Picasso's Dream Necklace

Not in a couple of days, but the necklace with the Russian pendant featuring The Dream by Picasso is finished! It was a pleasure to play with colors and texture. I decided not to round angles you can see in my previous post on the base of my necklace, because the pendant is rectangular and I wanted to keep the common shapes. I've tried to use the same colors as on the miniature, but without big bright spots, just to accent the beauty of the pendant. By the way, I used in my work seed beads I bought on sale at Artbeads.com. I hope people will like my new beadwork. Thank you, Artbeads.com!


Here is the finished necklace live, I mean here is how it looks on. It seems to be pretty, and my model looks great wearing the necklace. Top secret: this girl is also Russian!

Incorporating Art

Once I've already written, that I added Artbeads.com to my list of on-line stores where I buy jewelry supplies. Surfing that website for some interesting things in June, I noticed the word "Russian". Hmmm... I wondered, what about Russia and Russians was there? I opened a page - OMG! Try to imagine: I found pendants replicated portions of famous paintings from artists such as Chagall, Mucha, Klimt, Botticelli, Matisse and Picasso, handpainted by Russian artisans! These Russian pendants feature just a small piece of the whole paintings, but in doing so, the essence of the artistry is captured!


For sure, my customers and I would love to wear a true piece of art with one of these gorgeous masterpieces, and I grabbed one pendant featuring The Dream by Picasso, first of all because I'm a fan of Picasso's talent. It doesn't mean I don't like the artworks of Chagall or Klimt, but The Dream reminds me of the traditional Russian folk art - Palekh lacquer miniatures.

The backing of the pendant is a piece of black onyx, and the pendant is drilled from top to bottom. It's great for a wide range of stringing opportunities but not for beadweaving. If we had those pendants drilled on top from side to side, it would add much more opportunities for beadworkers. Anyway, I found how I can incorporate a piece of art into my jewelry piece! I haven't finished my beadwork yet, it's in process, we'll see the result in a couple of days...

New York Fashion Show

That's certainly a joke, I mean Fashion Show! Here is Paulina, my adorable and lovely granddaughter showcasing my beaded jewelry. On the first photo Paulina features Poppy Field Necklace.


On that photo Paulina displays Midsummer Night's Dream Necklace. What can I say? Though Paulina, my love and happiness, is a little bit more than 11 months here, she feels very comfortable with my beadwork on! Go, my lovely baby!

The First Colorworks Challenge

The first Colorworks Challenge was held by Step by Step Beads Magazine. The orange-purple-green tertiary triad presents a challenge of bold and striking contrasts, and contest participants had to create a piece of bead jewelry with the predominant colors of that triad (any shades of those colors). Finalists were selected by Margie Deeb, Colorworks author, and the editors of Step by Step Beads. Today I received an email, that read,

Congratulations!

Your work was chosen by Margie Deeb as one of the top ten finalists in our first Colorworks contest! Though you did not win first place, your piece will be showcased in a special Colorworks gallery in the November/December 09 issue of Step by Step Beads. Thank you for submitting such outstanding work!

Best regards,
Leslie Rogalski
Editor in chief, Step by Step Beads

Leslie Rogalski meant my Lush Spring Blues necklace...
Good news is good news!

First videoclip on YouTube!

My first videoclip on YouTube. Enjoy!

World of Beads VIII

The exhibit World of Beads VIII: A 20 Year Retrospective held by
The Bead Society of Greater New York on June, 19-21, had a great success. This three-day juried exhibit featured the unique beadwork of The Bead Society of Greater New York (BSGNY) creative and talented members spanning the 20 years of the organization's existence.


Yoshi Marubashi, Leah Becker, Evelyn Letfuss, Nina Libin, Linda Rettich, Marsha Davis, Masami Sato, Ruth Oisteanu, I listed just a few from many artists whose artwork attracted common attention. All artists brought the excitement, passion and beauty of this timeless art form to the public. Beadwork demonstrations and free workshops were presented throughout the event, other activities included bead vendors, sale of bead books, raffles and a children's table. Congratulations and Bravo to all BSGNY members!

Pictures from the World of Beads VIII

WHY DID THIS WIDE SHERMAN BRACELET FETCH MORE DOLLARS THAN THAT ONE?

Well tonight's the night I'll be biting my nails and keeping my fingers crossed and dying a thousand deaths between 8 -10pm EST. That's when my auctions for some of my best Sherman pieces finish on eBay, the ones I told you about in my last blog. I'm trying not to worry...too late now anyway as I can't end the auctions. I have lots of watchers ...up to 27 on the faux alexandrite brooch set ... on all the items and all have bids. But none of them, at this time, have met my cost for these pieces! So am I going to lose my shirt on these or will we suddenly see the bidding go bonkers in the last hour or last few seconds? I sure hope so or I stand to lose a lot of my investment in Sherman jewelry :((

In the meantime, this week I was fascinated by the ebay auctions for 3 wide Sherman bracelets. All three were 1 1/4" wide ...NICE! Two of them, those shown at the top of this blog, were being offered by the same seller, and both were clear stones i.e. no color! Now clear Shermans don't usually sell for as high a dollar as colored ones but then, these are wide bracelets and that makes all the difference. Well here's what happened: the wide one on the top left, with the flowery pattern of large stones set into the center of the bracelet, sold for $801 USD. The other one, which came with earrings, but was the more traditional series of rows, fetched $257 USD. WOW! That's a difference of nearly $500!

So what made the one with no earrings so much more valuable than the other, given both were the same length and 1 1/4" wide, and both were clear stones? I can only assume it was that flowery design in the center of the one as opposed to the usual series of rows. Tells you something about what to buy if you're looking at Shermans as investments and not just nice designer vintage jewelry.

The third wide bracelet was the one I liked and would have gone for if I were buying Shermans right now (I'm not!) and it's shown directly below:

This one is also 1 1/4" wide and is a nice mixture of baguette and round stones i.e. not as traditional as the $257 bracelet above and not as different as the other. But what it does have going for it as well is the color: amethyst. I have found amethyst jewelry, whether in real gemstones or in costume jewelry, is really popular. And as I stated above, usually color is more sought after than clear pieces. Well this one went for $380, sort of in the middle between the other two, and most likely for the reasons I stated: color, stone cuts, width etc. Did you bid on any of these? If so, whichever one you liked, being wide bracelets all of them are worth having.

Well that's it for me this week. Wish me luck tonight. I may or may not tell you how I did. I just hope my heart isn't in my stomach when I next write this blog about Shermans. Have a good week everyone!