Friday Finds with Lorelei: The Art of the Toggle

When choosing the clasp for your piece of jewelry, whether you choose it first, or last- it's usually the icing on the cake, isn't it? It's the one thing that ties everything together! I love using toggle clasps, and there are a TON on Etsy that are handcrafted! I picked out some of my favorites for this Friday Finds! Happy Shopping! Click the above image to start shopping!

September Monthly Challenge

ABS Art for September Inspiration

Persia by George Barbier (1882 - 1932) 

About the Art

Illustration from "the Art of Perfume" published in 1912 (pochoir print).
Pochoir is a direct method of hand coloring through a stencil.  The stencil itself is usually knife cut from thin-coated paper, paperboard, plastic or metal and the ink or paint is applied with a brush through the stencil to the paper beneath.  Multi-colored pochoirs are produced with multiple stencils, and the technique has often been used to add colors to black and white lithographs. 

About the Artist

George Barbier was one of the great French illustrators of the early 20th century. Born in Nantes, France on October 10, 1882, Barbier was 29 years old when he mounted his first exhibition in 1911 and was subsequently swept to the forefront of his profession with commissions to design theatre and ballet costumes, to illustrate books, and to produce haute couture fashion illustrations. For the next 20 years Barbier led a group from the Ecole des Beaux Arts who were nicknamed by Vogue "The Knights of the Bracelet"—a tribute to their fashionable and flamboyant mannerisms and style of dress. Included in this élite circle were Bernard Boutet de Monvel and Pierre Brissaud (both of whom were Barbier's first cousins), Paul Iribe, Georges Lepape, and Charles Martin. During his career Barbier also turned his hand to jewellery, glass and wallpaper design, wrote essays and many articles for the prestigious Gazette du bon ton. In the mid 1920s he worked with Erté to design sets and costumes for the Folies Bergère and in 1929 he wrote the introduction for Erté's acclaimed exhibition and achieved mainstream popularity through his regular appearances in L'Illustration magazine. Barbier died in 1932 at the very pinnacle of his success.

The Prizes:

Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on October 1st.

Our sponsors this month are sponsors: Sea of Glass, and Shaterra please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

Featured Designer of the Week:

From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on the ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, so get those entries in soon.

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:

1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. We post the art to be used as your inspiration to create. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.

***Beads by themselves and beads simply strung on a chain, wire or cord will not be accepted.***

2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group.

Please add the tag or title SEP ABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Deadline is September 30th. Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn't followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.

What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.

***A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.
Beaded beads, stamped metal pendants or wire-wrapped components are not considered art beads for our challenge.***

p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness. 

August Monthly Challenge Winner

Congratulations to Pamela Traub from Klassy Joolz. Her entry was randomly chosen from this month's qualifying entries.

Pamela has won a collection of clay beads from the Beads-of-Clay group and a $50 gift certificate from Gardanne.

We want to thank our awesome sponsors and all those who played along and entered this month's challenge.

Join us tomorrow for a new challenge!

Nuts for Acorns!

"Mighty Oaks from little acorns grow."

I think what I love most about acorns is that they symbolize the quiet potential in all of us to do great and mighty things.

Pictured above from left to right: Earthenwood Studio, Humblebeads, Credit River Art Glass and Diane Hawkey.

Above is my current favorite that sits in my bead stash.  It's a lampwork and copper acorn from Credit River Art Glass, one of my favorite purchases from Bead & Button!  You should have seen Erin and I fondling each and every bead in Julie's booth.

And in my own studio acorns and oak leaves have been beckoning the Autumn season!

Are you gearing up for fall shows and making autumn inspired creations? 

I'd love to see them, leave a link to your latest or favorite fall themed piece of jewelry.

Designer of the Week: Stephanie's Sammelsurium

Each Monday the Art Bead Scene features the Designer of the Week. One of our editors picks her favorite from the Monthly Challenge entries.

ABS Editor, Cindy Gimbrone chose this week's design winner, It's a Wrap by Stephanie's Sammelsurium

Cindy says this about "It's a Wrap"....Stephanie took up the ABS monthly challenge as an incentive to design outside her usual color palette. The warm colors of the painting inspired her to use orange to great effect. The bracelet is a real eye catcher and is bright and cheery just like the painting. Nicely done!"

You can see more of Stephanie's work on her blog.

If you'd like an opportunity to be featured as the Designer of the Week, there's still time to join in on August's monthly challenge!

Sundays with Cindy

Let's see what our Bead Bloggers have been up to this week....




A Bead A Day
Do you like to mix crafting with jewelry making? Lisa is looking for crafty ideas for using a filigree pendant to create a unique piece of jewelry.

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy announces her first About.com jewelry making video.

Art Bead Scene
While Art Bead Scene Editor, Cindy Gimbrone is on vacation, she's left us a gem from Studio Saturday - her box of inspiration!

Beading Arts
After receiving a wonderful package of crystals from Auntie's Beads, Cyndi set out to make a bracelet that would show them off!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi was at CHA in Chicago and has a fabulous post about Prima Marketing. 

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
While Cindy's off enjoying the bead-ch, let's get ready for the upcoming HalloweenMas newsletters by checking in on a re-wind. It's Barbe Saint John's magic with Cindy's Calaveraz.

Carmi's Art/Life World
The new Katiedids components are responsible for Carmi's new pearl necklace design.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei shows off her loot from her Bead Fest Philadelphia trip!

Snap Out of It, Jean! There's Beading to be Done!
Jean is totally WOWed by the fabulous Margot Potter's latest book: scroll down to read the truly intriguing review of this unique book--it is SO worth it!

Studio Saturday with Cindy Gimbrone

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

Last week's winner is Cetta! Congratulations! You have won a toggle clasp from Lynn! Send an email to Lynn and she will get it right out to you.


Welcome to the Studio of Cindy Gimbrone!

I've done something a little different this week. Instead of still photography, I've created my first Studio Saturday Vlog!



Looking forward to reading your comments!