ABS May Challenge - Little House Cuff

The Art Bead Scene's May challenge was inspired by the painting Italian's House at Monmarte by Maurice Utrillo. This beautiful painting has an organic palette with vivid greens, salmon, terracotta, creamy white, and a surprising splash of blue.

For my entry, I chose to work with the greens, salmon, and terracotta colors. I used a dusty sage green silk for the cuff, glass beads in shades of green, and Swarovski crystals and carnelian to pick up on the earthy browns and terracotta. There's also a vintage glass bead in an amber color dangling from the hammered, copper chain.



Of course, this wouldn't be an Art Bead challenge without that extra handcrafted touch. I chose to make my own beads for this month's challenge. The little house and faceted round are made from paper clay (or air dry clay), painted with acrylic inks, and finally varnished for protection.

The little house I made is almost a reverse of the ones in Utrillo's painting - mainly green with an eye catching white door.



I couldn't escape the sense of depth in this painting, so I found myself adding more layers and details to the cuff. I love the organic feel of the cuff - the rough silk edge, the hammered copper, and the variety of shapes.



You can have a look at the other entries for this month and previous ones on the ABS Flickr pool. There's some amazing artisan eye candy there!