The Stash Has Been Used & Weirdness Insued

Today is the reveal for Art Elements' Use Your Stash Challenge hosted by my good friend, Lindsay Starr!  Today is also the day I am late to the party - I have had a crazy week and didn't get to write my lovely little blog post until the day of.  Not my normal style but it is what it is!

For this challenge I rummaged through my stash and pulled a ceramic piece I have had sitting in my box for years - I almost didn't want to make anything with it because I love it so much:  A trilobite by Diana Ptaszynski!  I knew I wanted to finally use the trilo and I had recently added a cool ring from Joan Miller to my stash, so I threw them into my project box. That day I had a bead-in at my local bead shop, Cindy's Crafts so I knew I would have plenty of time to work out my design.

I began by snipping off the wire loop connectors from the trilo and bezeling it like a cab.

At this point I really didn't know what I wanted this to end up looking like.  Often I get stuck on the shape of the piece.  It tends to work out better if you have a overall shape in mind when you are working but this time I had to do a little Pinteresting for shape inspiration.

I didn't find exactly what I was looking in my search on Pinterest, however, after a while a general shape and layout came to mind...I immediately sketched it and despite my poor skills with a pen, I was able to capture the shape and some of the design elements I wanted to include.

As is typical with the way I work, I let the beads do what they wanted, adding design elements as they came to me.  Sometimes this process gets me trapped in my own thoughts but if I consciously 'let go' I usually find that the end result is more pleasing than it would have been if I forced myself through the process.

The more I worked on this piece the more I loved it.  Sometimes you run into an 'ugly duckling' phase and then struggle to complete a piece because you aren't "feeling it".  This one never reached that point for me.  Somehow everything just flowed as I worked.



But...sometimes in art things kinda happen without you realizing it.  Sometimes you unintentionally create within your creation.  This apparently happened to me...and I am still not sure how I feel about it...

In a relatively short amount of time I had created a piece I truly loved without buying a single bead - all from my stash...and upon sharing the end result with others, found out that everyone thought it was a bird.  *laugh*  I just wanted to have a trilo and ammonite hanging out in a pool of beads...but weirdly - oh so weirdly I had created a trilo hanging out in the belly of a bird!  Do you see it???

I used a metal clay brass ring by Gail DeLuca and a metal clay brass toggle clasp by One Sweet Bead to finish it all off.  Intention or not, I love this piece, bird and all.  And because my graphic designer mother said, "It's an awesome bird, own it!"  I am officially calling this piece, "Oops, bird!"  *laugh*





Don't forget to check out what these other amazing artists did with their stash!

Guests:

Kelly Rodgers
Sarajo Wentling
Samantha Wescott
Kathy Lindemer
Patty Miller
Linda Landig
Renetha Stanziano
Samantha Wescott

Art Elements:

Jenny Davies-Reazor
Jen Cameron
Claire Fabian
Sue Kennedy
Niky Sayers
Lindsay Starr