Happy New Year!
Here’s to a creative and magical year of successes – creative and personal!
To start this year off we at the Art Jewelry Elements team have the reveal for the December themed challenge. The theme was the sun, the return of the light as celebrated in cultures the world over on the Winter Solstice. (You can feast your eyes here at Lesley’s original post.) My piece grew with the beading – and will be a wall piece for sure:
It started when I was playing around… and found a face that fit in this textured circle. These arent my usual colors, but it was sunny; the swirls as rays… SO I went for it. I liked the darker area in the glaze that inspired the moon/sky section at the bottom.
So far so good – peyote bezel on the face.
Cooky sent me some bead she was destashing! The colors were perfect! Definitely colors I did not have in my stash… My original plan was to bead spirals out and around – drawing out the spirals in the ceramic donut. This is what I did… but now I’m not so sure. It feels to me like two pieces. I wish I had left the ceramic sun face as is – a brick stitch edge and done. I love the way the spirals turned out, but no longer love them with the ceramic piece.
I also wish I had gone for a little more contrast in the spirals themselves, a little more “pop”; and to unify the spirals with the glaze palette of bright yellow. I really do love the copper triangles that frame the clay piece though – that may be my favorite element.
As the year ended, I re-started my art journal practice – for the millionth time! I have decided this year to focus on a page a week. AND I am working on loose paper. I love that this gives me time to set aside a wet page and start a foundation collage for a future page. Here is my sun themed offering. The word “solstice” is derived from the Saxon word for wheel…
Drawn on collaged encyclopedia paper – crayon, marker, alcohol ink, image tranfer, you name it!
Here’s to a BRIGHT year ahead!
Please click back to the main page at Art Jewelry Elements to continue your hop!
Jenny Davies-Reazor 
Well I think this is just fabulous – I love the way you picked a cab that has the contented look of awaking from a long sleep. Love the journal piece too and hope it’s the first of many in a bright year.
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Amazing work Jenny! I love the colours, the swirl and the way the face looks to be growing through the design. It’s beautiful.
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I wish I could see the beading in person on the wall. The journal painting is really wonderful.
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I really love this piece. As I read your process, I thought you were being too hard on yourself. However, looking at the photos a few more times, I see what you’re saying, but still think you’re being too hard on yourself. Perhaps after your relaxing week away in Mexico you will be able to look at this with fresh eyes and find a way to tie it all together so that you love it. I like the spirals at the top as is, but the black portion is difficult to see, but it could be the photo.
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It’s a lovely organic piece, and perhaps that ceramic donut is giving it its pop! I like it a lot anyway!
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Jenny, I know you don’t like what you did with the ceramic sun face but I really love it! For me it makes it look more like one piece plus I love the added texture it makes me want to run my fingers over it! Such a wonderfully creative design! And I really look forward to seeing more of your art journal pages!
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The beaded piece is so wonderfully intricate, everywhere I look there’s a new detail to focus on and then when I pull back to take it all in, I see even more. It’s gorgeous. The journal page is fabulous as well. Best wishes for a creative 2016.
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