Two Seasons...Make that Four Seasons!

I like the duality of things.

Hard+Soft
Black+White
Smooth+Rough

So it should come as no surprise that I also like the duality of the seasons:

Winter+Summer
Spring+Fall

My friend Heather Powers invited us at the end of 2014 to do what she calls a 'muffin tin challenge.' Basically, you gather up all the bits to make a project and put it in a segment of a muffin tin and then make them! When she first did this on the Art Bead Scene a few years ago, I started doing this. To this day I still have the 'muffin tin' idea going on all the time, but instead of tins, I found that the flocked inserts in these trays that I have abundant in my studio work best for me. In fact, I have so many of these trays going that I may never see the bottom of them!

So I took up the challenge for this year. And I put it out there that I would use this as the push to get some early 2015 magazine and gallery submissions going. Here is a picture of my tray:

See that top left square? That is the necklace I started at the Inspired by Nature retreat this fall, but fell short of working on. See that bottom right square? That is one of my original 'muffin tin' challenges from a few years ago that is still languishing in limbo. All the rest are new things that I threw together. And I did get quite a few going, some that morphed into other directions, some that I am saving for another time. And of course, all of the 6 things that I submitted to the magazines at the start of this new year have been requested to be sent. So I will not be showing you any of those designs, unfortunately! But the fact remains that I did what I said I would and actually made things and submitted them. Score one for the procrastinators of the world!

The one square that I will focus is the one with all the Humblebeads.

 You see I like to think that I have ever Humblebeads known to humankind. I don't really (although if you did participate in my recent giveaway on Facebook, you know that I had 274 of them in a large teal footed glass dish that I serve them up in my studio!). I bought a lot of these up at the Bead & Button show this past year, but never followed through on making anything. So this was my chance.

I lined them up by seasons with some rhinestone gate clasps that I have been hoarding for some time. I wanted to make something for a local annual exhibit called "Winter's Garden" at the Riverfront Art Gallery. In fact I am going over there today to drop them off and hope they will be juried into this exhibit that is filled with live orchids in the middle of the dread winter and all the art is floral themed. These are much simpler thing than I have made in the past, but it is also a fundraiser for this little gallery that I have come to love, so I wanted to make something that would be a sure seller rather than a showstopper that might just sit there.

I call these 'Two Seasons' and they are convertible necklaces. The chain is just left plain and long to slip over your head. The two pendants each feature a little Humblebeads house bead with a different season combination. The beads underneath are all of the more precious variety... pearl, citrine, lapis, moonstone, emerald, carnelian, etc. And a little blingy dangle just because.

UPDATE: Took the sets to the Riverfront Arts Gallery to drop of for the jury process. The director liked them very much but wanted a full four seasons. So I rework them and created a set of Four Seasons. Now I wait to see if I have been juried in, and if so I will be putting together a little shadow box to showcase the four interchangeable pendants. I feel that I might need to buy more Humblebeads! ;-)

Thank you Miss Heather for the inspiration to keep on creating and to make beautiful things! Now I have more trays of to-do's to go!

What is on your creative to-do list?