ABS April Challenge

Tags

Art Bead Scene, Degas, Edgar Degas, Rebekah Payne, Sue Beads, Sue Kennedy, Susan Kennedy, Swaying Dancer, Tree Wings Studio

The Art Bead Scene blog challenges readers each month to make something inspired by an artwork and incorporating an art bead.  The artwork this month is Swaying Dancer (Dancer in Green) by Edgar Degas.

My favorite part of this painting is the tulle skirts.  I love the soft sea foam color dotted with gold.  The gold flecks made me immediately think of some gold dyed coral I have.  (That’s what I was told it is.  They are really light and seem more like wood to me.)  I hadn’t looked at them in a while and thought they were all top drilled.  I had a necklace in mind.  But when I found them, only one long one was top drilled; the rest have a hole through the length of them.  That did not work for my purposes.

I tried to use them as dangles in an earring with some aster wheels made by Rebekah Payne of Tree Wings Studio.  I didn’t like the look of the dangles, but I really loved the idea of the aster wheels as earrings.  I had been looking at some lampwork beads that had several colors of the painting, but I knew they would be too heavy.  I have a nice stock of smaller lampwork spacers by Susan Kennedy of Sue Beads.  I checked to see what colors I had to choose from and made these earrings.

I was a little disappointed not to be able to use the gold beads.  Their shape reminded me of the graceful movements of the dancers’ limbs.  It would have been fun to make something ethereal like those tulle skirts.  But I do like my earrings.  The colors are very nice together, and they are definitely something I will wear.  And I have another idea for the gold beads.

Check out the Art Bead Scene flicker page to see what the Degas painting inspired other people to make.