October 23, 2008

Lily and Lanterns


I shared this painting in July and finally stole away some time to make beads inspired by the colors and designs of the lilies and lanterns. The painting is John Singer Sargent's Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. Oh how I love art history!

Here I did a field of lilies with the lanterns under a layer of transparent clay.

Little lantern beads on a dusky blue background. Again the lanterns are under transparent clay for a dreamy, subdued effect. I think these ones are my favorite. In fact, I liked it so much I created this necklace:

October Moon
Lantern Bead, gunmetal tassel and chain, coin pearls in copper and silvery/blue. All the gunmetal findings are from Rings & Things.

And of course, I whipped up a set of disk beads to round out the collection. You can never have too many disk beads! The lily bead is one that I created a while ago and has been hanging out in my shop. I have these beads listed on etsy in the quantities that I have available.
Match these beads up with:
Gunmetal, antiqued copper, dark wood, muscovite, iolite, sodalite, pearls in copper and blue.
I really enjoyed making this series and will revisit it later next week, I didn't get through all the canes I had sketched and would like to transition into more purple/blue shades like the painting. So do you have a favorite? Surprised to see a somewhat round bead from me? I always love to hear from you! Happy Creating!

3 comments:

Lorelei Eurto said...

I looove the round bead. It's my favorite in this new series!
Looking forward to more Sargent inspired beads. My friend tara has a print of one of these paintings that has beautiful orange lanterns in it. The lighting in the painting is magnificent!

craftyLinda said...

First I just love that painting. I like the first long beads the best. They are all great but I just seem to like that shape better. And the colors..WOW. I can't wait to see what you do with more purples/blues as those are my fav. colors.
The necklace is to die for.

Dave Robertson said...

Heather, your talent for translating a visual theme into a series of original beads stuns me. This is fantastic work!

Let me also thank you for the mention of our gunmetal tassel and gunmetal chain. I've been seeing some really cool uses for these findings lately. Feels right for autumn!

Take care,

--Dave
at Rings & Things