JUST DUCKY!

Thank goodness March has finally arrived because I am more than ready for Spring! In deciding what to feature in today’s post, I thought I would start with one of the pairs of colorful copper enamel charms that I’ve been making for an upcoming components show. Although Spring means pretty flowers, puppies, bunnies, and chicks, I wanted to do something just a bit different while still keeping with my theme. I thought of my daughter’s HUGE rubber duck collection and found that to be the perfect inspiration!

I started with these unique, copper enameled black rubber duckies, covered in brightly colored POLKA DOTS (LOVE me some polka dots). The next step was to go through my ever-growing bead stash to decide which of the polka dot colors to choose for the matching beads. I was leaning toward a pair of bright orange hollow beads over a pair of sparkly lime green donut beads, when I spotted another pair on my bead table that I knew would be the winner- a totally fun pair from Petra Marikova – a black base, completely covered in tiny colorful bumps – like falling in a bucket of candy sprinkles!

The only thing left to do was add a few colorful wavy spacers, some Vintaj black metal caps, copper caps, and a pair of fancy copper ear wires…WAY TOO FUN! What do you think? Too many polka dots? (said no one, EVER!)

 

These earrings will appear later today in my etsy shop, TwinklingOfAnEye.

You can find other earrings in my fb group.

Thanks for spending a part of your day with me - see you in a few weeks! :-) 

We're All Ears :: September Inspiration :: Dotty

The first time the words "polka dot" were used together to describe the beloved pattern was in 1850. They never really had any connection to polka dancing, but these dotty spots have been called that ever since.

At first they were found in small doses, like in men's bow-ties. But with the turn of the century and textile technology advancing, it quickly became an iconic fashion statement to wear polka dots. Over the years this pattern was further popularized by fashionable entertainers and Hollywood stars, like Marilyn Monroe or Lucille Ball. Even the fa-mouse fashionista Minnie Mouse made them a pop-culture trend in the 1930 - all the way to present day Julia Roberts in the movie "Pretty Woman." Polka dots are seen as sweet, feminine, classic, playful, fun.

Close up of A Sunday on La Grande Jatte By Georges Seurat - National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., online collection, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11500867

Artists have long used dots for impact in their paintings. George Seurat's most famous work A Sunday on La Grande Jatte in the style of Pointilism (essentially dot painting) is masterful and scientific in its precision. Damien Hirst, a British contemporary artist, once exhibit 300 dot paintings in all eleven galleries at the Gagosian. These paintings were mesmerizing. One featured over 90,000 hand painted spots. Amazing!

Jemima, 2016 © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd.
All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2019.
Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd

I originally wanted the Spots to look like they were painted by a human trying to paint like a machine. Colour Space is going back to the human element, so instead you have the fallibility of the human hand in the drips and inconsistencies. There are still no two exact colors that repeat in each painting, which is really important to me. I think of them as cells under a microscope. —Damien Hirst

Yayoi Kusama, Whitney Museum

Yayoi Kusama was a Japanese artist who turned her lifelong experience with traumatic hallucinations into wild immersive art installations punctuated by dots on every surface. In 2012, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton created an array of dotty accessories inspired by Kusama's work. 

Collaboration with Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama, 2012

A polka-dot has the form of the sun, which is the symbol of the energy of the whole world and our living life, and also the form of the moon, which is calm. Round, soft, colorful, senseless and unknowing. Polka-dots can't stay alone; like the communicative life of people, two or three polka-dots become movement. Polka-dots are a way to infinity. 

--Yayoi Kusama

Let's celebrate the polka-dot! Make some dotty-spotty earrings for the reveal on Friday, September 20th!

[Please remember that all artwork shared here is for your inspiration only, and not to be used in your designs.]

Purple Polka Dot Earrings

I have had these beautiful German glass beads for something like 25 years! I remember the town where I bought them, and that's how long its been since I was there. Why haven't I used them before? They've waited so patiently in the shadows, but at last their time has come to shine!

In addition to the German glass beads, I've included Czech glass and a delightful metallic flash from small, square hematite beads. Swaying beneath the German glass beads are purple glass flowers, threaded on Sterling silver "paddle head pins". The sweet little flowers are accented with more square hematite beads and small lavender glass beads. These beads may have been ignored for 25 years, but I think the earrings were worth the wait. The Purple Polka Dot earrings are available in my shop.

Summer has officially arrived, at least in the northern hemisphere.  I hope it is pleasantly warm and sunny where you live. See you in two weeks.

Linda Landig Jewelry

French Chic

I'm pretty much obsessed with fleur de lis ANYTHING. Be it jewelry, home decor...you name it, I love it! These pretty lampwork beads are by Cheryl's Art  and the silver fleur de lis charms are from Ad Adornments .

Just a few of the fleur de lis that I have around my house...I think I might have a problem...?!?

To see these earrings in my store click HERE and to visit my website click HERE.

Thanks so much and have a great weekend!

Kristy Abner

Kristy's Kreations