Friday, July 17, 2015

We're All Ears Challenge - African Quilt Art

This months challenge is based on Primitive African Art and
story telling.  Stories can be told in many ways, and these folk
art patch work quilts tell a wonderful story of color and patterns.


This is the quilt I really was drawn to.  I love bright colors and the block
pattern is random and fun.  Even though the earrings that I created don't match
this quilt, the beads I chose to design with all reminded me of it.


The millefori glass beads look like mini quilts to me.  I made two heavily textured
ceramic round beads to pull the green out of the glass.  I used 24g silver tone wire
to loosely wrap around the beads and hold them tight.


Don't these lamp work beads also look like little quilts?  The artist is unknown.....
I pulled the purple tone out of the glass and made two 10mm hand rolled spacer
beads, crystal and silver spacers.  20g wire is loosely wrapped around the top beads.


These hand made paper beads are very colorful, like the quilt.  I twirled the
bottoms of 20g wire to make a head pin and simply strung every thing together
for a fun and happy pair of earrings.

This challenge was a bit more of a challenge for me than the beachy vibe 
last month.  But that's why I enjoy participating...to get me out of my norm
and try new things.  If you'd like to see more of my ceramic beads, please
visit www.potterybeads.com  Thank you!

7 comments:

  1. Beautiful earrings. Great interpretations for this month's challenge!

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  2. Beautiful designs! The millefori and paper beads are perfect for the challenge.

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  3. Great beads and beautiful designs. I can see the "quilts" in your beads. Great job!

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  4. I really like that you made so many of the beads yourself. It adds the perfect handcrafted touch to your excellent interpretations

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  5. What a beautiful mix of colours to reflect the 'mood' of the quilts. I particularly love those paper bead earrings xx

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  6. I am so glad that you could participate! That is why it is called a 'challenge,' right? ;-) I love the millefiori beads. They do indeed look like a miniature quilt! So cool that you can make your own beads to complement them. Thanks for playing along with me. Join me on August 7th for our next We're All Ears inspiration! Enjoy the day. Erin

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  7. I love your beautiful earrings. the beads are wonderful.

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