Thursday 27 February 2014

Radiant Orchid Challenge - Allegory Gallery


When I heard Andrew Thornton was having a beading challenge, I jumped right in!  I love Andrew, and although I have never been there, given how Andrew speaks about it, I imagine Allegory Gallery is definitely on my bucket list! So is the Bead & Glass Boutique in New Jersey, but that's another blog post (which I am also writing tonight :)).

Let's get down to business....Andrew sent all the challenge participants a kit which included all kinds of purply goodness.  Purple happens to be my all-time favorite color, so how could I not?  Now, those of you that know me, you know that I am a seed-beeder through and through.  SIGH.  So many challenges I want to be included in, but alas, they focus on a lot bigger beads than I am used to.  I have tried and tried and TRIED to work with the bigger beads, but they just don't speak to me.  So I mulled over this challenge for quite a while.  I spilled the beads on my mat, mixed them, separated them again, sighed a few times and put them away again.  I did this several times, lol.

Lots of big beautiful purple beads!
Lots of medium sized beautiful purple beads
And a few seedies in there too!

Then I received my birthday present from my loving sister who remembered how much I wanted some cameos to try working with.  I received a big baggie full of antique cameos just waiting to be remade into something vintagely modern (yup, it's a word in my world :P) and beautiful.  So I pulled out this gorgeous purple cameo and spilled out the beads again, and ALAS!  This simple but pleasant design came to me.

And as I was putting it together in my head (I very rarely sketch things out -  I can't get the design from my head to the paper), all I could think about was my wonderful mother, and that her birthday was coming up, and that cameos remind me of her.  She is timeless, and beautiful and absolutely an amazing person.

AND, purple happens to be her birthstone, and one of her favorite colors too!  This was perfect!

So, here is my challenge piece.  I used all of the beads that I thought I could use, which was way more than I thought at the beginning, and the really big ones I gave to a very good friend of mine is in love with big beautiful beads.  Win-win!


My mom loved the cameo piece and of course showed it off on her FB page :)

I am anxiously awaiting Andrew's next challenge and what it may entail!

In the meantime, don't forget to visit all the other participants' blogs, as well as Andrew's blog , and Allegory Gallery too!
Thank you Andrew for including me!   I love a good challenge.

Andrew Thornton http://andrew-thornton.blogspot.ca/
Allegory Gallery http://blog.allegorygallery.com/

And the participants' list:

Andrew Thornton, Alison Herrington, Laurel Ross, Joanne Goldberg, Julie Katz, Irene Leniham, and Linda Starosciak http://www.andrew-thornton.blogspot.com/



4 comments:

  1. Beautiful work! I love how you've framed the pendant :-)

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  2. Well, Leah - no one can say you didn't at least try to use the bigger beads! I love what you did with the cameo.

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  3. Your piece is really lovely! I am glad there were goodies in the kit that you could work with! The necklace turned out awesome! It has a delicate sensibility and a romantic vibe! Nicely done!

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  4. Leah - Your beadwork is stunning!
    I had the opposite problem - all those tiny beads are sitting in a container. Well - except for the ones I lost in the carpet.
    I hope you were able to snag a Deep Waters kit. I'd love to see what you do with that.

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