Jewelry and Fashion

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A People United, Aardvark Art Glass, Andrew Thornton, Earthly Beads, Focus Casual Life, Gudrun Sjoden, Lisa Peters Art, Sabaku

For a while I’ve been thinking my clothes don’t really go with my jewelry and the jewelry I want to make.  My clothes – especially my work clothes – are kind of boring and dowdy, and I miss the way I used to dress in a former career.  I’ve decided to goose up my wardrobe a bit. I thought it would be fun to do a real life jewelry and fashion post with some of my new clothes like the “wear this with that” examples I’ve seen on other blogs.

I did a recent post about a necklace I’d had in mind for years using an Andrew Thornton pendant but just finally made when I had the perfect dress for it from Gudrun Sjoden. They are exactly how I pictured them together, and I love the fun look!

My tolerance for synthetic fabrics is almost zero, so I’ve been sussing out sources for clothes that are near 100% cotton and/or linen.  For ease of wearing jewelry, collarless shirts for necklaces, lower necklines for shorter designs and short or 3/4 length sleeves for bracelets are best.  

I love the print of this A People United shirt, and I think it looks lovely with this necklace featuring a bird pendant by Earthly Beads.  I’m often one for high contrast color, but I like the elegance of going for a more monochromatic color palette with these outfits. 

I love this color, and have many pieces that will go well with this textured cotton top from Focus Casual Life. I especially like the clean showcase it gives to this necklace featuring a Lisa Peters Art pendant.

Prior to going shopping, I had seen this collection of art t-shirts from Sabaku and really liked them. There were several I was choosing from, and now thinking about what jewelry will go with it, I’m especially glad I chose this one with flowers, birds and cacti. 

What better background for this excellent screaming cactus pendant by Aardvark Art Glass. It fits right in!

All these collarless shirts on which to feature my jewelry makes me a bit giddy! What should I wear first?  I look forward to doing more of these posts as I add to my wardrobe.

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Wisconsin Bead Artists

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Aardvark Art Glass, Cathy Lybarger, Donna Millard, Erin Prais-Hintz, Jubilee, Kylie Parry, Mary Cullinan, Tesori Trovati

I have lived in Wisconsin in various cities most of my life.  I love so many things about this state – the four distinct seasons, the casual, friendly atmosphere wherever I go, and the art!  I think many people feel that way about their home state, and that’s nice.

When my interest in art beads began, I was fascinated with how many great bead artists are in Wisconsin!  Right here, under my nose, but it took the internet to introduce me to most of them.  I thought it would be fun to highlight a few of my favorites.

Erin Prais-Hintz is an amazing artist.  She writes moving blog posts, makes wonderful beads, gorgeous jewelry and inspiring drawings.  I am a member of her Simple Truths Sampler Club and receive an art bead/beads from her each month.  Here are some of Erin’s beads I am hoarding.

Mary Cullinan is the artist behind Jubilee, and I am in love with her colorful raku beads.  Here is a sample of her beads and a necklace I made with one of her house beads.

                                               

Kylie Parry is one of those artists whose work sells out quickly, so I don’t always get what I want.  But I treasure what I have.  Here are a couple of her beads in my collection.

Cathy Lybarger of Aardvark Art Glass has amazing sculptural beads.  My knowledge of her work actually pre-dated my education about art beads.  She had a shop near the now closed Jade Mountain Beads.  My boss from a previous job and I spent many lunch hours in those shops.  Below is a necklace I made with one of her mask beads many, many years ago, and a cactus bead I bought recently at a bead show here in Madison.

Donna Millard is a great lampwork artist who also makes lovely vintage tin bead caps and other components that I love.  You’ll have to rely on the links, because I don’t own any of her work…yet.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, just a few favorites that came to mind. Let me know if you have a favorite Wisconsin bead artist – listed here or not – or if you have a favorite artist from your own area.

Art Glass and Bead Show

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Aardvark Art Glass, Art Glass and Bead Show, CB&Co, Dakota Stones, Diakonos Designs, Diane Hawkey, East of the Sun beads, Elka Designs, Papio Creek Gems & Gifts, Tanya McGuire, Taylors Falls Bead Store

This weekend I went to the Art Glass and Bead Show right in my town of Madison, Wisconsin.  It has been many years since I’ve attended this show, so I was interested to see how I would like it.  I am pleased to say I was very happy with the experience.  There was enough variety and quality in the vendors for me to feel like I got what I wanted, yet it wasn’t totally exhausting for me like Bead and Button can be. I went with my parents, and they felt the same way.

Taylors Falls Bead Store

One thing I wanted to get at the show was chain.  I never have enough chain.  I never feel like I can find what I’m looking for on line, and even if I read measurements, I’m terrible at translating that in my head.  So it was nice to be able to pick it out in person.  I love that blue dangle chain!

The chain motherlode, though, was at Diakonos Designs. They had a huge selection of a nice variety of chain.  It’s a store I’ve been to in person since it’s in a town only about 30 minutes away.  I’m starting to wonder why I don’t go more often because I was fairly impressed with their nice variety of beads when I went one or two times.  They have a different variety of things than my local bead store.  They’ll be seeing me more often, especially as I need more chain.

Diakonos Designs

I also got a few other bits and bobs from the Diakonos booth.  They have some good clasps.  They even had some Diane Hawkey beads!

I picked up a cactus pendant from local lampwork artist Cathy Lybarger of Aardvark Art Glass.  I really love her work and have other beautiful pieces.

Aardvark Art Glass

Tanya McGuire

I also got some lampwork from Tanya McGuire.  That big, multicolor bead in the upper left corner is big, but it’s very light because it’s hollow.  I love that!

Papio Creek Gems & Gifts

This strand of coral is very unlike something I’d usually pick, but I saw it in someone’s tray as I was passing a booth, and it looked so good I found it in the display and bought a strand!

I have wanted a pendant by Kristi Evenson of CB&Co for a while, and this was my chance!  Her booth was a beautiful set up with old wood and beautiful fabric. It was fun to stand there, look at her wares and choose the one I wanted.  I had narrowed it down to this one and maybe one other when my mother looked at the display and picked this one out immediately.  She knows me well.

The East of the Sun booth was quite popular.  There was a ton of stuff I wanted, but when I saw these trade beads, I looked no further.  I really hope proprietor Ramsey Finger is there again next year!  He said he wants to get his website up and running but he travels a lot, so I’ve linked to his placeholder.  I’ll be checking back patiently because he really had nice stuff and great prices.  He told me these are kakamba beads.  I had a strand of them years ago, and they were some of my favorite beads ever.  I am so happy to have gotten some more.

Dakota Stones

I was thrilled that Dakota Stones was there. Their booth was this huge layout of gorgeous strand after gorgeous strand.  My mom and I said that’s where we want to spend our time next year.  I was standing there trying to talk myself into or out of (I’m not sure which) buying this apatite and citrine.  Another shopper picked up the only two strands of apatite in this cut, size and finish. She was carrying it around while shopping, and I stayed in the booth for at least 15 minutes to see if she was going to buy them both.  I moved slightly (and picked up the turquoise) but the minute she decided not to buy them, I picked one up, scooped up the citrine and made my purchase.

Elka Designs

At the end of the show, my mom and I had purchased much more than my dad, so my mom pointed out some metal beads she thought he would like in the Elka Designs booth near the entrance. Of course while he was looking, so were we.  I am not good at focusing when looking at a ton of strands, but my mom found these keshi pearls.  She mentioned they were half price while she was waiting in line to buy them, so I couldn’t resist and bought a strand too.

I really enjoyed the show and look forward to going again next year.  I felt like Goldilocks – it was just right!

#tbt – The Face

Tags

#tbt, Aardvark Art Glass, Cathy Lybarger, Jade Mountain Beads

I’ve been seeing #tbt in recent weeks on social media.  I’m relatively new on the social media scene (a late adopter in the parlance) but I’m getting into the swing of things.  “Throwback Thursday” is the tag people use when they share an old photo or some reference to the past.  So I thought it would be fun to do my own version of #tbt and show an early piece of jewelry I made that I still really like.

I love organization projects, and I used to put each piece of jewelry in a box with a label so I could easily identify it.  This piece is called The Face in reference to the pendant.  As addicted as I am to art beads, it is no surprise that the pendant is an art bead that I bought before I even knew the term.

Mask bead by Cathy Lybarger. Isn’t it sensational?

There used to be a bead store in town called Jade Mountain.  It had the best selection of beads!  It was in an area with other really great shops, and I walked into one called Aardvark Art Glass.  I used to visit both stores semi-frequently with my boss on our lunch hour.  I had purchased some pieces at Aardvark, but I actually got this face bead (or mask bead to use the artist’s term) at a show in town.  I absolutely fell in love with it and knew it needed to come home with me.  The artist is the owner of Aardvark, Cathy Lybarger.

I have no idea where the other lampwork beads came from.  I still really like this necklace, although I haven’t worn it in a while, and I can see the silver needs a polish.  I might put a different clasp on it at some point.  Much of the jewelry I still like from back in the day features art beads, larger, bold beads or rustic, old beads.

I might feature other oldies but goodies in future #tbt posts.  I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane.