanks for your motivation!!!
TesoriTrovati
April 13, 2009 at 2:00 amHey Jennifer! You know that I like these…I think I have them all in the queue waiting to come to me! You rock, Jennifer! Thanks for sharing your process…I love the direction of these new pendants.
Enjoy the day! Erin
Anonymous
April 13, 2009 at 1:27 pmGuidelines are a good thing for me I like structure but not so much that it confines me as an artist. I love your new beads, they are fresh and vibrant! Thank You for the chance to win! have a Blessed and Creative Week !
[email protected]
Ann Rishell
April 13, 2009 at 3:15 pmAs a design instructor, I have this debate with other instructors. If you give assignments with no guidelines you may get amazing designs back from students. On the other hand, guidelines exist in the real world, so the assignments should have them to prepare the students to work in the real world.
As far as my preference, I like the challenge of working within guidelines. Thanks for the interesting post!
SueBeads
April 13, 2009 at 9:04 pmI love all your new pendants, too! I like a challenge that provides some guidelines – I guess that is my personality, but if I have a beginning, I can get to the end by being able to go through some sort of thinking process. Being too open ended is like agrophobia to me – too open!!!!
Dale
April 14, 2009 at 2:22 amThe pendants are great, i agree. I especially like the one with the blue and green swirls… so spring-y!
As for guidelines in challenges, i find that they are wonderful as a jumping off point. When i want to have a little more freedom, i can just create without a challenge. However, the challenges can be fun to help me think about thinks in a diffrent way. Once the thinking and creating process have begun, i find I often break these guidelines and do my own thing, but they are great as a starting point.
JenniferJangles
April 14, 2009 at 11:35 amWow! I think the majority of you like guidelines. I agree I’ve got to reign in all those ideas or I would never get anything finished. I find I give myself guidelines when I am designing for fun also.
Cheers,
Jennifer