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Art Elements Theme of the Month - Sunflowers

It was my turn to choose the Theme of the Month for the Art Elements monthly challenge, and I chose Sunflowers! Why not? They're nice and sunny and fun and lighthearted and happy and bring up everything summer!

I also know I wasn't going to get much done because my boyfriend had his second hip replacement June 4 and he's staying with me to recover. So I just concentrated on two things.

First, I made a sunflower cab. I didn't have enough time to explore this the way I wanted to, but I made a prototype anyways. There are so many great lampwork artists out there who make wonderful sunflowers that I'm not sure I will bother anyways! But here you go!

I knew I wanted to make something beaded, a la Jenny Davies-Reazor and Lesley Watt, and other beady people, so I concentrated my free time on this.  It's a beaded faux mosaic sunflower. I plan on framing it but haven't gotten that far yet!

My intent was for it to look somewhat mosaic in nature - if you wanted all the beads to line up straight, you would draw lines on your beading medium (I used stiff stuff that was hand dyed by Meg Mullen) making sure they were straight and then you could follow those lines.

I made my piece on the diagonal. When I was done stitching the design on the stiff stuff, I backed it with some thin cardboard because it was too whippy. It will hold up better to framing now.

This is the back - pretty darn proud of this! I used ultrasuede to finish it off. I glued the design to the cardboard and then to the ultrasuede using E-6000.

And finally, the beauty shot. You can see there's a little dimension to the piece - I used size 8 and 15 beads in the middle, and used large square beads for the edges for the mosaic look.

I hope you had fun with this challenge! There are so many amazing people who participated this month, I hope you give their blogs a look! Thank you all who participated - I can't wait to see what you all made!



Guests


AE Team




Comments

Jill said…
Your beaded piece is so neat and intricate, it's beautiful. Beading people must have such a lot of patience, I'm in awe
Divya N said…
Thanks for this lovely challenge Sue. I Love you created a stunning bead embroidery to go with the theme. I am not sure how big it is but if its small enough it could be a fabulous brooch or pendant as well
Lesley said…
Love your mosaic piece Sue and the diagonal format adds so much interest...it would make a wonderful top to a little trinket box! Thank you for choosing such as inspirational theme this month.
Laney said…
Oh wow that mosaic looks amazing, it is going to look fabulous in a frame. I like your little lampwork sunflower too.
baymoondesign said…
I love your beaded faux mosaic sunflower. It is stunning! Thanks for a great theme to work with.
Cat said…
Your little mosaic is simply adorable! It came out wonderful and it was a great idea to do it diagonally, too.
Tammy Adams said…
The beaded cab is lovely. Your beaded mosaic sunflower is stunning. The textures and colors are perfect and it's going to be fabulous framed.
Anita said…
Sue, I totally love the beaded mosaic - the diagonal alignment, the shape of the flower, the beading, the finishing, they're all brilliant! And the cab - it's really cute. :)
Thank you for the wonderfully inspiring theme this month!
Saraccino said…
Your mosaic sunflower is gorgeous and I love how organic it looks with the curved petals! It acutally reminds me of a sunflower oil painting :) You really should make more beaded mosaic pieces!

Also I love your glass beads and cabochons so I think you should play more and explore the sunflower glass cabochon!
Such attention to detail and flow in your mosaic! Having added beading detail to my creation this month, I can FULLY appreciate the dedication and patience involved in making a fully beaded mosaic like this (though I have never done it myself). I like your use of the square beads on the border and the angle of the petals. It will be lovely as a wall decoration or a box topper even!
Thanks for such an inspiring theme this month as well. Can't wait to see what we get for July. <3
Chelle said…
Sue your work amazes me. I really love the mosaic. Have a great weekend.
Your beaded 'mosaic' is beautiful! The beading is impeccable. Great design and colors. The center beaded area really makes it 'pop' as does that background color. It will be even more beautiful if you frame it.
Niky Sayers said…
I really like your sunflower bead but wow that seed bead piece is a stunner, I had to look twice because I did think it was micro mosaic, it is so beautifully neat and such a lovely design!
NV said…
Pretty mosaic flower. And,the bead is lovely as well. Thanks for the idea and letting me participate.
Caroline said…
That's stunning Sue... you have a fantastic touch with those tiny beads! Thank you for a brilliant challenge. It's been fun!
Linda said…
Your bead embroidery piece is amazing. No wonder you feel proud of it! Thanks for hosting this challenge. It was fun!
Sue, first I'd like to say Thanks for such a great theme! Second, with the limited amount of time, you managed to create two beautiful pieces of art! Third, Bravo!
Alysen
Jenny said…
Your beaded sunflower is PERFECTION! The lines, the mosaic feel, the border! OMG. I love it all. And I do see more sunflower cabs in your future - that prototype is cool! Thank you for such a great! inspiring! theme...
Sarajo Wentling said…
Wow! At first glance I really thought that your mosaic piece was actually stitched threads. Wow! So many tiny seed beads! I'm so impressed.
Dry Gulch said…
It really does look like a mini mosaic! WOW!

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