Carnival Blog: Celebrations

Here we are, fabulous Art Bead Scene readers.

Where are we, Cindy?  you ask.

We're at the last Art Bead Scene Carnival Blog for 2010. It's been quite an exciting journey for ABS and the wonderful readers who have participated. To that end, it's time to celebrate the ride we've had by blogging on the theme "Celebrations." All of the ABS Carnival Bloggers were invited to participate so we have a larger than normal posts and pictures for all of us to enjoy!

Island Girl Insights
Holly Dare: Holly's Folly

Above is Jenn Judd's Persia necklace

Jenn Judd
Christine of A Hot Piece of Glass
Mallory of For the Love of Beads

Above is Melissa Meman's Copper Swirl Fibula.

Melissa Meman

Below is another lovely for us to celebrate, Mary Lou's "Bones" inspired Temperance Necklace:

Mary Lou of time2cre8
Cindy Dolezal Designs
Jeannie's Blog
Pixybug Designs
Mary Harding Jewelry
Christine Hansen
 Readers, take note of Michelle Mach's hot fix crystal ribbon (below) for your next gift wrapping session. How pretty would this box be underneath a tree?

Michelle Mach
Treasures Found
Nicki's Reef
Patty Lakinsmith
Beads for Busy Gals

Hope you've enjoyed this year's Art Bead Scene Carnival Blog Celebrations! We're glad you've been with us all year. So this post celebrates you! Thank you for reading the Art Bead Scene!

Written by ABS Editor, Cindy Gimbrone, the Carnival Bloggers' intrepid leader who thanks all of the wonderful Carnival Bloggers for sharing their stories and lovely art with us.

Carnival Blog: Remembrance

Welcome to October's Art Bead Scene Carnival Blog! This month's theme is "Remembrance." Each blogger took on the theme in typical artist style - each with her own perspective.

During the cold of winter, I want to remember my trip to Sauble Beach this past summer and collecting the pebbles on the sand. I'll wear my Beach Pebble ring and smile each time I think of the beach.

Erin takes us on a tour of the remembrance jewelry she's created for her clients. I'm particularly enamored of Love is the Key that features a large handmade pin by the client's grandfather.

Jeannie remembers Julia who encouraged her to be creative. Jeannie created her one of a kind Congo beads in her honor.

Island Girl and Christine take us down their own memory lane and showing us their early and current work. Christine's viking knit bracelet entitled Dusk shows off her progress as an artist.

Elaine created Red Poppies in honor or Remembrance Day, November 11th

Janel has a list of things to remember including sending out this lovely set of art charms

Our own Beads for Busy Gals writes a tribute to her father and creates a lovely necklace. As artists who depend on patrons to buy our wares, Pixybug Designs takes a moment to thank her special order customers. To everyone who buys artist made beads and jewelry, the ABS Carnival Bloggers thank you!

Hope you've enjoyed this month's Carnival Blog! If you'd like to join us, we're always happy to welcome another dedicated Art Bead Scene reader to our Carnival Blogger Group! Interested in joining? Please send an email to Cindy saying you'd like to join.

Until next month...the Carnival Bloggers bid you adieu!
(written by Cindy Gimbrone the Carnival Bloggers' fearless leader.)

ABS Carnival Blog: Renewal

Welcome to this month's Art Bead Scene Carnival Blog! Our intrepid bloggers took on the theme of "renewal" for September. September is time to go back to school, to put away the garden tools for the season and look forward to the holidays. Although fall is a season of change, one can feel surprisingly energized by the newness that change brings.

Nicki shares a powerpoint from her days as a jet-setting professional on the stages of change.

Nicki was faced with a monumental change in her life. She's translated that sense of renewal into a lovely piece of jewelry:



Like Nicki, Holly has renewal foisted upon her. She puts it to good use at the torch and channels her energy into making glass beads.

The mothers's juggling act pressures many of us. September finds Chris balancing her time between family, writing and the torch

While some of our bloggers are experiencing a change in life paths, Marcie reflects on the theme and interprets renewal in the turning of the leaves. She shares a lovely set of handpicked artist made leaves including this lovely one from dreamgirlbeads.

Michelle sees fall as a time to pare down and organize. As she cleans out her studio she re-discovers treasures and feels energized.

But what if you're a cleaning phobe (like me) or the cleaning muse hasn't hit you(where is she when I need her)? Maybe you want a more methodical way to re-charge. Enter our intrepid Patty. We can count on Patty to write a post full of great tips. She takes on this month's theme in her usual manner and lists tips and tricks for gaining a sense of renewal.

What? you've gotten this far in our post and none of the ways our bloggers approach renewal resonate with you? What about exploring other art forms? Elaine Luther found inspiration and renewal in quilting. Needing inspiration to infuse a new series of beads, Mary Harding heads to the art gallery where she finds her inspiration and creates these beauties.

Or maybe you're like me, you just get hit on the head by your muse, as if she's saying "duh! make these!"

How do you find renewal?



Hope you've enjoyed this month's Carnival Blog! If you'd like to join us, we're always happy to welcome another dedicated Art Bead Scene reader to our Carnival Blogger Group! Interested in joining? Please send an email to Cindy saying you'd like to join.

Until next month...the Carnival Bloggers bid you adieu!
(written by Cindy Gimbrone the Carnival Bloggers' fearless leader.)

ABS Carnival Bloggers Embark on an Exploration

The ABS Carnival Blogging Gang got together this month and blogged about "Exploration." I look forward each month to reading each entry and bringing them together into a cohesive post for the Art Bead Scene. In a way, each month is a new exploration for me where I have the chance to learn more about the Carnival Bloggers and gain inspiration from each post. Join me in exploring this month's crop of inspired writing from the Art Bead Scene Carnival Bloggers....

Let's start with a profusion of flowers from Elaine Robitaille who embarks on a floral exploration. She tweeks her lovely polymer clay floral canes into explosions of flowers for the neck and wrist.

Janel Dudley leaps into learning wire wrapping techniques to enhance her jewelry designs. While Beetreebyme finds a flat world is a great place to explore and create.

One of our newest bloggers, Gaea, finds inspiration in the commonplace and creates a new style bead.

Keeping an open mind, mairedodd is able to see jewelry elements in a used bike shop. While our dear friend, Cindy Dolezal suffers a devastating loss that propels her into exploring a new path. Our hearts are with her on her journey.

Christine goes willingly into a new creative endeavor, art journaling and ponders supplies that are useful in making her new adventure. Pixybug Designs is staying close to what they make, lampwork beads and exploring new venues to sell their small works of art.

We find our own Island Girl aka Fireballbeeds taking on a simple task to recreate a color combination. Will she be able to re-create it or will she be buried in a lovely pile of "almost perfect but not quites?" (We know you want a particular color but we adore the beads that you've created!)

Our tour of this month's theme will end with the very talented, Jeannie Dukics who shares her new Distressed Patina Clay Pendants which are her exploration of new discoveries and hope.

Most inspiring to me about Jeannie's blog is the quote on her blog header that sums up this month's exploration:

"be brave enough to live your life creatively."





Hope you've enjoyed this month's Carnival Blog! If you'd like to join us, we're always happy to welcome another dedicated Art Bead Scene reader to our Carnival Blogger Group! Interested in joining? Please send an email to Cindy saying you'd like to join.

Until next month...the Carnival Bloggers bid you adieu!
(written by Cindy Gimbrone the Carnival Bloggers' fearless leader.)

Carnival Blog: Commitment

Summer is the season of weddings, graduations and street fairs. Weddings are a traditional show of commitment while graduations are the celebration of years of a commitment to schooling. It's easy to be cliche about what commitment means or how we describe it. But have you thought of commitment in terms of art beads? Our Carnival Bloggers have and it's a diverse group of definitions.

For me, commitment means planning and following through with creating the Adjustable Double Dip Ring.

My colleague, Chris successfully committed to creating floral tulip beads. She shares a photo of her lovely glass bead (below).

Being a Mom finds you caring for everyone in your family except you! Nicki has promised to honor her commitment to herself. Wondering what that might be? Make sure to stop over to her blog and find out.

Michelle Mach writes how she has yet to commit to beadmaking but has found herself taking class after class in pmc. Her latest class was in image transfer shown below.

Marcie weaves a story of commitment that follows a young girl throughout her life. Marcie's theme of commitment is similiar to Patti who is dedicated to her glass art. While Lyn takes us on a journey of wedded commitment and how it is intertwined with her glass art. Our good friend, Kelly of Silver Parrot, though is not a fan of the "C" word. She gets around it and creates a lovely piece.

Kate has the opposite reaction to the "C" word. She tends to over commit and tells us about it on her blog.

Think you're hearing things? Well, Holly doesn't listen to the voices in her head, she just ignores them and creates interesting glass eye beads (shown below).

Melissa has just made a commitment to the Carnival Bloggers and shared a lovely art bead laden bracelet she created for the May Art Bead Scene Challenge.

In this season of Commitment, what have you committed to?

ABS Carnival Bloggers Make a Statement

This month, the Carnival Bloggers decided to do a visual blog hop. Each one of us has created a "Statement Necklace" where we include lots of beads and baubles into one necklace. We're keeping it minimal, though, with little chatter and lots of eye candy! So let's take a hop around the ABS Carnival Blogs and get an eyeful!

Cindy Gimbrone
Cindy Dolezal Designs
Island Girl Insites
Janel Dudley
Jeannie's Blog
Jen Valesquez
Kate Clawson
Marcie Abney
Mary Harding
Nicki's Reef
Sharon's Jewelry Garden


If you'd like to join us, we're always happy to welcome another dedicated Art Bead Scene reader to our Carnival Blogger Group! Interested in joining? Please send an email to Cindy saying you'd like to join.

A Leap in the Dark....The ABS Carnival Blog

all growth is a leap in the dark...
Henry Miller

I leaped on board with the Art Bead Scene when it first began in 2007. It was a leap in the dark for all of us - where would it lead us? Would it be successful? Would others read ABS? We didn't know but we were passionate about inspiring others to design with art beads and the handmade movement and we believed we could attract an audience.

ABS has grown and developed over the past three years and I along with it. I was interested in how our reader-bloggers have grown and I asked them to share their thoughts on "growth" for this month's Carnival blog.

Mary Jo shares how the concept of growth is inspiring her. She shares some lovely pieces she's created including the earrings below:

Jeannie Dukics wants to take a break from production work so she can develop and grow her skill in other media. She shares the lovely God and Goddess Art Beads (below) she's most proud of and wants to follow the path they've laid out for her.

Erin leaps at the opportunity to grow when she's offered an opportunity to create a special piece for a local charity. The result is her "Grow Through Change Necklace" shown below.

Mary Lou reflects on her development as a beader and takes us through her "birth" on through her "adolescence." Each stage of development is marked by a particular beaded jewelry piece. I think many of us will relate to Mary Lou's observations.

Stephanie takes us through a journey she and Chris have taken in developing their craft.

Some of us go willingly and others are prodded into growth - Thanks to Dudley the cat, Our Island Girl was forced to expand her beadmaking repertoire.

Our clever beadmaker/jewelry designer, Janel was inspired to make a new style of bead - a sprout! How cute is that? (See below.)

Hope you've enjoyed this month's Carnival Blog! If you'd like to join us, we're always happy to welcome another dedicated Art Bead Scene reader to our Carnival Blogger Group! Interested in joining? Please send an email to Cindy saying you'd like to join.

Until next month...the Carnival Bloggers bid you adieu!
(written by Cindy Gimbrone the Carnival Bloggers' fearless leader.)

ABS Carnival Day! Anticipation

This month finds the ABS Carnival Bloggers thinking about "Anticipation." Since spring is in the air, I find the color yellow is a symbol for the smiles and happiness of summer - it ignites the summer season much like it ignites the Miro like design of "Flame" (below).




For other Carnival bloggers, a Carly Simon song was brought to mind....



Holly, Patty, and Chris anticipate the moment when they open up the kiln to look at their most recent art bead creation.

Other bloggers are anticipating their designs....

Kate of Organic Odesseys uses a line from Carly Simon's Anticipation as a spring board for showing us how she approaches creating a piece of jewelry.

Michelle Mach wonders about a design for a swap and gives us a peek at her design and the work in progress.


Cindy Dolezal sometimes follows her muse and makes whatever the clay tells her it wants to be and sometimes she anticipates a design. Looks like Cindy's anticipation over her primary colored beads show below was right on track.


Jen Judd is excitedly looking forward to new things and making opportunities. This month, Jen made her first set of flamework glass beads shown below:



To Mary Harding, anticipation is more of an idea than a word we use daily. Kelly of Silver Parrot tells a story of a lifetime of anticipation. Anticipation seems to be imbued in the hot colors of the Sunfire bracelet (shown below) which anticipate the upcoming summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

Nicki shares how planning helps her to anticipate what will happen next - it works for her since she was able to anticipate creating some new enameled pieces (below):


I'll end this month's ABS Carnival blog with a thoughtful post from Marcie who shares her insight into what anticipation means for her and makes a profound observation for all of us:

And so I wait, with joy and anticipation...I do not know what the next year will bring...I am positive that when the waiting is over, I will step into that part of my life having learned a lesson that could only have been learned in the anticipation.

Look for the ABS Carnival Button!

The Art Bead Scene has some wonderful bloggers participating in our monthly Carnival Blog. The next one is April 14th. Can't wait? Wondering who the ABS Carnival Bloggers are? Just look for the ABS Carnival button on their blogs to find them.



We're always happy to welcome another dedicated Art Bead Scene reader to our Carnival Blogger Group! Interested in joining? Please send an email to Cindy saying you'd like to join.