Friday, July 29, 2011

July Artisan Clay Design Team Reveal!

Check out the beads that the design team had to work with this month!
Recycled Glass fused Donuts-- The ones available made to order in standard sizing and colors to be exact.

Everyone picked one piece from this photo.
Except me that is.... for some reason I was dead set on green this month.


Could it get more simple?  Really? 
I had my mind set on furthering my ideas from last month and weaving another collar inspired by the ribbon of seaweed I saw on the beach in Oregon, but--- I couldn't do it.  It was just too much. Too much color, too much action, too hard to wear.   Life for me these days has been so complicated and difficult to figure out and I just long for simplicity.  If only life were more simple.... If only there was a clear yes or no....and people-- the wild card.   So~~ this is what you get, simpler than simple, easy to wear and no competition for the bead. 

When I decided on donuts, one of the design team members mentioned not using donuts in her work before.  They can be kind of tricky to work into a design, but some people seem to be able to find endless ways to do it.  I decided to go through my old photos and show examples of my use of donuts in the past.
I like to chain them up.


This one has a wire loop fired into the clay itself making it easy to string as you would a pendant.
This one also has a wire loop and I made it into a Christmas ornament.
Here I have used one of my cast donut bails in Bronze....
And this piece was chained up like the first few examples.

This last piece was made by Design team member, Carol Dean Sharpe, Sandfibers.  She is dealing with health issues this month and was unable to blog for this month's reveal. 

Carol made this piece for me to show at last year's Bead Fest Philly.  Carol has been so kind to make gorgeous display pieces for every one of my Bead show booths.  Carol has such skilled hands and a magic way with color and I am so lucky to have an Artisan Clay fan in her.  She is an awesome friend too!

So... are you ready to see what the team has made?
Have you made something with an Artisan Clay bead?-- then add your link below!




7 comments:

  1. They are each lovely in their own way. I never use donuts either, so that would be a challenge! Thanks for sharing all this inspiration! Enjoy the day!
    Erin

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  2. Beautiful work! All the pieces are great. I hope carol is feeling better quickly.

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  3. Kristie, one of my favorite design principles is "sometimes simple is best" and this piece proves my point! Perfect!

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  4. I love your simple piece! The green is brilliant and doesn't need much else with it.

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  5. Sometimes you can't say too much for simple. ;)

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  6. They all look like sweet and lovely. At first, I thought it's a lolly. This will really works for fashionable users.

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  7. I would love to be on the team! I love new challenges :)

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Your comments are much appreciated