It seems that the time I have spent from mid June until now – time in Clay camp, teaching classes, earning a paycheck… is time I havent been working in clay for myself. I arrive home 6 hours later, when you factor in prep and all that, and I dont want to go to the basement studio. So what do I do? BEAD!

This month I had to go for the Art Bead Scene challenge. Create a piece of jewelry, incorporating an artist’s bead, inspired by :

It seems like a lifetime ago when I was teaching this to 6th graders, we made our own twig brushes, we painted on large sheets of brown paper…I decided to make my own clay bead, which I finished with acrylic paint. I wanted my piece to be period specific; I used natural materials that, in theory, are of that era. Here’s what I wrote about the piece:

"What adorned the artist’s hand? Elaborate painting – created with consumate skill and devotion in the far recesses of caves…What ritual painted shadows on these rocks as a human hand endeavored to capture life with pigments of earth and ash? My bracelet is hers… natural elements of stone, clay and seed, strung on sinew, colors that echo the palette she used."