2016 Topic 16: Beads,Charms and Dangles Carolyn Saxby Well hello everyone, Darcy here with a new topic. i am so looking forward to seeing your creations for this one, I love beads and dangly embellishments. We see them everywhere, in all forms of decorative and wearable art, made from every conceivable medium. Beads in particular started out not just as an embellishment but as currency, they were highly valuable, so much so that they were placed in burial tombs. This continued till the late 19th century. This beautiful blue glass bead was found in a 3,400 year old Danish grave, but after testing was found to have originated in Egypt, confirming well established trading routes. Where beads were a symbol of wealth, charms had other symbolic meanings, mainly concerning religions or superstitions. In ancient Rome, Christians would carry a fish charm in secret, so as to not advertise their religion. In other cultures various charms were worn to ward off evil spirits and to deter bad luck. This may seem very outdated but think about wearing a cross on a pendant or wearing a 4 leaf clover charm and you soon see that even today these traditions live on. Before we get arty, let's see who won the Topic 15: Patterns Challenge... Wow, you all went pattern crazy! I saw so many fabulous uses in projects over the past 2 weeks. Everything from hand drawn to stamped, organic watercolour patterns and scrapbook papers. It is nice to appreciate patterns as they play such a great part in making life interesting. The winner of Patterns is: Wendy from Wendy's House with her fab Escher pattern. Email Darcy to claim your prize. [email protected] So let's dive into our new topic. Beads and charms have for all time been made from natural materials, such as stone, clay, glass, shells, wood and bones. Natural embellishments are always stunning, however not everyone has the skills or equipment to blow glass beads, or a tumbler to polish shells, and how do you drill holes in shells easily? Thankfully all these jobs are done for us and stunning beads are readily available to buy. What if you do want to recreate the look at home? Well how about these felted beads, they have the amazing patterning of glass beads but they have been needle felted. Jane Crowe If bright colours don't inspire you how about going neutral, this felted necjpiece is breathtaking. Sarah Ball Another fun way to make beads uses drinking straws covered with fabric, like these by Sherrill Kahn. A very talented mixed media artist Sherrill has some great books, one is all about Creative Embellishments. If fabric really is your thing then I am sure you will be inspired by these intricately stitched beads by Victoria Gertenbach Or these gorgeous beads made from vintage ribbons. Carmi Cimicata Another way to get the look of pretty variegated glass beads is by using UTEE, this is a brilliant video tutorial from Leandra showing just how it is done. The end result is stunning and can look just like dichroic glass. A more unusual medium for bead making is Tyvek. This is a synthetic product, the spun polyethylene fibers create a dense material. It is quite strong and not easy to rip or tear, and as such it has many uses from envelopes to protective clothing. Because of the density it protects from dust particles, however it is not heat proof, and this is where the artist takes over. Tyvek can be painted and stitched and then heated, it bubbles and melts, creating amazing, if unpredictable results. Carolyn Saxby Another fantastic modern material is polymer clay, created in the 1940s it is used widely in arts and crafts. I don't think I have seen a more stunning piece than this necklace made with folded clay beads from Tanya Mayorova. her Flickr is full of amazing jewellery. We can see that in the modern era we are having a lot of fun making beads and charms from plastics, fabrics, metals and wires and also papers. In fact paper beads are probably the easiest to make. They can be made from gift wrap, painted papers, old maps, book paper, magazines. Experimenting with different cuts of paper can result in some funky shaped beads. These are made from old maps. Gillian McMurray ..and these are from book pages. Renee There is a handy, and simple guide to making paper beads HERE. This video from Lindsay Weirich is a fun way to make your paper beads look like they have a silver core. So now we can see how to make our basic beads and charms, but how do we use them in art? and how can we combine them with other items to make dangly embellishments. How about a glass bead garden sprinkler, so pretty, can you imagine the sun bouncing off these beads. Roberta Dunn A fantastic combination here of chain, beads, and charms. Julie Thompson When making hand made books I find they always look so inviting with beads on the spine, there are so many different ways to add beads to books. You could even just add in a bookmark with beads dangling out of the book. Note how on this book the idea of beads and charms is also carried around to the front with the use of the letter tiles and the key. Sarah Fawcett Even a simple card can have the dangly treatment, whether you use beads, or buttons or like this card a punch out. Maile Belles Wall hangings look great with danglies, even teeny tiny canvasses like this one. Becky Shander The little hearts on this plaque are a great addition. Lilybeanpaperie These tick a lot of boxes for me, some painting, some fabric and some beads. Not all dangly embellishments need to be beads, what about creating your own miniature pieces of art that you can hang from... well anything. Shrink plastic is a great modern substrate. You can use your favourite stamps and shrink them down into perfect little charms. They could hang from a kilt pin, how about attaching this to a coat lapel, or to a bag. Red Lea Or you could make a key fob, do you remember this fantastic blog post by France Papillion. Another really useful item to have in your stash is wire, this can be added to all sorts of mixed media projects. I love these wired wrapped corks. What a great way to use corks from a celebration bottle. I have found some amazing photos of dangly art, these heads made me smile. Sophie Cave For something a bit more achievable, how about dangling photos. I really want to do this, it is a very cool idea, and not just for photos.. how about hanging small pieces of art this way. Bree Thurston I think this has to be my favourite dangling project, a beautiful, vintage upcycled lampshade. not only is it pretty it is so simple, just scraps of fabric . Dottie Angel So have those inspired you? I hope so. I am looking forward to seeing all your beads, charms and dangling creations over the next 2 weeks. There were so many more examples that I wanted to show you, please check out Darcy and Leandra's Pinterest boards if this topic pushes your buttons, you will see plenty more examples to whet your appetite there! Darcy Topic 16: Beads,Charms,Dangles PaperArtsy Blog Challenge We'd love you to share your ideas and link up your creative response to our current blog topic. Take a minute to read the challenge guidelines below. All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Beads,Charms,Dangles link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Sept 4th, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00. 1. The challenge is a for you to show how you are inspired by the current blog topic. Your entry should contain: - a mention of which post inspired you and why, and - a link in your blog post to that original post on the PA blog. The whole concept of this challenge is 'play along with us'. You are encouraged to put your own twist on ideas you see on our blog, do your own thing - whatever grabs you! 2. The link you put on our linky page must lead directly to the specific post on your blog where you have explored the technique/ idea mentioned in point 1 above. Don't link to the home page of your blog. 3. We prefer your challenge blog post is created exclusive to our challenge, but if our topic fits perfectly with another challenge, then you may link to both if appropriate. 4. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - it's lovely when you do though! 6. You can enter as many times as you like. We don't want to restrict your creativity! NB. Link closes at 17:00 Sunday Sept 4th (London Time) 7. The winner of the random draw will receive a £50 credit voucher to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website. The credit voucher includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50. 8. Each fortnight on Sunday, the winner will be announced at 19:00 (London time). In the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. 9. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy. email: [email protected] Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!