Earrings Everyday: July challenge

Showing posts with label July challenge. Show all posts

Friday, July 20, 2018

We're All Ears :: July Reveal :: Cheers!

Greetings from gorgeous Galena, IL!

I am here at the top of a mountain-top resort overlooking the Mississippi River into Iowa, the site of the Adornments Mixed Media Art Jewelry Retreat. I am teaching my second class today as well as a make-and-take and later tonight Heather Powers and I will be doing a LIVE Facebook jewelry designing challenge. If you want to tune in, head over to Brenda Schweder's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/BrendaSchwederJewelry/) as she will be our Master of Ceremonies and responsible for the Mystery Component! The fun starts at 8pm Friday, July 20th! Join us!

So this is all a roundabout way of saying that I didn't allow myself a lot of time to make things, plus I limited myself to using what I had on hand at the Adornments retreat. Lucky for me there was a vendor night with Jess from Vintaj and her mom Trish from Rustic River Finds with all manner of beady goodness.

I am kicking back with a glass of Shiraz with the most stunning view imaginable to bring you the July edition of We're All Ears :: Cheers! I made three different earring sets all based on summer drinks that I enjoy. See if you can guess what they are in the comments! I will pick one of the comments at random for a prize I will announce on August 3rd. (P.S. You don't have to get the answers right to win so guess away!)

Hint #1: This frosty drink is best served with both a spoon and a straw. What is it?

Hint #2: This drink is the quintessential summer drink, perfect for sitting on a front porch and I always stop by the side of the road when I see it. What is it?

Hint #3: The Belgian cousin of this drink is typically served with a wheel of lemon, but this truly original US drink is garnished slightly differently. What is it?

So there you have it. A party for July! Drink up my friends and share your favorite summer beverages. Can't wait to toast your creativity!

Sunday, July 23, 2017

We're All Ears :: July Reveal :: Visual Music

Hello everyone!

Please accept my apologies for missing my post on Friday, July 21st. I just returned home from the first ever Adornments Mixed Media Jewelry Retreat held at the gorgeous Chestnut Mountain Resort in Galena, IL. I was fortunate to be one of a team of four teachers. It was beyond fabulous. There were a series of torrential downpours the past few days and as such, we had the spottiest wi-fi around. So I was unable to post and could barely even get my texts to work. Despite that, it was the most inspiring space to create in, with a wall of floor to ceiling windows and a birds' eye view of the Mississippi River and Iowa beyond. This is just one of the spectacular sunset shots from our first night there after a rainstorm moved through. Breathtaking.

It will definitely be an annual event, so keep an eye out for information on next year's retreat!

Since I was carting about 1/3 of my studio the three and a half hour trek to Galena for the week, I brought along a few things that I thought would work for the earrings inspired by the visual music.

The video that I was struck by was the very first one, Debussy's Clair de Lune, with the ring, the colored dots indicating the notes as they played, and the strings denoting the length of each note. I used these internal snap rings from the hardware store to be my bead frame like the circle in the video.

I was hoping to find some red and blue beads that would fit, but I couldn't find two the same in what I brought. So I focused on just the blue ones, wrapping them haphazardly around the ring. At the end I wrapped some of the excess wire through the arc imitating the movement of the lines.

Now it is your turn.... show us what you made inspired by Visual Musical scores. (I hope you added in the link to watch it as I find them fascinating and mesmerizing and compelling to watch over and over again!)

Friday, July 7, 2017

We're All Ears :: July Inspiration :: Visual Music

June 22 was the 117th birthday of an artist named Oskar Fischinger, as I learned from a #GoogleDoodle. If that name doesn't sound familiar, you likely have seen his work in the animated Disney classic, Fantasia. His work is the opening with the graphical representation of the notes.

Seeing that sent me on a quest to find out more about what I came to learn more.

I stumbled next upon a TEDx talk by Dr. Hunter Ewen entitled Music is a Visual Art. In that talk while sharing the visual representation of a score that allows for a musician to really grasp the concept of the musical sounds the composer is after, he said the following,

"So by visualizing this piece of music we are all of a sudden open to a number of things we might not notice when just hearing it. We can see patterns and sequences more easily. We can see which instruments are playing and where and how. We can see when harmony becomes melody. And we can see when there's one note versus when there's many notes."

I really liked the idea of seeing patterns and sequences and watching where the notes take us on the unique journey of the musical score. And that is when I stumbled upon the work of two artists in graphic notation or animated scores. I see a lot of possibility for crossing over into making beautiful jewelry.

Check out this score by Andy Fillebrown for Debussy's hauntingly beautiful Clair de lune

I love the circular representation of the score and the way the lights flare and trail off as the notes are held. It is mesmerizing.

Seeing this led me to believe there were other artists out there doing something similar and I landed on the YouTube channel for Stephen Malinowski or smalin. His visual representations are different, but no less compelling. Here is one of his takes on the same piece of music, but with a solo guitar instead of piano

The color are again mesmerizing, and I love the way they are connected by the lines.

I have spent many days just letting these animations play in the background. Each is so different and so beautiful.

So the challenge for July, should you choose to accept, is to find a piece of music with a graphical notation or animated score, from either Andy Fillebrown or Stephen Malinowski - they each have dozens and dozens to choose from - or any other artist really. Then represent that in a pair of earrings. The nice thing about YouTube is there is a little embed link that will allow you to grab the HTML code to put into your blog post. I would highly recommend that you share the visual in your post or at least a link to the one that inspired you.

Can't choose? Check out my favorites from both of them:

smalin on YouTube (Stephen Malinowski)

Beethoven, String Quartet No 16, 3^rd mvt (opus 135)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02DECMcD4Gw

Paganini, Caprice No 5 (solo violin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhc1PsokFOw

Debussy, Syrinx (solo flute)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_yf7FIyu1Y

Debussy, First Arabesque (hearts/butterflies)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt1jfX5C1u0

Bach, Fugue in C Minor, BWV 546

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khpZqafyd6k

Bach, Prelude in C major, WTC I, BWV 846